Warren County Local
History by Dallas Bogan |
Contributor: |
Dallas Bogan on 28 July 2004 |
Source: |
Dallas Bogan, Warren County, Ohio and Beyond (Bowie Maryland: Heritage Press, 1979) page 261 |
Return to Index to see a list of other articles by Dallas Bogan |
The Shakers of Union Village had amongst
its longtime members a very prominent gentleman named Cephas
Holloway. He was described as a "genial old man with a pleasing
countenance." He spent most of his years of manhood in the Shaker
denomination and held almost all the important offices of the Society. A history
of the Society recorded that on July 26, 1868, Cephas
Holloway was released from the ministry to take the Eldership of
the First Family. In 1882, he was classed a Deacon.
He was but five years old when the first Shaker
sermon was preached in the Turtlecreek Presbyterian Church on March 22, 1805.
His father was a member of this church from which most of the members had been
transformed to the Shaker faith after the
great Kentucky Revival.
Cephas was baptized into the Presbyterian Church as a youth,
although his father was amongst the first Shaker converts at Turtlecreek. His
faith, however, was united with the Shakers
ever since he was old enough to form his own opinions. Success of the Shakers
formed them into their own independent community. In 1819, the population was
given at 600. Among them were blacksmiths, masons, stonecutters, carpenters,
tanners, carders, spinners, etc. All that were able found employment.
The former Presbyterian preacher, after his conversion to Shakerism, found employment
in making chairs and spinning wheels. Cephas entertained the
trade of shoemaking and for ten years operated a shop. Holloway
took great pride in his part in the improvement of the many breeds of cattle,
horses, hogs and sheep. The Shakers of Warren
County, with their large land holdings, took the lead amongst other county farmers
in these achievements. The Shakers are most
noted for their development of the Poland China hog (created in 1816), which
had originally been called the "Shaker Hog," and the "Warren
County Hog."
He yearned to produce the finest breed of horses in the world. His ambition
was to produce a horse of speed and ultimately asked for a "training track."
His brethren because of the mere suggestion of a racetrack rejected him. He
next asked for a "training road," but again was refused. His quest
for a fine breeding horse was unsuccessful.
Cephas Holloway
was born in Turtlecreek Township, December 29, 1800. He was the son of Jacob
and Hannah Cory Holloway. Both were natives of Morris County,
N.J. His parents were among the many families that emigrated from New Jersey
to the new land called Symmes's Purchase. The family arrived before Wayne's
Treaty of Peace with the Indians in 1795, first settling on a farm four miles
from Duck Creek in Hamilton County.
The family in about 1799 moved to a farm about a mile and three-quarters northwest
of the site of Lebanon. Cephas, being the first child born
in the new home, said: "I was born in a thicket and had to chop my way
out." The locality in which Cephas was born was an unbroken
wilderness. His birth cabin was surrounded with thick spice-wood and underbrush.
His cradle consisted of a sap trough, made out of timber about two feet long,
split into halves and dug out into a trough for catching sugar water.
All the early schools were made of rough logs. The school that Cephas
attended was no exception. It was made of buckeye logs, which, during the first
summer of existence, grew green sprouts eighteen inches long. The schoolhouse
consisted of only three study guides; a primer, Webster's spelling book, and
the New Testament. Geography, grammar or arithmetic was not taught at the time.
He taught himself the skill of arithmetic by gathering daily a bundle of hickory
bark on his way home from school. As he would throw a piece in the fireplace
at night he would count and calculate the pieces. The light from the fire would
serve as a light for his study. It could be said that Cephas
was self-taught. If not for his expertise and ability he would not have risen
so far into the Shaker community.
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This page created 28 July 2004 and last updated
28 September, 2008
© 2004 Arne H Trelvik
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