USA > Ohio > Fairfield County > A complete history of Fairfield County, Ohio > Part 2
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FIRST BORN.
It has been a subject of some discussion of late years, as to who was the first born white male child within the borders of Fairfield county. In Howe's history of Ohio, published in
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
1848, he says, that Buhama Green (Builderback) gave birth to the first boy. This is beyond question an error. It has commonly been understood about Lancaster, that the late Hocking H. Hunter of Lancaster, son of Capt. Joseph Hun- ter, first emigrant, was the first born. This however is con- tested. Mr. Levi Stuart, now a citizen of Lancaster, whose father was among the first settlers at Yankeytown, in conver- sation with the writer, recently, said it was understood between him and Mr. Hunter, that he, Mr. Stuart, was thir- teen months the oldest. And I have been told there is a fourth contestant on Clear Creek. We will not try to settle the question, since it is of small importance in history.
Mrs. Buhama Green, as Mrs. Builderback, has a tragic history that deserves full mention, as she was not only a pioneer, but long and well known, she having lived in the same neighborhood where she first settled, three miles west of Lancaster, about fourty-four years, or until the close of her life, which took place in 1842, at a very advanced age. Fol- lowing is a transcription of the tragic part of her life from the pen of Colonel John McDonald, of Ross county. It is prob- ably the fullest and most authentic account of any written.
"Mrs. Buhama Green was born and raised in Jefferson county, Virginia. In 1785 she was married to Charles Buil- derback, and with him crossed the mountains and settled at the mouth of Short Creek, on the east bank of the Ohio river, a few miles above Wheeling. Her husband, a brave man, had on many occasions distinguished himself in repelling the Indians, who had often felt the sure aim of his unerring rifle. They therefore determined at all hazards to kill him.
"On a beautiful summer morning in June, 1789, at a time when it was thought the enemy had abandoned the western shores of the Ohio, Captain Charles Builderback and his wife, and brother Jacob Builderback, crossed the Ohio to look after some cattle. On reaching the shore, a party of fifteen or twenty Indians rushed out from an ambush and fired upon them, wounding Jacob in the shoulder. Charles was taken while running to escape. In the meantime Mrs. Builderback secreted herself in some drift wood near the bank of the river. As soon as the Indians had secured and tied her husband, and not being able to discover her hiding place, they com- pelled him, with threats of immediate death, to call her to
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
him. With a hope of appeasing their fury, he did so. She heard him, but made no answer. "Here," to use her own words, "a struggle took place in my own breast which I can- not describe. Shall I go to him and become a prisoner; or shall I remain; return to our cabin, and provide for and take care of our two children ?" He shouted to her a second time to come to him, saying, that if she did it might be the means of saving his life. She no longer hesitated, left her place of safety, and surrendered herself to his savage captors. All this took place in full view of their cabin on the opposite shore of the river, and where they had left their two children, one a son about three years of age, and an infant daughter. The Indians knowing that they would be pursued as soon as the news of their visit reached the stockade at Wheeling, commenced their retreat. Mrs. Builderback and her hus- band traveled together that day and the following night. The next morning the Indians separated into two bands, one taking Builderback, and the other his wife, and continued a western course by different routes.
"In a few days the band having Mrs. Builderback in charge reached the Tuscarawas river, where they encamped, and were soon rejoined by the band that had taken her hus- band. Here the murderers exhibited his scalp on the top of a pole, and to convince her that they had killed him, pulled it down and threw it in her lap. She recognized it at once by the redness of his hair. She said nothing, and uttered no complaint. It was evening, and her ears were pained with the terrific yells of the savages, and wearied by constant travel- ing, she reclined against a tree and fell into a profound sleep, and forgot all her sufferings until morning. When she awoke, the scalp of her murdered husband was gone, and she never learned what became of it.
"As soon as the capture of Builderback was known at Wheeling, a party of scouts set off in pursuit, and taking the trail of one of the bands, followed it until they found the body. He had been tomahawked and scalped, and appar- ently suffered a lingering death.
