Person Page 102

Obituary (findagrave.com):

"Emma Willard and Her Pupils" or," Fifty Years of Troy Female Seminary", 1822-1872,

Edited by Mary J. Mason Fairbanks, Page 78

Anne McDowell, eldest daughter of Judge John and Lucy Todd (Starling) McDowell, was born in Mercer Co., Ky., in 1810.

She was a pupil of Troy Seminary in 1825 and 1826.

In 1895, when in her eighty-fifth year, her mind and memory still potent and clear, she gave a simple recital of the incidents of her early life, her daughter acting as amanuensis. The general reader will find interest in this fragment of personal history, touchingly prefaced by the daughter, who says:

"I have written this under the dictation of my mother, with eyes many times blinded with tears. She is very, very feeble - could only tell me a few facts at a time; but with most of them I was familiar, for as a child I loved to have her tell me of her school-days."

Thus runs the mother's story.

"My father and mother came to Columbus, O., when I was three years old, and I lived there attending private schools and one in Lancaster, O., until I was sixteen, when my Uncle Lyne Starling Price, who was my guardian, (my father having died three years before), one of the founders of Columbus, took me to Mrs. Willard's School in Troy, N. Y. This was in 1825. We went in a carriage to Sandusky, O., to take a boat to Buffalo, N.Y., from there we went by canal and stage to Troy, N. Y. I was in the Seminary in 1825 and part of 1826. I was married December 20, 1828, in Columbus, O., to John Winston Price of Hanover Co., Virginia, lived in Columbus one year after marriage, then came to Hillsborough, O., where I have lived ever since, sixty-six years. I have had ten children, six of whom lived to be grown.

Eliza Winston married James O'Hara of Pittsburgh; Anne McDowell married Albert H. Childs of Pittsburgh; Cornelia Dabney married Jacob J. Rugsby of Dayton, O. (now of Hillsborough) Ellen Morris married George W. Gill of Columbus, Ohio; John Winston Price of Hillsborough, O.; and Overton Starling Price, my oldest and youngest are not now living. At the time I went to the Seminary, Gen. LaFayette was on a visit to this country. He had just visited Mrs. Willard and I understood they were charmed with each other.

"Among the girls who were attending the school, I remember Marcia Van Ness, daughter of the Governor of Vermont. Her sister Cornelia had graduated the year before.

"Two daughters of Governor Worthington of Ohio, Eleanor and Margaret were my room-mates. Both are now dead. Margaret married Edward Mansfield of Cincinnati, O., Eleanor married Dr. Watts of Chillicothe, O., A courtly gentleman he was too!

"Jane Skinner, daughter of the Governor of Georgia, was there too and Effie Irving, niece of Washington Irving, and a relative of Philip Hone of New York City, whose house was the rendezvous of all the noted men and women of that time. Effie was an orphan and always spent her vacations there. It was her home when not at school. She told me many interesting anecdotes which appeared in the very entertaining life of Philip Hone, publishes six or seven years ago. Effie was also the niece of James K. Paulding, who in his day was quite a writer. He was, I think, a naval officer, but had died when I knew Effie at school. Sara Marsh, too, how well I remember her sweet pretty face and handsome figure! Jane Howell, another whose kindness I can never forget. She lived in Canandaigua, N. Y.

"On my way home from school we found at Canandaigua that my trunk had been left behind. We were obliged to wait there for four days while my grandfather McDowell (who had come on to Troy for me) went back to look for it. So many, many girls of that long ago can I see, whose images hang on memory's walls. Many of them very beautiful pictures too; but I will only mention one more, Mary Wollstoncraft, the daughter of an Englishman, captain of a company, who came to this country in 1812. He married and settled in West Point. He had brought money to this country and had bought a large tract of land in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania, the anthracite coal region.

