USA > Ohio > Fairfield County > A complete history of Fairfield County, Ohio > Part 19
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Down Hocking we lived in a small log-cabin that had oiled paper for window-lights. Newspapers were often used for that purpose, and hog's-lard and bear-grease for oiling them. We had no mills very near us, and the small ones, that were some distance away, often failed for want of water, so that breadstuffs were sometimes very scarce. Sometimes several weeks passed when scarcely anybody in the whole neighbor- hood had a pound of meal or flour. In these times of scarcity we used pounded hominy and vegetables. Nearly every cabin
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had its hominy-block. Venison and wild-turkey meat were always plenty.
The Indians often came about, but we were not afraid of them, and they never disturbed anybody. Wild animals of all kinds were plenty.
The first wedding I attended was Mary Cisco to Jas. Philips. The next was my own, in 1811. The first death which occurred in the neighborhood was that of Adam Sellers, a small boy.
The first religious meetings that were held in our neighbor- hood down Hocking, were held at my father's cabin by the United Brethren. My father was a Brethren preacher. I am 82 years old. The early settlers of Fairfield County that I knew have all passed away.
RECOLLECTIONS OF JACOB SHEAFFER, OF MADISON TOWNSHIP.
His father, Samuel Sheaffer, came from York County, Penn- sylvania, in company with Christly Stalter and George Dush, and settled in Madison Township in the year 1802, and when Jacob was seven years old. He has lived on the same place ever since, and is now eighty-three years of age. They came in wagons all the way-came by Wheeling, and from there over Zane's trace to Lancaster. Lancaster at that time was all forest trees, with the exception of a few rude log-cabins. They stopped over night three miles west, at the place since known as Sheaffer's tavern." There was a cabin there, occu- pied by a man named Swygart. From there they followed the trace to near where Amanda is, then turned south a few miles, and stoped on the same section of land where Jacob now lives. Stalter and Dush built their tents within a couple of miles. On the route between Zanesville and Lancaster there were at that time not over three or four cabins. The Swygart cabin and the Leathers House were the only struc- tures between Lancaster and where they stopped, on Clear Creek.
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
At the time of the arrival of this colony of three families in Madison Township, or what is now Madison Township, there had already preceded them Martin Landis, Sr., Mike Shellenbarger, Nathan Owens, Peter Prough, the father of Mathew, John, William, Robert and Joseph Young, who lived one mile east of where Mr. Sheaffer stopped, and a Mr. Hun- ter, who lived a little east.
They first went to Isaac Sheaffer's, and the men went over and built a cabin, cutting out a single log for an entrance, through which the family crawled, on their arrival. The first winter was spent in it without so much as a chink in one of the cracks. There was no other floor than Mother Earth. The fire was built in one corner of the cabin. They at once began the work of clearing off some land for a corn- field, and during that winter, Mr. Sheaffer testified, he be- lieved they were the happiest people in the world.
Subsequent to the arrival of these families, there came and settled in the adjacent region, George Buzzard, old Mr. Stal- ter, John, Nicholas and Daniel Conrad, Abram Sheaffer, father of the late Joel Sheaffer, and a Mr. Wolf. During the following ten or fifteen years the township filled up rapidly.
Mr. Sheaffer's father hired him to Martin Landis, Sr., for three dollars a month. He said he could not keep himself in clothes at such wages, and before he would be compelled to do so he would run away. Landis told his father, and he said, " Send him home." To satisfy him and keep him at home, his father gave him a horse, saddle and bridle, and he was' satisfied.
The first mill in the township was built very early, by Charles Friend. Samuel Sheaffer, father of the narrator, put up a small distillery early after his arrival. Drinking men came there, and it caused a good deal of disturbance.
The first school of the settlement was taught by one Richard Clark. The first remembered death, after the arrival of the Sheaffers, was that of George Lusk and child. The first mar- riage remembered was George Prough to Barbara Shoemaker.
The Indians, he said, were their best friends and neighbors. Mr. Sheaffer said the first vote he cast was for James Monroe, for President.
The Menese were the first religious society spoken of. They
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met at the Leathers House, and held their meetings in the bar-room.
For a great many years there was very little the farmers could raise that would bring cash. But the taxes had to be paid, and it was often very difficult to scrape up what little money was required for that purpose.
