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F 497 JEWy
LIBRARY OF
CONGRESS
A HISTORY
... OF ...
JACKSON COUNTY, OHIO
... BY ...
D. W. WILLIAMS
VOLUME I.
THE SCIOTO SALT SPRINGS
JACKSON, OHIO 1900
F427 .JeWT
11
PREFACE.
The preparation of this work has been a labor of love. It was undertaken not for profit, but for the pleasure which I derive from the study of the past. I have been urged to write a complete his- tory of Jackson county. The material for such a work has been collected, but its publication will depend upon the reception ac- corded to this volume, which is devoted to the period from the advent of man to the sale of the Scioto Salt Springs.
Jackson, O., May 22, 1900.
INTRODUCTION-Jackson is the seat of justice of an Ohio county of the same name. It is situated on an eastern branch of the Scioto river, in latitude 39 degrees, 15 minutes, north, and longitude 82 degrees, 41 minutes and 48 seconds, west. It was laid out in 1817, on the north half of Section 29, in the Scioto Salt Reserve. This township had been set aside by Congress May 18, 1796, on account of the salt springs within its limits. These springs or licks, are as old as the hills, for that erosion which carved out the valleys between, exposed the strata from which they flow. They were discovered by the wild animals of the forest, and became one of their most favored resorts long before man appeared upon the earth. No better evidence of this is needed than the great quantity of fossil remains of extinct animals, which have been discovered from time to time in the neighborhood of the licks.
FOSSIL BONES-The story of the bones found imbedded in the valley of Salt creek forms an important chapter in the history of these licks. Fragments have been found in nearly all the wells, cisterns, mineshafts and railroad excavations in the lowland adjoining them. The greater number had decayed, but many of the larger bones were so well preserved that some of them were easily identified as having belonged to the mammoth, the mas- todon, the megatherium and other large animals of the prehistoric period. According to Hildreth, the Scioto Saline may be ranked with the Big Bone and Blue Licks in Kentucky for antiquity, from the fact of the fossil bones of the mastodon and elephant being found at the depth of thirty feet, imbedded in mud and clay. The remains of several of these extinct animals were discovered in digging wells for salt water, along the margin of the ereck, consist- ing of tusks, grinders, ribs and vertebrae, showing this creek to have been a noted resort for these huge mammalia. The bones of the mammoth predominated in the deposits discovered.
THE MAMMOTH-This name was probably borrowed from the Russian, although some claim that it is a corruption of the Arabic word, behemoth. In modern usage it is applied to an ex-
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
tinct form of elephant. It differed greatly from the elephant of today, for it had a thick coat of hair, or wool, which enabled it to withstand the great cold of the Ice Age. The Scioto Licks were situated south of the Glacier, and a remnant of the mammoth may have survived in their neighborhood until after the close of the Glacial Period. There is a local tradition related by an old Indian chief to some of the early salt boilers, which confirms this belief. It is the story of the death of the "Big Buffalo." Seeing a pile of bones which had been thrown out of a salt well, he explained that they belonged to the Big Buffalo. The whites questioned him further, and he gladly told the whole story, as follows:
"Long before the Shawanese came into this land to hunt the buffalo, deer, elk and bear, there was a great water, which filled all the valleys and covered all the low ground and even the tops of the low hills. The water had come slowly from everywhere and flowed in where it had never been before. It drowned all the beaver houses, and was deep over the salt springs and licks. The game was all driven out of the low ground and roamed on the hills. The animals were fearful, for the 'Big Buffalo' were on the hills and killed everything before them. The Indians were forced to fly to the highest rocks, where they looked down upon the great water rising all around and threatening to drown the land. The animals did not fear them, but came near them to escape from the Big Buffalo. At last only the tops of the hills and ridges appeared above the waters, and it was very cold. The Indians lived in the rocks and the Big Buffalo could not reach them, but they could shoot their arrows and throw their spears at them, and some of them they killed. At last the water began to fall, but there was a lake left, which reached north and south. But the water would not stay. It broke out to the north, and also to the south, with great roaring, making a way through the hills until the water was all gone except a small lake where the salt springs are. The Big Buffalo went into this lake to drink and became fast in the mud and died there, and their bones, are deep in the ground. When the Big Buffalo were all gone, the animals which had fled before them, came back, and the Shawanese came here to hunt them, until the white man forced them to make their home near the Big Lakes."
