USA > Ohio > Fairfield County > A complete history of Fairfield County, Ohio > Part 20
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My father intended to enter the land since known as the Buchanan farm, and started to Chillicothe for that purpose, with his saddle-bags full of silver. On the way he met Mr. Buchanan, who had preceded him, and had already made the entry.
My mother's father first entered the section where I now live; his name was John Murphy. There were Indians on the tract before he made the entry. One of them showed hini five springs on the section, and he marked the spots by toma- hawking the trees. The springs are all still running.
My father kept a little tavern. It sometimes happened that so many men stopped for a night's lodging, that it was impos- sible to give them all beds, and straw was spread down for them to sleep on. Sometimes every room was full.
The Indians often came to our house for something to eat ; they were fond of salt, and always wanted the half of what
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was produced. If it was a bushel, they would not be satisfied without a half-bushel. My mother coming to understand this, adopted the plan of producing a tinful, and then they would always go away with half a tinful. She was always afraid of the Indians, and on one occasion when my father had gone to Chillicothe to mill, to be gone over night, she took her chil- dren and dog and went into the fodder-house and remained till morning. To keep the dog from barking, she kept him by her with her hand on him; and for fear the baby would cry, she kept it constantly at the breast. She, however, had never been molested by them.
My mother raised five children of her own, and, in addition, thirty-two orphans. She never failed, when a mother died and left small children that were not provided for, to take one or more of them. A woman named Batson died, and my mother took four of the children, and I, having a family of my own, took two of them off her hands. She raised Joe Blanchard, colored barber of Lancaster.
I have seen fifty or more men and boys at a corn-husking at night. It was the custom for a lot of girls to be stationed in the rear of the huskers to take back the husks-some with rakes, and others using their arms. It was the privilege of the boys, when they found a red ear, to take a kiss, a custom also understood by the girls, and no sooner was the red ear brought to light than the lucky finder would break for his girl. This, together with carrying the husks, was the occa- sion of a good deal of sport. [The writer remembers the cus- tom, and has often participated in it].
STATEMENT OF JOHN COURTRIGHT, OF BLOOM TOWNSHIP.
My mother was a sister of the late Walter McFarland, of Greenfield Township. She came with her father, William McFarland, to this county in 1799, and settled first on Hooker's Prairie, four miles north- west of Lancaster. Her father in- tended to enter the land where the Hookers live, but there were two men who claimed it by tomahawk-right, and he
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went and entered the land where Walter McFarland after- ward lived and died.
William McFarland had two sons-John and Walter. John was the father of William, Robert and Walter McFarland, late of Greenfield Township, and Walter was the father of John McFarland, now of Greenfield.
About two years after the arrival of the McFarlands, Abra- ham Van. Courtright, my grandfather, came into the county, and settled near what is now known as the Betser Church, two miles south of Lockville. He did not remain there long before he bought land and moved over in the vicinity of the present village of Greencastle, where he died fifty-one or two years ago, or about the year 1825. His three sons-John, Jesse and Abraham Courtright, settled in the same neighbor- hood, where they are all buried. John settled two and a half miles south of Greencastle ; Jesse lived in Greencastle, where he deceased many years since. My father, Abraham Court- right, bought a place from a Mr. vandemark, one mile east of Greencastle, on the old Columbus road, upon which he lived many years, and died at a ripe old age.
RECOLLECTIONS OF JOHN IRIC, OF BERNE TOWNSHIP.
My father, Jacob Iric, came from Maryland in 1805, and stopped first in Lancaster, when it was a cluster of log- cabins among the trees and stumps, interspersed with ponds and swales. He did not remain but a short time before he, in connection with his father, a man then in middle life, bought land two miles south of Lancaster, erected a little cabin on it, and moved in. There he lived until the time of his death in 1859, at a ripe old age.
They were unable to meet the deferred payments, and the land was forfeited at the land-office at Chillicothe. My father then went to work with energy, and, by hard labor and careful saving, accumulated money enough to redeem the land, when my grandfather deeded him the half of one hundred and
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fifty-three acres. My grandfather died before my recollection. My mother died in about 1861.
At my first recollection our neighbors, in part, were General David Reece, Martin Baker, Mr. Pannebaker, near the Kuntz mill ; the Carpenters and the Shellenbargers. All these were very early settlers.
