The Scioto River Valley has forever
been a land of golden opportunity for human beings. Mound builders,
Native American tribes, French explorers, Early-American pioneers,
and European settlers all found the topography and the natural
resources of the area most conducive to habitation and building vital
communities. The rivers, trails, and later the roads and railroads
helped open the valley to those searching for a home.
One family, and in particular, one
member of that kindred group, made a lasting impression on the
history of Ohio and the Scioto River Valley. That family of founders
possessed the surname of “Lucas.”
Robert Lucas moved to the Scioto Valley
at the age of nineteen. He was preceded in that move by other family
members, including two older brothers and a cousin. The family bought
large parcels of land, and eventually the nearby town of Lucasville
was named for them. One of Robert's brothers would later become a
general, while his other brother and his cousin would become Ohio
legislators. Robert, himself, was destined to become the 12th
Governor of Ohio.
Robert Lucas's political career
blossomed, and in 1818 he was named Speaker of the Ohio State Senate.
It is important to note his love of the region and his profound
effect on early statehood. The effect of a life dedicated to public
service is immeasurable. This certainly applies to Robert Lucas.
Allow me to open a small chapter of the
life of Robert Lucas in order to illustrate this point. This period
begins with his move to Piketon in 1816 ...
“Aunt Friendly Lucas was a large
woman. Not a great deal over five feet in height, she weighed perhaps
two hundred pounds. She had a florid complexion and an ever ready
tongue, an unquenchable fund of spirits and vigor, and a wide-spread
reputation as a cook; and she was a general favorite, particularly
with those to whom these and her many other virtuous qualities
appealed.
“One of her pastimes was horseback
riding. Indeed, it was a common sight to see her galloping over the
rough country roads of early Ohio on her coal black horse 'Nig,' or,
with a big basket swung from the pommel of her saddle, riding over
the stretch of hills that lay between Friendly Grove and Piketon on
her way to do the shopping for the family.”
About this time, or shortly after,
Robert and Friendly moved north into Pike County (then newly
organized) and settled in the town of Piketon on the main street,
which, for many years was to be his home. Residents there remarked of
Robert's “tall, straight figure and stern face.” Of Friendly,
many recalled her “delicious currant pies.”
In the front part of this house Lucas
opened the first general store in Piketon, in partnership, it is
said, with his brother-in-law, William Kendall. They stocked
everything from shoe-strings to molasses. The store held a prominent
place in the town's early life.
Here this merchant/legislator lived his
simple life “while years tempered his disposition and
responsibility brought him calmer wisdom.” In the election of 1818
he received three hundred forty-five votes in Scioto County, while
his opponents polled but seventy and twenty-five respectively. In the
session that followed, he was chosen Speaker of the Senate.
After the War of 1812 the country had
settled down to more peaceful ways, and the influences of law and
order and civilization were making themselves felt in the community.
Of that time, the biographical Annals of Iowa remarks …
“Time had wrought great change in
Robert Lucas. Out of the depths of his nature was being forged that
rugged earnestness that made his later life so powerful for good. His
character had never lacked strength; it had simply lacked direction.
Now, with a more mature view of life and a saner conception of its
duties, higher ideals appealed more strongly to him.”
In July of 1819, Lucas united with the
Methodist Church at Piketon, and throughout the remainder of his life
he remained a prominent worker in the cause of that denomination.
Lucas was as intense in his religion as he was in political
activities or military matters. And both at this time and later in
his life this intensity found expression in verse. Poems and verse of
this nature, of which over one hundred manuscript pages have been
preserved, illustrate a phase of Lucas's life that is not generally
considered and which deepened constantly as he grew older.
Here is a hymn of seven stanzas written
a short time before Lucas joined the church and titled, "Robert
Lucas's Constant Prayer.” The first, third, sixth, and seventh
stanzas reading ...
Oh Lord my soul from sin relieve,
And from a mind extremely blind,
Oh that the truth I could believe
With all my heart, and soul, and
mind.
