USA > Ohio > Jackson County > A history of Jackson County, Ohio, Volume I > Part 3
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ROCK SHELTERS-The first topographical survey of Jack- son county was made by Charles Whittlesey in the summer of 1837. In his report to W. W. Mather, the State Geologist, he makes spe- cial mention of the sand rock bluffs with mural fronts, rising alter- nately on each bank of Salt Creek between Strong's Mill and Jackson. These bluffs add a wild and romantic feature to the scenery and are visited by thousands of people every year. Some of them rise to the height of one hundred feet. The fronts of many remain comparatively unbroken, but in others, the lower strata have worn away faster than the upper, which now overhang and form rock shelters. In a few instances, the lower strata have re- ceded thirty to forty feet, and such shelters are spoken of locally
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
as "caves." There are fifty or more of these rock shelters in the county. The first white visitors, who were hunters or trappers, discovered that the floors of these shelters are a mixture of sand and ashes. The makers of saltpetre who came later, disturbed the ashes and unearthed many bone fragments, shells, potsherds, and flints, granite and stone implements, but they were untutored, and these discoveries failed to whet their curiosity. The relics were saved for the moment, perhaps, but were soon cast aside. In some instances, perversity or ignorance led the finders to break the largest stone hammers and axes and to throw smaller ones into the waters of the creek. The extent of this vandalism will never be known. If any human skeletons were found by the saltpetre men, the fact has not been recorded. A few of the early pioneers were educated men, but none of them seem to have attached any special significance to these discoveries, although some of them made collections of the relics. In later years, boys learned to dig in these ash floors whenever they wanted "Indian" relics, and tons- of them have been discovered. Many were lost in time, visiting collectors have taken many others out of the county, but there yet remain a great number in private collections, which, if combined, would make a respectable showing.
HUMAN SKELETONS-About thirty years ago a skull and other parts of a human skeleton were found in the ashes in a rock shelter on the land of Captain Samuel White in Liberty township. A similar find was made in a cave in Madison township. A third skeleton was found in 1883 by F. E. Bingman in a shelter on Salt Creek, and a fourth was found at the north end of McKitterick's sand bank. Bingman was digging for relics, but the other discov- eries were made by accident. Saturday, March 16, 1900, Strawder J. Swyers and Charles Faught were digging for relics in the ashes at the Tea Rocks and discovered a fifth skeleton. They came upon it unexpectedly and did not observe its position carefully. The skull was shattered in digging and the bones were brittle and broke in handling. The teeth were in good condition, indicating that they had belonged to a young person. The sex could not be deter- mined, but the finding of an arrowhead lying among the ribs in-
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dicate that the skeleton was that of a young brave who came to an untimely death. A number of arrowheads, a bone awl, and a piece of deer horn were found with it. This discovery started others to digging. Gray Halterman found two skeletons, and two young men named McGowan and Hoover found a fourth near by. These boys found also, a number of arrowheads, bone awls, potsherds, shells, bone fragments and broken stone or flint instruments. Wednesday, April 11, I visited the place and began to dig at ran- dom. Within five minutes, I shoveled up a fragment, which looked like a bit of pottery, but my son picked it up, and discovered that it was a piece of human skull. Digging more carefully, I uncovered the skull. It was that of a full grown man, and the condition of the teeth indicated that he had reached middle age. The upper part of the skull was intact. When first exposed, it was brown, but a fragment which I preserved is now whiter. The lower part of the skull had practically decomposed, but the teeth and one side of the lower jaw were in fair condition. The skull rested upright on a mass of bones, all of which were badly decomposed, but they were so arranged that it was easy to see that the dead man had been buried in a sitting posture. The skull was found about five feet below the level of the old floor, but my digging was made on the face of an excavation made by sand diggers. I shoveled up a number of potsherds, shells and bone fragments, and I dug through a layer of fine charcoal, which lay about six inches above the skull. The charcoal had not been disturbed since the fire went out in it, until my shovel struck it. Its presence suggests a theory which will be mentioned later. The bones which I discovered had decom- posed more than the bones found by Swyer, but the latter lay under shelter and only three feet deep. Altogether, nine human skeletons have now been found in Jackson county rock shelters. The skele- ton found in Madison township may have been that of a white hunter, trapper or hermit, who died of disease or from the effects of injuries received in falling, or from a wild beast, but the other eight belonged, no doubt, to Indians. They must have been the skeletons of men killed in battle or skirmish, and buried hurriedly by comrades before they retreated from the neighborhood. The Indians always gave their dead decent burial, except in extremity.
