USA > Ohio > Knox County > A history of Knox county, Ohio, from 1779 to 1862 inclusive > Part 1
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KENYON COLLEGE. Middleton, Strobridge & COLith. Cın . 0.
A
HISTORY
OF
KNOX COUNTY, OHIO,
FROM 1779 TO 1862 INCLUSIVE:
COMPRISING
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS OF MEN CON- NECTED WITH THE COUNTY FROM ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT:
TOGETHER WITH
COMPLETE LISTS OF THE SENATORS, REPRESENTATIVES, SHERIFFS, AUDITORS, COMMISSIONERS, TREASURERS, JUDGES, JUSTICES OF THE PEACE, AND OTHER OFFICERS OF THE COUNTY, ALSO OF THOSE WHO HAVE SERVED IN A MILITARY CAPACITY FROM ITS FIRST ORGANIZA- TION TO THE PRESENT TIME.
" AND ALSO
A SKETCH OF KENYON COLLEGE,
AND OTHER INSTITUTIONS OF LEARNING AND RELIGION WITHIN THE COUNTY.
BY A. BANNING NORTON. 11
L1:3.
CI
COLUMBUS: RICHARD NEVINS, PRINTER. 1862.
Entered according to the act of Congress in the year 1862, BY A. BANNING NORTON, In the Clerk's office of the Southern District of Ohio.
. KON
PREFACE.
To write the history of my native county, and to rescue from oblivion the anecdotes and early incidents of its first settlers, has been with me a pleasant pastime. While it has been much labor to gather the material for this work, and to test it by the crucible of truth, my mind has thereby been relieved of much care and of anxious thoughts upon more serious subjects during an exile in my native land; and if I will have been the means of preserving, for the future histo- rian, matters which are within the recollection of but very few now living, my time and toil have been well spent.
Several years ago, when a resident of this place, I collected many of the items which I now produce from memory: such as the captivity of John Stilley, and events of early occur- rence within the knowledge of Dr. Timothy Burr, my father, Daniel S. Norton, Col. John Greer, Judge Bevans, Gilman Bryant, Col. Emor Harris, Judge Jesse B. Thomas, Rev. James Scott, and others, who have since deceased. Among my papers in Texas are notes taken by me of conversations with the above recited parties, as also with Samuel H. Smith and William Smith, old residents of Knox, now residing in that State.
I would have delayed the publication of the sketch I give herewith, were it not very uncertain when the present unhappy war may terminate, or what my future may be. Procrastina- tion might prove fatal to the enterprise; hence I have con-
iv
PREFACE.
cluded to furnish it to the children of the old settlers, and the public generally in the Ko-kosing country, conscious that it has imperfections, but without the ability, under existing cir- cumstances, of making it more complete. My object is accom- plished in putting in this form for preservation much crude material, which I regard as of value to those who may succeed us : I did not undertake it with expectation or purpose of gain.
I may have overlooked some names in putting the manu- script to press, or improperly placed others; but from the most reliable data I have drawn my conclusions and made my state- ments. I would have been pleased to have extended my genealogical sketches, and to have traced out the various old families in the townships; but, from having met several who were indisposed to give me information, I found this branch must necessarily be partial, and desisted from researches in that way. The reader will take those named as examples of the manner in which I think a history of the county ought to be written, and I would like to have so presented it. Some, whose names may not be found in this book, may find fault with its compilation, as did " Schmidt," the dutch drayman in the city of Austin, whose name he discovered in the Directory spelled "Smith," and exclaimed, "I would not give one tam for the Correctory vot has my name left out of it; for Smith is not Schmidt no how."
Of one thing all may be assured, and that is this: I have set down naught in malice, nor aught extenuated, but endeav- ored to represent all fairly and correctly. I have no object to do otherwise. I do not intend ever to live among you, nor in your State, and am, therefore, truly independent. I belong to no political or religious party, sect or organization of the present day, nor do I ever expect to. "He is a freeman whom the truth makes free !" Having no interests to subserve-
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PREFACE.
"no friends to reward, or enemies to punish "-I am, with my best regards to such as have received me kindly and aided me with information, and to the people of Knox individually and collectively,
Their friend, A. BANNING NORTON. MOUNT VERNON, O., July 1, 1862.
HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
CHAPTER I.
SKETCH OF THE COUNTRY AND SETTLEMENT PRIOR TO ORGANIZATION .- TRAVERSED BEFORE THE TERRITORY OF OHIO WAS NAMED BY ONE OF ITS SUBSEQUENT SETTLERS .- ITS INHABITANT BEFORE THE STATE WAS ORGAN- IZED .- ITS CITIZENS WHEN FAIRFIELD COUNTY WAS CREATED .- WITH INCIDENTS OF FRONTIER LIFE AND ADVENTURE.
THE country having for its name Ohio was con- stituted, under General Arthur St. Clair, a territo- rial government in the year 1788, and he continued as Governor until the adoption of the State Consti- tution in 1803.
By his proclamation the county of Fairfield was created December 9th, 1800, and the district of which we now treat was included therein until the month of February, 1808, when it was, by enact- ment of the Legislature, organized into a separate and distinct county, honored with the name of General Henry Knox, a distinguished officer of the revolutionary army, who was subsequently Secre- tary of War in Gen. Washington's administration.
The first white man known to have viewed this section of country was John Stilley, who, when a captive among the Indians, traversed the White Woman and Owl Creek from its mouth in a north- . westerly direction, as early as June, 1779, nine years
8
HISTORY OF
before the name of Ohio had been given to this ter- ritory, and when the savages and wild beasts roamed at will throughout its vast extent.
The first settlers in this district were from Vir- ginia, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and its inhabitants, at every period of its history, have been chiefly from the middle States.
From our research into carly statements, we are led to believe that Andrew Craig was the first white man who located within the present county limits. He was, at a very carly day, a sort of frontier character, fond of rough and tumble life, a stout and rugged man-bold and dare-devil in dispo- sition-who took delight in hunting, wrestling and athletic sports, and was "hail fellow well met" with the Indians then inhabiting the country. He was from the bleak, broken, mountainous region of Virginia, and as hardy a pine knot as ever that country produced. He was in this country when Ohio was in its territorial condition, and when this wilderness region was declared to be in the county of Fairfield, the sole denizen in this entire district, whose history is now being written, tabernacled with a woman in a rough log hut close by the little Indian Field, about one-half mile east of where Mount Vernon city now exists, and at the point where Centre Run empties into the Ko-ko-sing. There Andrew Craig lived when Mount Vernon was laid out in 1805-there he was upon the organ- ization of Knox county, its oldest inhabitant-and there he continued until 1809. Such a harum- scarum fellow could not rest easy when white men got thick around him, so he left and went to the In-
9
KNOX COUNTY.
dian village-Greentown-and from thence mi- grated further out upon the frontier, preferring red men for neighbors.
After many years of solitary residence on the beautiful Ko-ko-sing, the solitude of Craig's retreat is broken by the entrance of a lone Jerseyman, who, in the spring of 1803, penetrates some ten miles further into the wilderness, so as not, by too close proximity, to annoy each other, and there raises a little log cabin and settles down. This follower of the trade of Vulcan soon gets in readiness to blow and strike, and sets about supplying the sons of the forest with the first axes they had ever seen, and by making for them tomahawks, scalping knives, etc., he acquires the sobriquet of the "axe-maker," which for more than half a century has attached to Nathaniel Mitchel Young.
A year passes by before any white accession is made to society on Owl Creek. Then a stalwart backwoodsman breaks the silence by the crack of his rifle, and at the spot where James S. Banning now lives, near Clinton, the pioncer, William Doug- lass, drives his stake.