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
A JACKSON COUNTY MAMMOTH-No perfect specimen of this animal has been found in the immediate neighborhood of the licks, but the last resting place of one was found in 1835, on a branch of Salt creek, not many miles away. An examination of the remains was made by Caleb Briggs in 1837. His report has been preserved and is as follows: About two years ago, some bones so large as to attract the attention of the inhabitants became exposed in the bank of one of the branches of Salt creek, in the northwest part of Jackson county. They were dug out by indi- viduals in the vicinity, from whom we obtained a tooth, a part of the lower jaw, and some ribs. In the examinations at this place during the past season it was concluded to make further explora- tions, not only with the hope of finding other bones, but with a view to ascertaining the situation and the nature of the materials in which they were found. The explorations were successful. There were found some mutilated and decayed fragments of the skull, two grinders, two patellae, seven or eight ribs, as many vertebrae and a tusk. Most of these are nearly perfect, except the bones of the head. The tusk, though it retained its natural shape as it lay in the ground, yet being very frail, it was necessary to saw it into four pieces, in order to remove it. The following are the dimensions of the tusk, taken before it was removed from the place in which it was found:
Length on the outer curve, 10 feet 9 inches; on the inner curve, 8 feet 9 inches; circumstances at base, 1 foot 9 inches; 2 feet from base, 1 foot 10 inches; 4 feet from base, 1 foot 11 inches; 71/2 feet from base, 1 foot 71/2 inches. This tusk weighed, when taken from the earth, 180 pounds. The weight of the largest tooth is 8 1-4 pounds.
These bones were dug from the bank of a creek near the water, where they were found under a superincumbent mass of stratified materials 15 to 18 feet in thickness. The section carefully taken on the ground will give a correct idea of the arrangement of the materials, and the relative position in which these interesting fossils were found.
No. 1 is a yellowish clay, or loam, which now forms the surface of a swamp about one mile in length, and one-fourth to half a mile
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
in breadth; it is covered with large forest trees, many of which from their size must have been growing some centuries-5 1-2 feet.
No. 2. This layer is a yellowish sandy clay-7 1-2 feet.
No. 3 is an irregular layer of ferruginous sand, tinged with shades of red and yellow, and partially cemented with iron-4 to 8 inches.
No. 4 is a chocolate colored clay or mud, the inferior part of which contains the remains of a few gramineous plants, very much decayed-2 feet.
No. 5. Sandy clay, colored like No. 4, but a little lighter- 1 1-2 feet.
No. 6 is the stratum containing the bones. It consists, judg- ing from external characters, of sand and clay, containing a large proportion of animal and vegetable matter-1 to 1 1-2 feet.
These bones, from their position, had evidently been subjected to some violence before they were covered with the stratified de- posits which have been described. The jaw and grinders, with the other bones which we have thus slightly noticed, evidently belong to an extinct species of the elephant, now found in a fossil state. As the teeth differ from any which are figured and described in the books to which I have access at the present time, it is possible they may belong to an undescribed species.
THE MASTODON-The last important find of fossil bones near the licks was made July 8, 1888. According to the Journal, "workmen, while employed in digging a well near the electric light plant last Friday, discovered parts of the skeleton of an animal that are supposed to be the remains of a mastodon. When about 17 feet below the bed of Salt creek they first found some ribs that measured 48 inches from tip to tip, and one and three-fourths inches in width; further down a large bone that weighed eleven pounds, measured eleven and one-half inches in circumference in the center, seventeen and one-third inches at one end, twenty inches in length, and is supposed to be one of the bones of the foreleg. Dr. B. F. Kitchen had some excavating done on Saturday and found a large tooth about four inches in length." Further excavat- ing might have unearthed the whole skeleton, but the city had no
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
time or money to spend on scientific investigations. The mastodon was closely allied to the elephant, and was given its name on account of the conical projections on its molar teeth.
