USA > Ohio > Washington County > Belpre > A history of Belpre, Washington County, Ohio > Part 8
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KNOWLES.
James Knowles, a soldier of the Revolution, with Martha his wife and six sons and one daughter emigrated from Cape May County N. J. to Ohio in 1794. A son Reuben was a soldier in the War of 1812. In 1810 Reu- ben and James were on a produce boat going down the
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Mississippi; on the way they tied up for the night near what is now New Madrid. That night there was an earth- quake that caved off the bank where they were and over one hundred acres of land sank, forming a lake that still remains.
Tall Sycamore trees went down end first; in the scramble for his life James caught hold of a tree and climbed as it sank. All the crew came out alive from that fearful night but the boat and contents were lost. Reuben and Amos worked on the boat that Aaron Burr had built at Marietta.
CLOUGH.
Aaron Clough, then a young man of twenty years, drew the land opposite Newbury Bar. With ten other men one of whom was Captain John Leavens a fellow towns- man, he made the journey to Ohio. One of the party kept a journal which still exists, and records the following. "This party went out, not as members of a Company, but on our own hook, according to our own roving disposition and desire to see the world. We had a team of four horses, and a baggage wagon for clothes, farming tools and provis- ions, and had a very merry journey through the country." They were forty six days on the journey, landing at Mar- ietta, May 18, 1788, just six weeks after the first arrivals.
PEREGRENE FOSTER.
Peregrene Foster was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and was present at the execution of Major Andre. After the war he removed to Providence, R. I. where he practiced law for a few years. He was one of the surveyors in the company of pioneers who landed at Marietta, April 7th, 1788. He returned to Providence later in that same year, removed to Morgantown, Penn. in 1792 and in 1796 to Belpre. During that year he secured a franchise for a ferry across the Ohio river, on which franchise a ferry was operated by a succession of owners until purchased by the Bridge Company in 1918. Mr. Foster died in 1804.
CHAPTER IX
AFTER THE INDIAN WAR.
HERE is always a glamour of romance about the commencement of a new enterprise, as for example, the construction of a railway. There is the securing of a charter, the survey, the grading, the laying of the first rail, and the running of the first train; every specific event is full of in- terest, to all concerned but when the road is complete and trains run on regular schedules the romance gives place to reality, and the history of a passing year is very nearly like that of the preceeding years. This illustrates the experience of one who attempts to gather material for the history of a new settlement like that of Belpre. The beginnings of this history are full of romantic interest; there was the survey, and the discovery of this locality specially adapted to agriculture, the forming of an Asso- ciation and decision to take up their claims and establish their homes here, the clearing of a few acres of land, the building of temporary cabins, raising the first crops, the building of a garrison for defense, the Indian war with constant danger of attack, every event was full of interest to all the people, and was preserved in journals and letters, which are available to the historian. But when the danger of attack by Indians had passed and families could leave the garrison and all could live in safety on their own farms, their experiences were very similar from year to year, for the romance had given place to a routine which made his- tory of each year little more than a repetition of the past, and it became more difficult to discover and record items of special interest.
We have already seen that the pioneers of Belpre were characterized by intelligence, enterprise, and industry. They were not in search of easy lives or soft snaps. They were accustomed to hard work and expected to continue active. They had selected Belpre as the place for their homes because it was adapted to agriculture, and it was their purpose to develop an agricultural community. It was not their intention to establish manufacturing beyond
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what was needed for their own convenience. The years which followed the return of families to their farms were years of great activity. They cut down the giant forest trees, removed the stumps, and prepared the land for cul- tivation. They built larger and more permanent homes and such buildings as were required for their more exten- sive farming. They were also obliged to increase their stock raising which had been neglected by the danger of Indian attacks, also to raise horses of which there were very few in the town at the close of the war. There was also the necessity of building roads and bridges, where they had previously traveled in trails and forded the streams. Such employments as these occupied the men during the two decades after the Indian war. The women were equally occupied, besides the increased labor in the performance of domestic duties, from the smallness of their cabins and lack of utensils and comveniences there was the spinning of wool and flax, weaving it into cloth and mak- ing garments for their increasing families. They must also provide woolen blankets and linen sheets for beds and per- form the many and constant duties of the household besides giving constant encouragement, hopefulness and good cheer to fathers, husbands, sons and brothers. In the construc- tion of their buildings there was no machine work. Every- thing was hand make even to the nails hinges and door latches. We are able to give a copy of a contract for the construction of one of the earliest houses in what is now Belpre Village.