My mother was a daughter of Michael Hensel, who lived on Rush Creek. He came out one year before my father, or in 1804. Mr. Hensel and his wife died a little more than thirty years ago. Mrs. John U. Giesy was a sister of my mother. William and George Crook, brothers, married two of the Hensel girls. There was but one brother. He moved up to Big Walnut, and I believe is not living.
The first school I went to was near the present Prindle farm-a little log structure with paper windows. It was in the woods. A Mr. Myres, William McAboy, and Paul Carpen- ter taught in it; and previously, and before I went there, Hocking H. Hunter was the teacher.
Religious meetings by the Lutherans and German Reformers were held in the cabins of settlers, and in school-houses. Revs. Stake and Wise were the preachers.
There were Indians about when I was a small boy. I do not know whether the people were afraid of them, but I can remember that the men used to carry their guns and shot- pouches with them when they went to meeting, though the precaution was probably more on account of wild animals. Almost every man was a hunter. A great many bears were killed; and deer and wild-turkeys could be taken at any time with very little trouble, for the woods were full of them.
The first mill my father and his neighbors went to was Crouse's, near Chillicothe. Afterwards little raccoon burr- mills and horse-mills were built near us, and in different parts of the county.
The men of our settlement sometimes went as far as twelve miles, and more, to help put up cabins, and to roll logs, and to give other assistance to the settlers. The country was wild and new, and everybody had to work hard and live hard for many years until the lands became improved and the facilities for getting a living increased. I have heard my father say that he and his family experienced six weeks at one time when they had very little else to live on than boiled turnips.
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They built a turkey pen, in which more than two hundred turkeys were caught. I heard my father say that he bated the pen, and sat hid near by and saw them flock round it by the dozen ; some of them would go in through the trench. One time he ran from his hiding-place to the pen, and found seven turkeys inside, which he secured. At another time he was loading corn in the wagon, and while he was at work on one side the turkeys were on the other pecking the ears. He tried to kill them by throwing cars of corn at them, but failed.
Nelsy Robinson and Lawrence Beck were married by Rev. Stake, about the year 1820. I was told that old Father Ream, father of Sampson and George Ream, and Henry Shellen- barger, died about 1812. Henry Rudolph, who I think was the father of Peter Rudolph, of Sugar Grove, died about the same time.
I heard my father say his tax was two or three dollars, at an early day, and that he had hard work to raise that amount.
I am sixty years old, and live on my father's old place, where I was born. I have three brothers and one sister living.
CONTRIBUTION OF THOMAS COLE, OF AMANDA TOWNSHIP.
ROYALTON, March 13th, 1877.
DR. H. SCOTT-Dear Sir : At your request I send you the following items pertaining to Toby Town, and the early set- tlers of Amanda Township: Toby Town was the name of an Indian village situated in what is now Bloom Township, sec- tion 33, about 80 rods eastward from the west line of said sec- tion, and about 20 rods north of its southern line. A small stream, known in early times as Toby Creek, and so marked on the old maps, ran through the village, but its eastern bank was its principal site. Said creek has long been known and called by those living along its entire length, by the name Little Walnut, and so marked on late maps. Tradition says nothing of the origin of the village, but in about 1806, or 1807, the Indians left it, and went to Sandusky, among the Wyan-
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dot tribes, and no doubt became a part of that people. A few straggling ones were occasionally seen for a year or two after- wards, when they all finally disappeared. A few incidents re- lating to them I will state :
Shortly after they left, William Clark built on the old village site, and in digging for clay to daub his cabin, he came upon Indian remains, supposed to be those of a chief, as a large double-handful of silver rings, brooches, and other ornaments were discovered with the bones. Elijah Clark, a little son of Horatio Clark, being about thirty rods off, brought some of them to his mother, who fancied she could perceive an un- pleasant odor, and thereupon ordered the little boy to return them to their sacred resting-place. The next Sunday, how- ever, they were again taken up by two young men named Wintersteen, whose parents lived in section 32, one half mile westward, at or near the site of an old family grave-yard, where now repose the ashes of several of the Clark family, some of whom settled near Toby Town in 1799.