The Megatherium-The following statement is from the pen of Caleb Briggs, who visited the licks in 1837: "Some of the salt wells in Jackson county were dug in a deposit of clay, sand and gravel, occupying a basin shaped cavity in the superior part of the conglomerate. In nearly all these wells were found fossil bones consisting of jaw teeth, tusks, vertebrae, ribs, etc., which from the descriptions given by Mr. Crookham belong to extinct species of animals. From his descriptions, remains of the Megatherium and of the fossil elephant were among the number." Crookham was a born naturalist, and his statements are entitled to credence, but it is rather remarkable that the bones of this gigantic animal, allied to the anteaters and the sloths of the tropics, should have been found in such close proximity to the bones of the mammoth of the arctic circle. This fact goes to prove the great antiquity of the licks, for the megatherium must have visited them long before the Ice Age began. But he had the same appetite for salt shared by his fellow victims of later ages. Attracted by the water oozing from the salt marsh above the licks, he ventured in too far and was mired, and his bones marked the spot of his last strug- gles. In time, they were covered by the bones of other victims of the same appetite, and lay commingled until man came to disturb them, and learn the fate of their owners.
WILD GAME-All the animals of the forest resorted to these licks. Many were attracted by the saline waters, while others came to prey upon the former. Great herds of buffalo and elk, and thousands of deer roamed in the valley and upon the hills at certain seasons, and bears, panthers, wolves and wildcats followed in their train. The smaller animals, lynxes, foxes, raccoons, wild turkeys and many others could not remain away. The presence of so many animals must have been a part of the attraction for the mammalia of the prehistoric period. The region must have been a rich game preserve for primeval man. It is known that it was one of the favorite hunting grounds of the Ohio Indians. The
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
early settlers were attracted to the neighborhood of the licks for the same reason. Indeed, according to Finley, the first settlers. could not have sustained themselves had it not been for the wild game that was in the country. This was their principal subsist- once: and this they took at the peril of their lives, and often many of them came near starving to death. Wild meat without bread, or salt, was often their food for weeks together. If they obtained bread, the meal was pounded in a mortar, or ground in a handmill. Hominy was a good substitute for bread, or parched corn ponuded and sified, then mixed with a little sugar and eaten dry; or mixed with water as a good beverage. On this coarse fare the people were remarkably healthy and cheerful. No complaints were heard of dyspepsia; I never heard of this fashionable com- plaint till I was more than thirty years old; and if the emigrants had come to these backwoods with dyspepsia, they would not have been troubled long with it, for a few months' living on buffalo, venison and good fat bear meat, with the oil of the rae- coon and opossum mixed up with plenty of hominy would soon have effected a cure. A more hardy race of men and women grew up in this wilderness than has ever been produced since. Almost every man and boy were hunters, and some of the women of those times were expert in the chase. The game which was considered the most profitable and useful was the buffalo, the elk, the bear and the deer. The smaller game consisted of raccoon, turkey. opossum and ground hog. The panther was sometimes used for food, and considered by some as good. The flesh of the wolf and wild cat was only used when nothing else could be obtained.
The licks removed much of the danger of the hunt, for the hunter found it necessary only to wait under cover until the game he sought should appear. In a few minutes his sure rifle brought down enough meat to last him a month. All the old hunters have passed away to the happy hunting ground. James H. Darling. now dead, know some of them, and on his last visit to Ohio he related the following meager details of the days of wild game: "I have seen bears, wolves, panthers, wild cats and deer in this county. I have seen as many as 20 deer together. I once saw a wild cat in a tree, when I was very young, and I thought it was a
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
fox. I climbed the tree and it jumped at me and knocked me off to the ground. The dogs got after it and Mr. Winfough shot it. We had to pen up the sheep at night to keep the wolves from killing them. I have killed wild cats and have caught many wild turkeys. We canght them in rail pens. We would build a square pen and would then dig a trench from the outside to the middle of the pen, covering the part of the trench inside of the pen with boards, all except an opening at the end. We then spread corn in the woods and along the bottom of the trench. The wild tur- keys would discover the corn and would follow it until they came out at the end of the trench inside of the pen. They would then continue to look up and would never find the hole at which they came in. We would sometimes catch 15 to 20 turkeys at a time. The woods were then full of wild hogs also, and we killed them to cat. We always skinned them. Their meat was not very good. There was a bear killed where Coalton now is about 1823. It had broken into the hog pen of a man named Alltire and had almost eaten up one hog when it was discovered. Levi Davis, who lived near Berlin, was a great deer hunter. He would hunt at night, and would carry a pan of coals on his shoulder. The light would attract the attention of the deer, and he would then be able to see its reflection in their eyes and be able to take aim."