Belpre, March 1, 1797.
Know all men by these presents: I, Johnson Cook, carpenter and joiner, of Marietta do engage to cut and hew the timber, and frame a house of forty-two feet in length and thirty-feet in width, the lower story to be nine, ye upper eight feet between joists and with a stoop all round the house six feet wide, to finish the outside of the house com- pleat, make and hang all the doors in the lower story, put up the petitions, lay the lower and chamber floors, case the windows, make the sashes and set the glass, and to lath and plaster all the lower part of the house,-for Israel Putnam of Bellepree, who is to find the materials for finish- ing the house at the spot, and vittle the people while doing it and for the labor to pay to Johnson, three hundred and
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ninety-five dollars, the work to be done in six months, and fifty dollars to be paid by the first of May, and one hundred dollars by the first of July, and the remainder when the work is done.
In witness whereof we have herein set our hands,
JOHNSON COOK, ISRAEL PUTNAM.
This was long known as the Benedict house and stood on the river bank in front of the Cook house. It was very much injured by the flood of 1884, and soon after demol- ished.
During these years the farmers tested a considerable variety of products such as cotton, upland rice and silk worms. Considerable quantities of hemp and flax were raised during those years. The hemp was used in the rope works at Mareitta and the flax made into cloth as shown by the record given by Dr. Hildreth in a previous chapter.
Quite a number of pioneers brought their families and goods from the east by ox teams, and also drove some other stock. Colonel Israel Putnam, Major Nathan Goodale, and Benjamin Miles brought some choice varieties of stock. Some of these were killed or stolen by Indians but what remained were increased and valued for many years.
In a letter written to Dr. Hildreth several years later Colonel Battelle says :
"I think sheep were introduced into Belpre by Griffin Greene Esq., who had a small flock given him by a friend in Charlestown, Virginia in 1792 or 3. Cotton was raised in very small quantities in our gardens, and was picked by hand and spun into stocking yarn. Upland rice was also planted in drills in our gardens but the red birds came in for a large share of it. In 1795 a good cow could be pur- chased for $25.00 though there were but few to be had." (We do not read that the price was raised on account of the scarcity.)
"Merino Sheep were brought to Zanesville by Seth Adams in the summer of 1805 and I think by Messrs. Fear- ing and Gilman the same year."
The fruit trees planted in the early years grew rapidly
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in the fertile soil and were grafted by scions from the choic- est varieties known in the eastern states."
Mr. Thaddeus M. Harris made a tour into the territory west of the Alleghany mountains in 1805, and writes in his journal concerning Belpre and its orchards as follows:
"The situation of Belpre is pleasant and beautiful. The houses are built upon the high banks of the river which opens a fine prospect. The upper settlement is opposite the mouth of the Little Kanawha and a small town on the Virginia shore. The middle settlement commands a view of the elegant mansion and buildings of Mr. Blennerhassett on an island of more than one hundred acres possessing all the beauty of a well cultivated garden. In the upper and lower settlements are some of the largest peach and apple orchards I saw in the country. They flourish luxuriantly and are already in bearing order. Interspersed among the well inclosed and highly cultivated plains back of this charming town they contribute to decorate and enrich the landscape."
The soil on these river terraces was fertile and crops as well as fruit trees grew luxuriantly and before many years the farms produced grain, vegetables, and fruit be- yond what was needed for home consumption. At first a market was found for this surplus on the passing boats; as these products increased flat boats were loaded and floated down the river sometimes as far as New Orleans.
The peach trees began bearing within a very few years and the fruit was larger and more abundant than in later years. As this fruit was perishable and there were no fast freight trains or cold storage warehouses, most of the peaches were sent to market in a liquid state. Many of the leading farmers had stills on their premises; they were not moonshiners, for the era of high tariff on luxuries, and prohibition laws had not arrived. "Belpre Peach Brandy" became known and prized in the towns down the river. Some of it also was consumed at home. At that time nearly all classes of people used some form of alcholic beverages. Even Clergymen had "refreshments" at eccle- siastical gatherings, and in naming these luxuries Peach Brandy was a little more refined than whisky. We do not find accounts of excessive intoxication in Belpre in those
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days, and in later years Belpre has become one of the most emphatically prohibition towns in the state.
