USA > Ohio > Fairfield County > A complete history of Fairfield County, Ohio > Part 22
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Mr. Rudolph carried the mail in all about five years, when he purchased a four-horse coach and team, which he drove four years as a common carrier, and then opened a livery-stable, in which business he is still engaged, at the age of about seventy- seven years.
He spoke of the taverns in Lancaster at the time of his ar- rival. John Swoyer kept a house of entertainment on what, for many years, has been known as the Shaeffer corner, now 16
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occupied by George Beck's drug store. Frederick Shaeffer suc- ceeded him as hotel-keeper. Mr. Beck, father of the present George and Jacob Beck, kept a tavern on Columbus street, on the grounds now occupied by the dwelling of George Beck. It was known as the Black Horse Tavern. Mr. Beck also had a blacksmith-shop on the same lot. A third tavern was then kept on what is sometimes spoken of as the Latta corner, on Main street, east of the Public Square, by Thomas Sturgeon. Mr. Sturgeon was uncle to Thomas Sturgeon, now of Lancaster.
The store-keepers at that time were: John Creed, between McCrackin's alley and Columbus street. Wm. and Christian King, on the corner now occupied by Beecher White as a drug store. Frederick A. Foster kept a store also on the same square ; all on the north side. Mr. Rudolph thinks the build- ings were either frames, or log-houses weather-boarded. At that time the town was all below the hill. He stated that Sosthenes McCabe had the contract for furnishing the brick for the old Court-house, and that he made them for two dollars and fifty cents a thousand.
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RECOLLECTIONS OF MRS. VAN PEARCE.
Mrs. Van Pearce was of the Carpenter family, and was born on what is now the Giesy farm, one mile south of Lancaster, in the year 1800. John Van Pearce, her late husband, was brought across the mountains when a child-part of the way strapped fast to a pack-saddle. He came in 1810.
Mrs. Van Pearce remembers Lancaster when it was a village of log-cabins in the woods. She claims to have been the first white female child born in the county. She was the daughter of John Carpenter, Jr., and her mother was a sister of Emanuel Carpenter, Jr., who was the proprietor of the south part of Lancaster.
She referred to a few incidents of her childhood days. On one occasion, when her mother had gone to visit the family of Rudolph Pitcher, she being as she thinks about four or five years old, she wandered away from home, and can just recall the circumstance of lying in the door of some cabin in the vil-
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lage and crying for a piece of bread, and that she was eating it when she was found by her scared family.
At another time she went with other children to gather hickory-nuts, over in the vicinity of Kuntz's mill. When she came out of the bushes that were close up to her father's yard-fence, she was greatly surprised at seeing the yard filled with people, all seated on the ground. They were Indians. Her mother came out with all the cold victuals she could find, and divided it among them, giving each one a pittance, which they ate, and then went peacefully away. The had papooses, which Mrs. Pearce says she took and nursed, which pleased the squaws very much.
She said that during the Indian scare in 1812, her father refused to leave his own house, and that he rolled bars of lead round, and then cut them in small pieces, and rolled them in the bottom of a large iron kettle, to be used as shot if the Indians came on him, designing to make his house his fort, and the windows port-holes. She spoke of the Dr. Shawk family, the Pitcher family, and many others then here. Be- tween their house and town all was thick woods and marshy prairie, and the only road was a path.
She remembered going to school in town to two teachers, named Rober and Smith. The first meeting she remembers going to was in a log-cabin below where Mr. Prindle now lives. She spoke of Carpenter's mill, the first built-where Kuntz's mill subsequently stood. Her story of how the people lived, and what they did, and how they did it, was the same given in several places throughout this volume. It was the pioneer age; and pioneer life differed in no essential points throughout all of the great North-west at the same era.
STATEMENT OF F. A. FOSTER, OF LANCASTER.
Mr. Foster came to Lancaster in 1810. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on the 7th of May, 1791, and is therefore at this writing 86 years of age. He was first employed as a clerk, and at about 1816 began business on his own account, and was for many years one of Lancaster's dry
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goods merchants. He named the following dry goods men who were in business when he came :
Christian and William King, Nathaniel Cushing, on what is still spoken of as Connell's corner. Samuel F. McCraken sold goods on the old Green corner. Archibald Carnahan had a store about where the First National Bank stands. John Creed sold goods near the spot where Bininger's jewelry store stands. Rudolph Pitcher also sold goods, and Andrew Crocket had a store where Giesy's block is, on the south side of Main street.
