Joseph H. Larwill and War of 1812 Political Controversry
Joseph Larwill has been featured in many Daily Record articles over the years and holds special importance as a founder of the town, a politician, and local business owner.
John Larwill was among the first surveyors and also holds the title of constructing the house in Wooster, which once stood in a space now occupied by a paint store.
John Larwill came with his brothers to Wooster in 1807. Contemporary historian Ben Douglas reported that Larwill became Wooster's Justice of the Peace in 1820 and married sixty-two couples during his tenure.
The three Larwill brothers (John, Joseph, and William) held important political and public offices in Wooster and the surrounding counties such as Clerks of the Court and Recorders. Joseph Larwill, a Wayne County representative in the Ohio Senate and the Justice of the Peace for Wooster from 1820 to 1826, was involved in local political controversy during 1822.1 An article in the Wooster Spectator accused Larwill “of negligence, or worse, in the command of his men” in the War of 1812.2 Four of the men who had served under Larwill in the 27th Infantry wrote a political broadside in response to the allegations, which placed the blame on sentinels who had failed to awaken the soldiers and inform them of the attack. Larwill’s supporters defended his position during the attack and wrote that “...he was disobeyed and abandoned by those men on whom, alone, he had a right to rely for safety”.3 The accusations did not ruin his political aspirations as Larwill was elected to the Ohio Legislature in 1841.4
1 Ben Douglass, History of Wayne County, Ohio, From the Days of the Pioneers and First Settlers to the Present Time (Indianapolis, IN: Robert Douglass, 1878), 307.
2 “Reply to Larwill Attack is Among Gifts to Library,” The Daily Record, January 5, 1959, 12.
3 Ibid.
4 Douglass, History of Wayne County, 307.