USA > Ohio > Fairfield County > A complete history of Fairfield County, Ohio > Part 18
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The first settlement in this neighborhood commenced about 1804, by Samuel Wiseman, Edward Berry, James Miller, John Miller, John Manly, George Hill, Jacob Cagy, Robert Chal- fant, Thomas McNaughton, Thomas Watson and John Goldthwait ; also, the Teals and Stevensons, about the same time. Thorn Township, then in Fairfield County, now in Perry, was settled about the same time, by Daniel Snyder, George Stinchomb, Jacob Hooper, Sr., Jacob Hooper, Jr., James Hooper, John Groves, and the Fosters.
INCIDENTS.
James Hooper, coming up one day to look at their land, heard the sound of an ax to the west, and following the sound,
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OIIIO.
came to a man cutting logs for a cabin, his family living in his wagon in the woods. In answer to the inquiry as to his name, he answerd, “ Samuel Wiseman." On returning to his father's cabin, in the Teal settlement, James told his mother the joyful news, that he had found a neighbor. " What is his name?" said she. "Samuel Wiseman," James replied. " Well, " said she, "he has a wise name; would to God he is a wise and good man. "
The citizens of Fairfield and Perry counties are indebted to John Goldthwait for the excellent variety of grafted fruit he introduced into those counties at an early day. I have vis- ited fruit-stands in Baltimore, Harrisburg, Philadelphia and New York, and could find no better fruit than he introduced sixty-five years ago, in his nursery, two miles west of the present village of New Salem. Soon after Goldthwait's orchard began to bear, two lawyers from Lancaster came out to examine his choice varieties of fruit. Goldthwait was a peculiar little Yankee, and a strong Federalist. The lawyers were strong Jefferson Democrats. He showed them his Royal Russet, Seek-No-Further, Golden Pippins, Rhode Island Greenings, and his Federal apples. The lawyers said to him, " You have shown us your Federal apples, now show us your Democratie ones. " He said, "Come down this way;" and he pointed out a little scrubby tree with a few knotty apples on. " That, " said he, "is the Democratic apple. "
REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIERS.
John Manly and George Hill served five years in what was then called Lee's Legion of Horse, in the Revolutionary war. Rev. John Wiseman settled in this neighborhood in 1819. He served two terms in the Revolution, and was with Washing- ton and Lafayette through the memorable winter at Valley Forge, while the British were occupying Philadelphia.
Respectfully,
JOSEPH G. WISEMAN.
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
STATEMENT OF THOMAS JACKSON, OF BERNE TOWNSHIP.
My father, William Jackson, came from Frederick County, Maryland, in 1805, and settled in Berne Township, Fairfield County. He came over Zane's trace from Wheeling to Lan- caster. I was four years old. He left his goods at Wheeling, and came through on horseback, he and my mother, carrying two or three small children before and behind, as was the cus- tom then. At Lancaster he met an acquaintance who had preceded him. His name was Sliger. He took us all to his cabin, which was two miles south of Lancaster, on the place which has for many years been known as Clarksburg, from the name of Joshua Clark, who lived there since, and carried on the milling business, in connection with which he run a dis- tillery. My father and Mr. Sliger then rode about the country, and found an empty cabin on the bank of Pleasant Run, on the spot now known as the Reuben Shellenbarger place. There was belonging to the cabin twelve acres of cleared land, on which the timber was deadened. This was in December. We moved into the cabin and spent the winter, I do not know how. In the spring my father planted the twelve acres in corn, and then returned to Wheeling and brought out his wagon and little stock of household goods. We remained in that cabin two years. I cannot remember how we managed to live. At that time I had one brother and two sisters-I was the fourth child. My sister Polly married Joseph Sheets. She is at this time 85 years old, a widow, and living with her daughter, who is the widow of the late John Grabill, Jr. My brother John lives near the Colonel Sharp place, below Sugar Grove, and William lives two miles below Lancaster. My age is 76 years.
My father then took a lease on the lands of Samuel Shellen- barger, embracing the place where Reuben Shellenbarger now lives, and opened a farm. We little fellows had to pick and burn brush, and worked very hard. Afterwards my father bought eighty acres of John A. Collins, and moved on it. It was the same place now owned by the widow of David Huffman.
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
After the death of my mother, in 1836, father came and lived on my place, on the east side of Hocking, where he died about fourteen years afterwards.
