USA > Ohio > Licking County > Centennial history of Licking County, Ohio > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7
F 497 .L6S7
VIB
ЭМ
4
S
N U
CONGE
R
CENTENNIAL HISTORY
OF
ny Coun
Read at the Centennial Celebration L BRARY
OF
96653 CONGR
OF THE
APR 10 1877 SMITHSON D =
Licking Co. Agricultural Society.
AT THE
"Old Bort," July 4th, 1876.
BY ISAAC SMUCKER.
NEWARK, OHIO; CLARK & UNDERWOOD, PRINTERS. 1876.
NOTE .- The following historical sketch of LICKING COUNTY was prepared, pursuant to a resolution of Congress, adopted, March 13, 1876, which provided for Centennial County histories, throughout the United States; a measure which was also commended to the people by the President in a Proclamation, bearing date May 25, 1876.
The Licking County Agricultural Society, approving of the resolution and proclamation aforenamed, and promptly adopting the suggestion of the "Ohio State Board of Agriculture," procured the preparation of the following Centennial Sketch of Licking County, and had it published in the style in which it is herein presented. The important and voluminous facts, incidents and figures presented, and the mass of valuable information given, must make the " sketch" of permanent value to all who have any interest in our County: it is. therefore commended to the public favor.
4 ·LIST
218
CENTENNIAL HISTORY
OF
LICKING COUNTY, OHIO.
THIE MOUND-BUILDERS.
A hundred years ago! and Licking County had no existence as an organized community. Then, and for a score of years thereafter, the entire territory now constituting it, was without a solitary perma- nent white inhabitant-it was indeed a " waste, howling wilderness!" True, the mysterious and prehistoric race of mound-builders had been here. They had erected their works and transmitted to us their memorials, which are the only evidence we have that here they once lived, moved and had their being. But they were gone-the white man never saw them! They had their rise, their successes and tri- umphs, their decline, their probable defeat and overthrow, or per- chance, their dispersion, absorption or extermination, long years- perhaps many ages-before the historic period of the Ohio Valley,and of the Lake country of Western America. Here peradventure, with- in these walls and this enclosure, was their seat of Empire. Here they had thrown up many miles of embankments-here they had built numerous walls of circumvallation-here were their parallel and circular carthworks, their octagonals, their parallelograms and those of various other geometrical figures. Here within the present terri- torial limits of Licking County, and in all sections and in every portion of it, they erected hundreds of mounds of earth and stone, including the general classes of Sepulchral, Sacrificial. Temple or truncated mounds, Memorial or Monumental mounds, and mounds of Observation. Here, too, Effigies or Symbolical mounds exist, as well as Enclosures of large extent and of great variety as to form. de. sign, and purpose.
4
CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF .
Symbolical Mounds probably served a purpose in the religious services of the mound-builders.
Mounds of Observation were in all probability "out-looks " or " signal stations."
Sepulchral Mounds were of course used for burial purposes.
Sacrificial Mounds were those upon which animals and perhaps human beings were offered as a sacrifice to propitiate the gods of the idolatrous mound-builders.
Temple Mounds were used as Temples or "high places " on which were performed some sort of religious ceremonies.
Memorial or Monumental Mounds belong to a class that are supposed to have been erected to perpetuate the memory of some important event, or in honor of some distinguished character.
Enclosures were constructed for various purposes, some being military or defensive works; some were works in which the cere- monies of their religion were conducted; others for the practice of their popular amusements or national games; still others perhaps for Governmental, Legislative or some sort of Civic purposes and perfor- mances. The Enclosure we occupy to-day, on this Centennial occasion, is probably one of the class in which the rites pertaining to the national religion of the mound-builders were practiced, the "Eagle mound" in its center, with its sacrificial altar favoring this idea; though it may have also served as the place in which to practice their national games and amusements; and being one of their most extensive works, may possibly have been the seat of their govern- ment. Least likely of all is it that it was designed for military purposes.
Although the plow has often, hereabouts, rudely passed over the remains of our prehistoric ancestors, and partially or wholly obliter- ated many of their parallel walls and embankments, their enclosures and mounds, it is yet a gratification to know that enough of their works remain to leave our county still, as it has hitherto been, one of the richest fields of archaeological interest and pursuit-one of the most inviting localities for antiquarian investigation. Above all it is a matter of special congratulation that no Vandal hands can ever be laid upon these embankments within which we are celebrating the first Centennial of American Independence; yea more, that it is one of the irrevocable stipulations by which you, the Lieking County Agricultural Society hold the title to them that they shall never be mutilated, partially obliterated or destroyed, thus furnishing a guaran- tee for the perpetual preservation of one of the most extensive and
.