The skillful navigator plies his oar, and Robert Thompson ascends Owl Creek to where Mount Ver- non now stands, and on the rich bottom land, about one mile west, commences another improvement. George Dial, of Hampshire county, Virginia, in another pirogue comes up the creek, and, pleased with the beautiful country about where Gambier now flourishes, pitches his tent at the place now occupied by John Troutman. Old Captain James Walker, from Pennsylvania, settles on the bank of
10
HISTORY OF
the creek where Mount Vernon now is. John Simpkins wanders from Virginia, with his son Seeley for his capital, and squats about a mile above Douglass, where George Cassel's beautiful farm now exists. While these plain men from Virginia, New Jersey and Pennsylvania are preparing their cabins for comfortable occupation, and making little clear- ings, a stray Yankee, solitary and alone, with a speculative eye and money-making disposition, is, with pocket compass, taking his bearings through the forest, soliloquizing about the chance of making a fortune by laying out a town and selling lots to those who may come after him into this charming new country. Having, as he thought, found the exact spot for his future operations, he blazes a tree, and wends his way to the nearest town- Franklinton-west of the Scioto, then a place of magnificent pretensions, where he gets chain and compass and paper, and returns and lays out the town of Clinton, in section number four, township seven, range four, United States military district, with its large "public green," its north street and south street, its main street, first, second, third and fourth streets, and one hundred and sixty lots, and, taking his town plat in his pocket, he walks to New Lancaster, being the first white person ever known to have made a journey in that direction from this infant settlement, and before Abraham Wright, Justice of the Peace, acknowledges that important instrument, and on the Sth of December, 1804, places it upon record. Thus Samuel H. Smith, subsequently the first surveyor of Knox county, for many years a resident, its leading business man, and
11
KNOX COUNTY.
largest land holder, made his entrance into this district.
Shortly afterwards a large accession was made to the population of the country by the emigration from Ten Mile, Washington county, Pa., of John Mills, Henry Haines, Ebenezer and Abner Brown, and Peter Baxter, who settled a short distance south of Owl Creek, where the Beams, Merrits and Lafevers have since lived. This settlement, by the increase of the Leonards, was in 1805 and '6 the largest and best community in the country, and upon the organization of the county, and for several years thereafter, it furnished the leading men.
Ben. Butler, Peter Coyle, and Thomas Bell Pat- terson, in the spring of 1805, augment the Walker settlement, where Mount Vernon was located shortly thereafter. William Douglass is joined by James Loveridge, who emigrates from Morris county, New Jersey, and with his wife takes quar- ters on the 6th of July upon the clapboards in the garret of his little log cabin, and is mighty glad to get such a shelter as that to spend the year in. The next year Loveridge starts off, under pretense of hunting a cow, and goes to the land office and enters and pays for the tract of land, where shortly after he erected a dwelling, and has ever since re- sided. Upon this land there is an uncommon good spring, which caused him to select it, and he tells with much glee the circumstances under which he obtained it. The only Yankee then in the country claimed to have located it, and proposed to sell it to him at a higher price than the government rate, which was then $2 per acre. Concealing his inten-
12
HISTORY OF
tion from all but his wife, Loveridge slipped off and examined into and purchased it himself from the government, and when he returned with his patent, Bill Douglass laughed heartily at the Jersey Blue overreaching the cunning Yankee. Amoriah Wat- son, of Wyoming county, Pa., also put up with Douglass, and thus this settlement was made up of Douglass, Smith, Watson and Loveridge, in 1805. The old axe-maker, in the meantime, is followed up by some of his relations and friends, who start what has ever since been known as the Jersey settlement. Jacob Young, Abraham Lyon and Simcon Lyon are the first to settle upon the South Fork of Owl Creek, and are succeeded by Eliphalet Lewis, John Lewis, and James Bryant. The Indians they found very numerous, and through the kind feelings to- wards the old axe-maker, they were very friendly, and really quite an advantage in ridding the country of wolves, bears, and other varmints.
In the winter of 1805-6, that settlement entered into a written agreement to give nine bushels of corn for each wolf scalp that might be taken, and three of the men caught forty-one wolves in steel traps and pens! The description of these pens, and one of the stories told of their operation, we give in the words of an old settler :- " Wolf pens were about six feet long, four wide, and three high, formed like a huge square box, of small logs, and floored with punchcons. The lid, also of puncheons, was very heavy, and moved by an axle at one end, made of a small, round stick. The trap was set by a figure 4, with any kind of meat except that of wolf's, the animals being fonder of any other than
13
KNOX COUNTY.
their own. On gnawing the meat, the lid fell and caught the unamiable native. To make sport for the dogs, the legs of the wolf were pulled through the crevices between the logs, hamstrung, and then he was let loose, when the dogs soon caught and finished him. In Delaware county an old man went into a wolf trap to fix the spring, when it sprung upon him, knocking him flat upon his face, and securely caught him as though he were a wolf. Unable to lift up the lid, and several miles from any house, he lay all one day and night, and would have perished but for a hunter, who passing by heard his groans, and came to his rescue.".