At my earliest recollection our neighbors were : Mr. Brooks, father of George, Jacob and John S. Brooks; David Carpenter. Peter Gundy then lived on the Prindle place, in a hewed log- house ; William Carpenter lived near the Kuntz mill; Sam'l Carpenter lived on the Kuntz place, the same that is now the residence of Thomas H. White, Esq. Mr. Reynolds lived be- tween the Kuntz mill and Lancaster.
The first school I attended was in a little log-hut near us on the south, and the teacher was John May; and after him a Mr. Adison. The next school-house I went to was on the six- teenth section. It was taught by a man by the name of Sken- nel. He was a funny Irishman, but was called an excellent teacher. This was in 1813.
The first religious meetings I remember were held in the cabins of Gundy and Reynolds, who were Methodists. Among the preachers that I remember, were Revs. Bright and Jesse Spurgeon. The Baptists preached at our school-house ; and Lewis Seits, Eli Ashbrook, Mr. Baker and Benjamin Caves preached there.
We took our grists to Shellenbarger's and Carpenter's (Kuntz's) mills.
Our nearest neighbor was Mr. Crossen, when we first settled on the bank of Pleasant Run. It was some years before we be- gan to have comfortable roads. At first we blazed the trees so as to go from one house to another. The woods were full of wild-turkeys, which, when the corn got ripe, came into the fields and preyed upon it, and it was a part of the duty of the children to go and scare them away. In the spring and fall the crows and black-birds were often very destructive to the cornfields. In the spring they pulled up the little stalks to get the grain from the root, and in the fall they eat the corn' from the cob when the grains were soft. Raccoons were also troublesome. We put up scare-crows, and went round the fields continually to frighten them away. But the greatest enemies the cornfields had in the fall of the year were the squirrels, which some years came in such numbers as to abso- lutely defy our vigilance.
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
Wolves were numerous. At the sugar-camp they often came howling around in the night-so near that we could hear the bushes cracking under their feet, and we threw fire-chunks at them, which they paid little attention to.
John Carpenter killed a panther one Sunday, when we were stopping at Sliger's. It was brought to the house, where they measured it eleven feet from the point of the nose to the tip of the tail.
Deer were very abundant, and bears more or less. Venison and wild-turkey meat could be had any time, and they con- stituted a large part of the living of the early settlers. Turkeys were caught in pens, and taken with the rifle. A bear was occasionally killed.
Mrs. Crossen was at one time coming through the woods to our house, when she discovered a bear in the act of killing a hog. Mr. Garner and my father, with us little fellows, went out with the gun and dogs, and soon found the bear. Upon seeing us approach, he left his prey and climbed up a tree. If he had had a competent understanding of the range and power of the rifle in the hands of a back-woods hunter, he would probably have sought another means of safety. As it was, the leaden messenger soon brought him lifeless to the ground. His weight was over three hundred. Wild-cats sometimes carried off our pigs.
At the time of our settling there, the whole country was in a wild condition ; a condition of almost unbroken woods. In the early years breadstuffs sometimes became scarce, and we grated meal from the first corn that ripened. Mr. Pitcher had a small raccoon burr-mill, where Green's mill now is, down Hocking ; and Mr. Crossen had a still-house near where Reuben Shellenbarger lives.
The good old days of log-rollings, corn-huskings and house- raisings, and of the social plays of "Sister Phebe," and the country dance, and nearly everybody that had anything to do with them, revive gladness in the heart, but are never to be seen again.
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
STATEMENT OF JACOB BOPE, OF PLEASANT TOWNSHIP.
Abraham Bope, father of Gen. Jacob Bope, of this county, and of Philip Bope, of Lancaster, emigrated from Rocking- ham, Virginia, in the year 1803, and located six miles north of Lancaster, in Pleasant Township. His brother, Frederick Bope, and Henry Ketner accompanied him, and located in the same neighborhood. It was late in the fall, or beginning of winter when they arrived, and a camp was erected by the side of a big log, where they spent the winter. In the spring a cabin was erected, into which they moved. It is not said whether the Ketner family shared the winter camp by the big log, but that is the inference.
In the following fall there came and settled in the same re- gion John and Benjamin Feemen, Casper Walters and Jacob Weaver. The second fall after the arrival of the Bopes and Ketner, a considerable colony came out and settled round in the same neighborhood.
