Samuel McCullough
We have eight letters written by him to his friend, Robert Shaw, in Virginia. The first is dated Raleigh, Buckingham County, June 1. 1809. He acknowledges his of the 20th, in which he finds that his friend had a tedious passage (by water) from Richmond to Baltimore and was sea sick. He says he has enjoyed a good estate of health since his friend left. He was a merchant and complains that collections were slow. He desires his friend to bring him a Beed plane that will work one-eighth of an inch and one-half dozen of two-foot rules.
On December 28, 1812, he writes from Raleigh. N. C. He asks how his business with the negroes of Anthony Jones is settled. He says he has been tossed on the wheel of fortune since he saw him. It seems he went to Baltimore and purchased goods, and shipped them to Richmond, intending to take them to Nelson C. H., Virginia. At Baltimore, he met a Mr. Callam, who had purchased goods in Philadelphia, and induced him to go to Raleigh where they put the two stocks together and sold as much as $500. He wants to know if there is any store at Raleigh C. H., Va. It seems they went to Raleigh while the Legislature was in session, and sold goods rapidly until it adjourned.
His next letter is dated January 10, 1813, acknowledging one of the 4th. He says he boards in the family of Mrs. Burch, a very decent, pious old lady, who has a daughter equally pious as herself and possessing considerable accomplishments, having resided in Philadelphia with a Rev. Burch, her brother. Of Raleigh, he says its people are principally emigrants from Scotland, orderly and sober, but possessing strong prejudices. He says, that with but few exceptions, they are Federalists. He speaks of the schools in Raleigh and their influence in improving the manners and, in some instances, the morals of the people. He says they are the means of circulating a great deal of money. He further says that the country is poor and the planters have nothing which suits the markets but pork, tobacco and cotton.
He wants to know if he thinks his friend, John Randolph, will be reelected in his district in Virginia and whether there is any change in political sentiments there—whether the people are pleased with the war, and the manner in which it has been conducted. Also his opinion respecting the combination of the non-importation law. On January 24, 1813, he is still at Raleigh, but complains of the war affecting the business. He says there is no demand for cotton or tobacco, and pork is the only article that commands money and that at a low price. He says there are twenty stores in Raleigh, and he intends to remove early in the Spring, probably to Virginia. He says in that country, where wheat is cultivated, is the best place to do business during the war, because it will sell high. He wishes to be informed what effect the war has had in that part of the country, where his correspondent resides, as to sale of goods and the circulation of money.
February 8, 1813, he writes his friend, Robert, that he intends to leave Raleigh in the Spring and wants to come to Nelson C. H., if his friend thinks best. He is afraid the war is not pushed with energy and that the spirit of the nation has never been up to war pitch. He thinks there will be great difficulty in raising men and money and that the opposition to the war is so strong, and from the way in which the war was managed it will end in a separation of the Union and the destruction of our most excellent Constitution, though he will hope for better things.
February 24, 1813, he writes thanking his friend for full information as to the political situation. He doubts about purchasing spring goods, as the times are precarious. He thinks the Government will be compelled to repeal the non-importation law in order to get revenue, or otherwise levy taxes which will make it unpopular. He thinks in case of a repeal, goods would come in plenty through the neutrals. He thinks our privateers will not bring in many trips because the Brittish fleets will blockade Hampton Roads and other bays. He relates a duel between Thomas Stanley, of Newbern, and a Mr. Henry, of the same place, in which the former was killed by the latter. The cause of the duel was that Henry had paid attentions to Stanley's sister, and then dropped her.
May 20, 1813, he writes from Cecil County, Maryland, that he had made money by his venture in Raleigh. He went to Petersburg, Va. to change the State notes of North Carolina for Virginia as they would not pass to the north of that place and could not be changed at par, at any other place. He says goods were too high in Baltimore to purchase with any safety as the war might stop and drop prices. He informs his cousin that he has changed his state of life and married his cousin, Mary McVey; that she is the only child and daughter of his Uncle McVey, who owns afine farm on the main stage road from Philadelphia to Baltimore with some negroes and other property. "As to her qualities, you will no doubt think me a partial judge." He says her qualities justified his choice and her appearance pleased his fancy.
He says the injury done there by the British caused nothing but alarm and since the British went down the bay, politics have been more tranquil, but they are so divided on politics, they are continually on the jar.
He says the epithet "Tory," is brandished on all occasions and that all the entire party seems to be aiming at military despotism, if they could obtain it. He asks his friend's views of the political situation and to tell him how the elections have terminated in Virginia and how his speculation in flour has turned out, in view of the blockade.
The last letter is April 12, 1815. He writes that since the peace, prices of grain have fallen instead of raised and the public was disappointed. That wheat was only one dollar per bushel and other grain correspondingly low. He complained that times were dull. He wants his friend to secure him house and store-room at Nelson C. H. He desired to be informed as to the election and the result of the contest between Epps and Randolph. In every letter, he sends his regards to his wife and family, and his friends, and all the letters are written on plain paper, now yellow with age, and folded, sealed with a wafer seal and addressed on the fourth page. They are addressed to Robert Shaw, at Buckingham C. H., Virginia, and are marked "free." They mark the writer as a student of the times, deeply interested in political matters and a Federalist. His friend, Robert Shaw, no doubt, was of the same political faith. The letters of Robert Shaw to Samuel McCullough have not been preserved.
McCullough emigrated to Rockbridge County, Virginia, in 1815, and from there to Adams County, Ohio, in 1816, where he followed the business of merchandising during the remainder of his life. His wife died February 6, 1835, at the age of forty-three, at West Union, Ohio, of consumption, after a long illness. He died on the eighth of June, 1835, of Asiatic cholera in his store in West Union on the spot where Miller and Bunn's drug store now stands. He was born May 5, 1775, and she was seventeen years his junior. They were the parents of Addison McCullough, deceased, and of William McCullough, of Sidney, Ohio.
Samuel McCullough, for the nineteen years he resided in Adams County, was a just and good man and respected by every one. He was quiet and unobtrusive in his views, but a reader and thinker who kept himself well informed on all public questions. He was by instinct and training a merchant. He knew the right time to buy and the right time to sell.
He was a successful merchant—always made money. He was trained to the business from boyhood and seemed to have a natural faculty for it. His son, John, died at Catlettsburg. Ky. in 1851. Addison died at Point Pleasant, W. Va. November 16, 1876. A son, George W., died in infancy. Mr. McCullough lost his wife February 6. 1835, just a few months before his own tragic death of Asiatic cholera. The ashes of both repose in the cemetery at Tranquility, Ohio.
From "History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time" - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900