North, west and east of these embryo settlements all was wilderness for many long miles. A place bearing the name of Newark had been laid out by Gen. W. C. Schenck, but it had not any greater population than these little scattered settlements aforementioned. The principal towns of note to the early settlers were Lancaster, Chillicothe and Zanesville. Neither of them were much larger then than our usual M roads villages now are. The people were exceedingly neighborly, and per- formed all manner of " kind chores" for each other, in going to mills, laying in goods, dividing what they had with each other, &c. The nearest mill in 1805, was in Fairfield county. Our old friend James Loveridge informs us of a trip he made to that mill, which was seven miles up the Hockhock- ing river, from Lancaster. It belonged to Loveland & Smith, and was situated in a little crack between some rocks, and he went down into the mill from on top of the roof. He made the trip there and
14
HISTORY OF
back, about 125 miles, and brought home with him in his wagon about 900 pounds of flour, one barrel of whisky, and one barrel of salt. How the settle- ment must have rejoiced at the arrival of the great staples of frontier life, salt, whisky and flour !
1
15
KNOX COUNTY.
CHAPTER II.
CONTINUATION OF THE EARLY OUTLINE .- MORE ABOUT THE FIRST SETTLERS .- QUAKERS FROM MARYLAND FIND THEIR WAY IN 1806 .- INCIDENTS CON- NECTED WITH THEIR EMIGRATION, AND IN THE MOVEMENTS OF OTHER SET- TLERS .- WHO THEY WERE AND WHAT BECAME OF THEM .- THE PRIVATIONS ENDURED AND DANGERS ENCOUNTERED .- MORE TOWNS LAID OUT .- THE FIRST MILLS .- THE SCENE OF AN ENCOUNTER WITH INDIANS .- INCONVEN- IENCES OF THE COUNTRY .- EFFORTS FOR A NEW COUNTY .- AN EARLY ELEC- TION .- FAIRFIELD DIVIDED .- THREE NEW COUNTIES CREATED BY ONE BILL .- STRIFE FOR THE SEAT OF JUSTICE OF KNOX.
THE spring of 1806 brought with it a new element into the wilderness region, in the form of the Friends -the forerunners of large numbers of that society, who by their quiet yet industrious ways have con- tributed very much to the prosperity and peaceful- ness of our people. The venerable father Henry Roberts may be justly regarded as the head of this emigration from Maryland. In 1805 he left Fred- erick county, in that State, with his family, and directed his course to the far west, but on reaching Belmont county, found it necessary to winter his family there, and sent his wagon and team back to Maryland with a load of ginseng and snake-root, and on their return with a load of goods, he started with his family and plunder, and on the 7th of April, 1806, he landed at Henry Haines', in the Ten Mile settlement, and after spending a week looking for a good location, on the 14th of that
16
HISTORY OF
month settled down his family at the little prairie five miles above Mount Vernon, of late widely known as the Armstrong section. The family con- sisted of his wife, his sons-William, now living at Pekin, Illinois ; Isaiah, now residing near Pilot Knob, Missouri ; Richard Roberts, of Berlin-and a daughter Massah, who married Dr. Timothy Burr, and died at Clinton, March 9th, 1814. Nine acres of that beautiful prairie were at once broken up and planted in corn. It was very hard work to break the virgin soil with a first rate four-horse plow team, but it paid for that labor by one of the finest crops of corn ever raised in this country. In the fall Wm. Y. Farquhar, a cousin of Henry Roberts, came with his family, and after him came Wm. W. Farquhar with his family. They all stopped with Henry Roberts, and thus composed the first settle- ment of Friends in this district. From this nucleus came the numerous society of Quakers in Wayne, Middlebury and Berlin, in after years. Shortly after this we find another Quaker, Samuel Wilson, and John Kerr in what subsequently became Wayne township, and John Cook and Jacob Cook just above, in what is now Middlebury township, and Amoriah Watson goes from Douglass' to the tract of land above, where Fredericktown was the next year laid out, and which he subsequently sold to Jacob Ebersole, a place now easy to be identified by all. In the spring of 1806, there were within the after limits of Knox county but fifteen persons who turned out to vote, and but nine liable to per form military duty out to muster.
