USA > Ohio > Ashland County > A History of the Pioneer and Modern Times of Ashland County > Part 28
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of all who had made their acquaintance. That was the last Indian hunting in the neighborhood.
School at Tylertown-Removal to Perry -Character of Timber, etc.
I taught school, where Tylertown now stands, six months during the year 1823. The school was sus- tained by subscription, one dollar and fifty cents per scholar. I was married in the fall of 1824, and re- moved to the place where I now reside, in Perry Township, the same fall. I commenced in the woods on the east half of the northeast quarter of section 17, being a part of the same quarter entered by John Carr in 1814, which I had purchased in 1822 for one dol- lar per acre. I have since added by purchase sixty- five acres, a part at two dollars and sixty-two cents, a part at twenty dollars, and a part at forty dollars per acre. Our land was heavily timbered, white and black oak, hickory, soft maple, white and black ash. The underbrush was chiefly hickory, a good size for hoop-poles, but there was no call for them until about 1832. There was no foreign market then. Dog- wood, white oak, and sassafras composed the balance of the grubs.
Wages, Costumes, etc.
Day wages were about fifty cents in trade in har- vest; fifty cents or a bushel of wheat for reaping; little cradling done in harvest. Grain was thrashed mostly with horses, though some was done with the flail. Flax was raised for the lint. Every housewife and maiden could spin flax or wool, and nearly one- half of them could weave. The price of spinning was a shilling a dozen, or by the week seventy-five cents,
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and twelve and a half cents for weaving linen, such as was worn for shirts; weaving of coarser fabrics, less. Muslin shirts were not worn. Female apparel consisted chiefly of home-made linen, linsey, or flan- nel-each endeavoring to excel in quality as well as variety. When muslin was first used among laboring men it cost twenty-five cents to thirty-eight cents per yard.
Churches and Schools in 1824.
There were two churches in the township in 1824: one Presbyterian, called Mount Hope, near the north- east corner of the township; the other a Lutheran, on the south side of the township. The size of each was about thirty by thirty-five feet, and both were built of hewn logs. The members were few and much scattered. The Methodists had three places of wor- ship in private houses : at Mr. Carr's, Mr. Smalley's, and Mr. Hellman's. There were three school-houses, built of logs, one story high, clap-board roof, lighted by greased paper in place of glass; seats of slab or puncheon benches; tables for writing made of the same material as the seats, resting on pins driven into the log walls. House heated by fires in chimneys, which occupied one end of the building, before stoves were in use. The teacher's salary was paid by those sending to school, or by subscription, from one dollar and twenty-five cents to one dollar and fifty cents per scholar, thus depriving many youths of the means of education by that system.
JAMES ALLISON.
James Allison emigrated from Jefferson County, Ohio, to Perry Township during March, 1818. His wife and six children, namely, John, Alexander, Mary,
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Ann, Jane, and Catherine, constituted his family at that date. Of the sons and daughters mentioned, Alexander is the only survivor in Perry. Mrs. Jane, wife of Daniel Ellenbarger, and Miss Catherine Alli- son, reside in Mohican Township.
Mr. Allison died May 2d, 1839, at the age of sixty- four years. His wife had died in April of the pre- vious year at the age of sixty-two years. Mr. Allison and wife died upon the place he originally purchased of David Smith, being fifty acres in section 2.
Death of Arthur Campbell, Sen.
Alexander Allison was an eye-witness of this event, which is mentioned in another place. It was on the premises of Mr. Allison's uncle, John Pittinger, whose land was in process of being cleared. Messrs. Camp- bell and Pittinger were sitting upon the ground near a tree, engaged in conversation, when an oak tree, which had been several hours burning at its base, commenced falling in the direction of where the men were stationed. Mr. Allison, who was near, but out- side the range of the falling tree, happened to discover the danger, and instantly notified the men. Mr. Pit- tinger escaped by seeking refuge behind a tree near which they were sitting; but Mr. Campbell, being less active, was struck, while in the act of rising, upon the back by a heavy limb, crushing the bones and producing instant death.
HENRY BUFFAMYER.
Henry Buffamyer immigrated to Perry Township in May, 1826, and purchased of Joseph Carr the half section of land, parts of which are now owned by David and Matthew Buffamyer. He died on the last
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day of March, 1849, aged eighty-six years. His. widow is at this time (January 23d, 1862) residing with her son David, and although she has attained the age of eighty-one years, her health and faculties are but slightly impaired.