There were others who came in afterwards and sold dry goods. Jacob Green came from Tarleton at an early day. Then followed John Black, Samuel Rogers, Jesse Beecher, Elenathan Schofield, Thomas Cushing, Latta & Connell, Robt. Smith, and Ainsworth and Willock. All the above were more or less engaged in selling dry goods previous to 1825. There were no groceries, as such. Everything in the grocery line was kept in the dry goods stores, as also iron, hardware, cut- lery and all kinds of farmers' goods, such as sythes, sickles, hoes, grubbing-hoes, chopping-axes, pitchforks; all kinds of castings ; nails, saddle-stirrups, bridle-bits, log-chains and trace-chains ; spades, andirons, smooth-irons, drawing-knives, augurs, gimlets, chisels; a great many things not now in use ; and whisky.
He stated that the Lancaster Ohio Bank went into opera- tion in 1816, and closed in about 1842. After it resolved to wind up, the officers contracted with Jacob Green to redeem all outstanding notes, for the sum of $4,001. The amounts came out about even. The bank was solvent, and nobody lost anything by it, with the exception of some slight shaves on some of its notes in changing hands after it suspended opera- tions.
The first President of the bank was Philemon Beecher, who, Mr. Foster thinks, remained about one year, when he was suc- ceeded by John Creed, who continued to be its President until it ceased. Michael Garaghty was Cashier throughout the en- tire course of the bank.
The immediate cause of the close of the bank was the re- fusal of the Legislature to renew its charter. At that time there was found to be on hand about three-quarters of a mil- lion of dollars of unissued bills of all denominations. These
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were, by the order of the Directors, delivered over to Fred. erick A. Foster and Jacob Green, to be burned, which they pro- ceeded to do.
Mr. Foster referred to the typhoid epidemic that prevailed in Lancaster in 1823. He remarked, that to the best of his recollection, only two persons in the town escaped its in- fluence entirely, whom he named as Christian Weaver and himself. A great number of leading citizens died.
At the time of Mr. Foster's coming to Lancaster there was but one brick building in the place, and that was the office since known as that of John T. Brazee, on the Schofield corner, Main street. In the fall of the same year, viz .: 1810, Phile- mon Becher built his brick office adjoining his residence, on what is at present known as Rising's corner-once Beecher's corner, on Main and Columbus streets. The third brick build- ing was a residence, which is still standing, and at this time occupied by Henry Reindmond, on the north side of Main street going east, up the hill. It was built by Rev. John Wright, first pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Lancaster.
The very first tavern in Lancaster was on Wheeling street, south side, a little below Center, or McCracken's alley. It was a log building, and was removed at an early day.
RECOLLECTIONS OF REV. ELIAS VANDEMARK.
Mr. Vandemark, when a boy of five years, came with his father, Gared Vandemark, from Luzerne County, Pennsylva- nia, and settled three miles north-west of Lancaster, in the year 1810, and in the autumn of that year. Their first loca- tion was on the same spot which was the residence of the late John Levering. Their nearest neighbor was Adam Bear, father of Adam Bear, who at this time resides on the same place of his father. He spoke of the following persons at that time residing within neighboring distance of his father's cabin : Peter Woodring, Joseph Hunter, Mr. McKey, Samuel Grabill, Joseph Work, Jesse Spurgeon and Mr. Stewart, father of the present Levi Stewart, of Lancaster.
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He remembered Lancaster as being at that time a village of log-cabins, whose streets were filled to some extent with stumps and mud-holes. He spoke of the swale that crossed Main street at Center alley, and thought the fill there now, ' east of Shawk's alley, is from six to ten feet. There were only one or two small brick houses in the place, and a few frames. South of Chestnut street there were no houses, and the ground was used for a muster-field and race-course. East of High street, and occupying all the present church grounds, as well as the Court-house lot, was at that time a small cornfield, fenced with split rails and surrounded with woods. All the railroad grounds, and including the starch factory, was a com- mon, grown over more or less with wild-plum, black-haw and hazel-bushes, interspersed with a few large elm-trees.