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
A brave has been known to carry the body of his boy home from a distance of one hundred miles, in order to bury him with his kindred. The burials were never made near camps or inside of shelters used as houses; therefore, the skeletons unearthed at the Tea Rocks were not buried in time of peace, or by the occupants of the shelter. The layer of charcoal under which I found skeleton No. 9 suggests the circumstances. The Indian dreads the loss of his sealp in war, and skeleton No. 9 was buried by his comrades in the most unlikely place, and a fire kindled over his grave to con- ceal it, in order to prevent the enemy from scalping the corpse.
STORY OF THE ASHES-The relies found in the rock shel- ters are prized by collectors, and the skeletons unearthed excite the curiosity of a few, but the ashes themselves have been regarded as of no consequence. And yet they tell a story as interesting and as old as that of all low lying mounds. The earliest rock shelters were formed soon after the close of the Glacial period, but the oldest have disappeared, for the overhanging strata break off from time to time and roll down into the valleys. This seems to occur oftenest in shelters with a northern or western exposure, while those with a southern exposure last longer. Nearly all the rock shelters in the county have had their inhabitants. Their first oc- cupants must have been the primeval men, who had not learned to kindle a fire. They were followed in turn by men who knew the use of fire, but had not learned to build houses. The Mound Builders succeeded these, who in turn were succeeded by the Indians. The favorite shelter with all of them seems to have been the slight one at the Tea Rocks, selected on account of its proximity to the salt pans at the riffle in Salt Creek. The bluff at this place rose only to. the height of about forty feet, and the overhanging shelf was rela- tively slight, but it had a southern exposure, which compensated for several feet of shelf. The ash heap at this point is the largest in the county. It is over one hundred feet long, and was fully eight feet deep in one place. It slopes down to the creek, which at one time flowed toward the bluff in a sweep from the opposite side of the valley. Hundreds of tons of ashes have been hauled away as fertilizer, and scattered on lawns, gardens and fields, but thousands.
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
of tons, perhaps, lie yet where they have lain for centuries. The skeletons discovered in March and April, 1900, were found here. A great number of flint and bone implements have been found in it. Muscle shells are numerous and tons of bone fragments are mingled with its ashes. All the bones have been split for the mar- row. The animals represented are the buffalo, bear, deer, elk, fox, raccoon, ground hog, oppossum, beaver, wild turkey and others, which roved or lived in the neighborhood of the licks. Hundreds of potsherds may be found. One specimen in my possession was a part of a pot which had a rim diameter of five inches. It was reg- ularly formed and the outside bears the impression of a fabric. The greater part of the heap has not yet been examined. It is useless to conjecture how long the shelter was occupied, but the quantity of ashes indicates that the first man kindled a fire in it long before Columbus discovered America. The men who built the mounds in Jamestown may have occupied it. Arrowheads were found in the lower part of the heap that may have been fashioned by a man who lived two or three thousand years ago. The pottery broken here may have been brought carefully from the gulf coast, for the fabric marks on some fragments are almost identical with those on specimens which I picked up on an old Indian village site on the banks of the Noxubee river in Mississippi. The Mound Builders remained long enough in Jackson county to dot its hills and valleys with earthworks and to leave scattered on its surface tons of flint ·or stone implements, and must have occupied this shelter. Their fate is a mystery. The claim has been advanced that they were the ancestors of the Indians, while others claim that the Indians drove them out of the country. Some Indians built mounds and it is known also that the Indians dearly loved the hills surrounding the Scioto licks, where the Mound Builders had once been so nu- merous. The salt springs attracted all manner of game, and they came here to hunt, while the squaws made salt.