5
LICKING COUNTY, OHIO.
interesting works ever erected by the unknown and now extinct mound-builder race. Let it be ever remembered that the tenure up- on which this Enclosure is held is that its embankments shall be per- petually protected against the mutilating, obliterating hands of the plowman, and against the destructive proclivities of the iconoclast. And let it be the fixed determination of the present and future gener- ations to protect against future mutilation what remains of the exten- sive, interesting labyrinthian works of the mound-builders in this locality.
Before the beginning of the Centennial period we are closing to- day, few, very few persons of Anglo-Saxon or Caucassian ances- try had ever passed through, or even entered the territory that now constitutes Licking County. Christopher Gist, an explorer in the interest of a Virginia Land Company, with his guide or fellow-travel- er, George Croghan, passed through the southeastern portion of our County in 1751, and were the first (of whom we have authentic in- formation,) of the white race that did so. They followed an Indian trail that led from the " Forks of the Ohio," (now Pittsburg, ) to the Miami Indian towns, situated in the Miami Valley. In passing through they encamped at the Reservoir, on the evening of January 17th, and on the next day, they " set out from the Great Swamp," as Gists' journal says.
And in 1773 Rev. David Jones, a baptist preacher from the vicinity of Philadelphia, who afterwards became known as a historic character of rare eccentricities, with David Duncan an Indian trader, and two others, passed through what is now Licking County. They left " Standing Stone," now Lancaster, ( where was then a village of the Delaware Indians, ) on Wednesday, February, 10, and passing near by the "Great Swamp " or " Big Lake," as the Indians called it, they crossed the Licking river, ("Salt Lick Creek," Jones' journal named it,) some miles below the junction of the North and South Forks, and remained over night at an Indian village on the Bowling Green, a locality which was declared " fertile and beautiful," in the journal of our eminent missionary tourist.
A hundred years ago, and for nearly a score of years thereafter, this locality, this central portion of the Great Northwest, was in the midst of the wild arena on which raged, (and had raged for almost a quarter of a century,) the furious contest between Barbarism and Civilization. A century ago and the sole occupants here were the savage Red men of the forest, the fierce and untamed beasts of the desert, and those huge birds of prey that instinctively recede before
6
CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF
the advancing waves of Civilization, and retire to darker shades be- fore the steady, forward movements of civilized man. The Delawares, the Shawanese, and the Wyandots had here, a century ago, a more or less permanent residence; and perchance the wanderers of other straggling tribes too, had here, sometimes erected their wigwams, and thus, temporarily at least, attained to a "local habitation and a name." And doubtless here too, during the earlier years of the Centennial period which eloses to-day, these woods, " many a time and oft," re- sounded with the heavy tread of buffalo herds, and no less with the movements of the more stately elk. Then too, the ferocious panther, the ravenous bear, the rapacious wolf, the treacherous, wily cat - amount, the stealthy wild-cat, the voracious eagle, and the other birds of prey, with the deer and various wild though docile animals, were the almost unmolested tenants of our forests. Then these woods echoed and re-echoed the wild scream of the panther, the doleful screech of the birds of night, the cry of the king of birds uttered from his lofty eyrie, or when sailing in mid-heaven, the howling of the starving wolf, the bellowing of the mad buffalo, and the terrifie shrieks and discordant sounds of other wild and untamed beasts, and of savage man! Such, a century ago, was the music of these woods-such the dreariness, the desolation then of these solitudes!
THE INDIANS.
During the first decades of the Centennial period, now termina- ting,the Indians had certainly two villages, perhaps more, within the present limits of Lieking County. Mention has been incidentally made of one jointly occupied by Delawares and Shawanese, which was situated on the Bowling Green, four miles below the junction of the North and South Forks. The other was a Wyandot village, called Raccoontown, and was situated on Raccoon Creek, a short distance above Johnstown, in the present township of Monroe. The Indians sold their town to Charles and George Green in 1807, and immediate- ly abandoned it, though a remnant of them remained within the county some years later. A few Wyandots who had erected some huts on the Brushy Fork, on the borders of Granville and Mckean Townships did not leave finally, until 1812. "Here wild in woods the treacherous savage ran," as the poet has it-here during the earlier decades of this Centennial period, the Indians erected their solitary huts, put up their frail wigwams, and built their villages; but like their predecessors, the mound-builders, they are all gone!
