USA > Ohio > Ashland County > A History of the Pioneer and Modern Times of Ashland County > Part 26
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HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY.
CHURCHES IN MOHICANVILLE.
METHODIST EPISCOPAL.
This church was organized at Mohicanville in the year 1828, under the charge of Rev. Elmer Yocum. Among the original members were Nathan and Mary Dally, Charles Dally, Elizabeth Smith, and Mrs. Sheets. The society was formed at the house of Henry Sherradden. Until 1844, the meetings were held at private houses, and at the school-house in the village. At the date mentioned, the present house was erected-a building capable of seating about four hundred persons.
The church was organized with seven members. It now embraces about fifty-two members. The present clergymen are, Rev. William M. Spafford and Rev. Matthew L. Starr. The officers of the church are, William Moore, circuit steward; George Botdorf, John Metcalf, William Moore, and Vincent Dally, trustees; and Nicholas Wireman and Vincent Dally, class-leaders.
GERMAN REFORMED.
This church was organized in 1859-Rev. J. J. Excell, pastor; George Bender and Daniel Biddinger, elders; Z. T. Paullins and Zebulon Metcalf, deacons; and Daniel Dillier, clerk. The church building (which will seat about four hundred persons) was dedicated on the 5th of June, 1859. Present number of members, fifty.
REMINISCENCES OF THE PIONEERS OF MOHICAN TOWNSHIP. GEORGE W. BASFORD.
George W. Basford emigrated from Maryland to Mohican Township, in October, 1824, and established 97
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himself in & clothing establishment in the town of Jeromeville. At this date his family consisted of his wife and an infant daughter.
JOHN COOPER.
John Cooper immigrated to Clearcreek Township in the fall of 1822, and purchased of John Haney forty acres of land, lying west of the farm now owned by John Bryte. In 1828, he sold this place and re- moved to section 28, Mohican Township.
NATHAN DALLY.
Nathan Dally emigrated from Washington County, Pennsylvania, and removed temporarily to a cabin, which stood upon the farm now owned by George Botdorf, on the 17th day of February, 1817. His family then consisted of his wife and ten children. He had, the previous year, purchased of John Law- rence (who resided about two miles southwest of Wooster) the southeast quarter of section 32, (being the land upon a part of which is now the town of Mohicanville.) In the spring of the year of his arrival with his family, he entered the south west quarter of section 32, Mohican Township. Upon neither of the quarter sections described was there any improvement. His nearest neighbor on the north was William Metcalf, one mile distant; on the east, Alexander Finley, distant three miles; on the south, Jabez Smith, distant one-fourth mile; and on the west, Isaac Downey, about six miles distant.
The quarter purchased of Lawrence subsequently reverted to him, and after several transfers, Simeon Bell and Henry Sherradden became its owners, and the original proprietors of the town of Mohicanville.
Mr. Dally, during the first spring of his residence
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in the township, erected a house on the margin of the "Fall's Spring," nearly opposite the present resi- dence of his son, Vincent Dally. This cabin house was standing until within about twelve years since.
THOMAS EAGLE.
Thomas Eagle arrived in the township of Mohican on the 2d day of May, 1809, having succeeded the family of Alexander Finley a few weeks. His family then consisted of his wife and daughter Amelia. He first opened a small farm on the land now owned and occupied by Henry Treace. In the early part of the war, he, together with several of his neighbors, re- moved their families to the fort, at Wooster, as security against attacks by Indians.
Mr. Eagle was well acquainted with Baptiste Jerome, who often related to Mr. Eagle circumstances connected with the Indian war against General An- thony Wayne-among other "yarns," one running to the effect that himself and a party of eight Indians came upon a reconnoitering party near the Maumee River, led by Wayne, and that he, (Jerome,) and the Indians leveled and discharged their rifles at "Mad Anthony" without any effect. Several years after the war of 1812, Jerome lost his Indian wife and daughter, and subsequently married a white woman, and removed to the mouth of Huron River, where he soon after died, it is said, in a drunken revel.
The fort at Jeromeville, Mr. Eagle says, was built under the authority of General Bell.
The fort at Wooster was under the command of Captain George Stidger, whose force amounted to about one hundred and sixty men.