In 1795 Peregrene Foster established a ferry opposite the mouth of the Little Kanawha, having obtained a fran- chise from the State of Virginia.
This ferry continued under a succession of owners un- til the autumn of 1918 and was a large asset to the business and prosperity of Belpre and the farmers who did business in Belpre and Parkersburg. The owners have always serv- ed the interests of their patrons. After the construction of the suspension bridge the ferry continued business for several months until the Bridge Corporation purchased the franchise and abandoned the ferry.
Only a few years after the building of the Benedict house it was occupied as "Cook's Tavern" which for many years was a stopping place for travelers who crossed the ferry and were on their way to settlements farther west.
Belpre villages not only did not exist during these early years; it was not even forseen as a future probability.
The subject of slavery was an important one, even in those early years. A considerable number of the settlers in that portion of southern Ohio, west of the Ohio Com- panies purchase, were from slave states and desired to bring slavery with them into Ohio.
When the Constitutional Convention met at Chillicothe in 1802, notwithstanding the prohibition of slavery in the northwest territory by the Ordinance of 1787, many of the delegates desired to allow slavery in the new state at least for a limited time, and President Jefferson was known to favor that admission. The man who did more than any other member of the Convention to defeat that movement was Judge Ephraim Cutler of Washington County, the son of Rev. Manassah Cutler, who secured the clause in the Ordinance of 1787 prohibiting slavery. He labored faith- fully on Committee claiming that the prohibition was a condition on which the land was purchased and the settle- ment made and ought to be considered a perpetual compact, and he succeeded in making this prohibition a part of the constitution of Ohio. Had he failed in this effort and Ohio been recognized as a slave state, even with a time limit, it is
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probable the condition of slavery would have been contin- ued. Had that been true no one can now tell what would have been the result of the Civil War or the present con- dition of the country. We should not forget the work of men who served our state so faithfully in those formative years.
Judge Cutler was in the State Legislature for several succeeding year and always an advocate of efficient school laws and such legislation as promoted public improvements. It is an interesting fact to be remembered that Judge Cut- lers home on the Ohio river was within the limits of Belpre township until the organization of Warren township in 1810 the latter township was named in honor of Gen. Joseph Warren who perished in the memorable battle of Bunker Hill.
These were active years in the political history of the Country. Conditions were changing from colonial govern- ments, owing allegiance to the mother country, to those of an independent republic. The amount of self control which had been exercised by the colonies had in a measure pre- pared them for a government of the people, for the people, and by the people, and yet there were many things respect- ing the new government which could only be learned by experience.
The whole people were studying and discussing the principles which were crystalizing into the platforms of the great parties which have alternated, irregularly, ac- cording to the decisions of the people, in controlling the nation. The citizens of Belpre were intelligent students of principles and current events and like their fellow citizens in other places were divided in sentiment; though a major- ity were Federalists, the party of Washington and Ham- ilton.
CONDITIONS COMPARED WITH THE PRESENT.
It may be interesting to us and gratifying to our curiosity to institute a comparison between the implements and conveniences of the pioneers and those enjoyed at the present time. Each of the men who landed at the mouth of the Muskingum, April 7th, 1788, had an axe and a hoe transported in the Company's wagons. There is no men- tion of other tools, though other things were doubtless
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brought by them and those who followed them during the summer. It is probable each of the forty eight men brought with him that universal yankee implement a pocket knife in addition to his gun and a limited amount of ammunition. Nearly all the farming tools at that time were made by carpenters and blacksmiths and were comely or clumsy ac- cording to the skill of these important mechanics. The axes came into immediate use in cutting the forest trees and a large portion of the land on which the first crop was raised, was mellowed by hoes only, as plows could not be conveniently used among the stumps and roots.