The first school-house he remembered stood near the house known as the Jesse Beecher place, perhaps a little west of it. It was a round log-hut. They got their water from a spring near a big elm-tree that he thought is still standing. The first teacher in it was a Mr. Cole'; and after him W. H. Coley. That was in about 1813. He had not forgotten the droll way Mr. Coley required them to spell and pronounce their words, and for failing to do which they often got their ears soundly boxed. He tried to imitate the teacher's way, thus : S-a-l sal, v-a vay, salva, t-i-o-n shun, salvashun ; the final pronunciation being broad, and accented on the third syllable. After that, and in the year 1818, he went to school to a Mr. Jas. Hunter, at the same place.
Mr. Vandemark said : "My sister Jane married David West- enbarger in 1812. It was the first wedding I had ever seen. The license was issued by Hugh Boyl, and the ceremony was performed by Adam Weaver, Esq., father of the late John C. Weaver. Mr. Boyl was at that time Clerk of the County Court. " During our three months' term of school, which was all we had in the year, we had spelling-schools, and a polemic, which was sometimes denominated a 'debating society,' or 'debating school.' It was at one of these debating schools that I was re- ligiously convicted under the following circumstances: We held these meetings at night, and in a log-cabin that had pre- viously been a dwelling, and which stood somewhere between the present residences of Robert Work and Newton Peters. The question debated on this particular evening was, ' Which
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is the most useful to mankind, the Doctor of Divinity, or the Doctor of Physic ?' Myself and Levi Stewart were appointed chief combatants. I took the affirmative, and Mr. Stewart the negative. I tried to show the value of an immortal soul, and in the effort I became so affected that I shed tears, and the whole house was so wrought upon that the meeting broke up without any decision being given on the question, or arrange- ments for another meeting. Jacob and Daniel Strayer, brothers, were the judges. From that evening I identified myself with the Christian people, and have ever since been trying, in my humble way, to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ."
Mr. Vandemark remembered that they went to Carpenter's mill (later Kuntz's mill), for their grinding, and when the water got low, and the little mills could not grind, they were compelled to go all the way to Chillicothe, or Zanesville, to mill. He spoke of the old hominy-block, and of the corn- grater, and of the way the people dried pumpkins, and beans, for winter sauce. He had also a distinct recollection of the old-time log-rollings, corn-huskings, house-raisings, quiltings, grubbings, rail-maulings, and the like. Also, the fodder-house, ash-hopper, and potato and turnip holes. He said his father was a teetotaler all his life, and on that account sometimes had difficulty in getting his harvesting and other work done, because he refused, from conscientious scruples, to furnish whisky. But he never yielded, and at last got his work done.
He described another custom of the pioneer age, which the circumstances of the times compelled the people to adopt, and of which the writer has also a distinct remembrance. The wheat was thrashed out with flails, or tramped out with horses, often on dirt-floors ; and then, after raking the straw clean from the wheat and chaff, the latter was shoved into a heap, and the following method of cleaning it resorted to: The wheat was let down from an elevation as high as a man could raise his arms, either through a riddle (which was a kind of course sieve) or from a shovel, falling in a stream, from which the chaff was blown away with a common bed-sheet held at each end by two persons. From eight to ten bushels in a day was good work for three hands, as it had to be gone over gen- erally two or three times before the wheat was ready for the bags.
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RECOLLECTIONS OF A. HATHAWAY, OF CANAL WINCHESTER.
Mr. Hathaway's father was one of the early settlers of the vicinity of Winchester. He is at this writing seventy-one years of age, and has spent his life in the neighborhood. He remembers the times and incidents of the log-cabin state of the section of country, since known as Violet Township. He named the following persons as having been his father's neighbors, at the time his recollection reaches to, or, about sixty-five years age. He fixed the time at 1812 to 1815:
William Perin, George Tong, Michael Creamer, John Shoe- maker, Lewis Phillips, John Daniel ; Adam, Jacob and George Creamer ; George Harmon, John and Jacob Algire, John Huff, Clem Green, David Painter, Thomas Roberts and John Tall- man. Old Mother Creamer, wife I believe of Michael, was familiarly known all through the country as "Granny Creamer." This was an appellation given to certain old ladies in the early days of the country, who performed duties now belonging to the doctors. The title has become obsolete. The above-named persons have all deceased, with the single excep- tion of George Harmon, who is living near Pickerington, at the great age of more than eighty years.