"Mary was five years old when she accompanied her father to New Orleans, where he took yellow fever, or perhaps contracted it on the boat going down the river. In a few days he died. They had no friends there. There was nothing about him to identify him. He was hastily buried with the other victims. Poor little Mary was taken by a Baptist preacher and his wife, being bound to them. Mrs. Wollstoncraft, her mother, sought in every way to find out what had become of her darling little Mary, but in vain.

"After several years, through the offer of a large reward published in the New Orleans papers, she was recovered.

"Mary never could bear the name of religion, for she could not forget the unkindness, even cruelty and neglect, which she suffered from this Baptist minister and his wife. They had never allowed her to learn to read. She returned with her mother to West Point, and at the age of sixteen was sent to Mrs. Willard's school. She always found in me a sympathetic listener, and I used to try to help her master her lessons, much too difficult for one whose early education had been so sadly neglected. To make a long story short, she met in Troy, Lieut. Simms, of Mississippi, stationed at West Point, who fell in love with her, and they were married in Troy. When on her way to her new home she wrote me a long letter in pencil, written in the pilothouse of the boat on the Mississippi River. That is the last I ever heard of one who was the niece of the celebrated Mary Wollstoncraft, wife of William Godwin, whose daughter was the wife of the poet Shelly. I remember Aaron Burr bringing his two nieces to the school to visit some of the girls. I looked at him with blended feelings of comtempt and admiration. He was small in stature, but had a handsome face."

A yet deeper pathos attaches to these personal recollections, through another letter from the daughter, under date of September 25, 1895, in which she says, "The end came for my mother September 19, so peacefully, so gently!"

A woman of the old regime, she was spared any decay of her mental faculties and passed away in a serene old age, like a sheaf ripe unto the harvest and garnered in, leaving a legacy of precious memories to her children and children's children.

Mrs. Price had held for a long period a notable place in the history of Hillsborough, and ranked among its pioneers. Her home was for more than fifty years in the same house, a quaint, old-fashioned mansion of the style of early days.

"The News-Herald" Hillsboro, Ohio

September 26, 1895, Page 4, Image 4

Obituary

Anna McDowell, widow of Judge John Winston Price, died at her home on East Main Street, Hillsboro, Ohio, Thursday, Sept. 19th. Mrs. Price was the mother of ten children, Eliza Winston O'Hara, Lyne Starling, Joseph Farrell, John Winston, Lucy Starling, Anne McDowell Childs, Cornelia Dabney Pugsley, Ellen Price Gill, Jack Winston and Overton Starling, four of whom, Mrs. Childs, Mrs. Pugsley, Mrs. Gill and Jack W. are living.

She was one of the pioneers of Hillsboro. She, her husband and their large family occupied a notable place in the history of the town, having lived for the past fifty-five years in the same house, a quaint old fashioned mansion of the style of the early days.

She was the eldest daughter of Judge John Adair McDowell and Lucy Todd Starling. She was born Oct. 25th, 1810, in Mercer County, Ky. In 1814, at the age of four, she came with her father and mother to Ohio. They settled at

Franklinton to be near her uncle, Lucas Sullivant. It was then a small village, and the greater part of the present site of Columbus was covered with primeval forest.

Mrs. Price was educated at the famous school of Mrs. Williard, at Troy, N. Y.

In 1823, she married John Winston Price, of Hanover County, Virginia, a graduate of William and Mary College, and a law student under Chief Justice Marshall. They lived in Columbus for two years after her marriage, occupying a high social position. She was loved and respected by all who knew her, and her beauty and her genial nature is still remembered by those who knew her in those early days.

In 1830, she and her husband moved to Hillsboro. Her mind was highly cultivated and stored with knowledge. Those only who knew her well and intimately could understand appreciate the worth and excellence of her character.

She was blessed with an unusual amount of common sense and had an extremely accurate knowledge of geography and history. She retained in her memory all that she had heard or read of famous persons, places and event.

She took a deep interest in all that was going on in the world. She talked easily and charmingly upon the many subjects with which her mind was stored. As a listener she was bright, wide awake and full of appreciative sympathy.

