USA > Ohio > Jackson County > A history of Jackson County, Ohio, Volume I > Part 14
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16
Very respectfully,
CHAS. A. LACKEY.
155
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
THE LACKEY TAVERN-In this connection, the following petition of James Lackey, asking the Commissioners for license to keep a tavern, may prove of some interest:
September 4th, 1818.
To the Honorable Judges of the Court of Common Pleas of Jack- son County :
The petition of the undersigned freeholders of Bloomfield township represent to your honors that we conceive a house of entertainment in Bloomfield township would be to the public's convenience. We therefore recommend James Lackey, one of our citizens, to be a suitable person to accommodate the public. We therefore pray your honor would grant him license for that pur- pose.
Ilugh Poor, Andrew Boggs, John Stephenson, Joel Long, Robert Ervin, George Campbell, Samuel MeClure, Alexander Poor, George Corn, Moses Hale, Elisha Long, Stephen Martin, Robert G. Hanna, Martin Poor, William Scurlock, Stephen Martin, George W. Hale, Christopher Long, Peter Williams, Wm. Ware, John McNutt, John Dickerson, Joshua Perry, William J. Stephenson, James Ward, Benjamin Long.
JAMESTOWN CEMETERY-This cemetery derives its name from Major John James, on whose land it was laid out. Hle lies buried in it, his grave being on the Indian mound in the cemetery. There were three of these mounds originally, the three marking the angles of a triangle. The one in the cemetery is but little changed. The other, standing near William Warnecke's barn, is about the same size. The third stood in Joseph Watson's lot, and was re- moved by him about twenty years ago. Ile found in it a number of darts and arrow heads, some bones, ashes, and a piece of charred wood. It is very appropriate that the remains of Major James, who was a famous Indian scout, should have been interred in an Indian mound. The inscription on his monument is as follows:
"John James departed this life May 31, 1854. aged 81 years,
156
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
11 months, 17 days. The deceased was born in Connecticut June 14, 1772, came to Point Harmar, Ohio, 1788, and to this county in 1807; was a member of the Methodist church 40 years, and died the Christian's death."
He was the grandfather of Warden James, and a number of other prominent citizens of the county.
The first person buried in this cemetery was Elizabeth C. Darling, a daughter of Timothy Darling and his wife. The latter was Elizabeth Cook, and was a sister of Nancy Cook, the wife of Major John James.
THE MARTIN MOUND-This mound was perhaps the most peculiar in the county in one respect. After Jefferson Furnace was built, some parties dug into it and discovered that it had been built of blocks of ore and covered with earth. The ore was taken out and hauled to the Furnace. There were some 15 tons of it. It is much to be regretted, that no effort was made to open the mound scientifically. Valuable remains or relics might have been found in it, but I have failed to learn that any were found. The presence of the blocks of iron ore and flint in the mound would indicate that the structure belonged to the house mound class. It is probable that others of the kind exist in the township, and when they are discovered, the owner should have them opened according to the plan laid down by archaeologists.
BURNING OF THE COURT HOUSE-The first court house burned down September 20, 1860, and the following account of the fire appeared in The Standard:
On last Friday, at 1 o'clock, a fire broke out in that part of the Franklin House, occupied as a residence by John Rapp. It is supposed that the fire caught from the stove flue. The Franklin house was in a sheet of flame in a few minutes. Great exertions were made to save the next building, the residence of Abraham French, but all in vain. The fire swept on, taking in its course the store room and residence of B. F. Thompson, the grocery store of
157
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
Henry Barlow, the saddler shop of D. W. Winfough, the residence of John Stephenson, the grocery store of Meacham & Gibson, the residence of E. D. Meacham, and the book store of R. Harding. The goods and furniture were mostly removed and saved, although some were taken into the street and took fire from the flying cin- ders, and were consumed. The flames were arrested at Broadway stree, by pulling down the corner building, ocenpied by Meacham & Gibson.
About the time that the fiames reached the corner, it was dis- covered that the cupola of the court house was on fire. The roof of the building soon caught, and all the wood work was consumed. The books and papers were removed from the public offices, and the roof of the clerk's office was at one time in flames. This build- ing was at this time abandoned; but the heated and wearied men again rallied, and by the most daring efforts, the building was saved.