"The Indians, on reaching their towns on the Little Miami, adopted Mrs. Builderback into a family, with whom she lived until released from captivity. She remained a prisoner about nine months, performing the labor and drudgery of squaws,
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
such as carrying in meat from the hunting grounds, prepar- ing and drying it, making moccasins, legings, and other cloathing for the family in which she lived. After her adop- tion she suffered much from the rough and filthy manner of Indian living, but had no cause of complaint of ill treat- ment otherwise.
"In a few months after her capture some friendly Indians informed the commandant of Fort Washington that there was a white woman in captivity at Miamitown. She was ran- somed and brought into the fort, and was sent up the river to her lonely cabin, and the embrace of her two orphan children.
"In 1795 Mrs. Builderback married John Green, and in 1798 they emigrated to the Hocking Valley, and settled about three miles west of Lancaster, where she continued to reside until the time of her death in 1842. She survived her last husband about ten years."
NOTE :- Charles Builderback, the first husband of Mrs. Green, had commanded a company at Crawford's defeat in the Sandusky country. He was a large, noble looking man, and a bold and intrepid warrior. He was in the bloody Moravian campaign, and took his share in the tragedy by shedding the first blood on that occasion, when he shot, toma- hawked and scalped Shebosh, a Moravian chief. But retributive justice was meeted to him. After being taken prisoner, the Indians asked his name; "Charles Builderback", he replied, after some little pause. At this revelation the Indians stared at each other with malignant triumph. "Ha", said they ; "you kill many big Indian ; you big captain ; you kill Moravians". From that moment, perhaps, his fate was sealed .- Howes, Ohio.
MOUNT PLEASANT.
Mount Pleasant, situated one mile due north of the cross- ing of Main and Broad streets, in Lancaster, is a historic point of some interest. Its summit is two hundred and fifty feet above the table lands below. The area of its top is about two acres. The main approach to the summit is from the east, by gradual ascent, though there are other points of ascent. Its face presenting south is a perpendicular ledge of sandstone, of the white variety. From its summit the Hocking Valley can be seen for many miles in both direc- tions; and the state reform farm is partly visible, six miles to the southwest. By the Indians it was called the "Stand- ing Stone". Since the settlement of the country by the white
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
race, it has undergone considerable transformation. Much of the dense and thick forest has been cut away, and the wild romance of the spot greatly despoiled. Mount Pleasant has always been a favorite resort for citizens as well as strangers. There are few strangers who visit Lancaster who do not ascend to the top of the standing stone. The Duke of Sax- ony, who visited this country many years since, climbed up and chiseled his name in the sandstone, which has been read by thousands, and still remains legible. I believe his visit was in 1828.
In the first few years after the settlements began, Mount Pleasant was notorious for the large numbers of mountain rattlesnake which burrowed in its fissures. The settlers determined to destroy them, as far as possible, and for this purpose they made several raids on their snakeships at the early spring seasons when they were known to first emerge from their winter quarters, destroying many hundreds of them. They are probably now entirely extinct, as not one of their tribe has been seen there for more than a third of a century.
GROWTH OF LANCASTER.
My history of Fairfield county must necessarily be frag- mentary and miscellaneous. There is no written history; at least no complete history; which is very much to be regretted. Beyond what is to be found in the histories of Ohio, and the decennial government census, all else is to be sought for in the state and county records, and the statements of the recollec- tions of such living persons as have survived the pioneer age, and have resided in the county from fifty to seventy years. The labor of searching the records running through so many years, and so many ponderous volumes, it will be scen at once is both tedious and arduous. Nevertheless, all that it is essential to know and preserve will at last be found in these pages, and is here placed under appropriate headings, which renders the items of quick and easy access.
In tracing the progress of Lancaster therefore from its first rudimental log cabin beginning in the woods, through the seventy-six years of its existence, every department of inform- ation has been thoroughly canvassed and placed under specific head lines, at least so far as the sources of knowledge exist at
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
this late day. The same care has likewise been observed with reference to the townships, respectively, and villages and settlements, thus rendering the book a safe and satis- factory reference to the future historian. The work is all put down in the miscellaneous order I have been able to exhume it from the debris of the fast receding past. And while in the following pages I have mentioned first settlers, and prominent citizens, I have carefully and scrupulously escued fulsome flattery. The pioneers of Fairfield county deserve enduring remembrance, and in the course of this work their names are nearly all written. They have all passed away. Let us venerate their noble' self-sacrifice that has given us our land of plenty and enjoyment.
