Samuel Burwell
Samuel Burwell, the veteran editor and publisher of the West Union Scion, was born in West Union, November 20, 1822, the son of Nicholas Burwell and Sarah Fenton, his wife. His father has a separate sketch, and no notice of his ancestry will be given herein. Samuel Burwell was born with a good constitution, the best capital which can be given a boy for a start in this life. He attended the schools of his district and was just as mischievous and devilish as most boys are, only a little more so. His boyhood was under Leonard Cole and Ralph McClure as teachers. They were firm believers in the doctrine of King Solomon as to the use of the rod, and they practiced their belief with emphasis, and Sam and the other boys of his time got the full benefit of it. Sam was one of the early sufferers from that custom instituted by Leonard Cole, of whipping every boy in school whenever one or more (always more) were detected in any mischief. The writer was one of the later sufferers from that same custom, though under different teachers from those who administered the birch to Sam. Both Sam and the writer attribute the regularity of their lives to their early discipline in the West Union schools.
Sam Burwell was a boy left much to his own devices. He was very inquisitive and very fond of the society of those older than himself. He very naturally drifted into a printing office as early as the age of thirteen, and the year of 1835 found him at work in the Free Press office in West Union. When the Free Press suspended, he went to Hillsboro and worked in the News office, and while there attended the Hillsboro Academy, but his real work in learning the trade of a printer was with Robert Jackman in the office of the Intelligencer, from 1844 to 1846.
In 1848, Sam, while working for Judge John M. Smith, committed the very rash act of marriage. His bride was Miss Margaret Mitchell, daughter of Alexander Mitchell, who had died of cholera in 1835. However, much of a risk it was for the young printer to get married, (and the risk was entirely on the wife's part, for Sam was a Mark Tapley kind of a young man who could have gotten on anywhere,) the marriage turned out happily. On the seventeenth of February, 1853, the Scion was born. The writer remembers one evening shortly before that date, when he was a boy of ten, Samuel Burwell, a young man of thirty, came to his father's house to consult about starting a newspaper. In the same evening, the enterprise was determined on and it was named. E. P. Evans suggested the name, the Scion of Temperance. It was thought best to start it as a Temperance paper, and hence its name. The "of Temperance" was dropped after two years, and it became a purely political newspaper. From its first issue. February 17, 1853, until the present time, the history of the paper and that of Sam Burwell have been identical. From that date the history of the Scion is a sketch of Mr. Burwell, and a sketch of Mr. Burwell is the history of the Scion. Not only that, but from 1853, the history of the Scion is an account of Sam Burwell's family. When he first began, he was full of enthusiasm, and he made the Scion a success from the start. Even his wife helped him on the paper in the early years of the enterprise. But he brought his family up on the paper and he brought others up. On the Scion he taught Henry Shupert and made him a printer. He died in Cincinnati six years ago and left a handsome estate. Sam Burwell taught Col. John A. Cockerill the printer's art and the latter became the most distinguished journalist in the United States. Orlando Burwell, Mr. Burwell's eldest son, was brought up a printer in the Scion office. He has been employed on the Times Star, as one of the best workmen, for twenty-seven years, and is one of the best printers in Cincinnati. Clay, his fourth son, has been employed on the New York World for nine years. He learned his trade in the Scion office. His son, Bickham Burwell, was employed in the same New York office for four years and might have continued, but became tired of the work and secured an appointment in Washington. His son, Samuel Burwell, who died in 1891, aged thirty-six years, learned the trade in the Scion office and did his father good service for many years before his untimely death. His son, Cassius M., is with him in the business. He too was brought up and reared in the Scion office and has been a partner since 1887. When friend Sam "shuffles off this mortal coil" and takes up his residence in the old South Cemetery, doubtless "Cash," as he is best known, will continue the business. But the boys of the Burwell family are not the only ones who have been brought up in the Scion. Mr. Burwell's daughter. Ella, is the mailing clerk of the office and keeps the books. His daughter, Margaret, is an expert compositor and has worked in the office for fourteen years Bickman Burwell, his son, is also a compositor in the office and foreman. So that the Scion is strictly a family newspaper edited and published by the Burwell family. The Scion never published less than 720 copies and its circulation is now 1,104. From the time the paper started, until the present time, it has been true blue Republican, and will so continue so long as the Republican party and the Burwell family survive.
The writer proposes to tell the truth about Sam Burwell. This article is not written for the present generation in Adams County. They have not taken much interest in this book, but this article and this book is written for posterity. In fifty or seventy-five years from now, the people living in Adams County will prize this work as a precious relic, and they will want to know all about the man who could publish the same newspaper for forty-six years. Sam Burwell's career will be a wonder in a hundred years from now, and hence it is important that the truth be now told and recorded for the benefit of unborn posterity. So here goes. Sam Burwell is a born exaggerator. Some uncharitable people have accused him of plain lying, but as that charge has been laid to every editor from King Solomon to the present time, we shall not notice it, and the most remarkable thing is that Mr. Burwell is not conscious of the fault. He will know it for the first time when he reads this book. But understand, Sam Burwell never told a lie in his life, either in the Scion or out of it, but he can no more help exaggeration than water can help running down hill. It was born in him, inherited, and could not be eradicated. With him, everything is the very best or the very worst. The village statesmen whom he admires are all Websters and Clays. His enemies are the worst people in the world. The Devil himself, with his cloven feet, his dart tail and spouting brimstone, is a saint compared to them. The writer has fully tested Sam Burwell on this and knows whereof he speaks. Once he rode twelve miles with him and Sam began telling him what a wonderful young man his brother, then living, but since deceased, was. The writer undertook to disparage his brother and tell what an ordinary young man he was, but it was of no use. Mr. Burwell had fixed his standards and no argument could avail. The young man, in his estimation, was the brightest and most talented who had ever lived, and no disparagements affected Mr. Burwell in the least. But, after all, this habit of thought and expression is valuable in a newspaper man. People like condiments in the columns of a newspaper as well as in their food. It may be Mr. Burwell's peculiar traits have made the Scion what it is and kept it up.
Mr. Burwell is not a religious man, nor is he irreligious. From his father's standpoint, he is not religious, but, in sentiment, he respects religion, and has as much of it as is safe for a newspaper man to have. The writer has always held the view that a newspaper man is not capable of being religious to any extent, and Mr. Burwell is much better than the average of them. Mr. Burwell has always made money but never saved it to any great extent. He has kept the Scion going as a newspaper for forty-six years. He has kept it to a high standard of journalism. He has kept his political faith all the time. He has reared a large family and has done it creditably. He has always paid his debts. There are people who say of him that if he had a million dollars income each year, he would spend a little more, but at the same time, there is no one who would do more good with the money than he. He has lived so long in Adams County that he has become one of its institutions and we do not know of another newspaper in the State which has remained for forty-six years under one management, nor do we know of an editor in the State who has conducted the same newspaper over forty-six years. He stands as a remarkable instance of a man who has followed the printer's trade for sixty-three years and yet is hale and hearty; who has written editorials for forty-six years and yet can tell the truth, and does it once every week.
Mr. Burwell's friends are almost all in the cemetery south of town, but the younger generation respect him for his sterling qualities. He has been industrious and energetic. He has persevered and made his chosen occupation a success. He has kept ahead of the Sheriff at all times and been honest and honorable in all his dealings, and when Gabriel foots up his account in the ledger of life.he will find the good qualities will overbalance all those faults and sins his enemies attribute him, and he will receive his pass which St. Peter will honor at the wicket gate, and all we wish is that it may be a long time before he will have to apply for it.
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