The first plows were rude wooden instruments, the shares shaped by axes to which beams and handles were fastened with wooden pins. It required the full strength of the holder to keep these plowshares in the ground, and often it was necessary for another to ride on the beam. The soil was turned very imperfectly but the ground was partly stirred and if they succeeded in making it look "dirty" it was considered successful plowing. The harrow was a triangular instrument in the form of the letter A, with eleven teeth. At first these were made of hard wood Most of the farm work was done by oxen and clumsy two wheeled carts. In some cases the wheels were sections of large logs or hewn into shape from wide planks. When the soil had been stirred by plows or hoes, and imperfectly mellowed by these rude harrows grain was sown broadcast by hand. When matured it was reaped with hand sickles, threshed with flails, winnowed by the wind, ground in hand mills, later between milstones, baked before the open fire, later in brick ovens, and hard work created an appetite.
At the present time a farmer rides over his field on a buggy plow, mellows the soil with quite a variety of im- proved cultivators and harrows, the drill sows the seed, with the fertilizer evenly in rows; the reaping and binding are done by harvesters; it is threshed and winnowed by steam power, ground between patent rollers and masticated with artificial teeth.
In those days the farmer sheared the wool from the sheep. His wife carded the wool by hand and spun it on the old spinning wheel, by the music of which many of the children of that day were lured to sleep. After this yarn had been carefully dyed it was knit into honest woolen stock-
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ings, or woven into the homespun web. This web was cut and made into garments by the neighborhood tayloress who went from house to house plying her trade, and even with such garments the active boys often wore patches to cover the rents. Flax and tow were spun by frugal housewives and woven into linen for sheets, towels, and kerchiefs which furnished the bridal outfit for many of our fore-mothers.
Now after shearing his sheep the farmer stores his wool until he thinks there will be no increase in price when it passes into the hands of "middle men." If these can com- mand sufficient money or influence, and are skillful in pull- ing wool over other peoples eyes, they will create "a corner" to increase the price. The wool finally reaches the factory, where it is carded, spun and woven by the busy fingers of ingenious machines. The cloth is taken to other establish- ments where it is cut into a great variety of garments which are stitched together amid the clatter of scores of sewing machines. The garments are distributed to retailers by means of "drummers" and finally reach the men and boys, who may not wear as many patches as the boys of a century ago, but the cause of this is not because the cloth is stronger or more endurable or the garments better made than in the days of the pioneers.
Hides taken from domestic animals were tanned for them by the nearest tanner and made into boots and shoes by the itinerating shoe maker. Now by the aid of improv- ed machinery 100 men in a factory can make as many shoes in a day as 500 could by the old hand process.
Friction matches were not in general use until well into the nineteenth century. The pioneer housewife preserved her fire through the night by burying coals in the ashes. If these were found to be entirely extinguished in the morn- ing the best way to build her fire was to secure a pot of coals from a neighbor. If for any reason this was imprac- ticable fire was produced by what was called a tinder box in which sparks, produced by the contact of steel and flint, were dropped into highly inflammable matter. In other cases a tow string was laid across the pan of a flint lock musket, this string was ignited by the flashing of powder and the string was used to kindle inflammable matter. If the matrons of the present day could spend a week in one
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of those pioneer kitchens they would realize how much we owe to so small a thing as a friction match.
The first fires of the settlers were bonfires in the open, where they heated water and cooked their first meals. When their log cabins were built they were provided with fire places and a few years later these were furnished with iron cranes on which were hung the pots and kettles. Wood was plenty and could be easily supplied in abundance. Their bread, pies, beans, and meat were roasted before the fire or in the ashes.