The first grist mill erected in this county was of
17
KNOX COUNTY.
a decidedly primitive character. It was in the Hains, or Ten Mile settlement, and constructed without the sound of the hammer upon iron. It was the joint work of Ebenezer and Abner Brown, assisted by the mechanical skill of the whole neigh- borhood, and was built on what was called by the early settlers "Big Run," though in later times it is spoken of as the little Lake, through which the road to Granville has since been laid out. The water has almost disappeared-having been in its appearance greatly changed by ditching, and in some parts obliterated by filling up the hollow. The mill stood where Isaac Beam's house now is, and the dam was where the bridge now stands in the lane. It was all of wood-a sugar-trough made its meal-trough-a little box the hopper-the stones were about two feet through, and hooped with elm bark for want of iron. It cracked corn pretty well with a good head on, but the stream was generally dry, and the mill was only able to run when big showers of rain came. The building was about ten feet square, of rough logs-not a nail or a bit of iron could be had when it was made. The stones of this ancient of days are certainly a curiosity- they are yet to be seen, being the property of Moses Farquhar, of Berlin, who since that day has at- tempted experiments with them. Richard Roberts at one time took a grist to this original mill and had it ground. He was then about seventeen years old, and not much acquainted with the milling business, but he was greatly impressed with its mechanism, and ready to exclaim, with our old friend Hadly, "The works of God are wonderful, 2
18
HISTORY OF
but the works of man are wonderfuller !" He thought that it worked first rate, though Henry Hains at that time had got a little hand mill which he claimed was a great improvement on the little wooden mill.
Mr. Roberts recollects of having at one time packed a bag of corn from Tom Butler's down on White-woman home, and from thence to a mill near Newark, and back home again, less a heavy toll. While at the mill he saw Hughes, and from his own lips had a true account about the killing of Indian horse thieves, whom Jack Ratliff and himself had pursued into the Owl Creek country and killed as they came upon them in the bottom just below where Fredericktown now stands. The story runs thus :- " One night in April, 1800, two Indians stole their horses from a little inclosure near their cabins, located in some old Indian fields on the Licking. In the morning, finding their horses gone, and tracks about, they were satisfied of their having been stolen, and started off in pur- suit, accompanied by a man named Bland. They followed their trail all day, and camped at night in the woods, and making an early start in the morn- ing, surprised the Indians in their sleep. They drew up their rifles to shoot, when one of the Indians, discovering them, clapping his hands on his breast, as if to ward off the fatal ball, exclaimed in piteous tones, 'me bad Indian !- me no do so more !' Alas! in vain he plead ; the smoke curled from the glistening barrels, the report rang in the morning air, and the poor Indians fell dead." Hughes and Ratliff returned home with the horses
19
KNOX COUNTY.
and plunder taken from the Indians, feeling as well over their little exploit as any men ever did over a great and glorious action. Ellis Hughes, who was known to very many of our old settlers, died near Utica, in March, 1845, and was buried with military honors. He was believed to be the last survivor of the hard fought battle of Point Pleasant. He was a hardy backwoodsman from Western Virginia.
Our old townsman, Wm. Mefford, informs us that when he improved his farm on Mile Run, in Wayne township, he was clearing off ground on which to build his house, and he then plowed up the two In- dians killed by Hughes, and also a rusty gun bar- rel, brass guard, and other pieces of a gun, which had not decayed. This was in 1835; and Jacob Mitchel now has the old relies.
George Conkie gathered up the bones and buried them, and the house was built on the spot-the old Peck place on Mile Run bottom, where Mrs. Acre now lives. In early days there was a favorite camping ground for the Indians about three-fourths of a mile from where these Indians were killed. Three old settlers have informed us that about 1808 they saw at one time more than one hundred and fifty warriors camped there. They have several times seen Old Crane, the Wyandot Chief, the Chief Armstrong, and Captain Pipe, with bands of In- dians, roving through this country, and we have gathered some very amusing incidents connected therewith, which the limit we have prescribed for this work compels us to omit in this edition.
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