Mr. Hathaway related an incident which reflects back-woods life, and has many similar counterparts which still live in the memory of the writer. At the age of four years, he was accompanying his mother to the cabin of Mr. Tallman. They discovered a large black-snake near the path, and his mother having an instinctive dread of Eve's betrayer, told him to stay and watch it while she went to fetch Granny Creamer to kill it. Mrs. Creamer was in sight of them, in the act of grubbing up bushes in the clearing. She came and killed the snake, greatly to the relief of Mrs. Hathaway, and then returned to her grubbing-hoe.
Their cabin was two miles north of the present village of Winchester. There was a sorrel mare belonging to the family, which was nightly stabled in a log-pen. The wolves came every night and howled in the near vicinity, which
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caused the family to believe they were after the old sorrel. The country abounded with wolves, bears, wild-cats, panthers, deer and wild-turkeys. He spoke of the sociability and kindly feeling that united the people together, and thought every- body was happier then than they are now.
He spoke of the first mill of the settlement. It was built on Little Walnut, one mile below where Winchester now is. In the latter part of summer, and in the fall, it "went dry," and then the people had to go to Zanesville for their grinding. In a good stage of water the mill could grind ten bushels of corn in twenty-four hours. It was a raccoon burr-mill, the only kind known in the pioneer country.
He gave a full account of the pioneer hominy-block, corn- grater, lye-hominy, johnny-cake, hoe-cake, ash-cake ; flax and tow-linen, linsey ; the one pair of shoes a year ; and how the people went to meeting barefooted in summer. A man by the name of Hughes built a hand-mill, and the neighbors went there and ground their corn on it.
The first school he remembered was three miles from his father's. It was a pioneer school-house, with a paper window. He remembered that William Hackney, Thomas McArthur, William King, and a Mr. Allen taught school in it, and that John Swasey taught in the same neighborhood about the year 1820.
William Stevenson settled in the neighborhood in about the year 1815. He was a Methodist, and opened his house for preaching and other religious meetings. The ministers who preached at his house the few succeeding years were, Vananda, Charles Waddle, Russel Bigelow, Jacob Cooper and Jacob Young. The United Brethren organized a society in the neighborhood soon after, and Lewis Creamer was their preacher. Presbyterians likewise made their appearance at an early day in the settlement of the township.
Mr. Hathaway thought that George Tony was the first 'Squire in the township. He was at least among the first. Abraham Pickering and John Rickets were also early Justices in Violet.
Reuben Dove was the first propietor of Winchester. He laid off and sold lots in about 1825. The plan of forming a village there was settled upon immediately after the location of the Ohio Canal was made. Subsequent additions to the
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town were made by Mr. Dove, David Dixon, John Coleman, William Miller, John Creamer and Reuben Tine. Some re- marked that perhaps their grandchildren might live to see the canal completed; but notwithstanding the prediction, boats passed there in 1831.
The first church built in Winchester was by the United Brethren, which was for a time, by arrangement, used by the Methodists. The second was by the Lutherans and German Reforms, jointly.
Winchester has now, in April, 1877, one Odd Fellows' Lodge, four physicians, two dry goods stores, one clothing store, two hotels, two hardware stores, one drug store, five groceries, one flour mill, three warehouses, one livery-stable, one brickyard, one carriage factory, two blacksmith shops and one saw-mill.
"There was a mute by the name of Shoemaker, who was among the early settlers. He was a successful hunter, and shot a great many deer. My father made a business of dress- ing deer-skins for clothing. Many wore buckskin breeches. Skin vests were likewise often worn, generally with the hair on. My pants often got wet by running through the snow and water, and when dry, became brittle and broke off at the knees, leaving the lower half of my leg naked for some time before I got another pair. These buckskin pants were made to fit close to the skin, and as at that early day we wore no underclothes, it was very much like putting one's limbs into bags of snow on very cold winter mornings.
" Flocks of wild-turkeys used to come around a corn-rick that stood near the house, to peck off the grains. I devised a plan for catching them, which was as follows: I secreted my- self in one end of the rick, with my handful of shelled corn, and held it out, expecting they would come along, when, in the attempt to take the grains from my palm, I intended to seize them by the neck with my other hand. But the birds were my superiors in sagacity, and always kept at a safe distance from me. We, however, caught a great many of them in turkey-pens.
