Charles McGuffey

Charles Drake McGuffey (June 12, 1842 – September 28, 1916) was an attorney for the town of Cincinnati, Oh. involved with the building of the Cincinnati Southern Railroad through Scott County in the 1870s. He is believed to be the person responsible for naming the Town of Oneida, which has grown from a simply railroad siding to become the economic hub of Scott County.

Biography

Born June 12, 1842 in Cincinnati, Charles McGuffey was the son of Alexander Hamilton McGuffey (1816-1896) and Elizabeth M. Drake (1817-1864). His father was an author who co-wrote the McGuffey Readers with his brother, educator William Holmes McGuffey (1800-1873). The McGuffey Readers were popular reading textbooks in American public schools in the 19th century.

Charles McGuffey married Mary E. Hull, the daughter of Patrick Clark Hull (1805-1887) and Harriet A. Beess (1814-1844) in 1876. They had one son: Charles Hull McGuffey (1878-1881). Mary had a daughter, Theodora Hull Ricks (1869-1944) with an earlier husband, Theodore Ricks, who died in 1869.

Professional Life

Charles McGuffey was an attorney, and had a role in the building of the Cincinnati Southern Railroad, a project undertaken by the city of Cincinnati, Oh. in 1869 and completed in 1879. The railroad linked Cincinnati with Chattanooga, Tenn., and passed through Scott County.

It is said that McGuffey named Oneida, Tenn. after his home in Oneida, Oh. This counteracts a theory that Oneida, Tenn. was named after Oneida, N.Y.

When the Cincinnati Southern was constructed, it was designed as a time table railroad, which used meticulous planning to make sure multiple trains could travel the rails at the same time without colliding. Much of the railroad was a single track, with side tracks installed for trains to pass in certain locations. Each of the siding locations were given names. In Scott County, these included Oneida, High Point, Helenwood, Robbins and Elgin.

It’s not clear how Helenwood got its name, but High Point got its name from the fact that it was the highest elevation point along the Cincinnati Southern route, and Robbins was named for A.J.C. Robbins, the foreman who oversaw construction of Tunnel #15 just north of there. It was inside Tunnel #15 that railroad construction crews working southward from Cincinnati and northward from Chattanooga met in 1879, completing the construction of the railroad. Elgin was originally named Rugby Road, but was renamed Elgin to prevent confusion with Rockwood further down the line in Roane County.

It has traditionally been said that Oneida received its name from railroad executives who were originally from Oneida, N.Y. A more thorough story was told by railroad historian G. Allen Storey, who wrote that Oneida was named by McGuffey for his native hometown of Oneida, Oh.

The name of Oneida

Oneida, Oh. was not actually McGuffey’s hometown; his home was in Cincinnati. However, Oneida, Oh. was his wife’s hometown.

An unincorporated village southeast of Canton, Oh., Oneida was itself named for Oneida, N.Y. by George Hull, who built a grist mill there in 1840 and was originally from Oneida, N.Y.

George Hull was a brother to Patrick Clark Hull (1805-1887). P.C. Hull was the father of Mary E. Hull — Charles McGuffey’s wife.

Like his brother, P.C. Hull was a miller who operated the mill in Oneida, Oh. The home he lived in there remains today and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Mary Hull, a schoolteacher, was of poor health for most of her life, and traveled south during the winter months in an effort to improve her health. Although both she and her future husband were from Ohio, they met in Tennessee. She was visiting Knoxville when she met McGuffey, and they were married in 1876. Construction by that time was underway on the Cincinnati Southern Railroad, which was the reason for McGuffey’s business in Tennessee.

While her husband worked with the railroad, Mary continued to live with her father in Oneida, Oh. when she was back north during the summer months. When the 1880 census was taken, she lived with her father (in the home now listed on the historic registry), her two-year-old son, and other family members.

When the railroad construction reached the Pine Creek area — as it was then known — in either 1878 or 1879, the side rail was constructed at a place where the railroad made a gentle, sweeping turn through an open meadow. McGuffey apparently named the siding Oneida, after his wife’s home in Oneida, Oh. — which her father and uncle had named after their home in Oneida County, N.Y.

Oneida County, N.Y. was named after the Oneida Indian Nation, one of the original tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy. Their name, “Onyota’a:ka” in their own language, translates to “People of the Standing Stone.” The name was born of a legend that these native people had the ability to shapeshift into stones.

Oneida, Tenn. would go on to become a major depot on the Cincinnati Southern Railroad, and incorporated as a town in 1917 as businesses sprang up around the depot. Later, the depot was the site of a flooring plant that was purchased by the Tibbals brothers shortly after World War II and grew to become Scott County’s largest employer. By that time, in the mid 20th century, Oneida had become the economic hub of Scott County, and has remained so through the years. When its schools were built in the 1910s, they adopted the nickname “Indians,” after the Oneida Indian Nation in New York from which the town’s name can be traced.

Death

Charles McGuffey died in Chattanooga on Sept. 28, 1916, at age 74. He was buried at Old Gray Cemetery in Knoxville.

Mary died in DeLand, Fla. on Dec. 30, 1885, at age 42. She is buried at Massillon City Cemetery in Ohio. That’s also where their son, Charles Hull McGuffey, was buried when he died in Oneida, Oh. on August. 4, 1881 at age 3.

Patrick Clark Hull died Dec. 7, 1887 at age 82, when a carriage he was riding in collided with a train in Oneida, Oh. He was also buried at Massillon City Cemetery. His brother, George, was already in poor health, and shocked by the news of Patrick’s death, died the following day.

Read More: How Scott County places got their names