My Genealogy Hound

CAPT. JOSEPH IRWIN. On the opposite page is presented a portrait of this venerable citizen of Springfield, and one who, after having been prominently identified with navigation on the Ohio River for many years, later was actively interested in agriculture in this State and Clark County. He came to Springfield, where he owns valuable property, in 1865, and is pleasantly passing his declining years in his comfortable home at No. 235 West Washington Street. He was born in the city of Pittsburg, Pa., December 9, 1800, and is a son of James Irwin, a native of Scotland. His paternal grandfather, also James Irwin, was of Scotch birth, and coming to America from that country in Colonial times, fought in the Indian War under the famous Gen. Wayne.

The father of the subject of this biography was bound out to a Quaker, Joseph Oglesby, of Philadelphia, to learn the trade of a carpenter. He subsequently went to Scotland to seek a wife among his native hills. On his return trip he met on board the sailing-vessel Miss Martha Carruthers, a native of Ireland. They were fourteen weeks on the trip, and when they landed in New York their marriage took place. After that eventful journey with its happy results he settled down to a domestic life in Pittsburg, of which he was one of the pioneers. In that young city artisans of his calling were in demand, and he pursued his trade there with good profit and assisted in the upbuilding of that city, where he spent his last years as did his wife also. The old stock of Irwins are buried in Pittsburg.

A number of citizens of Pittsburg, of whom the father of our subject was one, raised sufficient money to pay for the passage of the celebrated Alexander Campbell from Scotland to Pittsburg. Soon afterward they established the college across the line in West Virginia, and of this Alexander Campbell, who established the Christian Church in America, was President. In that institution Capt. Irwin and his brothers received their education. The youngest brother, William Irwin, became a minister in the Christian Church, and died while in charge of the church at Moscow, above Cincinnati. Another brother, Capt. James Irwin, was a very successful business man of Pittsburg, and died worth $500,000. He established the Old Ladies’ Home of Pittsburg, and left $10,000 to each of ten different charitable institutions of that city. Religiously, he was a member of the Presbyterian Church, and was twice married. His widow, Mrs. Mary Irwin, is still living. His only descendant is a grandson.

Capt. Irwin, who is a namesake of Joseph Oglesby, was reared in his native city, and commenced to work for his father when quite young. As has been before stated, he received his education in Bethany College, and while there rescued from drowning three boys, sons of widows. In youth his employment consisted in making the wooden pins that were then used instead of nails in building frame houses. At the age of nineteen he began the life of a boatman on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and was employed as second engineer for some time; he continued in a subordinate position on the river for twenty years, and at the expiration of that time invested his savings in boat-building in company with his brother James, and built a boat for himself, named the “Brunette,” which was for some years one of the finest boats on the river, and in which Gen. Harrison took the trip from Cincinnati to Pittsburg when he was on his way to Washington to be inaugurated President.

In 1819 our subject, though he had by no means attained his majority, took upon himself the cares of a domestic life, having persuaded Miss Martha Cummings, a charming young woman, to unite her fortunes with his. She was born on the State line of Virginia, forty miles from Pittsburg, and at the time of their marriage the groom, accompanied by his father and mother, rode on horseback to his home, and after the completion of his wedding festivities, on the return journey to the city with the bride, they were attended by forty couples all on horseback, truly a gay and merry cavalcade traveling the primeval forest paths. After marriage Mr. Irwin continued his residence in Pittsburg until 1844, when, deciding to turn his attention to farming, he bought a farm forty miles above Cincinnati on the banks of the Ohio. The next year, when the spring floods came, his farm went under water, and however much he may have been attached to that element when he was a river captain, and liked to have sufficient water under his boat to float it, he was decidedly averse to it when it was over his land, so he sold his property there, and coming to Clark County, bought a more desirable farm south of Springfield, which he managed successfully several years. In 1865 he disposed of it at a good price and came to Springfield, and has ever since made his home here. He has invested his money judiciously, and derives a handsome income from it. Besides his attractive residence on Washington Street, he owns other resident property in the city.

After a wedded life of fifty-two happy years, Capt. Irwin’s wife passed to the better world, October 14, 1871. Of her marriage with our subject five children had been born, three of whom died young. Of the other two — Rebecca, the wife of Thomas Jennings, lives in Indiana; Virginia, who married Charles Knott, died in 1876.

The marriage of Capt. Irwin to his present worthy wife was solemnized April 10, 1873. She comes of a family of early pioneers of this State, and is herself a native of the soil, born nine miles east of London, Madison County, February 26, 1842. Her maternal grandfather was Nehemiah Vaughn Town, who was born in 1759, in Utica, N. Y. He married Susan Sholbridge, whose parents had emigrated from Germany and settled in Virginia. Both grandfather Town and his wife died in 1849, she at the age of seventy years, while he had reached the advanced age of ninety.