At first it was necessary to blaze the trees in order to go from one point to another with safety, for the country was literally a wilderness-a trackless desert. In one instance the trees were blazed between the cabin and the litte cornfield; and also to a branch of water where they went to water the stock, though the distance was in one case but a quarter of a mile, and in the other half a mile.
The settlers made all their own clothing, on domestic wheels and looms. Every house had its hominy-block. There was in the neighborhood a hand-mill, where people went and ground their own corn. The black-birds and crows were very destructive to the corn, both in spring and fall; but the squirrels and raccoons were far more so. The first salt was brought from the Scioto works, and cost four and five dollars a bushel, which was fifty pounds. Pack-saddles were used. Almost everything was transported on horseback, for the want of wagon-roads.
RECOLLECTIONS OF JOHN CROOK, OF BERNE TOWNSHIP.
I am a son of William Crook, for a long time a citizen of Berne Township. My father came from Henry County, Vir- ginia, in 1805, and settled in Berne Township, on the farm now owned by George Huffman, two miles south-east of Lan- caster. My grandfather, Ephriam Crook, came out first and lived on the same place. My father had six brothers, who also preceded him to this county, all residing in the same neighborhood. They are all deceased.
My father served as Sheriff of Fairfield County, and also as Justice of the Peace for many years, besides other positions of
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trust. He was in the war of 1812. He went out as a Major, and was promoted to the rank of Colonel. He died at his home in Berne Township, in about 1855.
At my earliest recollection our neighbors were Thomas Stone, Emanuel Carpenter, Sr., David Carpenter, William Carpenter, Israel Carpenter, Emanuel Carpenter, Jr., John Carpenter (John Carpenter was the father of Mrs. John Van Pearce), Jacob Vanmeter, John Vanmeter, James Pearce, Abraham Ream, Jacob Ream. Sampson, William, Absalom, ' Abram and George Ream were sons of Abraham Ream. Jacob Ream had two sons-Philip and Jacob. Peter Sturgeon was one of the earliest settlers. Abram Walker, Nicholas Crawfish and James Mumford were also early settlers of Berne Town- ship. Mr. Jackson, father of Thomas Jackson, Esq., and grandfather of John D. Jackson, of Lancaster, came at a very early day. The father of the late Judge Joseph Stukey and Samuel Stukey was likewise an early comer.
The first mill that I can remember was the Eckert mill. It was built by the father of Jacob Eckert, who was the father of George and Henry Eckert. The mill was built on Hocking, one mile above the Ream mill. The Ream mill was built a little later. The Kuntz mill was perhaps built first. The Shellenbargar mill was built by Samuel and Henry Shellen- barger. Samuel Shellenbarger was the father of the present Reuben Shellenbarger.
The first school I went to was on the land now owned by Mr. Prindle, two miles below Lancaster. John Adison was the teacher. This was in about 1809. He was a humorous man. On one occasion I lost my book, and did not find it until the next day. He asked me where I found it. I told him I found . it in the bush. After that, when I went up to say my lesson, he would lay his hand on my head and say good-naturedly : "This is the boy that found his book in the bush." Hocking H. Hunter afterwards taught in that house, and also a Mr. Bur- rows.
The first funeral I.can remember was that of my mother, who died in 1813.
The Presidential election of 1828 was held where the fulling- mill of James R. Pierce is, on the sixteenth section, and after- wards at the house of Henry Ozenbaugh, who was also one of the early settlers of Berne Township.
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
We lived at first in a little log-cabin in the woods. It had but one room, which was parlor, sitting-room, bed-room and kitchen for the whole family. The trees were deadened, and the underbrush cleared off, and the logs rolled and burned, and the corn was raised in among the trees. The rails to fence in the fields were for the most part made from trees cut down on the clearing. (The clearing was the ground in process of being prepared for the plow).
I knew one man who hauled his back-logs into the house with a horse and log-chain. His fireplace was nearly the full width of his cabin.
My mother used to spread a bed before the fire in cold weather, and five or six of us little folks would lie down in a row, with our feet towards the fire. This was made necessary by the scarcity of beds and bed-clothes.