After cabins were erected they were usually provided with brick ovens in which "fireless cookers" our fore-moth- ers did their baking for half a century or until cook-stoves came into general use. Only a very limited amount of furniture was brought here by the settlers. Many of the tables were made of a wide board or plank in which three legs were inserted. Their chairs were stools made in a similar way, with or without backs. Bed steads were at first the ground, then elevated by slats extending from a post to two sides of the room. . Later a great improvement was made in the rope bed stead of which the present gener- ation know very little. Some very nice crockery was brought on by pioneer of which a few specimens are still preserved, but this was very limited. Wooden plates and even spoons and forks were frequently used, though many brought with them pewter spoons and iron forks. While using the primative articles our ancestors were thankful that they had so many comforts. As soon as they were provided with tallow, candles (tallow dips) were their best lights when these could not be secured pine knots were used to give them cheer during the winter evenings, and many an enterprising youth studied his lessons, or read books from the library, lying prone before the fire place perhaps often replenishing the fire with a fresh knot to increase the light. In some of the first cabins oiled paper was used in- stead of glass in the windows. Skins of animals were often used for bed covers during the cold winter nights and dress- ed deer skins were made into clothing for quite a number of years. At the time which we are describing and for a number of years later the people of Ohio had no gold or steel pens, no iron safes, safe cabinets, or yale locks, no circular, jig, or band saws,-no corn shellers, butter work-
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ers or sausage grinders, no automatic apple parers, cherry pitters, or egg beaters,-no clothes wringers, incubators, or fruit evaporators,-no condensed milk, canned goods, or sugar trust,-no buterine, oleomargarine, or Standard Oil Company,-no umbrellas, rubber goods, or vacuum cleaners, no daily newspapers, dime novels; or natural gas,-steam was just beginning to be known as a power and had hardly commenced to be made useful, and a knowledge of electricity was confined to experiments in a very few laboratories. Travel was performed on foot, horseback, or in very rude vehicles. Carriages with springs were unknown. In the summer of 1788 two homesick young men walked from Marietta to Boston in twenty-six days, which was con- sidered a very quick trip; the same summer Dr. Manassah Cutler made a journey from Boston to Marietta most of the way with horse and sulky and a month was required for the journey each way. Now a person can eat dinner in Belpre and dine in Boston on the evening of the following day. As late as 1835 a Boston paper stated that a person could travel from Boston to St. Louis, a distance of nineteen hundred miles, all the way in a public conveyance, in fifteen days. This was then considered a remarkable achievement in the matter of travel. Now (1918) a person can travel from Boston to St. Louis in thirty-six hours and enjoy the conveniences of a first class hotel all the way without leaving the train. A century ago we had no steamboats, railways, or locomotives,-no ocean steamships, dread- naughts, or submarines,-no telegraphs, telephones, or wire- less telegraph,-no photographs, phonographs or pullman cars,-no bicycles, automobiles, or aeroplanes,-no electric lighting, trolley cars, or twenty story sky scrapers. There might be added a multitude of improvements and conven- iences which the minds of men had not even conceived a century ago. A writer about the beginning of the nine- teenth century stated that so great improvements had been made in inventions during the eighteenth century that there seemed but little to be left for future advance, and yet at the close of the nineteenth century there was scarcely a machine in use which was used at the beginning of the century. We may now think that we have reached about the acme of inventions and improvements but our descend- ants a century hence will wonder as much at the crudeness
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of our present civilization as we now do at the imperfections of our ancestors of one hundred years ago.
HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT
In 1797, an Irish nobleman, by the name of Harman Blennerhassett, settled on what has since been known as Blennerhassett's Island. He was a gentleman of wealth and culture who had married his niece, Miss Margaret Ag- new, a beautiful and refined lady. The relatives were not pleased with this marriage and to remain in their native country meant for them family ostracism, which is suppos- ed to have been the reason for their emigration to America. After visiting some of the eastern states they crossed the Alleghany mountains to Pittsburg and sailed down the Ohio river to Marietta. They were so much pleased with the country and the people that they decided to locate in the vicinity. After examining some of the neighboring hills with a view of erecting a castle on a hill top, like so many in the Rhine valley, they finally abandoned that plan and purchased the eastern half of the beautiful island op- posite Belpre. Here they erected a stately mansion with an apppropriate group of outbuildings, laid out pleasant lawns and flower gardens, planted a large variety of fruit and ornamental trees and prepared the land for cultivation. They brought with them an extensive library with appara- tus for scientific experiments. Also musical instruments and works of art. They soon made their home and grounds the most beautiful and costly in the valley. They found their neighbors in Belpre both enterprising and intelligent and very intimate social associations grew up between them, which continued for about eight years. This was in the early and formative period of our political history. Aaron Burr was one of the most talented and ambitious men of that period, and desired to reach the Presidency. In 1801 he and Thomas Jefferson each had seventy-three electoral votes. This threw the election into the House of Representatives and on the thirtieth ballot Thomas Jeffer- son was chosen president and Burr, Vice-President. In 1804 he was democratic candidate for governor of New York, but was defeated and the same year he mortally wounded Alexander Hamilton in a duel which brought to him the most intense hatred from the friends of that gifted Statesman. Though a dissapointed man he was still am-
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