JOHN CARR.
John Carr entered two quarters of land, a part of. which is now owned by Samuel Naylor, in Mohican Township, December, 1810.
During the following year he removed his family from Tuscarawas County, and in March, 1811, com- menced his improvement on the part of the land above described.
In the spring of 1814 he sold his land to John Ewing, and purchased two quarters in Montgomery, and two quarters in Perry Township, a part of one of which latter purchase is now owned by John Allison. He removed to the land in Montgomery. Township now occupied by Samuel Horn, Mrs. Horn, Mr. Harlan, and Mr. Weidler. His house was erected upon the place now occupied by Mrs. Horn, where he remained till his death, which occurred April 1, 1836, in the sixty-fifth year of his age.
. Mr. Carr's whole life, from the age of seventeen, was passed among the pioneers, and in the wilderness of Pennsylvania and Ohio. Boy though he was at the age above mentioned, he removed to Washington County, Pennsylvania.
During Wayne's campaign against the hostile In- dian tribes he acted as spy. Shortly after the close of the war he married in Washington County, Penn- sylvania, and removed with his wife to what was the then Northeastern Territory, living first in what be-
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came afterward Jefferson, and then in the country of which Tuscarawas County now forms a part. From the latter county he removed, as above stated, to a quarter of the land he had previously entered in Mo- hican Township.
When he removed to Mohican his family consisted of his wife and eleven children, namely, Thomas, Nicholas, Nancy, Hugh, Joshua, Benjamin, John, Margaret, Susan, Samuel, and Aaron.
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HUGH CARR.
Hugh Carr (son of John, whose name is included among the children above mentioned) removed to the land in Perry Township, which he improved and has since occupied.
Indian Conspiracy against the Whites.
In the fall or early part of the winter of 1812 the family of William Bryan, residing on the Jerome Fork, about a mile and a half below Jeromeville, were one afternoon surprised by the appearance of a couple of Indians. As the friendly Indians of the neighbor- hood had all been removed, their presence occasioned suspicion. They asked for food, and while it was being prepared a girl was dispatched to the fort to give the alarm. Thomas Carr and the Frenchman, Jerome, immediately armed themselves and started in pursuit, but before they reached Mr. Bryan's house the Indians had taken their leave and pursuit was abandoned. On the same night these Indians visited the house of John Collyer, as described in the narra- tive of Thomas Newman. It was afterward learned that they visited Goshen, Tuscarawas County, for the purpose of inducing some of their relatives to return
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with them to the Huron River country, where the hostile Indians had congregated.
Mr. John Carr received a letter from Captain Mo- Connell stating that he had obtained information from his captives that an extensive conspiracy had been formed among the Indians in the Huron country, to murder the inhabitants about Jeromeville and vicinity, and to burn their dwellings. The Indian who had communicated this intelligence was a former friend of Mr. Carr, and made the disclosure to Captain McConnell in order that he might advise Mr. Carr of his danger. The name of this Indian was Phillip Ig- natius. The result of the battle at Fort Stephenson and on the peninsula, probably destroyed this and many other bloody schemes of the Indians.
A War Panic-Erection of the Fort at Jeromeville.
Soon after the surrender of Hull at Detroit, in the fall of 1812, and on the day following the first mas- sacre on the Black Fork, a party of unarmed soldiers from Hull's army, passing on their way eastward, gave information to the neighbors, (who had assembled at Jerome's place for the purpose of devising measures of safety,) that as they were opposite a point in the forest about a mile and a quarter west of Jerome's, they heard the voice of a man a few rods from their trail engaged in very earnest prayer, and uttering loud cries for mercy. The loud and vehement lan- guage of the man led them to conclude that he was a captive in the hands of savage Indians, and that he was making his last prayer. Their story created quite a panic, in the midst of which George (brother of Adam) Poe, who was traveling on horseback from Wooster to Mansfield, appeared among them. Hav-
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ing listened to the statement of the soldiers, he imme- diately returned on his way to Wooster to procure assistance from Bell's army, then quartered there. Being a man of unusual weight, and urging his horse forward with great speed, the animal (although a splendid one) gave out when he reached Killbuck. Here procuring a fresh horse of Nathan Warner, he completed his journey to Wooster. Gen. Bell imme- diately sent a detachment of sixty soldiers, under Captain Nicholas Murray, to the relief of the inhabit- ants. Night overtook them at the Killbuck, where they were met by the fugitive families of John Carr, Christopher Trickle, Matthew Williams, Robert New- ell, and Ezra Warner. Three other families, namely, Daniel Carter's, Jacob Fry's, and Benjamin Cuppy's, passed the night in the neighborhood of what is now New Pittsburg, and early on the following morning joined the other families and military force in Kill- buck. Under the protection offered by Captain Mur- ray, all the families, except Mr. Carter's, (which con- tinued their journey to Tuscarawas,) returned to Jerome's Place, where a fort was immediately erected.