FIRST MAILS AND POSTAGE RATES.
In the latter part of the year 1799, and about two years after the opening of Zanes' Trace, a mail route was esta- blished from Wheeling, Va., to Limestone (Maysville), Ky., which was the first ever carried through the interior of the territory of Ohio. A postoffice was established at Lancaster, or rather where Lancaster now is, for the town had not yet been laid out, and there were but a few families of emigrants in the Valley. The mail was carried through on horseback once a week, each way, over Zanes' Trace, the whole distance being 226 miles through an almost entirely unbroken wilder- ness. The line was devided into three routes. The first was from Wheeling to Zanesville, or rather to the Muskingum ; the second from the Muskingum to the Scioto; and the third from the Scioto to the Ohio, or to Limestone. The late Gen- eral George Sanderson, then a small lad. was for a time mail carrier between the Muskingum and Scioto,-a distance of about seventy-six miles. The condition of the roads, and the facilities for travel were such, that to make the connections in some instances a large portion of the way had to be passed over in the night, which, through the dark and unbroken forests, was no enviable task, especially for a young boy.
The first postmaster was Samuel Coates, Sen., an English- man before referred to, and he kept his office at first at his cabin at the crossing of Hocking, but subsequently, after Lancaster began to grow, he removed it to a cabin on the south side of the present Wheeling Street, on the same spot
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
where James V. Kenney now resides. Mr. Coates held the office for a time, and was succeeded by his son, Samuel Coates, Jun. The succession of postmasters from Mr. Coates, Sen., up to the year 1876, here follows, for which I am indebted to James Miers, who has resided in Lancaster all his life.
Samuel Coates (1799), Samuel Coates, Jun., Jacob D. Det- rich, Elenathan Scofield, Henry Drum, Thomas U. White, Daniel Sifford, Henry Miers, James Cranmer, John C. Castle, Benjamin Connell, John L. Tuthill, C. M. L. Wise- man, Melanchthon Sutphen (1876).
The present will be the proper place to say what is neces- sary to be said of the postal service, and postal rates, at that early day. The mails were at first entirely carried on horse- back, and continued to be until the country became sufficiently developed to introduce post coaches. The "mail boys" carried with them small tin horns, and sometimes long tin trumpets, a blast on which heralded their approach to the post offices. In some instances the carriers acquired the art of blowing respectable tunes on the long tin trumpets. They were denominated the "post boys horn", and the sound awakened a lively feeling of cheer as far as they could be heard. They were to the inhabitants then what the rail road whistle is to-day, only far more joyful. They were likewise carried by coach drivers for some time after the introduction of that service.
The rates of postage were very different formerly from what they are now. The price for carrying letters was fixed in accordance with the distance they had to go. Weight was not regarded. Thus, a single letter was, for fifty miles and under, 6} cents. Over fifty miles and under one hundred and fifty, 123 cents. Between one hundred and fifty and three hundred miles, 182; and over three hundred miles, to any point within the United States, 25 cents. Two sheets folded into the same was treated as a double letter, and double rates charged; at least this was the law for a time. Subsequently, and before the introduction of the three cent rate, as at present, there was for some time a ten cent and a five cent rate. I do not remember the dates .- Postage was not, under the old rates, required to be paid in advance, and seldom was so paid; but if prepaid, the word "paid" was written on the outside of the letter by the postmaster, usually
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
at one corner. In like manner the price of the letter was written in figures; thus, 6}; 12}; 182; or 25; and these rates, if the word "paid" did not appear on the outside, were to be paid by the parties to whom the letters were addressed. The change then in use was silver coin, of the denominations of 6} cents (fippenny bit); 123 cents (ninepence); 25 cents, and half dollars. Thus, if the price of a letter were 182 cents, you gave the postmaster a quarter, and he gave you back a fippenny bit, and so on. Letters were written on three pages of the sheet, the fourth being left blank, and then so folded as to allow the blank page to form the whole outside of the letter, upon which the address was written. There are few persons now living of forty years and under, who could fold up a letter in the old style. Letters were sealed with sealing wax in the form of wafers, mostly red wax, though black and blue were sometimes used. Wafers put up in small boxes formed a considerable article of commerce, and were for sale at every store and grocery. They are now nowhere to be found. It was customary then for persons to carry seals with which to stamp the wafers which were first softened by moistening them with the tongue. And these seals might be the initials of the name, or any figure fancied. The introduction of letter envelopes took place previous to 1840, and cheap postal stamps about 1848, as my recollection has it.