Dances and country plays were practiced by the young peo- ple. There were little or no distinctions among the people ; every well-behaved person was as good as anybody else. Money made no difference then, for we did not have enough of it to get up an aristocracy upon. Of one thing I am sure- everybody then had better manners than they have now ; and there was real friendship and sociability amongst all classes. Everybody was ready to help each other whenever help was needed. And I think everybody was honester than now-a man's word was worth something. I love to think of those good days, departed never again to return. Our associations, and loves, and friends, are nearly all lost in the now fast-grow- ing dim vista of the past, and we can only strain our eyes to- wards the better land, where, by faith, we expect to meet them all again.
There is scarcely anything left of the wilderness state of this country seventy years ago.
RECOLLECTIONS OF MORDECAI FISHBAUGH, OF VIOLET TOWNSHIP.
I came from Baltimore County, Maryland, in the year 1812, and settled in violet township, three miles east of Picker- ington, and on the same spot where I now reside. My age is
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
ninety years. When I arrived here I found living in the vicinity, or at least within the township, Michael Kraner, Alexander Donald, Philip Ebright, Andrew Peck, James Bight, Edward Rickets, George Fenstermaker, Henry Hunt- work, John Bowser, Frederick Showers, Jacob Growley, John Chaney and Thomas Homes. Of all these, and several others who lived in the township at that time, John Chaney and myself are the only ones now living. My brother, Acquilla, came out with me, and we purchased jointly half a section of land.
When we settled down here we were in the midst of wild woods in every direction. We cleared off the ground and put up little cabins, and then began the work of clearing some land for cornfields. To be able to find our way through the settlement from one point to another, we made blazes on the trees by peeling or hewing some bark from both sides; and these blazes were followed until beaten tracks were formed. As occasion required we cut out wagon-roads. There was a wagon-road that passed half a mile east of us, over which the army of the war of 1812 passed. This was in 1813. It was a cold winter, and we could hear the army wagons passing day and night, and could hear the shouts of the drivers.
Upon our first settlement the wolves howled around us day and night. There were also panthers, bears, and wild-cats in the woods; wild-turkeys were in vast flocks in every section of the country, and flocks of them would come up to the rear of our cabin and look in through the little window. I have shot them through the window. We could have wild-turkey and deer-meat whenever we wanted.
My brother Henry died two years subsequent to my arrival. His was the first funeral I remember in the settlement.
Jacob Nepper had a mill at that time, two miles from my cabin, on Little Walnut, and Solomon Barts had one on Poplar Creek, a little farther up the country. A man named Don- alson had a still-house three miles south of me, at the place now known as Waterloo.
Almost every little place had a peach-orchard, more or less. The natural seedling peach was all that was known at that early day. The crop seldom failed, and there were peaches in great abundance almost every year ; large quantities of them
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were hauled to the still-houses and converted into peach- brandy.
The Methodists had a society in the settlement, but there was no meeting-house; the meetings were held in the cabins of the settlers. In 1816 I married Isabella McDonald. She was the mother of my children, and died in 1870, in the month of June.
The first taxes I paid in Fairfield County was two or three dollars a year. My land was not taxed for five years after I entered it. This was provided for in the patent. Money was hard to come at, and there was very little the farmers pro- duced that would bring it, for we had no market and no way to get our little surplus out of the country. What little money we had was almost entirely silver, and much of it was cut money. The men soon learned to make five "quarters " out of a Spanish dollar, and five " ninepences" out of a half- dollar, or five " fipenybits " from a twenty-five-cent piece.
In harvest times the price of a day's work was fifty cents, or a bushel of wheat. Log-rollings, corn-huskings, and house- raisings were universal all over the county. One spring I rolled logs thirty days in succession, and I can't remember now how I got my own work done, but we all got along somehow.
The elections were then, and have been ever since, held at Pickerington. In the war of 1812 a great many went as soldiers. A good many of them did not live to get home.
When we came out from Maryland, we traveled in wagons by the way of Wheeling, and over Zane's trace to Lancaster. There was a tavern then on the Schæffer corner, in Lancaster, but I cannot remember who kept it. We came from Lancaster to Michael Kraner's in one day, which was considered extra- ordinary for the kind of roads we had to pass over.
Lancaster was then a village of log-cabins, with perhaps the exception of two or three small brick buildings.