It has been thought by some, that the court house might have been saved; but it must be recollected that the fire caught in a place that could not be reached with the means at hand, and that every one, men and women, had fought the flames until ex- hausted. If we had been in possession of a short ladder, and the means of securing the foot of it on the slanting roof, we mnight have reached the fire; but we were destitute of these; and in the excitement the loss of a very few minutes was fatal to the old court house.
The whole of that part of Main street from Portsmouth to Broadway, is swept clean. The buildings were old frames, and not worth much. The entire loss will probably not exceed $10,000. There was no insurance except on Mr. Winfough's saddler shop, which was insured in the Aetna, for $400. Those who owned the buildings destroyed, were John Burnsides, A. French, John L. Long, D. W. Winfough, John Stephenson and S. G. Montgomery.
MACKLEY'S RECOLLECTIONS-The following extracts from Davis Mackley's "Random Notes" deserve a place here.
I found the first records of the county commissioners in two
158
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
old books, one indexed, and the other not. They are almost iden- tical, and contain a plain and simple history of the transactions as they occurred, without any reference to the forms of book- keeping. These records commence in the spring of 1816, and the commissioners had frequent meetings. Nathaniel W. Andrews was their clerk.
The amount of taxes collected in Jackson county yearly, for a number of years, was less than $1,000. The principal items of expense consisted of jury and election expenses, and the cost of laying out and establishing roads. During the first year the com- missioners passed an order paying one dollar for each wolf scalp, where the wolf was under six months old, and two dollars where the wolf was over that age. This was subsequently raised to $1.50 and $3.00. The records show considerable sums paid out for wolf scalps during the ten or twelve years subsequent to the year 1816. This may sound strangely to the people of this day; but I can remember of hearing wolves howl at night, in Jefferson township, as late as the year 1834. They destroyed large numbers of sleep and young cattle, and it became a public benefit to de- stroy them; hence the premium paid by the public for their destruction.
The affairs of the county in the early days were conducted upon very economical principles, but honesty among the public officers was remarkable. True, there was but little to steal, and of course the temptation was small. Few officers were then elected by the people. The theory of the early officers of this county appeared to be, that when an officer was found capable and faithful, he was kept in office. Hence such men as Daniel Hoffman, Alexander Miller, Joseph Armstrong, Samuel Carrick, and a few others, have their names upon the records as public officers during a long space of time, and their accounts always appear correct. I wish I could say as much for some of the officers whose names appear at a later period. But let that pass. * *
A family named Darling came from the state of New York, Cattaraugus county, about this time, and settled in the vicinity of Oak Hill. They were Baptists. Isaac Darling brought the
159
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
first cast iron plow that was ever seen in that region. Before that time the old bar shear plow, with the wooden mould board was the only one, save the shovel plow. My father borrowed Darling's plow, and he liked it so well that he bought it, giving $6 for it. The neighbors borrowed it all around. Matt Farley, who resided three miles from where we did, and near where Monroe Furnace is now located, borrowed it, and he carried it on his shoulder all the way without laying it down, although it weighed 80 pounds.
This was a pretty hard way of getting along, but there were greater hardships and privations than this. I knew a boy who attended the first Sabbath school, with whom I was quite in- timate. The hat he wore to this Sabbath school was the first one he ever had that was bought at a store, and he earned the money paid for it by cutting cord-wood at 25 cents per cord. The hat was a common wool hat, and cost $1.25. He kept it and had it look well, from 1830 to 1834, when he worked at the furnace and got money to buy his first fur hat. He killed squirrels and tanned their skins and of these made his own shoes. He took the insoles of his winter shoes for soles. He dug a trough in a poplar log, cut up black oak bark, and thus was his own tanner, as well as shoemaker. Squirrel skins, when tanned, and then blacked with copperas, made fine, nice leather. This boy became so careful of his hats, thus acquired by so great an effort, that to this day he never wears out a hat, but has it looking neat when it goes out of fashion. He once showed me a lot of hats of all styles, from the bell crown to the sugar loaf, which had become unfashion- able by lapse of time. *
I stopped under a great oak tree in the creek bottom to rest. In this creek, I saw Levi McDaniel baptize several persons, in the summer of 1833. On the bank grew a bush that leaned over the creek. A boy climbed upon this bush, in order the better to see the baptizing. His weight loosened the roots, and he fell on his back in the middle of the stream. The bush was across his breast, and he held on to it, kicking and splashing the water. A little girl came to these baptizings whose name was Darling. She wore
160
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
a "calash" or bellows bonnet. She would throw it back on her shoulders.