A few days prior to the massacre on the Black
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Fork, Mr. Eagle left Wooster in charge of a company of men for the defense of his neighbors, who had re- mained in Mohican Township, having received in- formation that they were threatened by an attack from the Indians. Some hours after arriving at the fort. on James Collyer's place, the Indians appeared and made some hostile demonstrations; but it is sup- posed came to the conclusion that Eagle's force was too formidable and too well secured, and they retired toward Jeromeville, on their route killing all the hogs that came in their way.
Mr. Eagle says that he piloted Bell's army from Wooster to Jeromeville, and from thence several miles west. He is now about eighty-one years of age, and in feeble health.
WILLIAM EWING.
William Ewing immigrated to Mohican Township in the fall of 1814, from Bedford County, Pennsyl- vania, and removed to the farm which had previously been entered for him by his father, John Ewing- which farm is situated about two miles southeast of Jeromeville, and is now occupied by the family of the late Michael Heickle. His immediate neighbor was John Bryan.
Mills, Markets, etc.
Odell's mill, in Wayne County, was the most con- venient place for obtaining supplies of flour. The first year of his residence in the township, wheat sold at $1.50 per bushel; but about the time he had suf- ficient land under cultivation to enable him to raise a surplus, the price fell to 25 cents per bushel. Salt was obtained at Wooster for $4 per bushel. Some years later the neighborhood obtained their supplies
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of salt at Portland, on the lake, at $4 per barrel. It was regarded as a favorable exchange when a barrel of salt could be obtained for a barrel of flour.
The Indian " Buckwheat."
Mr. Ewing's acquaintance with this Indian com- menced soon after he settled in the country. He represents Buckwheat as a man of good sense, benev- olent disposition, and remarkable for his fondness of white children. He was never married. The sins of his race were visited upon his unoffending head, at an early age, in his death at the hands of one whose brother had years previously been murdered by Indians in a distant part of the State.
ALEXANDER FINLEY.
Alexander Finley removed from the place now occupied by the town of Mt. Vernon, Knox County, to the farm in Mohican Township, upon which Tyler- town (Lake Fort Post-office) is now situated, April 17, 1809. His family then consisted of his wife and the following named children: James, Benjamin, John, and Hannah.
At the time Mr. Finley settled in Mohican Town- ship, himself and family were the only white inhabitants within the limits of the territory that now constitutes the County of Ashland.
At this date, also, there was only one family within the town of Wooster. The name of the head of this family was Benjamin Miller. William and Joseph Larwill, whose names are honorably connected with the history and development of Wayne County, were then young men, and boarders in the family of Mr. Miller. This family were the nearest neighbors of
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Mr. Finley at the time of his settlement in Mohican Township. Within a few weeks, however, other persons, namely, William and Thomas Eagle, Benja- min Bunn, and John Shinnebarger, all having fami- lies, settled in the neighborhood. The year following, (1810,) Amos Norris, Vachel Metcalf, William Bryan, Thomas Newman, and James Slater, with their several families, removed to the township.
The Indians in the neighborhood at this time were an intermixture of several tribes-the Mohicans, Dela- wares, Wyandottes, Shawnees, Chickasaws, and one or two who claimed to be of the Cherokee tribe. They were friendly and harmless, until the war of 1812 commenced, when the main body of them dis- appeared, and most of them, it is supposed, became attached to the British service.
The first year or two after Mr. Finley came to the country, he obtained his supplies of flour and corn meal from Shrimplin's mill, below Mt. Vernon. This journey to the mill was performed in canoes or pi- rogues, down the Lake Fork and Mohican, and up Owl ยท Creek, and occupied about three days for the trip. These vessels would carry from twenty to fifty bush- els of corn meal.
The forests at this period were destitute of under- brush or small timber, but were covered with sedge- grass, pea-vines, and weeds, which afforded excellent pasture from early spring until about August. The sedge-grass, when cut in July, or earlier, afforded very nutritious and palatable food for horses and cattle during the winter. Very little iron was used in those days. The wooden "mould board" plow and wooden and brush harrows were generally in use twelve or fifteen years after Mr. Finley came to the
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country; and many continued their use several years afterward.