I have three sons and five daughters living. Timothy Fish- baugh, of Lancaster, and at present County Recorder, is my second son. I have lived to see Violet Township become wealthy, populous and well cultured. I was thirteen years old when I landed in Violet Township, and have lived on the same place sixty-five years. Have never returned to Mary- land since I first came away.
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
RECOLLECTIONS OF GEORGE HARMON, OF VIOLET TOWNSHIP. -
My father, Frederick Harmon, came from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in the year 1800, and settled five miles east of the present city of Lancaster. There were seven fami- lies emigrated in the same company, viz .: My father, Lewis and Christ Bonsey, George Henry, John Miller, Jacob Fox, Debolt Macklin; and all settled in the same neighborhood.
We came in a flat-boat from a point on the Manongahela to the mouth of the Scioto. There the boat was abandoned, and the little stock of household goods and farming implements placed on two or three wagons, and the journey up the Scioto, through the wilderness, began. A road had to be cut most of the route. Myself, with most of the others, walked the greatest part of the way. A number of days were required in coming as far as the Pickaway Plains, above Chillicothe. From the plains to Lancaster the journey was made in two days.
When we arrived on the Hocking, and crossed over, we found on the site where Lancaster now stands, not over one or two cabins; all besides was a forest, with ponds of water and swales passing over it. We encamped that night on the spot, as I subsequently found, where the old Court-house was after- wards built. On the following day we continued our journey to the point of our destination, which was the place since known as the Harmon settlement, in Pleasant Township.
My father and two or three others had been out the previous year and selected the spot, and built two or three small cabins. During their sojourn there, in 1799, the Indians stole my father's horse, and he was compelled to walk all the distance back to Westmoreland County. The horse, by some means, got away from the Indians, and was recovered the following fall in the vicinity of Marietta, having been recognized by a brand on his shoulder.
Subsequently the Indians stole two horses from a settler. The owner found them at an Indian camp near Rushville, and demanded them. The Indians shook their heads. The man insisted, when an Indian came out and circled a butcher-knife around his head, and he was obliged to leave. The next morn-
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ing he returned with a posse of his neighbors, armed with rifles. The Indians still refused to let the horses go, whereupon the men pointed their guns at them and told the man to go and untie his horses, which he did, and there the matter ended.
All around us was a wilderness. There were a few families over on Ewing's Run, and on Fetter's Run, and down on Rush Creek. A man by the name of Lynch had opened a small tan- yard where Baldwin's brick house stands, two miles north-east of Lancaster. Jacob Harmon had a cabin where East Lancas- ter is. He was not of our family. I was eight years old when we came to Fairfield County. I am eighty-five years and six months now.
In 1815 I married Sarah Cramer, whose parents lived in Vi- olet Township, north of the present town of Winchester. Her father owned a considerable body of land there, and I set- tled on that portion of it which fell to my wife, and have lived on it ever since, or sixty-two years.
There were no roads through the settlement-that is, no es- tablished roads ; but we got up petitions and had them located and opened. At the time of my marriage there had not been a stick cut on my wife's land. I at once built a cabin and moved into it, and went to work to clear out fields.
At the time of my settlement here, my neighbors might be mentioned as, George Long, Peter Robnold, Jacob Algire, John Algire, William Stevenson, Greenberry Ashley, Jona- than Looker, Michael Cramer, Mr. McArthur and old Father Cramer.
The Methodists and United Brethren had societies in the neighborhood, and held their meetings in the cabins of the settlers. Newcomer and Troxel were Brethren preachers.
At an early day I went to a mill north of Columbus for my grinding, and to Zanesville for salt. Our place of election was where Pickerington is. The woods everywhere abounded with wolves, wild-cats, wild-turkeys, with occasional bears and pan- thers, though the settlements had been forming for several years. There was a woman who went into the woods to look for her cows; she was absent too long, and the men went in search of her. They found the body partly devoured. She had been killed by a panther, as was believed, for the men saw it in the act of running away from her. One of her arms
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was eaten off, and other parts of her body were more or less mutilated.
There was a usage in our settlement, which, I believe, was common in the new country during the pioneer age-it was that of blowing horns in the night, in case of accidents or dis- tress of any kind where help was needed. The blast of the horn in the night never failed to bring the nearest neighbors.
During the war of 1812 I drove a wagon on the frontier. I was out several times, and received for my services a land- warrant. Our lands were entered at the land-office in Chilli- cothe. It was Congress land, and the price was two dollars an acre.