7
LICKING COUNTY, OHIO.
A few years ago, while excavating an abutment on the cast bank of Bowling Green Run, near its mouth, seven skeletons, some of them of undoubted Indian type, were uncovered, together with trinkets, beads, curiously shaped polished stones and silver thimbles. As the Bowling Green Indian village was in the near vicinity of these skele- tons, it is probable that they were the skeletons of residents of the aforesaid village.
In these my concluding remarks on our savage predecessors, it may be observed to their credit that we have no reliable information that charges upon them the crime of murdering any of the white race within the territory that now composes Licking County, nor even of the commission of many serious offenses against person or property.
There is one exception only to the foregoing statement, related by B. C. Woodward, Esq., which charges the wounding of one man and the killing of another in 1796, within the present limits of Han- over Township, on or near the farm owned not long since by the late Jacob Freese.
EXTENT, TOPOGRAPHY, STREAMS, &C., &C.
The extreme width of Licking County is twenty-two and a half miles, from North to South, thirty miles from East to West. These dimensions would give our County 675 square miles of territory; but as the original surveyors of 1796 failed to give us a straight line on our Northern boundary, we lost a strip of sixteen miles in length. and about three-fourths of a mile in breadth, which blundering careless- ness reduces our figures to 663 miles. We also lose a tract of nearly two miles by two and a half in extent, at the Southeast corner of the County, which still further reduces our territory almost five square miles, leaving us a sum total of only 658 square miles.
The Eastern half of Licking County is generally characterized as hilly, and only moderately productive, yet nearly all cultivable: while the Western half is level or rather undulating, and with a very small proportion too uneven or steep for the plow. It is beautifully diversified by hill and dale-by high, irregular ridges and level plains -by sterile hills and fertile, alluvial bottoms-by the rough " hill country " of the eastern half of the county, and by the level and un- dulating lands of the western half. The eastern half is varied here and there by beautiful landscapes, by high peaks, dark glens, inaccessible bluff's, cavernous dells, abrupt acclivities, rugged hill-sides, craggy cliffs such as are found on the "Flint Ridge," at the " Lick- ing Narrows," along the Rocky Fork, and in some other localities.
S
CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF
There are few Prairies in Licking County, one in Washington Township, and another a mile west of Newark, being the largest. The latter, however, which, previous to the earthquakes of 1811-12, served the purpose of a race-course, subsequently became a pond or lakelet. Swamps and ponds are not by any means numerous in Licking County, and what we have are of inconsiderable proportions. Of Lakes we have but two. "Smoots' Lake," in the Northern part of the County, and the " Reservoir," on the Southern boundary, por- tions of which are in the Counties of Fairfield and Perry. Springs are numerous, but with few exceptions, of small size-the most notable exception being the " Spencer Spring." In early, or pioneer times its flow of water was sufficient to propel the machinery of grist and saw-mills. It is about five miles North of Newark, and empties into the North Fork a mile from its source.
Of running streams our County is abundantly furnished, the principal being the North and South Forks, and the Raccoon Creek, or Middle Fork, which all unite at Newark and form the Licking River, which empties into the Muskingum river at Zanesville. The minor streams are the Wakatomika, the Rocky Fork, the Otter Fork, the Clear Fork, the Lake Fork, the Brushy Fork, Clay Lick Creek, Ramp or Auter Creek, Hog Run, Lobdell Run, Bowling Green Run, and many others of smaller magnitude. The aforementioned are all tributaries of the Licking, except Wakatomika, which empties into the Muskingum, sixteen miles above Zanesville. A portion of the surplus rain that falls on the Southeastern border of our County also finds its way into the Muskingum by way of the Moxahala or Jona- than's Creek, whose mouth is two or three miles below Zanesville. All the surplus water of Licking County therefore, runs into the Mus- kingum, except such as flows from the Western border, by way of the Walnut, Black Lick and Big Walnut Creeks into the Scioto.