Levi McDaniel's father, James McDaniel, was one of the first justices of the peace in Jackson county. When I was a small boy, he taught school in a little log house in the woods, just north of where Gallia and Washington stations are now located. Mr. MeDaniel was an old man, with long white hair, and he was stoop- shouldered with age. He thought a great deal of me, and bor- rowed the life of George Buchanan, the King's Fool, for me to read. Mr. MeDaniel would go to sleep in school, and we boys would have our pockets full of buckeyes, and when our old teacher was asleep we would cover them in the hot embers. When they became heated they would burst, with a report half as loud as a pistol.
Just above where I now write. once stood the old log school house where I went to school to John McKenzie, Willis C. Wil- more, James Kelly and John Shumate. At Christmas the large boys and young men would "bar out" the teacher, and make him treat. My parents would not let me go, as I was too small. One winter I cried and begged to be permitted to go. At last my father took me up on his horse and went with me. There was a great crowd around the house, and the teacher had procured a jug of whisky at a little distillery kept by George Crump, a short distance below the school house. All were drinking and having a good time generally.
All the men who lived 35 years ago along the route of my walk of to-day, are gone. Not one remains. Then there were John and Matt Farley, Robert Massie, George Crump, Moses Massie, Jesse Kelly, Levi McDaniel, Solomon Mackley, my uncle, William and John Walton, James Kelly, etc. But I mistake. One man remains. Joseph Phillips then lived here, and I saw him to-day. Speaking of my uncle, reminds me of the horse mill he had on the hill between Portland and Jefferson Furnace. Here we boys would come to mill, and we had to stay and keep our horses there, or lose our turn. I have stayed there two days and
161
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
one night before my turn came. I have seen as many as 30 horses there at one time. * *
I do not know how fast a tame turkey can run in the night; but I know a wild turkey can outrun a man in daylight. I have often started up a flock of wild turkeys when hunting. I would run after them to try to get a shot at them. If I did not shoot at once, they would soon be out of sight, so much could they out- run me.
When I was a boy, wild turkeys were quite plenty in this county. They were nice and fat in the winter. We had as many as we wanted. We caught them in pens made of fence rails. A trench some 15 feet long was dug, sloping gradually down from both ends. Then a rail pen was built about three feet high, and covered on the top with rails. One side of the pen was built directly across the middle of the trench. On the inside a few boards were laid across the trench, next the rails of the pen. Then corn would be scattered about the fields, and a trail of corn leading to the pen. Corn was thickly scattered in the trench and in the pen. The turkeys, finding the corn, would follow the same to the pen, and picking up the corn in the trench, would walk right through it, into the pen. When they wanted out, they al- ways looked up, running their heads between the rails. They never once thought of looking down for the trench.
When I was a small boy I went one morning with my father to a turkey pen, some half a mile from the house, in an old field. It had six large turkeys in it. He took one out for me to carry home. When he went to wring its neck, I begged to carry it alive. I found that it was all I wanted to carry when dead, and if I had undertaken to carry it alive, it would have got away from me at the first effort it made.
I was very fond of hunting pheasants when a boy. They are good eating, especially the breast. If I heard a pheasant drum- ming I was almost sure of it. They are a strange fowl. When drumming, they get upon an old log, in a thicket of bushes. They strike their wings against their sides three times in rapid suc-
162
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
cession, then make a short pause, when they commence striking slowly, getting faster until it ends in a roar. The whole opera- tion does not last over half a minute. I have often heard the drumming of a pheasant one mile. It sounds almost exactly like distant thunder. It was always a mystery to me how the light wings and soft feathery sides of this little fowl, less than the common hen, could make so tremendous a sound.