Wild bees were plenty. Bee-trees could be found every- where, and any one who found a tree had the right to cut it down, for timber was not regarded as of much value. It was rather an incumbrance.
My taxes then was two dollars and fifty cents. I have since paid one hundred dollars, which I could raise more easily than I could sometimes raise the little sum of the early times.
I have six sons and two daughters living. The descend- ants of the early settlers of Violet Township, with few excep- tion, are still living in the township. Lithopolis was a vil- lage when I settled here, in 1815, but there was no other vil- lage at the time in Bloom Township.
I am the oldest son of my father, Frederick Harmon, and the only one living. My brother Frederick died about two years ago, at the old place in Pleasant Township.
RECOLLECTIONS OF DANIEL CRUMLY, OF BLOOM TOWNSHIP.
My father, Christian Crumly, came from Pennsylvania in 1802 or 1803, and settled in Bloom Township, one mile south of Greencastle, on the head of the Hocking river. He had previously entered land, and in settling down in the first place, he supposed he was on his own land, but after living a year or two in his first cabin, he made the discovery that he
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was on the wrong land, when he abandoned his cabin and moved over on the other side of the stream, which was on the west side. On this place he lived until the time of his death, which was in the year 1856, if my memory is correct.
At my earliest recollection, our neighbors were the follow- ing families, as near as my memory serves me. There may have been a few that I cannot recall, probably not many : Father Courtright, who was the father of Jesse, Abrain and John Courtright; Daniel Glick, John Ritter, Mr. Bright, Horatio Clark, Mr. Alspaugh, who was the father of George, John, Henry and Jacob Alspaugh ; John Solt, Mr. Roler, the grandfather of Henry and Elijah Roler, now living; Peter Lamb, father of the present Peter Lamb, of Bloom Township; John Swartz, Father Elias Swartz, still of Bloom ; Mr. Thrash, father of Eli Thrash; Rev. Mr. Bennadum, father of Philip and Peter Bennadum ; Mr. Morehart, father of John and Chris- tian Morehart; Martin Bogart, Mr. Crites, father of John Crites, late of Bloom Township; Simon Crites, father of Sam- uel Crites, still of Bloom Township ; Mr. Homrighouse, father of John, William and Philip Homrighouse ; Hugh Scott, father of James Scott, and father-in-law of F. A. Boving, of Lancaster ; Mr. Mesmore, George Crowley, James Donaldson, Mr. Gordon, Henry Leaphart, John Fellows, father of Joshua Fellows, still of Bloom Township, and father-in-law of Coonrod Crumley, of Hocking Township; Frederick Fellows, father of Coonrod Fel- lows, at present of Bloom.
Frederick Baugher was proprietor of Lithopolis, which he laid off in about 1815. An addition to the town was after- ward made by Solomon Baugher. The place was at first named Centerville.
A Presbyterian Church was established there at a very early day, and later by the Methodists and Lutherans. The first church built in Bloom Township was the Glick Church- Lutheran and German Reform.
Abram Haines was a very early settler of the township, and is still living. Mr. Needels, father of B. J. Needels, still of the township, was also among the first settlers. Daniel Hay was the father of Isaac Hay, who still resides on the home- place. Adam Snyder was an early settler.
Our first mill was the rock-mill. The first structure there
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was built by Loveland & Smith, and was set low down among the rocks. The grists were taken in at the gable-end and let down to the hopper with ropes, and then raised to the level by the same means.
The first still-house in Bloom Township, that I can remem- ber, was built by J. D. Courtright. It was at the Stump Spring, between Lancaster and Greencastle. The first school I attended was in a little log-cabin on the bank of the Hock- ing. It had oiled paper for window-lights.
The wolves came in a large flock around our smoke-house, in the night, and the conch shell was blown to frighten them away.
RECOLLECTIONS OF THEODORE MURPHY, OF RICHLAND TOWNSHIP.
I am the third son of Edward Murphy, who settled one mile west of West Rushville, in the year 1802. I was born on the farm where I now live, the same where my father first settled. My father came from Virginia, in 1798, returned in 1799, and with his father and brothers moved to Fairfield County in 1800, settling in the north part of Walnut Town- ship, near the present village of Millersport.
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