Ladies and gentlemen, when they clothed their feet at all, dressed them in moccasins. Mr. John Finley well remembers the first pair of boots he ever saw- they being a coarse article, purchased by his father, of John Fox, in 1820 or 1821-price, eight dollars. Leather, therefore, was not in use until many years after the settlement of the country.
The clothing of the men was buckskin and flax linen. The women were clothed in a fabric made of raw cotton and flax linen. Handkerchiefs, head- dresses, and aprons were made, by the thrifty house- wives, of raw cotton. The price of calico (being from fifty to seventy-five cents per yard) placed it without the means of any but very few to purchase. An excellent and industrious girl, as late as 1822 or 1823, toiled faithfully six weeks for six yards of calico, which, in those primitive days, before the era of hoops, was deemed sufficient for a dress. The lady who ap- peared in the first calico dress, attracted, it may be supposed, considerable attention in "the settlement," and was regarded as much of an aristocrat.
Window glass was not in use until some years after the war-oiled paper being employed as a substitute.
The first buggy, with elliptic springs, (being an open one,) within the recollection of Mr. John Finley, amazed the good people who attended the Lake Fork Presbyterian Church, on a Sunday, about the year 1835. After intermission, the novel vehicle attracted general attention, and when the owner, in answer to a question, gave the name of "buggy," as the one that properly described his carriage, his interrogator con- cluded that he was disposed to "poke fun" at him,
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and this opinion was generally adopted by the indig- nant crowd. Two-horse lumber wagons were intro- duced about twenty years after the first settlement of the township.
From the date of the arrival of Mr. Finley, until four or five years after the close of the war, there was a good demand and good prices for all the productions of the farm. Wheat was, however, little grown. The staples of the farm consisted mainly of corn, hogs, and cattle.
Alexander Finley died December, 1825, aged fifty- five years.
JOSHUA R. GLENN.
Joshua R. Glenn, and wife removed from Maryland to Mohican Township in 1818. Three years subse- quent he purchased, at the public land sales held at Wooster, the quarter in section 17 of the Indian Re- servation, which he improved, and upon which he died September 21, 1855, at the age of sixty-one years.
Maj. John Glenn, Jun., brother of Joshua R., is now a resident of Mohican Township, and immigrated at the same time with his father's family. His father (John Glenn, Sen., who died February 16, 1852, at the age of eighty-four years) had purchased 175 acres in sections 9 and 10. Upon this land Maj. Glenn yet resides. Himself and sister (Miss Elizabeth Glenn) are the only survivors of his father's family.
THOMAS GREEN.
Thomas Green, originally from Berkley County, Virginia, came to Mohican Township in 1813- "forted," with his family, during a part of that year, at Jeromeville. After leaving the fort, he settled in Orange Township. At this time the only two families
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in that township were those of Amos Norris and Va- chel Metcalf. The farm upon which he settled was north of Orange, and is now owned by Valentine and David Heifner.
His children were William, Jacob, Elizabeth, Abra- ham, George, Mariah, Solomon, John, Thomas, Sarah Ann, Julia, and Noah.
About 1817 Mr. Green removed to Jackson Town- ship, and after residing there several years removed to Licking County, near the residence of several brothers, and where he died in the spring of 1841.
RICHARD HARGRAVE.
Richard Hargrave emigrated from Pennsylvania, and commenced his residence in Jeromeville on the 22d of August, 1818. He purchased of Mr. Deardoff, one of the original proprietors of the town, in 1820, one-half of his interest in Jeromeville. He was the second merchant in the place-his predecessors in trade not being very successful, and having abandoned business when he opened his store.
Extracts of a Letter from J. J. Hootman, Esq.
MILO, Defiance County, Ohio, April 1, 1861.