Her society, conversation and wise counsel were sought and valued by all who knew her. She was wholly devoted to the happiness of those dear to her. She was the most devoted of mothers, willing at all times to sacrifice herself for her children. A kind, loyal friend, a dignified womanly woman, with a brave, heroic nature, shrinking from giving pain to the least of God's creatures, a woman of strong convictions, but never wishing to force her opinion on others. Her pastor spoke of her as a self-distrusting Christian. And so she was - full of humility, gentleness and love. He said when one had lived in a community for sixty-five years and had wielded an influence always for good, as she had, it was well for that community to pause.

She had seen this little hamlet grow to a village of several thousand. She had out-lived all her friends and acquaintances who were here when she came. While much of an invalid for the past four years, she was a most patient one. She was a woman of the old regime, spared any decay of her mental faculties, she passed away in a serene old age, "like a sheaf ripe unto the harvest was garnered in, "leaving a legacy of precious memories to her children and children's children.

"Acts revealed her spirit's worth,

In God she put her trust,

For others lived, and left to earth

The memory of the just."

Obituary and Remembrance (from findagrave.com Memorial #140338115):

"The News-Herald" Hillsboro, Ohio, December 24, 1891, Page 5, Image 5

A Tribute From A Friend

It was a beautiful December Sunday afternoon, calm and bright as a summer's day, when sorrowing relatives and friends laid Mrs. Jane McDowell Smith to rest in our quiet cemetery by the side of her beloved mother. There are few in the community, and they only strangers, who do not feel a personal loss in her death. A lovely, attractive woman of a noble, refined nature, she won all hearts by her unfailing courtesy of manner. Strong and loyal in her attachments, she was faithful in them to the end. One of her chief pleasures seemed to be to make others happy, for her life was filled with generous deeds and unostentatious charities. She dispensed her favors with rare and delicate tact so that the sense of obligation in the recipients of her kindness was lost in that of grateful love. Of a cheerful, hopeful temperament, she was a silver lining in the darkest cloud, and during the long months of her illness she never appealed to the sympathies of other, but on the contrary concealed as far as possible the knowledge of her sufferings from anxious hearts.

Once, in sending a message to a distant friend, she said: "Tell her that I am a happy invalid, I have so much to be thankful for, surrounded as I am by my dear family, who are untiring in their efforts to make me comfortable," and then a smile of indescribable sweetness emphasized the truth of her touching, expressive words. Hers was no one-sided character, for whilst she possessed in an eminent degree that charity, which is the greatest of the Christian virtues, she was a woman of fine intellectual attachments. She loved the beautiful in nature and art. Standing among the highest in her classes at school she continued a student all her life, eager in the pursuit of knowledge.

A ready, graceful writer, she found diversions in literary essays. Science in all its branches had charms for her, but geology and botany were her favorite studies. In her intelligent cultivation of flowers she was pleased to share her success with her friends, in whose eyes those precious gifts had a double value, coming as they did from the unselfish hand of one so dear to them. Her beautiful consistent life was a benediction to all who came within its happy influences and of no one can it be more truly said: "None knew her but to love her, None named her but to praise."

"The Times-Gazette", Hillsboro, Ohio, March 12, 2010

A look at Jane McDowell Smith

JEAN WALLIS

Highland Guidepost

As the 19th century was drawing to a close, social clubs became an important part of life in the town of Hillsborough. The Friday Club had its beginning in the year 1890 when it was founded by Mrs. John McDowell (Marilou Stanley) Matthews, wife of a prominent banker in Hillsborough. This year the Friday Club will celebrate its 120th anniversary, becoming the oldest club in Highland County. The programs for the coming year has the ladies showcasing the lives of early club members.