Removal of the Indians from Jerometown.
These Indians, Mr. Carr states, with the exception of one family, (Qua-qui-ow-wha, which removed to Canada immediately after the declaration of war,) were all friendly to the whites. The order of the government to Gen. Bell for their removal was issued at their own request.
Jerome and Family.
During the early part of the war, Jerome, on the intimation of an enemy that he was not loyal to the
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American government, was arrested by Gen. Bell and confined in the Wooster jail. Robert Newell and John Carr visited Gen. Bell, and, on a representation of the facts, procured Jerome's release. While he was incarcerated at Wooster, the Indians at Jerome- town were removed to Urbanna, and Mr. Carr is of opinion that the wife and daughter of Jerome volun- tarily joined the Indians at the time of their removal.
ARTHUR CAMPBELL, SR.
Arthur Campbell, Sr., emigrated from Washington County, Pennsylvania, to Perry Township, in May, 1815. He entered the half section, a part of which is now owned by his son, Arthur Campbell, Jr., and other parts of which are owned by Jacob Brady, Thomas Osborn, Garrett Dorland, and Haynes Jones. His family, at the time of his removal, consisted of his wife and five children, namely, Mary Ann, Charles, Arthur, Margaret, and Daniel.
Mr. Campbell was killed by the falling of a limb from a tree, August 19, 1819, aged forty-five years.
According to the recollection of Arthur Camp- bell, Jr., the heads of families in Perry Township, when his father selected it as his home, were Cornelius Dorland, Henry and John Pittinger, John Raver, David and Daniel Williams, Henry Worst, Thomas Johnson, and Benjamin Emmons.
The first effort at Organizing a Village in Perry Town- ship.
In 1815 or 1816, (about twenty years before Rows- burg was laid out,) an effort was made by John Raver to establish a town on the Wooster Road between the present site of Rowsburg and the Muddy Fork.
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Beyond the naming of the village, which was called Elizabethtown, and the offering of some lots at & public sale, no progress was made in building up the proposed town, and the scheme was abandoned.
When the place where Rowsburg now stands was a Wilderness.
Mr. Campbell aided in clearing the land now occu- pied by Rowsburg, and also assisted in harvesting the first crop that was raised on the ground after it was cleared. Michael Row, the father of him who after- ward became the proprietor, owned and cleared the land at the time referred to.
First Death of a White Person in Perry Township.
The first person who died in the township was James Campbell. His body was removed to Wooster for interment.
First Grist and Saw-mill.
The first grist and saw-mill in Perry Township was erected by John Raver, in 1818, on the present site of the mill owned by Arthur Campbell, about one- fourth of a mile north of Rowsburg, on what is known as Raver's Run. This mill, when built, was not only the first in the township, but also the first within what is now the limits of Ashland County. Prior to this, corn and corn meal were obtained on Owl Creek, at Odell's, and at Stibbs's, near Wooster. The mill ran about four months in the year, and was a great accommodation to the inhabitants of Perry, Jackson, and Montgomery Townships, and to those of Chester and adjacent townships, in Wayne County.
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JOSEPH CHANDLER.
Joseph Chandler emigrated from Baltimore County, Maryland, to Tuscarawas County, in the fall of 1810. In 1811 he explored the country, a part of which now forms Perry Township, and selected and entered the southwest quarter of section 30-cleared a few acres, erected a cabin, and formed a favorable ao- quaintance with the Indians.