The growth of Lancaster, from the time the first trees were cut down and the first log cabin built, in the year 1800, up to 1876, cannot be minutely and specifically traced, year by year, nor would it be of importance to do so, so far as the present actors on the stage of life are concerned. The former inhab- itants did their work, and passed away. The present will soon be gone, and scarcely remembered. The first settlers are all dead, and there is little of the work of their hands visible- nothing, beyond a few writings, and possibly a few log struc- tures, mostly closed in and hidden from view. The original log structures have every one disappeared, and everything else constructed of wood by the original settlers. One can scarcely find so much as a stone laid, or bearing the impress of first hands. A few moss covered gravestones in the old cemeteries tell where some of the pioneers were laid-tell when born and when died, and that is all. Nobody can tell how
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
they looked, or how they spoke. It is as if they had never lived. What is it to the present surging throng how they lived, and joyed, and sorrowed, and loved, and hated, and suf- fered, and died ? Who feels one stirring emotion for the hon- ored dead? There is not one to weep for them ; and not one will weep for us "a hundred years to come." "But other men our streets will fill; and other men our lands will till; a hundred years to come." Thus does man and all his works perish. Could we interview these veteran dead, volumes that is forever lost, that we might have saved, could be placed on paper. But there are none, not one to tell the story.
Some of their descendants are alive, but they cannot tell the tales of their sires. They could tell us whence they came, where they settled, and when they died, and there the curtain would drop. It cannot be determined now, with few excep- tions; where the original settlers built their first cabins, at least not the exact spot; so much has the onward march of time transformed the face of things. All has drifted into the dim and dimming past twilight. It is said, in a general way, that a great many of the first inhabitants were mechanics, but who were they? what branches did they follow? what was their personal appearance? how did they succeed? were they good men and women ? and did they live exemplary lives ? We can occasionally hear it said, that seventy years ago such a man was a blacksmith in Lancaster, or in Fairfield county, and some one was a shoemaker, and one was a lawyer, and some cthers kept tavern. Well, they are all gone, and their houses are gone, and everything that belonged to them. Of all these mechanics, and all that did the drudgery and bore the heavy burdens, not one word is written. There are no means of knowing anything about them. Only the few individuals we can say much about; but so far as data can be found, every original settler of Fairfield county will be mentioned.
In a general way it will suffice to say, that Lancaster is one of those inlind towns of Ohio whose growth has been slow, persistant and uniform. It has been a matter of some sur- prise that Lancaster has not become a leading town of the State in manufacturing, possessing as it does local advantages and facilities nowhere surpassed, and seldom equaled by any county seat of Ohio. Why capital has not sought this as a place of investment in preference to other places with fewer
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
facilities, cannot be told, and we make no attempt at explana- tion. To say it has been a lack of enterprise on the part of the citizens, would scarcely be true. Capital, to a large ex- tent, has not found its way here, and there we leave the matter.
THE BAR OF LANCASTER.
In 1839, when the writer settled in Lancaster, he was told that it had the strongest bar in the State, so far as legal abil- ity was concerned. Of this there was probably no doubt. At that time Hon. Thomas Ewing was at the zenith of his legal career. There were also residing in the place, John T. Brazee, Hocking H. Hunter, William Irvin, Henry Stanbery, Wm. J. Reece, William Medill and P. Van Trump, with a few of less distinction.
MEDICAL PROFESSION.
In like manner it was claimed, that at that time Lancaster had the right to boast of a highly eminent board of practicing physicians. Following are the names of the principal men who were practicing in the place at that time : Paul Carpenter, J. M. Bigelow, James White, M. Z. Kreider, Dr. Wait, George Bærst- ler, Dr. Saxe, and Thomas O. Edwards. Of these only two are living, viz .: Paul Carpenter, still remaining in Lancaster, and Dr. Bigelow, at Detroit. I am unable now to give the names of all other physicians then practicing in the county. I can however recall the names of Dr .. Ide of Rushville, Dr. Daugherty of Amanda, Dr. Evans of Bremen, Dr. Paul of Royalton, Dr. Minor of Lithopolis, Drs. Helmich and Gohe- gan of Baltimore, Dr. Brock of New Salem, Dr. Talbert of Jefferson, Dr. Turner of Rushville, and a few others.