The Indians would take a short journey eastward, and come back with plenty of lead, which they traded to the whites. No one ever knew, nor was it ever found out where they ob- tained it; but from the length of time they were absent, the place could not have been very distant. An opinion long after prevailed that it was obtained near the present site of the rock-mills. But all search for the place has thus far proved futile.
The Clark family, who settled within thirty rods of them in 1799, were never seriously molested by the red-skins, though they frequently found prudence the better part of valor, when their red neighbors paid devotion to Bacchus. About twenty years ago Mrs. Clark related to me, that on one occasion that she remembered, Indians came to her house hunting whisky, and that she took her little children and hid in the brush until after they went away. Mrs. Clark's grandchildren are the present occupants of the farm, and they tell me that for many years human bones, arrow-heads, and other Indian relics were frequently turned up by the plow. Tradition alone now marks the spot. The village and tribe took their names from their chief, whose name was Toby. $
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AMANDA TOWNSHIP.
In the spring of 1800, three men, names not remembered, came from near Chillicothe and broke ground on the prairie in section number 4, planted corn, and then returned home. They came back in due time and tended their corn twice. The next fall one of these men sold his share to Horatio Clark, receiving a horse in payment. The other two likewise dis- posed of their shares to parties not now remembered. In No- vember of the same year, Wilkinson Lane, of Huntingdon County, Tennessee, settled on section 8, and was succeeded in the month of June following by Thomas Cole, my grandfather, who had entered the section. His grandchildren still own one half of the section. The family were never troubled by the Indians. In a few years my grandfather built a school-house on his land, hired a teacher, Abraham Cole, for eight dollars a month, and then invited all who wished to send their child- ren and pay a. pro rata share, or not, as they could or would. In those days school hours were from "sun to sun, " or as soon as scholars arrived. On one occasion, my father, Broad Cole, (born in 1802), thought of " beating the master to school," some day, and, after a few failures to do so, left home one morning about day-break ; but, on arriving at the school-house, he was greeted with a good fire, and found the master, a Mr. Smith, banking up dirt against the school-house to protect against cold. That house was built on the north part of sec- tion 18. David Swope and William Long were settlers on sec- tion 8, in June, 1807. In 1800, Dr. Silas Allen bought and set- tled on section number 3, building a house on the crest of a hill, near the western line of said section, and fronting a prairie on the west, in section number 4. His purchase con- sisted of about five hundred acres. At that time there was not the mark of an ax from Lancaster to his house. Said section was soon given to his four sons-Whiting, Lemuel, Jedediah and Benjamin Allen. Lemuel and Jedediah gave ground for a village, and about 1810 William Hamilton, then living on section 22, surveyed and laid out the village of Roy- alton, about one mile south-east of Toby Town. For some years it went by the name of Toby Town, generally, but by the Allen family it was called Royalton, after a village in Ver- mont, from whence they came. Elvira Allen, now Mrs.
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Meeker, was born in 1803, the first female child born, it is supposed, in that part of the township. Mrs. Meeker still dis- tinctly remembers the Toby Town Indians coming over the prairie in single file, the squaws carrying their papooses on their backs, lashed to a board, and on arriving at her father's house, would stand up the boards upon which their little re- sponsibilities were tied, against the outside, while they went in.
The first schools in Royalton were taught by Warren Case and his sister Sabre, in 1810; and by Henry Calhoon, in 1812. The Rev. Dr. Hoag, (late of Columbus) a Presbyterian, preached in Lemuel Allen's house, in Royalton, as early as 1810. About the same time the first tavern was opened there by Lemuel Allen, as also the first store by Jacob Rush. In about 1814, the Methodists organized a society there, and their first preacher is supposed to have been Isaac Quinn.
In this year Stephen Cole built a grist-mill and a carding machine combined, on what is called Cole's Run, heading at a spring in section 8, the mill being situated on section 7. Richard Hooker helped to build the mill ; and in 1817, Piper and Reynolds built what is known as the Hooker mill, on Turkey Run. Mr. Hooker lived on section 19. The mill has long since disappeared, only bare traces of it being now visi- ble. Mr. Richard Hooker, now of Hocking Township, and in his 79th year, assisted in digging the mill-race.