Oh that through faith, I could
behold,
My Lord, and Savior, on the tree.
And realize, that he was sold.
Scourged, crucified, and bled for
me.
Prepare me Lord, to meet the day.
When death's appointed time is come.
And with a faithful heart to say.
Oh Lord, thy gracious will be done.
And when the vale of death is past,
May I, with saints, unite above,
Where songs of praises, ever last.
In sounding, Christ's redeeming
love.
The respect and duty for community is
shown by Robert's frequent reelection in Ohio to the office of State
Senator. In 1820 Thomas Hersey – a physician, minister, and
newcomer to the state – appeared as a candidate against him.
Hersey, however, withdrew from the race in September, having learned
that his residence in Ohio had not been long enough to make him
eligible. Thereupon Lucas was reelected without opposition. In the
same year he was chosen as a presidential elector and cast his vote
for James Monroe.
In the fall election of 1822, William
Kendall, the brother-in-law and political rival of Robert Lucas, was
elected to represent Pike, Scioto and Lawrence counties in the State
Senate. For two years thereafter Lucas devoted his time and attention
to his private affairs. During this time, he built himself a house on
the Jackson road two miles east of Piketon which was said to be
“among the finest in all Southern Ohio.” A biographer wrote of
the idyllic home ...
“The Lucas house was a large,
two-story brick house with a hall in the center and sitting-room and
parlor opening on either side of the hall. Each room, upstairs and
down, was provided with a fireplace. Over the front door was placed a
stone on which were cut the following words: 'Virtue, Liberty, and
Independence.' Beneath the word 'Liberty' appeared a five-pointed
star; while below the motto were carved name and date: ''K. Lucas,
1824.' Located on a farm of four hundred thirty-seven acres,
surrounded with large trees and with sweet brier and eglantine
growing in profusion about the place and over the walls, it was
indeed a home of wonderful attractiveness.”
The grove about the house was the
distinctive feature of the farm; and so, in honor of his wife, Lucas
named his new home "Friendly Grove.” The Lucas family lived
there and Robert and his wife “entertained in great state” for
fifteen years. Political friends came “to discuss weighty matters
of public concern and to laugh at the quick-witted sallies of Mrs.
Lucas.”
Friendly Grove
Methodist circuit rider also stopped
there and “found spiritual improvement in religious conversation
with the serious minded legislator – while they incidentally
nourished their gaunt frames upon the ample and delectable meals
outspread by their hostess.” And “not least eagerly came the
nephews and nieces from Piketon and the neighborhood to spend a week
or so amid the charms of Friendly Grove.”
To quote the Annals of Iowa ...
“Here they lived in constant
happiness on the cakes and smiles of Aunt Friendly, and looked with
awe upon the stern figure of the master of the house as he returned
from his legislative duties, silent and intent upon matters of
importance in the councils of the State.”
From a Scotch schoolmaster Robert Lucas
had learned the elements of the three R's " – reading, writing
and arithmetic – to which he added some advancement in mathematics,
especially that of surveying. Being skillful in the line of his work,
he found it monetarily rewarding, and he engaged in the exploration
of the unexplored territory about him.
In the winter of 1822, Lucas was
returned to his seat in the Ohio Senate, receiving a large majority
in each of the three counties of the district. Two bills deserve
special attention in this session. Both of these subjects were near
to the heart of Robert Lucas.
(1.) One bill was passed on February 4,
1825, and provided for a board of canal commissioners to construct
the Ohio Canal from Portsmouth to Cleveland, and that part of the
Miami Canal located between Cincinnati and Dayton. The same act
provided for another board to raise loans for the canal; and on the
4th of July, 1825, the work of construction was begun near Newark,
Governor DeWitt Clinton of New York throwing the first shovelful of
dirt.
The subject of canals had, for Lucas, a
local as well as a general interest. Considering the fact that the
projected Ohio Canal was to run along the Scioto River through Pike
County and connect the town of Portsmouth with Lake Erie, he was more
than enthusiastic in its support.