My father settled in Perry Township, October 10, 1826. The appearance of the country at the time of our settlement was quite different from what it is at present. The major part of the village of Jeromeville was covered with fallen timber and hazel bush. The improvements on the farms then settled were small, being log cabins surrounded by a few acres of partly cleared land. The roads were new and unimproved, and many of them little more than bridle-paths. The prices of produce in 1828-29 were, as I recollect dis-
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tinctly : wheat 25 cents, (my father was offered 100 bushels for $25, and would not buy at that;) pork $1.50 per cwt .; corn 18 cents; salt $5.00 per barrel; coffee 50 cents per pound; tea 50 cents per quarter; butter 6 cents; eggs 0; iron 12} cents per pound. The usual and best market place was Portland, (now Sandusky City.) Twenty to thirty bushels wheat, a big load for two and four horses, ten days of travel if the roads were good, two weeks if not good. Mas- sillon became a market town. The opening of the Ohio Canal run the price of wheat up at once to forty cents, then to fifty, and then our farmers at that time were satisfied, and expressed the wish that the price would continue at that as they then could make money. Our nearest grist-mill was an old concern known as Goudy's Mill, southeast of Hayesville, with one run of stone, old niggerhead or boulder stone at that. Another was Smith's Mill, below Mohican- ville, where the Chandler Mill now stands, and of the same sort. In the winter, when those small streams were frozen, we went to the Clearfork to Manner's Mill, now owned by T. Calhoun. Sometimes we had to go to Owl Creek, in Knox County.
Old Mr. Hargrave, I believe, was the first post- master at Jeromeville, and held the office for twenty- five years. The mode of travel was on foot or horse- back if the roads would permit.
LUKE INGMAND.
Luke Ingmand removed from Fairfield County, Ohio, to the southwest quarter of section 11, Mohican Township, in September, 1816. His family consisted of his wife and two children, the present Judge Ed- mund Ingmand, and Mrs. Mary, wife of Joshua Carr,
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. now residing in Wood County, Ohio. Mr. Ingmand is now (December, 1861) nearly eighty-nine years of age, and an inmate of the family of his son.
EDMUND INGMAND.
Edmund Ingmand, when in his eleventh year, re- moved with his father to Mohican Township. This, as before remarked, was in the year 1816. Until about 1818 the 280 acres upon which he now resides was a part of the four sections (7, 8, 17, and 18) which formed the "Indian Reservation." During that year the Federal government purchased the Indian title, and in 1821 the lands were offered in tracts of quarter sections at the Wooster land office, pursuant to public notice; but as the quarter embraced in this tract was regarded as too wet for tillage no purchasers appeared. This land is now regarded as equal in fer- tility to any in the township. The original purchase, which constitutes his present farm, was entered by Edward Arnold in 1821 or 1822, but a short time after it had been offered by the government. Judge Ingmand became the owner of it in 1834, and the ad- ditions since made amount altogether to 280 acres.
The Indian Village, Burying-Ground, and Council House of Jerome Town
Were situated upon the Reservation above men- tioned. The village and burying-ground were upon the land on which Rev. Elijah Yocum has for many years resided-his house having been built (by the person of whom he purchased) over the graves of the Indians. The first proprietor, fancying the ground as a good building site, excavated a place for his cellar, and removed the exhumed bones to a swamp in the
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neighborhood. Subsequently, in excavating a mill- race some fifty rods from this place, a human skeleton was found in a position which rendered it certain that the body had been buried with its face downward, thus showing that it was, as has been alleged, the custom of many Indians to bury their dead in that position.
The Council House was upon an elevated and beau- tiful spot, about one-fourth of a mile distant from the village. The ground is now embraced in the farm of Judge Ingmand, and is about a quarter of a mile southeast of his house. All their buildings, including their council house, were burned about the time the Indians removed from the country in 1815, whether by themselves or the whites is not generally known.
Antiquities of Mohican.
There were the remains of no less than five ancient fortifications in Mohican Township; the embankments very regular and very distinctly defined, until culti- vation has nearly destroyed their original features. Three are near Jeromeville, and two near the junction of the Muddy and Jerome Forks. They embrace areas averaging about one and a half acres. A mound near the old Indian village, bearing unmistakable evi- dence, after excavation, of its being a work of art, and upon which trees, the growth of centuries, were stand- ing, was also in existence. The antiquarian might be compensated for researches in Mohican Township.
The Weather in 1816-17.
The weather during these years was memorable on account of the cold and frosts. During the winter of 1816 corn was planted about the middle of May,
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during a snow storm, and men gathered their wheat harvest with overcoats upon their backs, to protect them from the rigors of the weather! On the morn- ing of the 1st of June, 1817, a frost visited Ohio that destroyed utterly all the fruit, and denuded the fruit and forest trees of their leaves. It is remarkable, however, that the grain in the ground escaped the general desolation, a circumstance that is accounted for by the fact that crops were very backward.