When I heard a pheasant drumming, I would go towards it until nearly in sight. They drum about once in five minutes. I would listen, and get the exact locality, then commence a circle around it. As long as you go around a pheasant, it will sit still and watch you; but to go towards it, it will fly at once. No matter how much noise is made in the brush, while going fast around it, there is no danger of its flying. I would go on until within 20 or 30 feet, and having my gun ready, would shoot its head off. Some times I would miss. The pheasant would gen- erally sit still, and I would commence circling around it, reload- ing my gun as I went. This may seem small sport to the old hunter, who has been in the habit of killing bears, and wolves, and panthers, and deer; but turkeys and pheasants were the best game we had. True, there were a good many deer, but they were * so wild that only the experienced hunters could kill them.
Opossums were very plenty in this county in early days, and were very troublesome to the farmers, stealing and killing their chickens whenever they could get an opportunity. For this they were hunted and killed. The best way to kill them was to cut their heads off with an ax. There may be a few of this animal yet remaining in this county; but like the wild turkeys and pig- eons, they will soon be all gone.
Raccoons were formerly very plenty in this county, and a few yet remain. They did a great deal of mischief to the corn in the summer, eating it, and breaking it down. We often hunted them of nights. They would come into the corn fields soon after dark. Then we would send in our trained dogs. The raccoon would seek refuge on the largest tree it could find. A trained raccoou dog has a peculiar kind of bark when he trees the animal, which the
163
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY .
hunter at once recognizes. If the tree was not too large, we at once cut it down. The dogs would be ready near where it would fall, and rarely missed catching and killing the raccoon at once. If the tree was very large, we would build a fire, roast the green corn, tell stories, and thus amuse ourselves until daylight, when we would shoot the raccoon, and thus save the labor of cutting the tree down.
PRICE'S RECOLLECTIONS-The following reminiscences of P. P. Price, the last Whig postmaster of Jackson, tell the story of the company of volunteers organized in this city for the Mex- ican war:
"I was born at Louisburg, in Greenbrier county, Virginia, on July 20, 1820. My father's name was Isaac Price and my grand- father was named Jacob Price. He was a soldier in the Revo- lutionary war, for which services he received a pension in later years. He died in Pike county in this state. My father, Isaac Price, was a soldier in the War of 1812. About 1825 he left Virginia and came to Ohio. He came down the Kanawha and then to Gallipolis. He stopped first near Beavertown in Pike county, having passed through this town. Later he settled at Piketon. I began to learn the trade of hatter at Piketon, but when I was 17, I went to Chillicothe where I finished. I remem- ber my experiences at Chillicothe very distinctly. One night in 1838, I went to a political meeting at a little brick school house on Bank alley, running from Second street to Water street. There I heard Allen G. Thurman make a speech and I was told that it was his first effort. I remember the Harrison meeting in 1840. The people came by thousands and the parade was very long. Tom Corwin spoke. Another time, I went to hear Thomas L. Hamer, who was afterward killed in the Mexican war. I once heard Richard M. Johnson, who was vice president under Van Buren, and who was a candidate with him again in 1840. I came to Jackson in January, 1842, and started a hatter's shop. My shop stood just across the alley west of .the Pickrel building Joseph Throckmorton had a shoe shop in the same building. I
164
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
soon began to keep a supply of boots and shoes in addition to my stock of hats and caps. About 1841, I turned my store into a gen- eral store. Throckmorton left and Moses Sternberger moved in, he occupying one side of the room and I the other. I was single then and boarded at the McQuality house. Levi Dungan was one of my fellow boarders. The room now occupied by N. Downey was then the parlor. McQuality was county treasurer. He also had a little store. He kept his store in a little frame house east of his hotel. It stood where the brick house adjoining the old hotel now stands. I remember some of McQuality's family distinctly. Three of the girls were Mary Ann, Eliza and Electa. Mary Ann became the wife of James Cadot, of Scioto county. I think Mc- Quality had two sons, James and William. I was a Whig. In 1844, when Clay and Freylinghuysen ran, I was a member of the Whig central committee. The other members were William Cissna and William McKinniss. There was no paper published then in Jacksn county. I was a member of the M. E. church here. Rev. Jacob Westfall was pastor in charge and Rev. C. H. Warren was junior pastor. I remember making a hat for him. He was a gentleman well liked by all on account of his amiability. School had been taught here before I came, in a little school house built of poles. It stood on