Lucas was, moreover, one of the most
prominent advocates of general canal legislation and other policies
of internal improvement in the State. He was chairman of the joint
canal committee that prepared and drafted the bill authorizing the
construction of the Ohio Canal, and for years he continued to hold
this position on the committee.
When the canal was under discussion in
the legislative session of 1825-1826 Mr. Hale, of Clinton County,
introduced in the Senate a resolution to instruct the Canal
Commissioners to inquire into the possibility of uniting the canal
from Cleveland with the Miami and Dayton Canal, and in the meantime
to suspend all proceedings on the canal in the Scioto Valley. To
Robert Lucas “this menace to the interests of the Scioto Valley
required immediate action.”
A council of the members of both houses
who represented that section was at once called. In this council, it
was decided to offer a resolution instructing the Canal Commissioners
to make the permanent location of the southern section of the canal,
and, since the matter of crossing the river was considered settled,
it was thought best to require in the resolution the building of a
dam. No definite provision, however, was made for the recrossing of
the river. As the most experienced member of the council, Lucas was
requested to offer the resolution. He did so and it was passed by
both houses. But this resolution was destined to make trouble for
him.
In January of 1827 the people east of
the Scioto began to be alarmed for fear the Canal Commissioners
intended to continue the canal down the west side instead of
recrossing at Piketon. In view of the increase in their taxes because
of the canal, this was truly alarming.Their fears were realized, for
the Canal Commissioners fixed the route on the west side, without
again crossing the river.
In the campaign of 1828 the resolution
which Lucas had introduced into the Senate was used against him with
great effect. They forgot that it perhaps was the only thing that had
saved the southern section of the canal from being abandoned
altogether and the Cleveland section connected with the Miami instead
of the Scioto valley. They remembered only that the resolution had
contained no specific provision for the recrossing of the river at
Piketon.
The fixing of the route was a matter to
be settled by the Commissioners and not the legislators; and the
evidence at hand does not support the charge that Lucas had anything
to do with it. Moreover, the evidence does show that after the Canal
Commissioners had made their decision in July, 1828, in favor of the
west side, Lucas voiced the sentiments of the people of Piketon and
the east side in a strong protest against the action, and a plea for
justice to the town of Piketon which would suffer so grievously by
the change of location. The plea did not change the outcome.
To this day, some citizens of Piketon
claim that the reason the Ohio Canal did not run down the Piketon, or
eastern side of the river, is that Robert Lucas owned lands at Jasper
on the west side, and secured the placing of the canal so as to
benefit his lands in that region. If not for Lucas and his
considerable influence, it may not have run through Southern Ohio at
all.
(2.) The second bill was one passed on
February 5, 1825, and was the first act establishing a uniform system
of free schools for the State of Ohio. The support of the public
schools especially enlisted his sympathy; and throughout his life he
never lost an opportunity of advancing their cause.
The monumental Ohio Education Bill of
1825 required that Townships be laid off into school districts;
school officers be elected to manage the schools; teachers be
certificated to teach by a county board of examiners; and most
important and significant of all, a tax of one-half mill upon the
property of the several counties of the State be levied to produce an
annual fund for the instruction of youth.
It must be established that during that
time the matter of canals and schools were positively and politically
linked together. The passage of this law was due to the tactful and
political management of the friends of eduction in the legislature,
who united their forces with the friends of internal improvement. As
a result, canals and public schools were provided for in Ohio by the
same legislature. Robert Lucas surely understood how “scratching
the opposition's back” could lead to compromise.
As published in the Ohio Educational
Monthly, Volume 71 (circa 1923) ...
“The sight of an Ohio canal, even
though abandoned because its days of usefulness are gone, should
still arouse in the minds of all who love the public schools grateful
memories of that day nearly one hundred years ago when the support of
the friends of canals made possible the beginning of the public
school system of Ohio.”