The father of Mrs. Irwin, Joseph Heath, was born amid the beautiful scenery of Harper’s Ferry, Va. Grandfather Heath and his wife both came from England, and settled on a plantation near Harper’s Ferry. Five sons and two daughters were born to them, among whom was Joseph Heath, the father of Mrs. Irwin. A daughter, Nancy, married Joseph Russell, a merchant in Charleston, Va., where he and his wife both died. Grandfather Heath and his wife died in the Old Dominion. A grandson, Capt. Heath, was an officer in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, and the cannon which is now at Ferncliff Cemetery, in the Soldier’s Square, was captured from the command of Capt, Heath, above mentioned.

The father of Mrs. Irwin, Joseph Heath, was born in Virginia, in 1784, and was there educated. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, and politically, was a Whig. By occupation he was a planter. In the early days of Ohio he and three of his brothers came to this State, settling in what is known as Darby Plains. All were farmers, and became prosperous, living and dying in Ohio. One brother located in Champaign County, and the others in Madison County; the father of Mrs. Irwin bought a large tract of wild land in Darby Plains, and there extensively engaged in farming until his death in the fall of 1861, he being then the owner of a finely-improved farm of five hundred acres. He was a man of wide-spread influence in that region, a sincere Christian, and a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which he was prominent in establishing in that county. At an early clay religious services were held in his house, which was the home of the itinerant preacher. He was three times married, and was the father of twenty-five children. The maiden name of his second wife, mother of Mrs. Irwin, was Elizabeth Town, who was born in Massachusetts, of English parentage, November 12, 1805. By her marriage with Joseph Heath eleven children were born, of whom Mrs. Irwin is the youngest. Mrs. Elizabeth (Town) Heath passed away in July, 1842. Mrs. Irwin was an infant when her mother died, and she remained an inmate of her father’s home until she was eleven years of age, and then resided with an elder sister in Madison County. She is a woman of decided character, possessing amiable qualities, and in the care of her husband’s property that devolves on her, shows herself to be an excellent manager. Both Mr. and Mrs. Irwin are valued members of the St. Paul’s Methodist Episcopal Church, the Captain having been admitted to membership on his eighty-sixth birthday, by the Rev. Henry Tuckler, to whom he remarked after his admission, in his humorous way, ‘I am the oldest fish you have ever caught.”

The Captain in his day has been an able man, wide-awake and decisive in his business, sound sense and rare judgment being among his attributes. He must have been endowed with an extraordinary physique and powers of endurance, for, notwithstanding his remarkably advanced age, he enjoys good health, and is regular in his attendance at divine services, not only on Sunday, but also through the week whenever a meeting is appointed he is sure to be there. His genial wit and kindly presence make him a general favorite, and his many friends never tire of listening to his interesting conversation, especially when the subject turns on the incidents of his youth. Born in the opening year of the nineteenth century, many marvelous changes have taken place in this country since he opened his eyes to the world. At the time of his birth not many years had elapsed since the close of the Revolution and the establishment of the Republic, and still another war was to be fought before it could find full freedom from British oppression. Ninety years ago there were but sixteen States in the Union, now it is a powerful nation of forty-two States, with a population then of between five and six millions, now more than sixty millions of people find homes here. In the year that he was born the seat of government was removed to Washington, which was then scarcely more than a rude frontier village, and John Adams, the second President of the United States, was in the chair. Ohio had not yet become a State, and was, with the exception of a few scattered settlements, almost an unbroken wilderness, and the site of its present capital was a dense forest, our subject being a lad of between twelve and sixteen years before the first building was erected within its present limits.

As with Ohio, so with other Western States; in fact the greater part of the magnificent territory from the Mississippi to the Pacific was still in the hands of a foreign power, as President Jefferson’s celebrated Louisiana Purchase did not take place until the century was three years old. The changes have been no less great in the manner of living and in the customs of the people. When the Captain was young, large fireplaces were used for heating and cooking purposes, though Dr. Franklin had invented his celebrated stove. The rush light and tallow candle of those days have been superseded by gas and electricity, and other modes of illumination. Since he first began to live, many wonderful inventions have made a revolution in commerce, manufactories, agriculture, and in nearly every department of life.

Capt. Irwin was twenty-nine years of age when steam was first applied to railway travel in America, and he has lived to see electricity used as a motor power. When he was a boy of seven years Robert Fulton launched the “Clermont” on the Hudson, and proved to the world that steam could be successfully applied to navigation. When the future captain was eleven years old, he might have seen the departure from the wharves of his native city, in October, 1811, of the steamboat “Orleans,” which was, to quote a leading historian of this State, “first of the mighty fleet which put the currents of the great river to naught,” and when he was eighteen years old that great event in the commerce of the lakes took place, the first steamer to navigate Lake Erie, the “Walk-in-the Water,” making her appearance in August, 1818, just eleven years after Fulton first ventured his steamer on the Hudson. Thus we might go on enumerating indefinitely the wonderful things that have been wrought by the hand and brain of man within the memory of our venerable subject, but enough has been written to show what ninety years have brought to this Nation, of which he is a loyal citizen.