The dry goods merchants then doing business in Lancaster, were, Ainsworth and Willock, Reber and Kutz, Myers Fall and Collins, Levi Anderson, Lobenthal and Reindmond, Rochol, Neigh and Culbertson, Samuel F. McCracken and Alfred Fahnastock. There were then two hardware stores; Bope and Weaver, and the proprietors of the other I do not now recall. The tailors were, Isaac Comer, and Smithi and Tong. Robert Reed and Joseph Work, Sen., and Joseph Work, Jun., carried on the shocmaking business. There were
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
two tin and stove establishments, viz : Connell & Work, Mr. Bliss. Smith & Arney, and Gilbert Devol were in the iron foundry business ; and George Ring was the proprietor of the Woolen Factory at the south end of Broadway. The principal hotels were the Phoenix, now the Talmadge House, the Shaeffer House, and the Swan Hotel. The Phoenix was kept by G. Steinman; the Shaeffer House by F. A. Shaeffer ; and the Swan by Mr. Overhalser. The Shaeffer House has been changed into a business house, the first floor of which is G. Beck's Drug Store. William E. Williams at that time kept a small hotel, known as the Broadway House ; and there were two small inns on Columbus street, kept by two men by the name of Myers. In 1839 there were two Drug Stores in Lancaster-one kept by George Kauffman, and the other by Bury & Beck. The former is now continued by Dr. Davidson, and the latter by Beecher White. William Bodenheimer and George W. Claspill were gunsmiths, the for- mer also a manufacturer of spinning-wheels. Mr. Bodenheimer has deceased, and Mr. Claspill has discontinued the business. The canal mill was then in operation, and was owned, I believe, by John T. Brazee and George Kauffman. There were two tan-yards-James M. Pratt owned one of them, and Gideon Peters the other. David Foster was the chair-maker of the place, and is still, in connection with his son, carrying on the business at his old stand at the corner of Wheeling and Co- lumbus streets. Luman Baker and Henry Shultz were cabinet- makers ; and Henry Orman and Mr. Vorys were the principal builders. These were the principal industries of Lancaster in 1839, though there were others on a small scale, such as weavers, coopers, and the like, which I cannot take space to particularize. I must not, however, omit to mention Hunter and Edingfield, and Adam and Jacob Guseman, blacksmiths. Groceries and saloons, as such, were almost unknown; groceries were principally sold at the dry goods stores, and drinking was principally done at the taverns. There was not then a shoe and boot-store, or a merchant-tailor in the place; eloth was purchased at the stores, and made to order by the tailors. This was a little less than forty years ago; and when Lancaster is written as it is now, in 1876, the difference will appear.
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
COMMERCE OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY.
In 1839, when the writer's acquaintance with the county began, the Hocking Valley canal was the commercial thoroughfare. There were fronting on its eastern bank as it passes along the western border of Lancaster, some nine or ten warehouses, thronged with goods and produce the year round. Through them passed the entire surplus wheat crop of the county, as well as the merchandise for all the stores of Lancas- ter and the villages of the county. To handle this large amount of freight required a great many clerks and hands. In addition, a great number of teams were in constant demand to bring in the produce from all parts of the county, and to wheel away the merchandise to its destinations. The days of wagoning goods across the mountains in four and six-horse wagons were past, the canal being the Eureka of transporta- tion. The wheat trade alone of Lancaster, at that time, was immense. On a single day, in the month of September, the writer counted one hundred and twenty-five wagons pass down the hill on Main street, freighted with wheat for the mills and warehouses on the canal. This was about the year 1846. The canal was at that time, during most of the navigable months, lined from end to end with boats passing both ways, and freighted with goods and produce, as well as coal from the Hocking mines, which were chiefly developed after the open- ing of the canal, three or four years before.
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