In the autumn of 1812, war existing, and the set- tlers in the Tuscarawas country being much exposed to Indian depredations, the family sought a temporary refuge at Warren, Jefferson County, fourteen miles below Steubenville. Previous to their departure from the place last named, a body of men, consisting of Thomas Chandler, Alexander McConnell, and several others, being out on a reconnoitering tour, found a band of strange and savage-looking Indians lodged upon an island in the river between Goshen (a Mo- ravian Indian town) and New Philadelphia. McCon- nell, who was a brave, reckless man, plunged his horse into the river, and swimming to the island, presented his rifle, and demanded of the Indians an instant surrender; with which demand the Indians complied, and came ashore, and were marched to New Philadelphia, where they were lodged in jail.
Fidelity of Indians toward Friends.
While the family were residing upon the Ohio River, the depredations upon the Black Fork were committed, and also the burning of the houses of Newell and others; and, although the cabin of Mr. Chandler lay within a few feet of the trail that this band frequently traveled, nothing about his house or
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premises were molested. This forbearance is attrib- uted to the fact that Mr. Chandler was understood by the Indians to belong to the Society of Friends; and, during the acquaintance he had made with them, on his first visit prior to the war, he had culti- vated amicable relations with them, and exchanged offices of civility and kindness. They loved to talk with Mr. Chandler about William Penn, who had paid their fathers for their land, and whom they re- ferred to as "that good man."
In the spring of 1814, Mr. Chandler, with his family, removed to the land he had purchased in Perry Township. Here he remained until his death, which occurred on the 5th day of May, 1817. He was in the sixtieth year of his age. The surviving members of his family were his widow and ten children, namely, Rebecca, Thomas, Robert T. C., Joseph, Jacob, Shadrach, Eleanor, Henrietta, Alice, and John.
Joseph Chandler removed with his father's family to the land above described, in 1814, and is the pres- ent owner of ninety eight acres of the quarter origin- ally entered by his father.
Baptiste Jerome.
This gentleman was a Canadian Frenchman, having no Indian blood, (as has been supposed by some,) and had been several years a resident of the country, when Mr. Chandler immigrated to it. He was the owner of the quarter section upon a part of which is now the town of Jeromeville. He had thirty or forty acres under cultivation, and, with his Indian wife and an interesting young daughter, named Munjella, (Mary, in English,) resided in a comfortable cabin
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house. His home was noted for its hospitality, and his Indian wife was, when her opportunities are con- sidered, an excellent housekeeper. After the war, he sold his land to Deardoff and Vaughan, of Tuscarawas County, for two thousand dollars, and the latter re- alized twenty-four hundred dollars from the first sale of lots.
Mr. Jerome was a man of POSITIVE character-im- pulsive, generous, and brave devoted in his friend- ships, and bitter in his enmities. His natural gifts of mind were good. He could converse fluently in French and Indian, and so as to. be understood in English. To the early settlers, he was of great service in furnishing them with provisions-some having ex- pressed the opinion that they would have incurred the hazard of starvation, had it not been for the aid afforded by him. It is supposed that he was born in Lower Canada.
Captivity and Death of Jerome's Wife and Daughter.
When General Bell passed through this country on his way West, he ordered the construction of the block-house, at Jeromeville, for the use and protection of the white settlers. The Indians at Jerometown were also taken prisoners by him, and conveyed, under his charge, westward. Their town was burned, it is supposed by many, under the orders of General Bell, or by those acting under the authority of the Federal Government. He perpetrated or suffered the flagrant outrage of including among the prisoners the unoffending wife and innocent daughter of Jerome. Being dragged from a comfortable home, they were not enabled to endure the hardships and exposures to which they were subjected, and their death, within
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a few months afterward, was a consequence of the wrongs thus inflicted upon them. The only excuse given by the general was, that as Mrs. Jerome was an Indian woman, she might afford aid and comfort to unfriendly persons of her race; but what reason he offered in palliation for taking off the young and helpless daughter is not known. Jerome had a warm affection for his wife, who was the daughter and sister of distinguished chiefs; and, although he was subse- quently married to a white woman, never relaxed his love for the memory of his first wife, and never lost an opportunity to express his vehement indignation of the act of cruelty by which the liberties and lives of his dear ones were sacrificed.
Johnnycake and his Wife.
The Indian who was well known to the early set- tlers by the above name, was on intimate terms with the Chandler family. He was a tall, well-built, fine- looking man, of genial temper, good moral habits, and enjoyed much the society of his friends.