Memoranda of Remarkable Events.
The following chronological memoranda of events of interest that have occurred in past years, furnished by Judge Ingmand, will be found of general and local interest :-
November 13th, 1833. Lights were seen falling on the early morning of this day, (three or four hours before daybreak,) having the appearance of showers of stars.
May 15, 1834. The first frost that, since the set- tlement of the country, occurred which had been known to materially injure the wheat crop.
June 21, 1834. A terrific storm passed over Je- romeville and a district of country west, which ap- peared to have its most violent force between the latter place and the vicinity of the farm upon which the County Infirmary is now situated, prostrating in its pathway forest trees and fences, unroofing build- ings, removing them from their foundations, etc.
1835. The summer remarkably wet, bottom lands much overflown, and too wet for tillage. Hay crop badly damaged, and cattle died the following winter in consequence of eating it. A comet appeared during the fall of the same year. November 11, a severe
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storm, which done much damage to Buffalo and other ports on the' American side, and to the shipping on the lakes.
1841. May 2, a snow storm of rare violence.
1843. July 21, frost.
1844. September 27, snow covered the ground, and lay upon it all the following day. October 18, a violent snow storm at Buffalo.
1845. May 7 and 25, frosts appeared, which again destroyed the wheat crop of this year, being the second loss which occurred from this cause since the settlement of the country. Summer very dry; fall favorable. Grub worm appeared in multitudes, de- stroying meadows and corn crops.
1854. The last four days of April brought snow storms-the 29th the snow fell without intermission. There were ten consecutive weeks of drought during this summer.
1854-55. During the winter of these years snow covered the ground thirteen consecutive weeks. May 8, (1855,) another snow storm. The month of May was unusually dry, but the June of this year will be long remembered for its remarkable floods, occurring from the 10th to the 17th of the month.
1855. December 24, snow commenced falling, and from this date until the middle of March following, the sleighing continued good. This winter was doubt- less the most severe in its rigor of any known since the settlement of the country, killing multitudes of fruit and forest trees. The snow lingered upon the earth until about the middle of April.
1857. Spring very backward; the peach did not blossom until the 20th of May. On the 1st of June dog-wood blossoms appeared.
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Schools, School-houses, etc.
In the early settlement of the country there was no law providing for common schools-no tax levied or other funds provided for the payment of teachers. Hence all buildings for the use of common schools consisted of some old evacuated dwelling; or, if built for that express purpose, had to be done by voluntary contribution of citizens immediately interested. And in order to give the reader some idea of the houses in which the "young idea was taught how to shoot," it may not be amiss to give a description of them. We say "them," because there was the utmost uniformity, not only in the outward appearance, but also in the inward structure and school furniture.
The house was usually about 16 by 20 feet, from 7 to 8 feet high; built of round logs, in perfect log cabin style.
Log Cabins.
And here it may not be amiss to inform our youth- ful readers of some of the peculiarities of a log cabin. Well, it is a house built of round logs, the size being suited to the peculiar wants or notions of the builder. When raised to a sufficient height to prepare for the roof, (which, in dwelling-houses, was usually about twelve feet,) a log was laid across each end of the building, projecting on each side of the house about eighteen inches; these logs being about three feet longer than those below, and were intended to sup- port logs laid on them, called "butting poles," against which the first row of clap-boards were made to rest. The building is now ready for "cobbing off," as it was called; which is done by putting a log on each side, perpendicularly with the main building; then a log
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on each end, and on them again one on each side, but far enough from the outside of the building to form a sufficient slope for the roof, and on which the boards used for a covering were laid; then another log on each end, these being necessarily about four feet shorter than those immediately below them, and on these end logs another pair of side logs, laid still far- ther in toward the middle of the building, and ranging with those below them, and so on until it is finished off with a single log on the top and middle of the
A. WILHELM.
building. Now it is ready for covering, which is done with boards split out of large oak trees, about four feet long, from eight to twelve inches wide, and about one and a half inches thick. These are laid on without nailing, but confined to their places by small logs laid on each course of boards.
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