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On Market Street in Steubenville, history still looks back at you. The bronze figure of Edwin M. Stanton gazes across the valley he once called home. Born here in 1814, Stanton rose from the banks of the Ohio to the heart of Washington, where he became Abraham Lincoln's secretary of war in 1862. His relentless drive and stern resolve kept the Union armies supplied and focused through the Civil War. When Lincoln died at Ford's Theater, Stanton kept vigil and spoke words that still echo: "Now he belongs to the ages." That voice, that iron resolve, had its roots here.
But Stanton is not Steubenville's only link to Lincoln.
On Feb. 14, 1861, a train rolled into town carrying the president-elect on his way to Washington. Lincoln stepped onto a platform at Market and High streets and addressed a crowd gathered in the cold. The Union tottered; several states had already broken away, and many feared the nation would not survive. Lincoln's remarks were brief, but he spoke of faith in the Constitution and the rule of the majority. For a few moments, Steubenville heard the voice that would guide America through its darkest trial. A plaque marks the spot today, but the memory lingers: Our city stood on the road to the presidency.
Two years later, the war nearly reached our door. In July 1863, Confederate cavalry under Gen. John Hunt Morgan swept across southern Ohio. By July 25, his men had reached Jefferson County, skirmishing near Wintersville and Richmond. The Steubenville militia mustered along the old plank road that connected town to countryside, rifles in hand, ready to defend their homes. Morgan deliberately skirted the city, but the alarm was real. One local woman, Margaret Daugherty, was killed by a stray bullet in Wintersville. For those tense days, the Civil War was no distant story -- it pressed against our valley's edge.
Jefferson County's sacrifice was also measured in the families it sent to the front. None are more famous than the McCooks, remembered as the "Fighting McCooks." Between two branches of the family, more than a dozen men served as Union officers -- generals, colonels, surgeons. One of them, Col. George W. McCook, a lawyer, Ohio attorney general and Union officer, is buried in Union Cemetery here in Steubenville. Their legacy reminds us that our county's role was written not only in monuments, but in the lives of those who marched away from these hills.
Even as Jefferson County gave its sons to the war, Lincoln sought ways to give the nation hope. On Oct. 3, 1863, he issued a proclamation establishing Thanksgiving as a national holiday, to be observed on the last Thursday of November. It was a bold call -- to give thanks not when peace had come, but when the outcome of the war was still uncertain. Around countless tables today, we still echo that moment of gratitude first called for in the shadow of battle.
Put these threads together and a picture emerges: Steubenville is not just another river town. It is a place where a president spoke, where soldiers prepared to defend their homes, where the Union's secretary of war was born and where one of America's most famous fighting families is buried.
Our valley has been witness and participant in the making of the nation.
And their story still speaks to us. Stanton's determination, Lincoln's words on a street corner, Morgan's raiders at Wintersville, the McCooks in the field -- they remind us that America has faced division before. Stanton's steel was not cruelty but conviction -- the kind that holds a nation together when words alone cannot. Lincoln did not call for Thanksgiving when unity was easy. He called for it when Americans were at war with one another.
This year, our nation faces trials of its own: A record-breaking government shutdown that temporarily cut off or reduced food assistance for millions. With the shutdown now over, SNAP funding is being restored -- but the interruption left its mark. Gratitude and unity matter just as much now as they did when the country was at war.
Thanksgiving wasn't born in easy times -- it was born in hardship and hope. So as this season arrives, we might each look for ways to help fill the gap -- perhaps by donating to a local food bank, volunteering at a soup kitchen, or inviting a neighbor who might otherwise be alone. None of these are duties, only chances to do a little good. The table, after all, was never meant to be set for one.
We may still be repairing what was broken, but we still have one another -- and that is how America endures. To honor Stanton, Lincoln, and all who came before us, is to remember that gratitude is not a luxury of peace; it is the thread that holds us together when peace feels distant.
(Castner, a Steubenville native and graduate of Steubenville High School, values the heritage of the Ohio Valley)