The first horse grist-mill and still-house were situated in the south part of the township, and were owned by a Mr. Huffer, the exact date of their erection not being known. Richard Hooker was a Justice of the Peace for the township at a very early day. I have recently seen a deed, dated No- vember 15, 1805, the acknowledgment of which was taken by Jesse Willets, J. P. Hamilton and Rush were also Justices for Amanda Township.
On the 6th day of September, 1817, Elders Eli Ashbrook and Jacob Tharp organized the Turkey Run Regular Baptist Church. This church is still in existence. They held their meetings in Hooker's school-house as late as 1838, about which time a house of worship was erected. None of the original members are now living, and but one now lives who became a member by letter a year or two afterward, viz .: Permelia Ashbrook, now 83 years old. Elder Eli Ashbrook, one of the
15
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
original founders of the Turkey Run Church, died in Jan- uary, 1877, aged 96 years.
In 1803 Valentine Reber came out from Pennsylvania, and entered section 10 of our township, and in 1805 he brought out his young wife from Berks County and settled on the sec- tion. Frederick Leathers settled in the southern part of the township, about the year 1800.
The township steadily and rapidly increased in population, and the red-men, deer, bears and wolves disappeared in pro- portion. The nearest neighbors were out of sight, because of trees and brush. The diet was plain, but the people had much better sauce for their tables than the present owners of the soil, and it was not a compound article, but simply hunger. Try it, ye dyspeptics ; and then eat corn-pone, or johnny-cake, or venison-jerk, with ash-cake, buckwheat-cakes, wild-honey, butter, and coffee once a week for a rarity, and you will adopt the language of an old settler, and say, " It don't go bad." The difference in diet within the last seventy- five years was once referred to by an old uncle, a pioneer, thus: "Nowadays, when folks go a visiting, the inquiry at table is, ' will you take coffee or tea ?' but when I was young, the word was, 'will you take sweet milk or sour ?'"
Boys and girls then went to meeting barefooted, the girls, and their mothers too, sometimes putting on shoes and stock- ings just before going into the meeting-house. After meeting, a chicken-pie was sometimes indulged in, if the hawks and owls had not flown off with them. One great fear in those days was that the timber would give out. For fear it would, some would even buy rail timber of their less fearful neigh- bors. The settlers were usually that class known as "Foor men," who were glad to sell their timber to raise a little money. Coon-trees and bee-trees had, on this account, to be cut on the sly.
Now, Doctor, permit me to introduce a few anecdotes, and I am done. A quite early settler, who had entered a section ยท and settled upon it, went to work and met his payments yearly, until but one remained. The time drew near, and he lacked but three dollars. None of his neighbors could help him to the amount. Only one day remained, and he had to pay the money at the And-office at Chillicothe, nearly forty miles distant. If he failed, his all would be gone. In this
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extremity his only cow died. This opened the way for relief. He skinned her and sold the hide for enough to let him out, and setting off for the land-office, arrived there a little before midnight of the last day, barely in time to save his land.
My grandfather, Thomas Cole, once made the round trip to Chillicothe and back, carrying on his shoulder a flax spin- ning-wheel to get it repaired, the whole distance both ways being sixty miles. When moving to this county from Hunt- ingdon County, Pennsylvania, in the year 1801, he always first waded the creeks with a long stick in his hand, to test the depth of the water and firmness of the bottom.
George Disinger was one of the early settlers. He once went to Mr. Valentine Reber's to get straw for a bed-tiek, but failing to procure any, he and his wife filled the tick with dry forest leaves. After sleeping on it for two or three nights, they thought something was wrong, and upon emptying out the leaves they found that they had had a black-snake for a bed-fellow.
William Long, before-mentioned, was a small man, but remarkably well-proportioned. He once had a pair of pants made from a single yard of tow-linen, but the pattern was rather scant, and the pants too tight. He said he would never 'spile " another yard of linen in that way. This same Wm. Long found that his cows would not eat straw, so he adopted a strategy. He stuffed straw in the fence cracks, and several times drove the cows away when they had tasted it, and after that he had no trouble in getting them to eat it, and even to eat up his entire crop of straw.
Pages might be written of anecdotes, jokes, etc., that would be enjoyable, because they would so richly smack of those good old times when men were free and equal in the sub- stantial sense of the term; and of sociability, such as no longer attains. These were the characteristics of the pioneer age; at least as the rule. One more anecdote must suffice for the present, lest I trespass too much on your space, which I do not wish to do.
