Former Lenox Township man became Minister of Bolivia

In a humble log cabin on the north side of the road on Penitentiary Hill in Lenox Township, a young boy was born who would grow up to hold an international position during the War of the Pacific (1877- 1883). I had never heard of Penitentiary Hill even though I have been in Lenox for more than 55 years. But it was a familiar enough location in 1920, that it was mentioned by one of the speakers at a 100-year Lenox Township reunion. Parents Solomon Ray Pettis (circa 1790-?) and Ruth A. House (1781-1880) welcomed their son Solomon Newton Pettis into the world in 1827. He joined the family of two brothers Rueben and Erastus. Tragedy struck when Solomon Ray, the father, died just two years later, 1829, leaving Ruth and her three boys homeless. Her brother Colonel Erastus House had a large home at Ray’s Corners and took the family in. The familiar home is still standing at Fortville-Richmond Road and Route 46 on the southeast corner in 2021. Young Solomon would live with his uncle until he left for advanced schooling. At the Lenox Centennial Celebration of 1920, held on the grounds of the Lenox Town Hall at Fortville-Richmond and Lenox-New Lyme Roads, the lives of many Lenox pioneers were mentioned. (The building is no longer standing, but once stood across the road and north of the Lenox Federated Church.) The oldest man living who was born in Lenox, the Honorable N.E. French, was asked to recall his memories of early Lenox days and folks. French was born on Jan. 4, 1824. President of the celebration, Edgar B. Watson, asked him to step up to the wooden platform built for the day outside by the little wooden Town Hall. It was from his printed statements in the newspaper that give us a personal look into the lives of Lenox pioneers we would never have had. He mentioned that Colonel E.N. House was a single man when he came to Lenox in 1811 and located at Rays Corners. He felt it should have been called House’s Corners because the Rays came later and never lived at the corners! French shared the amazing story of a boy who was born three years after him in Lenox. The two of them went to a one room Lenox School together. That boy was Solomon Newton Pettis (1827-1900). He said that Solomon’s father, also named Solomon, had married Colonel House’s sister, Ruth, and when he died in 1829, House took the fatherless family into his home. Pettis followed the path of law which so many did at that time. It was a respected profession with training readily available with so many lawyers in this county. He went into Jefferson and studied and practiced in the law offices of Giddings & Chaffee. After being admitted to the bar in 1848, he chose to go to Meadville, Pennsylvania to open his law office. Several years later he was elected to Congress from his district in Pennsylvania. He was appointed by President Abraham Lincoln to be an associate judge of the territory of Colorado in 1861-62. Pettis returned to Meadville after his term concluded in Colorado and took up his law practice again. As a Republican he was elected to the Fortieth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Darwin A. Finney, but was unsuccessful in his election to the Forty-First Congress. Returning to Meadville, he continued to practice law until he was appointed Minster to Bolivia at the beginning of the War of the Pacific. I was not familiar with this war and had to look up the dates, places and actions. In the Albion Winegar Tourgee Papers of 1801-1945, held at the Chautauqua County Historical Society in Westfield, New York, I learned there was a connection with Pettis and Tourgee. Both were lawyers at one time, one was from Lenox, the other from Williamsfield. Their life spans were very close and they died five years apart. The two men corresponded, perhaps concerning local issues and then national and international issues. It is possible to read the correspondence between the two men if you visit the society in the McClurg Mansion at the Chautauqua County (New York) Historical Society. Pettis went sent to Bolivia when the country was in a turmoil. He was there when the Chilean soldiers invaded the Port of Antofagasta in 1879. The war pitted Chile against Peru and Bolivia in a war that would see Peru lose its southernmost provinces. Bolivia would suffer the loss of its access to the Pacific Ocean, which has remained until today. The main issue was the increase in value of nitrates around the world and everyone wanted a piece of the pie, basically. The area around Antofagasta was rich in nitrates which could be converted into fertilizer. Europe was undergoing a “green revolution” that was increasing the value of nitrates. But the problem was guano deposits (excrement from birds and bats) that were drying up in Peru and the nitrates around the Atacama area near the port were seen as a great promising replacement. Although the deposits were actually on Peruvian and Chilean land, it was Peru who had invested heavily the area. When Bolivia put a 10-percent tax to transport the nitrates from rail to the Pacific ports, Chile moved in with 150 soldiers and occupied the Antofagasta port in 1879. In 1884, Bolivia signed a truce, not a treaty, ceding its entire Pacific coast to Chile. It was a battle on the seas with the navies from the three countries fighting each other. Peace finally arrived in 1883 but the countries remained contentious for many years. The War of the Pacific was the last of the nineteenth-century international wars in South America with 13,000 peopled dying, a great majority of them from Bolivia and Peru. And former Lenox Township man, Solomon Newton Pettis, was right in the middle of it all. Oh, to see a photo album from that family’s memories. Pettis married Emma Wightman and the couple had three children. Gertrude Pettis Pullman (1854-1903), Herbert Ray Pettis (1859-1893), and Rust Pettis (1868-1882). Pettis died at the age of 72 on Sept. 18, 1900, in Meadville, Pennsylvania, and is buried in the Greendale Cemetery on Randolph Street. The historic Erastus House dwelling where Solomon Pettis grew up when his father died is still standing at the corner of Route 46 and Footville-Richmond Roads. The uncle who took the young man in along with his mother, Ruth, Erastus’ widowed sister, and two other sons, has a long and varied history including an Underground Railroad hiding place in which my husband used to play as a young boy. Little did he know the history of the house which included a congressman and ambassador who once called Ashtabula County, home.

Former Lenox Township man became Minister of Bolivia

They Once Called Ashtabula County, Home:

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