Mr. Bope, now in his seventy-ninth year, preserves distinct recollections of the times and incidents of the infant colonies which were begun there over seventy years ago, and detailed them with great readiness.
The Indians, chiefly Wyandots and Delawares, were all over the country in small hunting squads, often camping near the cabins of the white settlers. They were harmless, and the young folks often went out and looked at them while they sung and danced. The first roads through the settlements were over blazed paths. The Bopes and Ketner were two days get- ting from Lancaster out to their destination, having to cut their way through the thickets. The men of the early settlers were mostly hunters.
On one occasion Abraham Bope was returning from a hunt, or possibly from a trip to some neighboring cabin, when night overtook him before he reached home. He suddenly found himself surrounded with wolves. He fired upon them, but failed to scare them away. They seemed to press him, and
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becoming alarmed he clambered up into the top of a sapling or small tree. He loaded and fired again, but finding that his unpleasant and most unwelcome companions were inclined to stay by him, he set up a volley of stentorian shouts, which at last reaching the ears of some of his nearest neighbors, brought several men to his aid. But the men, on arriving near enough to communicate with the man up the tree, finding that the wolves were not inclined to give up their expected prey, they thought caution the better part of valor, and advised Mr. Bope to remain in the tree till daylight, when the wolves would go away. Which advice he took, and found, to his great joy, that with the disappearance of the darkness the wolves disappeared also.
A bear was discovered near his house. He took his favorite old Virginia dog, and his gun, and went to the attack. His first shot wounded the beast and made him savage. His dog went in, and was gathered to the embrace of Bruin, who was about to press the last breath of life out of him, when Mr. Bope went to his dog's rescue, when the bear instantly drop- ped the dog and made chase after the man, and was not long in fastening his teeth in the garments of the frightened hun- ter. At this moment Mrs. Bope arrived, and perceiving the state of affairs, advanced on the beast in a menacing attitude, which seeing, the quadruped released his hold and made for the gentler sex. There was a hickory-tree close by, that had been broken by a storm, the upper end of the trunk still resting on the stump twenty feet from the ground, and the top lying on terra firma, thus forming an inclined plane of about forty-five degrees with the perpendicular. Mr. Bope called to his wife to run for her life; but she being in the vigor of young womanhood, at once began the ascent of the angle of forty-five.
The dog by this time recovered his breath, and came again to the attack ; and in the meantime Mr. Bope had re-loaded, and now poured in another broadside, without, however, bring- ing down his game. Bruin placed his back against a tree, in an upright posture, the better to use his powerful paws; and while he was thus compelled to turn his head in all direc- tions from which a deadly foe might be approaching, his eye caught sight of Mrs. Bope snugly perched on the stump twenty feet above. In an instant he made for the stump, and
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
began the ascent. And now the finale approached, for Abra- ham Bope, Esquire, comprehending that from the positions of all the actors in the drama he was absolute master of the sit- uation, at once placed a ball in a vital part, and the bear fell dead at his feet. Seven charges were said to have been lodged in his body before he capitulated.
Mr. Jacob Bope said the first school he attended in the new settlement was German, and taught by Henry Camp. After- ward an English school was taught in the neighborhood by Abraham Winters, over on the Newark road. This was pre- vious to 1810, and when he was eight or ten years of age.
The first preacher he remembered to have heard was the Rev. Mr. Stake of the Lutheran denomination, and afterward Rev. Wise, of the German Reform Church. Soon after this the Methodists and Albrights began their work, and estab- lished camp-meetings in some parts of the county, holding them annually.
In their settlement the meetings were held in the cabins of the settlers.
Everybody had to work hard, but were contented with what they had, and far happier, he believed, than the majority of the people are to-day. Money was seldom seen by anybody, and it was extremely difficult to pay what little tax was lev- ied. A majority of the men of the settlement went out in the war of 1812. Of all those who were of men's age, and entitled to be called pioneers, and who came into the settlement pre- vious to 1810, John Zeigler alone is living, at the great age of ninety-two years.
There was little that could be sold for ca h. The price of a day's work, from sunup to sundown, was twenty-five cents, which was always spoken of then as a " quarter of a dollar. " Jacob Bope was a carpenter, and often worked at his trade for fifty cents a day. He referred to the corn-huskings, house- raisings and log-rollings, and other gatherings and usages of the pioneer age, and which were the same everywhere, and need not to be particularized here.