All the streams of Licking County still abound, to a considerable extent in fish of various kinds, though they were larger in size and greater in numbers in the times of our early settlers, except possibly in the Reservoir, or " Big Lake " as the Indians called it, where fish- ing is still largely successful, both as an amusement and for profit. As indicating the size attained by the fish known as the pike, in the Licking, in the days of the Pioneers, I give the following facts: Capt. Elias Hughes once speared a pike, which, when hung on a nail near the top of his cabin door reached to the floor. Isaac Stad- den, Esq., also once shot a pike at "High bank," in the Licking, which measured more than five feet. A stick was run through the
9
LICKING COUNTY, OHIO.
gills and placed upon his shoulder, to carry him home, he proved to be of such length, that when thus carried his tail dragged upon the ground. Indeed it was quite a common event for our early settlers to spear or shoot pikes of from three to five feet in length.
A few localities in Licking County on account of geographical position or topographical peculiarities, possess more than an ordinary degree of interest. One of these is "Flint Ridge," situated in the Southeastern portion of our county, and extending some distance in- to Muskingum County. The extreme length of "Flint Ridge " from East to West is about seven miles, and has an average width of probably two miles. It is extensively covered with the mound-build- ers "wells" or "pits"-flint and buhrstones also greatly abound, the latter having been largely used by mill owners in early times, as a substitute for the French buhr, for making flour, and especially for grinding corn. Cannel coal has been found in the ridge, and has been mined to a considerable extent during the last forty years. Fire clay, and clay for the manufacture of stone ware also abound there.
The "Licking Narrows " is another of the localities of more than common interest in our County. When first discovered by our pioneer settlers, it was regarded as one of the most picturesque places in Ohio. It was a romantic, gloomy gorge, of about two miles in length, through which flowed the Licking river, its western extremity being near the mouth of the Rocky Fork, eight miles below Newark. Cliff's of rocks about sixty feet high compose its Northern bank, while its Southern bank, which is more sloping and of less height consists of earth and rock, and a heavy growth of trees. The Licking has here a width of about a hundred feet, and trees which grew on its banks, had, when the " Narrows " were first explored by white men, such a luxuriant growth, that the branches of trees which stood on opposite sides of the stream, run together and intermingled in many places, so that the grape vines that grew on one side were carried into the tree-tops of those on the other side, thus giving the " Narrows," during the season of full foliage, a dark, gloomy, cavern- ous appearance.
On the face of the perpendicular rock on the north side of the "Narrows," was inscribed, what was popularly called the "Black Hand." It was twice the size of a man's hand and wrist, with dis- tended thumb and fingers, pointing eastward. It was near the east- ern end of the "Narrows," and some ten or fifteen feet from the ground. The general impression seemed to be that this famous "hand" had been chiseled or scratched out with a sharp-pointed
10
CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF
flint chisel, the hollowed grooves thus chiseled out forming its shape, and that the "hand" had become blackened by the action of the elements, or that the growth of a thick coat of black moss had given it its color, as contradistinguished from the general color of the rock, which was of a grayish cast. This curious "hand" was destroyed in 1828, by blasting the rock on which it was inscribed, in order to make the tow-path for the Ohio Canal, which, by a lock at the head, and a dam at the foot of the "Narrows," made the Licking river slackwater, and as such a part of the Ohio Canal.
Other landscapes and localities of romantic interest in Licking County, might be named in this connection, such as the "Rain Rock " near the Rocky Fork, and also the glens or dells and moun- tainous features of the hills and banks of said stream, at various points, but I will not go into detailed descriptions of them.
The localities west of Newark, between the North and Middle Forks of the Licking, known as Sharon Valley and Welsh Hills, which were first settled by immigrants from Wales, during the early years of this century, also have points of rare interest and landscape beauty, but I must forego details.
UNITED STATES MILITARY LANDS .- REFUGEE LANDS. .
Nine-tenths or more of Licking County is situated within the old United States Military District, and is, therefore, to that extent composed of United States Military Lands-that is lands set apart by Congress in June 1796, for the payment of certain claims of the offi- cers and soldiers for services rendered during the Revolutionary war. The narrow strip of two and a half miles wide, along the Southern border of the County belongs to the Refugee tract-a tract of land dedicated by Congress in April 1798, to the payment of the claims of those refugees whose possessions in Canada and Nova Scotia had been confiscated by the British Government, upon the alleged ground that their owners had abandoned them and had joined the Colonists in their struggle for Independence.