Mr. Henry Kiger and his wife, aunt Polly Kiger, are resi- dents of Amanda Township, though they were not among its first settlers. Mr. Kiger is now nearly ninety-seven years of age, and his wife is about six months younger. She is quite brisk, and able to walk several miles to visit her children.
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The old gentleman is rather feeble. From a personal inter- view had with them last Monday, March 5th, 1877, I took the following from their lips: When nearly nineteen years of age, she was living in Hancock Town, with an Irishman whose name was James Foley, and who was a tailor. She was there for the purpose of learning the trade. On one occasion General Washington came there on some business connected with the "Whisky Boys." The General put up at Johnston's Tavern, and presently came to Foley's to have his suspenders mended. Foley passed them to Polly Walduck (now Mrs. Kiger) to be repaired. They were profusely ornamented with silver. When she returned them, the General inquired of Mr. Foley if the young lady was his daughter. He replied that she was not, but that she was a mighty fine girl, "when the General put his hand on my head, and called me a pretty girl, which made me mad, though I made no reply."
Mr. Kiger was in the war of 1812, serving seven months. His company was encamped three weeks at Washington City, after the burning of the Capitol by the British, in 1814. He says he walked up the stone steps of the burned Capitol fre- quently and viewed the ruins.
The first settlers of our township are all gone, and not more than five or six of the children first born to them remain. The rest are all hidden by the sods of the valley. Very shortly nothing of the past scenes will be known, except through uncertain tradition, and written history made up at so late a day as to be deficient in much that ought to have been recorded, and which would have added greatly to the interest of the future. Nevertheless, sweet thoughts will roll over life's troubled sea, while perusing the pages of the history of first settlers and early times of our county.
Yours, truly, THOMAS COLE.
March 9th, 1877.
LETTER OF DAVID LYLE, OF WALNUT TOWNSHIP.
DR. H. SCOTT-Dear Sir: Your note of the 12th ult. was duly received. It would require an older person than myself to give a full and correct account of the very earliest settlers
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of this township. But such older persons are scarce, and my health not being good, I cannot go to see many that might as- sist me most, but I will do the best I can. I was less than four years old when, with my parents, I came into the township, and I have lived here ever since-63 years. I will merely -mention the names of some of the earliest settlers who have been known to me, as follows :
James Holmes, Wm. Murphy, Thomas Cherry, Eli Whit- aker, Wm. Harvey, James Crawford, Andrew Krager. These settled in the northern part of the township. Then Samuel Wiseman, Edward Berry, Abraham Harshbarger, Jas. Miller, Wm. Milligan, David Runk, Asa Murphy, Wm. Irvin, Thos. Ross, George Heis, David Dillinger, John Miller, A. Miller, Nicholas Ketner, Samuel Mills, David Lyle. These lived in the central part. Then in the more southern section of the township were Mr. Thoman, Jesse Pugh, Solomon Barks, Ed- ward Teal, Jno. Decker, Job, Thomas and Adam McName, Wm. Beard, Samuel Trovinger, Tillman Baker, Adam Geiger, John Shipler, Daniel Hall, Jonas Rienhart.
The religious societies first organized were the Methodists and Baptists. Both societies built log meeting-houses on lots donated by Job McName. The first Methodist preachers were : Charles Waddle, James Quinn, Father Goff and James Gil- ruth. First Baptist preachers: Eli Ashbrook, John Hite, Rev. Caves, Rev. Snelson and George Debolt. School Districts were not known. The settlers built log-cabins to suit neigh- borhoods, and teachers were hired by "articles of agreement." The article of agreement was drawn up by the teacher, either male or female, in which the terms were stated. Then the paper was by them carried around and presented to the heads of families, who put down their names for so many scholars, according to the size of the family, at a price named per scholar. The most noted teachers were James Allen and Jesse Smith, who taught in different neighborhoods for many successive years. The other teachers were transient persons.
The first grist-mill built was by George H. Houser, on Wal- nut Creek, where the Foglesong road crosses. The second was built by John Good, one mile above. The third was built by Solomon Barks, on Little Walnut, in the same neighborhood. These little mills have all disappeared long since, principally
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