He remembered Lancaster when there were not more than half a dozen cabins in it. He was a pupil in music of a Mr. Imhoff, and himself taught music when he was sixteen years old. Mr. Bope served as Captain, Colonel and General in the Ohio Militia. He spoke at some length of the pioneer man-
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ners and customs, and of the social pastimes and the kindly relations that existed between all ranks and conditions, when every one was ready to help his neighbor. And when I re- peated : "We're boldly marching to Quebec, where the drums are loudly beating;" and, " As oats, peas, beans and barley grows," his face dropped at least twenty-five years of its age.
Thus the past drifts back into the soon-to-be-forgotten, and to be buried beneath the debris of the dead ages. The merest inklings, or perhaps it were better to say scintillations, of the life and times of sixty and seventy years ago, lives to-day in the recesses of the minds and hearts of the aged. They come to the eye and the visage when referred to in speech, or song, or tune ; but with the exception of here and there a breast, no responsive chord is struck. But to the man or woman who lived on the frontier threescore, or threescore and ten years ago, there is no joy on earth so sweet as these reminiscences that come floating through the inward thoughts like angel- whispers, of childhood and youth's first young loves.and inno- cence. There we can go for consolation, and live with our own dear associations, when the present has nothing dear for us. It is the priceless boon which thieves cannot steal, and which none but ourselves can participate in.
The first death, Mr. Bope said, that occurred in their settle- ment, that he could recall, was that of his grandfather Bope, which took place soon after they came. He said he was a very good man, and always prayed with the children every night before they went to bed. There are four of Abraham Bope's children living-Jacob and Philip, and two daughters.
Daniel Arnold built the first mill. It was on Fetter's Run. Jacob Weaver built the first still-house ; it stood on the land now owned by Philip Watson, adjoining the Bope farm. The first wool they had carded into rolls was done where Baltimore now is. Name of the owner of the carding machine not re- membered.
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
STATEMENT OF WILLIAM MURPHY, OF WALNUT TOWNSHIP.
My father, William Murphy, came from Virginia in about 1800, and settled in the north part of what is now Walnut Township, one mile south-east of the present village of Mil- lersport. Two brothers came with him and settled in the same neighborhood-Edward and Benjamin. My grandfather, Wil- liam Murphy, was also of the same company. My uncle Ed- ward afterwards went further east and settled one mile west of the present village of Rushville.
At the time of the arrival of our family there, the whole country wis unbroken and uninhabited, save by wild beasts and roving bands of Indians. James Homer bought the lands lying between our settlement and where Millersport is. Soon after our settlement my father's cabin became a preach- ing place, and the Rev. James Quinn, of the Methodist denomination, was one of the preachers who held meetings there. At this time, June 1877, not one of the original pio- neers is living.
The first school I remember was in 1824. It was kept in a little log-pen, with the usual log-cabin fixtures of that time. John Griffith was the first teacher I went to. He was fol- lowed by John Granthum in the same house. There were no female teachers employed at that time; at least not in that neighborhood.
The first mill I went to was on Licking Creek, and stood on the borders of the present town of Newark. It was owned by John Buskirk. Newark was then a log-cabin village. My father took his grain to the mill in a wagon with wooden wheels called "truck-wheels." They were made by sawing off, with a cross-cut saw, sections of a very large oak tree, of the thickness of about four inches, with holes made in the center for the axle-tree. If they were not kept well greased, the creaking they caused when in motion could sometimes be heard a mile or more. He generally drove a four-horse team to his truck- wagon.
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I was not familiar with the wildest condition of the country, only through the representation of my parents and others.
My father killed a panther on the Muddy Prairie, where Amanda now is. He killed sixty-three wolves and received bounties for their scalps from the State. Of raccoons, foxes and wild-cats, he killed six hundred, with also about six hun- dred muskrats. He took the skins to Winches!er, Virginia, on pack-horses, realizing for them money enough to enter three quarter-sections of land, embracing the farm on which I now live. He likewise traded extensively with the Indians for their peltries. The Indians got the impression that he had cheated them, and on one occasion when they returned to the neighborhood he kept himself hid until they went away, though they made no attempt to disturb him.