the triangle near where the Lutheran church is now. Levi Dungan taught there. A man by the name of Thornton taught there also before I came here. We called that part of town Ford's hill then. It was so called because a preacher named Ford lived on the road that passed over the hill. There was a school taught after that in a little building standing near where the National bank is now. It was taught by a lady. The Isham house had not been built then. A small brick build- ing stood on its site owned by Chapman Isham and he had a store in it. I think a part of the walls of this brick were used when the Isham house was built. I was a member of a company raised for the Mexican war. William Cissna and myself had been aides of General Hamilton of this military district in the old militia, and we tried to organize a company here. We secured only a part of one however. Gabriel Andrews was one of the men. Another that I remember was Sam Pike, who did a little job print-
165
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
ing. From here we went to Piketon, where we made up the com- pany. William Cissna was elected captain and I was chosen one of the lieutenants. We went from Piketon to Portsmouth in an old corn boat, traveling on the canal. It rained nearly all the way and we had a disagreeable time. The boys got to playing once and one of them slipped off into the canal just in front of the boat, but he was rescued before the boat passed over him. We had to stay several weeks at Portsmouth while General Hamil- ton went to Cincinnati to get us accepted. He got his company accepted, but our company was discharged and we had to get back to Jackson the best we could. I think this company was raised here in 1847. Martin Stallings, of this county, had gone out before. He was wounded in the war. Shortly after our re- turn, Captain Cissna was married to a daughter of David Mitchel. I was at the wedding. I think Mitchel's house stood on the Chil- licothe road. I remember that the boys got to shooting after the wedding, and several horses got scared and broke loose, creating considerable excitement.
The campaign of 1848 was an exciting one. I remember we had a great meeting here, one of the features of which was a parade. In the parade we had a large mechanics' wagon. Riding on it were several mechanics all at work. I was working on a hat. After Taylor was elected in 1848, I was appointed postmas- ter of Jackson. I think I entered upon my duties about July 1, 1849. I kept the office at my store at the corner just across the alley from the Pickrel building. About 1852 I built a part of what is now 'Rat Row' and moved my store and the postoffice there. My partner's name was John S. Taylor and our store was the fourth door from the corner. There was no fence around the Public square then and the public used to drive down between the old court house and the log jail. I soon grew tired of the postoffice because it required me to keep a clerk. When Pierce was elected I resigned. My first letter of resignation was not accepted and I had to write a second. Finally Steele was ap- pointed and he removed the office to the parlor of the old Mc- Quality house, which Steele had purchased. Later, I sold out to my partner, Taylor, and purchased the stock of James Dyer, who
166
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
had his store in a small building standing at the Commercial Bank corner. Afterward I moved to a building where Hugh Crossin's building now stands. I remember that father used to catch wild turkeys in rail pens when we lived at Beavertown. The country was then full of deer and all game. The salt wells were not used when I came to Jackson. They were thick on the Salt creek bottom from Lackey's farm to the Bunns, but were beginning to . fill up. Walker Bennett, the banker, used to bathe in a well near where the Baler works are. Coal had been discovered here before I came. It was found in a well which was put down near where the Crescent Opera House is now. Powell, a Welshman, had a tailor shop there, and the well was near the shop. The exist- ence of coal under the town was well known in 1842. I remem- ber the big flood in 1847, and I saw the man drowned on the Athens road near the Tropic furnace. George L. Crookham, I knew well. He used to sit down to read in the postoffice. He took many papers, one of which was the National Era. I remem- ber the great fire in 1860. Fire caught in the cupola of the old court house from a building standing near where the Iron bank is now.
I remember of going with a party to a place about one mile west of Jackson to a pigeon roost. We had pine torches. There were so many pigeons at the roost that limbs of trees would break down under their weight. We climbed them and knocked them down in great numbers. What a fluttering there was. The roost covered about four acres. We would knock down the birds with poles, put them in sacks and bring them to Jackson. If we could have sold them we would have been made rich, but the buyers were few and they had no money. I remember that an old man from Fairfield county told me that he once hauled a bar- rel of salt from Jackson to his home in Fairfield county on a sled. The distance is from 65 to 70 miles.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.