THE BUFFALO-Few people ever stop to think that count- less herds of buffaloes once roamed in the valleys of the Ohio and its tributaries. They visited the Scioto Licks so regularly and in such numbers that their paths looked like great roads. One of these, which used to run down the middle branch of Salt creek, was visited in 1837 by Charles Whittlesey, who wrote the following description of it: "Down the valley of this branch passes the great 'buffalo path,' leading from the licks at Jackson to licks upon the north fork, about thirty miles distant. It is at present distinctly traceable throughout, over hills and across valleys, and pursues the most direct practicable route. The appearance is that of a gully, cut in the soil from one to four feet deep by a sudden torrent, and partially filled again by the effects of time. There are occasional cavities, called buffalo wallows, where it is said the animal amused himself in his travels by rolling and
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
pawing in the dust like cattle. It appears by a statement of Mr. Edward Byers, of Jackson county, that individuals of the buffalo race have been killed on the Raccoon, Symmes' and Salt creeks within thirty years."
Many have wondered how the huge wallows were formed. Catlin, who was an eye witness of the making of some such wallows on the western plains, furnishes the following descrip- tion: "In the heat of summer these huge animals, which, no doubt, suffer very much with the great profusion of their long and shaggy hair or fur often graze on the low grounds in the prairies, where there is a little stagnant water lying among the grass, and the ground underneath being saturated with it, is soft, into which the enormous bull, lowered down upon one knee, will plunge his horns, and at last his head, driving up the earth, and soon making an excavation in the ground, into which the water filters from amongst the grass, forming for him in a few moments, a cool and comfortable bath, into which he plunges like a hog in his mire. In this delectable laver he throws himself flat upon his side, and forcing himself violently around, with his horns and his huge hump on his shoulders presented to the sides he ploughs up the ground by his rotary motion, sinking himself deeper and deeper in the ground, continually enlarging his pool, in which he at length becomes nearly immersed, and the water and mud about him mixed into a complete mortar, which changes his color, and drips in streams from every part of him as he rises up on his feet, a hideous monster of mud and ugliness, too frightful and too eccentric to be described. It is generally the leader of the herd that takes upon himself to make this excavation, and if not (but another one opens the ground), the leader (who is conqueror), marches forward, and driving the other from it. plunges himself into it; and. having cooled his sides and changed himself to a walking mass of mud and mortar, he stands in the pool until inclination induces him to step ont and give place to the next in command, who stands ready, and another and another, who ad- vance forward in their turns to enjoy the luxury of a wallow, until the whole band (sometimes a hundred or more) will pass through it in turn; each one throwing his body around in a similar manner
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
and each one adding a little to the dimensions of the pool, while he carries away in his hair an equal share of the clay, which dries to a grey or whitish color, and gradually falls off. By this opera- tion, which is done perhaps in the space of half an hour, a circular excavation of fifteen or twenty feet in diameter, and two feet in depth, is completed and left for the water to run into, which soon fills it to the level of the ground. To these sinks the water lying on the surface of the prairies are continually draining, and in them lodging their vegetable deposits, which after a lapse of years fill them up to the surface with rich soil, which throws up an unusual growth of grass and herbage, forming conspicuous circles, which arrest the eye of the traveler and are calculated to excite his surprise for ages to come." While the buffalo remainded in the county, they served the settlers as their most common food. Finley says that their wool was often spun and woven into cloth by the women, and sometimes it was mixed with raccoon fur and knit into stockings, which were very warm and serviceable. After the wool was taken off, the hide answered a valuable purpose. Being cut into strips and twisted, it made strong tugs, which were used for plowing. When dressed, it was made into shoe packs, or a kind of half shoe and half moccasin. The manner of hunting the buffalo was as follows: A company was formed, well supplied with dogs and guns. Being mounted on horses, they started for the woods. When a herd was found, one of the company would creep up softly and fire into their midst; then the whole company would rush in upon them with their dogs, which would throw them into confusion. After all had discharged their pieces, the dogs would attack them; and while they were engaged in fighting with the dogs, the hunters would have time to reload and pursue the chase. After the conflict was over, they would return and collect the spoil. To enable the horses to carry them, they would take out the entrails, and split them in two, and then throw them over the packsaddles, and carry them home. The coming of the settlers soon made the Ohio Valley a dangerous range for these animals, but a few lingered on until the end of the last century. It was only nat. ural that they should have lingered longest in the neighborhood of the Scioto licks, which had been their favorite resort for countless