" My father was a bee-hunter, and found a great many bee- trees. There were two methods of coursing them. One was from the wild flowers where they came to gather their stores ; the other was the dish of honey-comb, which was set out to attract them. The latter was generally used in the early
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spring. It was more successful if the comb was burned a little.
" Our social evenings were often spent in the old plays of 'Sister Phoebe,' 'Marching to Quebec,' 'Kilimakranky, ' ' Oats, peas, beans and barley grows,' 'Thus the farmer sows his seed,' 'It's raining, it's hailing, it's cold frosty weather,' and the like. Dancing was little practiced. Our school-books were Webster's Spelling Book (' Easy Standard of Pronuncia- tion '), Pike's Arithmetic, Columbian Orator, American Pre- ceptor, Primers, and the Bible and Testament. Our games of ball were bull-pen, or corner-ball, cat-ball and town-ball. We also had another game which was pretty generally practiced all over the country, which was called the game of " Baste."
[The game of "Baste" was played all through the West during the pioneer age. The bastes were two trees, or stumps, usually, and situated fifty to seventy-five yards apart. Two captains were appointed, who chose the boys off alternately, and the right to the first choice was determined thus: One of the captains, taking a ball-paddle, would spit on one side of it, after which he gave it a whirling toss in the air, when the other party called out " wet," or "dry." If the side having his call on it came up twice out of three times, he won ; if but once, his adversary won. The same method was used in choos- ing off for a game of ball, and afterward for the first inning, or paddle. The game of baste consisted in "daring," thus : Any one of the players would start out and advance as near the other baste as he chose, and when he got sufficiently near, one or more of the party thus dared would dart out and try to catch him before he got back to his baste. If caught, or tagged, he was taken, and afterward played with the other party. In turn, when the pursuers came too near the home-baste, the other party had the right to pursue them home and catch or tag them if they could. The game often became highly ex- citing. Girls often took part in the game of baste. The game was ended when either party took all the others prisoners. The tag was a simple touch, even with the finger. But in either case, if the pursuer caught his man, both were at lib- erty to walk leisurely back to baste unmolested. The adven- turer was not home, after having made the sally, until he touched the baste ; but the pursuers generally stopped within what they judged to be a safe distance. The game has long
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since been abandoned. But in this, as in games at ball, at the word "books," the paddle dropped instantly, and all started for the school-house door .- ED.]
" The first wedding I ever attended was that of Mary Starr to John Courtright ; and the first funeral I can remember of being at was that of John Huff. This, I think, was in 1823. During the years 1823 and 1824 there was much sickness-a great many died of bilious fever. Dr. W. W. Tolbert was the physician of the settlement at that time.
"Of all the neighbors of my father, in 1812 and 1815, or about that time, or heads of families within the township, there are but two persons living now, in April, 1877-George Harmon, and George K. Stevenson, both of great age.
" I have lived to see the wilderness transformed into a popu- lous and wealthy community, and to see the tax list multi- plied many hundred times. Two full generations of people have passed away, and two new ones have taken their places. All the institutions, manners and customs of the early times have drifted back, and are nearly forgotten. All birds and beasts have turned to dust. A. HATHAWAY."
RECOLLECTIONS OF CHRISTIAN HEYL, OF COLUMBUS.
Christian Heyl emigrated from Germany in 1800, and settled first in Baltimore, Maryland. While there he was the com- panion and associate of the late Gotleib Steinman, of Lancas- ter. There they both learned the baking business. In 1807 Mr. Heyl came to Lancaster, Ohio. During his residence in Fairfield County he purchased, in connection with his brother Coonrod, a piece of land containing one-hundred and sixty acres, in the vicinity of the present Basil, in Liberty Township, where he opened a little farm and lived on it five years, after which he removed to Columbus in 1813. He named the fol- lowing persons who were citizens of Lancaster at the time of his coming-other names he could not recall :
Christian and William King, Elenathan Schofield, Jonathan Lynch and brother, Sam'l Coates, Philemon and Jesse Beecher,
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John Creed, Wm. Irvin, Geo. Sanderson, Robert F. Slaughter, Thomas and Timothy Sturgeon, Peter Reeber, Rev. John Wright, William Duffield, Charles Sherman, David Crocket, John Shur, Mr. Lewis, Mr. Mullenour, Rudolph Pitcher, David Reece and Mr. Cisney. Of all those just mentioned, Mr. Heyl is the only one living. He is a citizen of Columbus, and is ninety years old.
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