His wife was a half-breed-the daughter of a white woman who had been taken prisoner by the Indians, near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Her mother, after having endured several years of captivity, made her escape, and returned to her white friends; leaving her little daughter among the Indians. This infant child remained among the Indians-attained the con- dition of womanhood-married-and became an ex- emplary and faithful wife and mother, and remarkable for shrewdness and tact.
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Laying out of Jeromeville.
Mr. Chandler assisted in laying out the first lots in Jeromeville, in 1815. He drove the stakes for nearly or quite all the original lots of the town. He aided in the erection of the first house on the town plat. This house was built by Adam Teener, the first black- smith in the place. The house is yet standing, on the lot recently owned by J. J. Hootman. This building has been used for a dwelling, a store and dwelling, a prayer meeting-house, a blacksmith shop, and, finally, a wood-house, by Mrs. Goodman, the present occupant of the premises.
Wild Beasts, Snakes, etc.
Wolves, bears, and wild cats were numerous, and destructive to the domestic animals of the pioneers. The wolves destroyed several hogs, and a three or four year old cow, belonging to Mr. Chandler. On the morning after the attack by the wolves, the re- mains of the cow were found about thirty rods from the house, her flesh being nearly consumed. Hogs were attacked within fifteen rods of the house. The first season that Mr. Chandler mowed the little prairie which formed part of his land, there were killed over two hundred massasauger or black rattle snakes. In mowing they would often encounter a snake on an average of every rod of their progress. It was the custom of those whose business called them to the meadows or other places where snakes congregated in considerable numbers, to protect their feet and legs by wrapping them with bandages of hay or straw.
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Loss of Clement V. Dorland.
This child, an account of whose loss will be found elsewhere, was found about one and a half miles northeast of Mr. Chandler's, by Jonathan Hayes, and was brought, nearly lifeless from fatigue and hunger, to Mr. Chandler's mother, who bathed it in warm water, fed it with sweetened cream, and otherwise tenderly cared for the little fellow so judiciously that his restoration was effected. It was in the morning when the child was found, and Mr. Hayes brought it to Mrs. Chandler wrapped in the coat which he had taken from his own person, in order to protect it from the chill, and prolong life until more effectual restor- atives could be obtained.
About Esquire Newell.
It was an oft-repeated dogma of Esquire Newell that "a man should always be a man-living or dying-fearless of all consequences." It occurred, how- ever, that the strong man became prostrated upon what he and his friends supposed would prove his dying bed. Among the sorrowing group who took the old man's threatened dissolution much to heart, was his son Zachariah. His demonstrations of grief, on be- holding the glazed eyes and other indications of rapidly approaching death, which had settled upon the features of his father, were given forth in very audible sobs and groans. The sufferer, with great effort, reached his hands to his face, and adjusted the lids over his own eyes. At this movement, Zachariah's grief became yet more uncontrolable, and the room was filled with his wails. The old 'squire, reviving somewhat by the noise, opened his eyes, and, turning
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his angry face upon Zachariah, commanded, in a husky but stern voice, that he cease his howling, and show himself "a man-living or dying!" This proved not to be the 'squire's "last illness," and he lived to narrate the story himself.
AARON CORY.
Aaron Cory immigrated to the county that subse- quently became Tuscarawas, in the spring of 1802, from Washington County, Pennsylvania, and during the war of 1812 entered the southwest quarter of sec- tion 29, in Perry Township, and the quarter section in Montgomery Township, recently owned and occu- pied by Henry Andress. On the 17th of May, 1817, he, with his son John, commenced improvements upon the land in Perry Township. At this time his family consisted of his wife and eight children, the eldest of whom was John. Mr. Cory died in Crawford County during the year 1834, at the age of sixty-two years.
John Cory, Esq., the present owner of the land above described in Perry, erected "a camp" upon the place in the summer of 1817, and during that and the two following seasons occupied this place alone, prose- cuting improvements, and at the close of the summer of 1818 had ten acres partially cleared, five of which were sown in wheat. The camp above mentioned was made of small logs, covering a space of about eight by nine feet, and five and seven feet in height, containing three sides and a "shed roof" falling back from an. open front. The structure had no floor or fireplace, and of course a window was unnecessary. The interstices between the logs were filled with moss. The "furniture" of his camp consisted of his rifle, axe, knife, fork, spoon, tin cup and two iron
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