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
centuries. The last buffaloes in Ohio were killed in Jackson county. Hildreth wrote in 1837: "Two were killed in the sandy forks of Symmes creek near the southeastern corner of Jackson county in 1800." A letter writer in the Western Agriculturist for October, 1851, corrects and closes the record of the Ohio buffalo, as follows: "In 1843, an old hunter of Jackson county, Mr. George Willis, told us that he saw the last buffalo killed within the limits of the state. He was shot by a hunter named Keenes near the headwaters of Symmes creek, in the year 1802. It is, therefore, less than fifty years since the wild ox was finally exterminated in Ohio. The paths made by buffalo in traveling to and from the salt licks in Jackson county are still visible, and look like old and deeply worn wagon roads."
THE ELK-The elk go in droves like the buffaloes, but take alarm more readily and escape faster. They bound away, says Finley, with the velocity almost of lightning and run three or four miles in a straight line without stopping. Their antlers are some- times very large, and this handicaps them in their efforts to escape, when found in the timber. They lingered in Jackson county until about 1805, but after that the hunters became too numerous, and they moved on toward the setting sun.
SOME BEAR STORIES-The black bear was common in Jackson county for several years after its organization, and one was killed in Jefferson township as late as 1831. According to Finley, the flesh of the bear is the most delicious, as well as the most nutritious, of any food. The bear seems to be an awkward, clumsy, inactive animal; but they can climb the highest trees with great facility. When lean, they can run with great rapidity and fight with tremendous fury., They will become immensely fat on good mast, so much so that it is sometimes difficult for them to move very quickly. When rendered thus unwieldy, they will, by a peculiar instinct, seek some cave in a rock, or hollow tree. where they will hibernate, and about the latter part of March, waking from their winter's sleep, they will come forth to greet the opening spring. They prefer the beech nut to any other food. Should there
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
be no beech mast, then they must go to the chestnut, and if these fail, to the white and black oak woods. These animals become very poor in summer, and live on lesser animals, if they can take them, or upon the wild honey, which they take from the yellow jacket or bumblebee. They will turn over large logs in quest of this food. At this season of the year they attack the swine, and have been known to carry off large hogs. They were also very troublesome in cornfields about roasting-ear time. These animals, in the fall, before the time of mast, climb up trees, pull in the limbs, and gather the fruit, which is called lopping. The hunter or back- woodsman, for all backwoodsmen were hunters, made his summer bacon out of bear meat. He would take out the fat and salt it, if he had salt, and then hang it up to smoke. The fat was rendered into oil, which was put away in deer skins, neatly and cleanly dressed for the purpose. This oil served many valuable purposes to the hunter, supplying the place of butter and hog's lard. He could fry his venison and turkey in it, and if he had neither of these, it was admirable sop for corn dodger; and when mixed with his jerk (dried venison) and parched corn, was regarded as one of the greatest delicacies of a hunter's larder.
Perhaps the largest bear ever killed in Jackson county was the one that gave John Farney such a fight near the site of Jackson Furnace, then a part of Scioto county. It was in the year 1813. Farney was out hunting and discovered the bear about the sanie time that it discovered Farney. He drew up his gun to shoot, but it missed fire, and he had to drop it, for the bear was rushing upon him. He then threw his tomahawk at bruin, but it glanced without injuring him. The bear then closed with him, and Farney was compelled to fight with his hunting knife. He did so to good effect, and lived to be Commissioner of Jackson county. But he never sought another bear fight.
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