Jane McDowell, the second daughter of John Adair and Lucy Todd Starling McDowell, was born April 22, 1820, in Columbus. Her father was born Mercer County, Ky., in 1789, the son of Samuel and Anna Irvine McDowell. John became well educated and studied law under Alexander Marshall in Mason County, Ky. During the War of 1812 he served with General Samuel Hopkin and later under General Isaac Shelby (Kentucky's first governor) and was present at the battle of the Thames where the Great Shawnee Indian chief Tecumseh was killed.

John, when very young, had married Lucy Todd Starling, a daughter of William and Susannah Lyne Starling, who were residents of Mercer County. After the close of the War, Major McDowell was persuaded by his brother-in-law Lucas Sullivant, who had married Lucy's sister, to remove to Columbus. (Sullivant being the founder or proprietor of Columbus.)

In 1815, John, Lucy and daughter Anne moved to Columbus where John immediately entered upon a successful career as a lawyer. He was elected to the state Legislature in 1820 and 1821. John was appointed as Judge of the Circuit Court for the Columbus District, a position he held until his untimely death in 1823.

John and Lucy were the parents of three children: Anne, born 1810, married John Winston Price of Hillsborough. Price, a lawyer by profession, had studied law under Chief Justice John Marshall. Winston was a descendant of the second William Randolph, of Turkey Island, also the gifted Winstons, from whom came Patrick Henry, the Prestons of South Carolina and General Joseph E. Johnston, of the Confederate army. Circa 1837 the Price family built the brick house on East Main Street first known as The Price, next the Pugsley and later the Duncanson House.

In 1829, the widow Lucy married Judge Samuel Bell and along with children Anne, Jane and their brother William Starling, who was born in 1823, the year his father died, moved to Hillsborough to the house once located on present day Governor Trimble Place.

Jane along with seven other girls were named as honorary graduates of the Oakland Female Seminary by Dr. Joseph Matthews. They were Jane, Emily Jones, Eliza Jane Trimble, Margaret Telfair, Jane Telfair and Helena, Serena and Elizabeth Woodrow. The latter married Hirman Campbell who was the editor of the Hillsboro Gazette, Highland County's first newspaper.

Jane attended the school of Dr. Matthews until she was 15 years old, at which time she went to the famous school of Miss Edwards at New Haven, Conn., where she remained for two years. Returning to Hillsborough on Nov. 15, 1837, when she was 17 years of age she married John Armstrong Smith, son of John A. and Sally Wadman Smith. She and John were married for 54 years and lived in the handsome house located on South High Street across from present day Bell Opera House. They were the parents of three sons, James Wadman, Lyne Starling and Irvin McDowell Smith.

Jane was an unusually cultivated woman and an ornament to society, not only at her own home, but at Washington where her husband spent four years as a member of Congress.

Jane McDowell Smith died Dec. 11, 1891, and her husband followed some four months later. They are buried in the Hillsboro Cemetery.

Obituary (findagrave.com):

History of Adams County, Ohio, Page 178

John Winston Price was born in Hanover County, Virginia in 1804. He was prepared for college by a Rev. Blair. At seventeen years he entered William and Mary College and graduated with honors four years after. He studied law in Richmond, Virginia under the tuition of John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States and was admitted to the bar in that city. He came to Ohio in 1827 and located in Columbus for the practice of the law.

In 1830, he married the eldest daughter of Judge John A. McDowell of Columbus. In 1831, he located in Hillsboro and practiced law with the late Gen. Richard Collins until 1834 when he became president judge of the common pleas district composed of Adams, Brown, Clermont, Highland and Fayette, having been elected the winter previous. His work was laborious and arduous, but he was an honest and faithful judge. He retired from the bench in 1841 and gave up the practice of law. He was a careful and prudent man in business and accumulated a handsome fortune. He died March 4, 1865.

"The News-Herald" Hillsboro, Ohio

October 5, 1899, Image 1

James O'Hara, as administrator of the estate of Eliza W. O'Hara, deceased, vs. E. L. Ferris, administrator de bonisnon of the estate of John A. Smith, deceased.

Answer of defendant withdrawn and judgment given plaintiff for $3040.34.