STATEMENT OF THOMAS CHERRY, OF WALNUT TOWNSHIP.
My age is seventy-nine years. I came to this neighborhood about 1810, and have lived here ever since. At the time I came the settlers in this region were :
William Hane, Samuel Crawford, Andrew Crager, James Homes, William Bowman, William Murphy, Mathias Miller, William Pugh, Henry Eversole. This was in 1810. Soon af- ter came Abel Williams, Peter Hauer and David Keller.
When the war of 1812 came on, a great many from the set- tlement went into the service.
The first death that occurred in the neighborhood after I came was that of Samuel Crawford, and the next that I can remember was Andrew Crager. The first marriages after I came were Lydia and Jane Cherry ; Lydia married Robert White, and Jane married Robert McArthur.
Nearly every man in the country owned a good gun, and a great many of them were hunters. All kinds of wild game abounded in the forests. William Murphy and William Bow- man were distinguished hunters.
At one time William Murphy heard that Indians were about, and he kept himself out of the way, for he had heard
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
that they charged him with cheating them, and he was afraid of them. But nothing ever came of it.
Squirrels, crows and black-birds destroyed the corn so fear- fully that it was difficult some years to save enough for bread. Raccoons, likewise, often caused a scarcity by preying upon the corn when it was in roasting-ears.
I killed a bear where Millersport stands. I had to shoot him five times before he gave in. At my last shot, he was com- ing at me with extended mouth, but my ball took effect, and, I believe, saved my life. I killed fifty odd deer in one winter, four of them in a single day. I caught a great many foxes by the chase. I could walk several miles and roll logs all day, and then walk home at night and not feel much tired.
At one time I took my breakfast at home, and then walked thirty miles to Columbus, or rather to Franklinton, and took dinner at two o'clock. When I first visited the site of the present Columbus, it was all in woods. At one time when there was a general squirrel-hunt, my brother Nathaniel killed eighty-four in one day.
I have owned a great deal of property, and lost it all. I never sued a man in my life, and was never sued.
My father died in 1863, and my mother two years before that. I had four brothers, all residing in Walnut Township, and all died in the township. Their names were : John, Na- thaniel, William and James ; and five sisters: Lydia, Jane, Betsy, Rosanna and Mary. Four of my sisters were buried here, and one near Chillicothe. I was the third in age, and am the only one living.
When I came here the site of Millersport was a thick woods. The village was laid off by Mathias Miller.
The " Big Reservoir " was a marsh. The upper end of it was a lake and a cranberry-marsh. It was called "the lake." It became the reservoir when the Ohio Canal was made.
During the early days and years of the settlement, the peo- ple lived very much on wild meat, particularly venison and wild-turkey, and on corn-bread, vegetables and rye-coffee. They also made use of spice-wood and sassafras teas. Milk and butter were always plenty. When cows and horses were turned out to graze in the woods, bells were put on theni to make it easy to find them. They seldom strayed far away.
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELDCOUNTY, OHIO.
The women spun and inade all the family clothing, and the shoes were made by the men of the settlement, a few of whom were shoemakers. There were small tan-yards that furnished the leather. We dressed deer-skins and made pantaloons of them. We had hatters who made wool and fur-hats. In sum- mer we went barefoot, and got our shoes about Christmas.
RECOLLECTIONS OF MRS. MARY RADIBAUGH, OF GREENFIELD TOWNSHIP.
I came from Berks County, Pennsylvania, in the year 1805, and settled in Fairfield County, at first fourteen miles down Hocking, then in Pleasant Township, and afterwards in Green- field, where I have been residing thirty-six years. My father was Jacob Zeller Radibaugh. He died in Greenfield Town- ship in 1841. Of those who came out with our family from Pennsylvania, were: Benjamin Boucher, Frederick Klinger, and their families. They both settled down Hocking, within Fairfield County, and are both dead. There were but few cabins in Lancaster when we came. It was all a wild wilderness country. Our neighbors down Hocking were Mr. Watts and John Zeller. In Pleasant we lived in the Ewing settlement. My husband's father was George Radibaugh. He owned the farm now belonging to William Rigby, joining Frederick Seitz on the south.
The elder Radibaughs who lived in Pleasant were Nicholas and George. They settled there previous to 1810. They have both deceased, and their descendants are largely represented in the county.
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