In 1822, Caleb Atwater had successfully
lobbied the legislature and Governor Allen Trimble to establish a
commission to study the feasibility of creating public or common
schools in Ohio. Atwater served as chairman. The commission spent the
summer and fall of 1822 researching the condition of Ohio's
educational system, as well as studying public education in other
states. Atwater wrote three pamphlets one on the condition of school
buildings in Ohio, one on the type of public school system Ohio
should create, and one on the value of common schools to Ohio's
future to educate Ohioans on the need for state financed education.
Atwater modeled his plan after New York's public school system.
According to Atwater, Ohio should not finance schools through
taxation but through the sale of state property.
Not all members of the commission
favored Atwater's plan. Representatives and members of the committee,
Guilford and Bell, advocated a property tax. They felt that the sale
of public lands would not necessarily provide the funds needed to pay
for the schools. A property tax would result in a consistent inflow
of money to guarantee adequate funding of the schools.
The commission made its final report to
the Ohio General Assembly in 1823. The legislators, for the most
part, opposed public funding for internal improvements and public
education. In the General Assembly's session in 1824, public opinion
forced the legislature to address the education issue.
Guilford took the lead, advocating a
property tax to finance education. The legislature concurred,
establishing common schools in Ohio in 1825. At this time, the state
government financed public education with a half-mil property
tax.With the establishment of public education in Ohio, communities
now formed school districts to meet the state legislature's
requirements.
The act of February 5, 1825 began as
follows:
“Whereas, it is provided by the
Constitution of this State, that schools, and the means of
instruction, shall forever be encouraged by legislative provision.
Therefore, Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of
Ohio, that a fund shall hereafter be annually raised among the
several counties in this State, in the manner appointed out by this
act, for the use of common schools, for the instrauction of youth of
every class and grade, without distinction, in Reading, Writing,
Arithmetic, and other necessary branches of a common education.”
To come full circle on the influence of
Robert Lucas, I propose that Robert Lucas (April 1, 1781– February
7, 1853), the son of an American Revolution War veteran and a Quaker
family, had a monumental influence on the towns of Lucasville and
Piketon in the Scioto River Valley, the State of Ohio, and the United
States of America. With his assistance, beginning with his work in
the villages along the Scioto River, the settlements of Ohio
flourished.
It is easy to take for granted our debt
to the past. With so many obligations in our lives, we tend to
overlook the accomplishments of our forefathers and ancestors. And,
that is extremely unfortunate because then we deny ourselves the
perspective of community. Growing up in a place steeped in
accomplishment and significant history allows a resident distinct
advantage. How much more rewarding and humbling is that benefit when
we realize the sacrifices of those who sacrificed to establish their
beloved community. How could we forget or ignore a figure like Robert
Lucas?
As our theme for the Bicentennial of
Lucasville, Ohio (1819-2019), the Lucasville Area Historical Society
choose “Valley of Opportunity.” I hope that now you can
understand how these three words accurately represent our area. On
our logo, we highlighted the state and the Ohio-Erie Canal that runs
on the west side of Lucasville. Let the symbol of that canal
continually remind us of the union of both shores of our state and
the establishment of its public education system.
Of course, Lucasville, itself, is
represented on the design with a five-pointed star representing
virtue, liberty, and independence – a tip of the hat to Robert
Lucas. Lucas remains an honored inspiration for the society and for
our town. We are thankful for the entire Lucas family and their
heritage of instilling social development and education in our
community. So many more local residents followed the reliable lead of
our founders. Still, we are Lucas-Ville. We would do well to
be good stewards of our soil and of that name as we assume
responsibility for passing these things onto new generations.
Sources
Anonymous.
Ohio Educational Monthly, Volume 71. 1923.
T. S. Parvin. “Robert Lucas of Iowa.”
Annals of Iowa. Vol. II. Number 6. Private Secretary, 1S38-39.
Full Text of “Robert Lucas”
https://archive.org/stream/robertlucas02pari/robertlucas02pari_djvu.txt.
James Wickes Taylor. A Manual of the
Ohio School System: Consisting of an Historical View of Its ...
Progress, and a Republication of the
School Laws in Force. University of Michigan. 2005.
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