The United States Military Lands amounted to 2,650,000 acres. The tract was bounded on the East by the West line of the seven Ranges; on the South by Congress lands and by the Refugee tract; on the West by the Scioto river; and on the North by the Greenville treaty boundary line.
The Refugee tract was four and a half miles wide, and forty - eight miles long, extending Eastward from the Scioto river, and con-
II
LICKING COUNTY, OHIO.
tained 100,000 acres. The villages of Gratiot, Linnville, Amsterdam, Jacksontown, Hebron, Brownsville, Luray and Kirkersville are near to or upon the North line of the Refugee tract. Etna and Bowling Green Townships are wholly within it; and the Southern portion of Harrison, Union and Licking Townships are also in the Refugee tract.
OUR CIVIL HISTORY.
The Territory which now constitutes Licking County, was with- in the limits of Washington County, (the first County organized in the Northwest Territory, ) from 1788 until 1798, when, by the organi- zation of Ross County, it became a portion of it, and so remained until the year ISoo, when, Fairfield County being established, it was thrown into it, and continued to be a portion of said County until ISOS, when the organization of Licking County was effected; we have therefore had Marietta, Chillicothe, Lancaster and Newark for our County seats, and in the order named.
The first Territorial Legislature of the Northwest Territory met at Cincinnati, September 16, 1799, and Ross County's representa- tives in that body, were, Edward Tiffin, Thomas Worthington, Samuel Findlay, and Elias Langham, and their only constituents living within the present limits of Licking County, were the families of Elias Hughes and John Ratliff, consisting of twenty-two persons. The second session, with the same representatives, was held at Chillicothe, in November ISoo. The third session, (with the same representatives, except Samuel Findlay, ) met at Chillicothe, Novem- ber 23, ISO1.
Our Territorial Delegates in Congress were General William H. Harrison, who served from 1799 until ISoo. William McMillen succeeded him but served only until I801, when Paul Fearing took his seat as such and served until 1803.
In November 1So2, a Constitutional Convention was held at Chillicothe and formed the first Constitution for the State of Ohio. We were at that time part and parcel of Fairfield County, and that County was represented in said Convention by Henry Abrams and Emanuel Carpenter.
THE FIRST SETTLERS AND EARLIEST SETTLEMENTS OF LICKING COUNTY.
The first permanent white settlement made within the present limits of Licking County was effected in 1798, by Elias Hughes and
İ2
CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF
John Ratliff. They came to the Bowling Green, (now in Madison Township,) on the Licking, from Western Virginia and were the only settlers until early in the year 1800. The two families spent the preceding year at the "Mouth of the Licking," and in the Spring of 1798 they ascended said stream some twenty miles, and there squat- ted, both families numbering, upon their arrival, twenty-one persons. During the year 1799 a son was born to Elias Hughes, thus increas- ing the colony to twenty-two.
Captain Hughes had been a frontiersman all his life, and had at- tained to a good degree of prominence, in his native State, before leaving it, as a skilful hunter, a brave soldier, a reliable spy, and as a most daring and successful Captain of Scouts. He had been in the sanguinary battle of Point Pleasant, in 1774, and for more than twenty years thereafter he had served efficiently, on the Western borders of Virginia, in the hazardous employment of Spy or Scout. In 1796-7 he was attached, as a hunter, to the surveying party that run the Range and Township lines of the United States Military lands in this section. He lived until 1844, dying at the age of about ninety years, and had been for a long while, the last and only survivor of those who had actively participated in the hard-fought battle of Point Pleasant, between about one thousand Virginians, commanded by General Andrew Lewis, and perhaps as many Indian warriors under the leadership of the celebrated Cornstalk, a Shawanese Chief.
John Ratliff's wife died in 1802, and was probably the first white adult person whose death took place within our county. During the same year, October 22, 1802, the wife of Mr. John Jones, who lived near the Raccoon creek, four miles West of Newark, died. The first death was that of an infant child of John Stadden, whose birth and death occurred in the latter part of the year IS01. The first marriage within the limits of Licking County, was that of the parents of the aforesaid child, ( John Stadden and Elizabeth Green,) which took place on Christmas day in the year ISoo. John Ratliff died on the South side of the Licking, near the mouth of the Brushy Fork, about or in the year ISII. A few of the descendants of Hughes and Ratliff still reside in Licking County.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.