THE SALT PANS-Jams L. Swyers is now engaged in blast- ing the sand stone in the riffle near Old Camp Diamond. The blast- ing has removed the last vestiges of the old Indian salt pans. There were quite a number of them in the sand rock in the bed of the
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
creek, where it flowed across the valley to the Tea Rocks, but when a ditch was cut through the neck, shortening the loop, the majority of them were covered up. Three remained until a few years ago, but Swyers blasted out the last one in 1899. The Indians were too lazy to dig wells for salt water, preferring to wait until the Fall of the year, when the water would be lowest in the creek, and corre- spondingly saltier.
THE SHAWANESE-There is no record of the coming of the Indians, but it is known that the Shawanese owned and occupied Jackson county when it was discovered by the whites. It appears, however, that all the Ohio tribes were allowed to visit the salt springs and to make salt. Situated as they were on the great In- dian trail from the mouth of the Kanawha to the head of the Maumee, they were visited by hundreds, and sometimes, thousands of Indians, during the summer months. These gatherings resem- bled the Russian markets of the last century. Many of the visit- ing Indians bought their salt, giving in exchange flint implements, tobacco, beads, pipestone and other articles of aboriginal com- merce. It is told that tribes at war with each other would observe a truce during these visits. The squaws performed all the work, chopping the saplings for fuel, drawing the water and watching the fires day and night, while the men spent their time hunting, fishing, playing ball, gaming and telling yarns. In later years, they tortured white captives in the presence of the assembled tribes. Even after the whites had taken possession of the licks, the Indians used to revisit them every summer until about 1815. These bands came ostensibly for salt, but it is claimed that they knew of a lead deposit in the county, to which they resorted secretly for many years.
THE HISTORIC PERIOD-John Cabot, a native of Venice, but a subject of England, being ambitious to rival Columbus, ap- plied to the English monarch for a commission. The throne was then occupied by Henry VII, the grandson of a Welshman. He listened to Cabot's plans with interest and granted his request March 5, 1496. The commission authorized Cabot, or any of his
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
three sons, to sail into the eastern, northern or western seas, with a fleet of five ships, to search for islands or regions inhabited by infidels, and hitherto unknown to Christendom; to take possession in the name of the king of England, and as his vassals, to con- quer, possess and occupy; enjoying for themselves, their heirs and assigns forever the sole right of trading thither; paying to the king, in lieu of all customs and imposts, a fifth of all net profits. Cabot acted promptly and sailed away into the unknown region, where Madoc had disappeared three centuries before. He reached the end of his voyage sooner than had beenexpected, for he sighted land June 24, 1897, abounding according to his account with white bears. and deer of unusual size and inhabited by savage men, clothed in skins and armed with bows, spears and clubs. Thus was discov- ered the continent of North America.
ANNEXED TO VIRGINIA-One hundred and ten years rolled away before the English effected a permanent settlement upon this continent. This was accomplished by the London Com- pany, which was chartered by James I, April 10, 1606, and granted a strip of the American coast lying between the thirty-fourth and forty-first parallels north latitude, and extending one hundred miles inland. Its first colony was established on the James river, May 13, 1607, and named Jamestown. The company met with many reverses, and on May 23, 1609, it was reorganized and rechartered. The new charter defined the boundaries of Virginia as embracing a terri- tory two hundred miles north and south from Old Point Comfort, and reaching up into the land from sea to sea. This grant included the Scioto salt licks, and was the first historical act that concerned them.
CAPTAIN BATTS' EXPEDITION-The story of Virginia's dominion in the Ohio Valley during the next century and a half is soon told. All there is of it, are the meager details of an expedition that failed. Rufus King's account is as follows: Captain Thomas Batts, with a party of English and Indians, was sent by Governor Berkeley in September, 1671, "to explore and find out the ebbing and flowing of the water behind the mountains, in order to the discovery of the South Sea." After a march of thirteen days from
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
"Appomatok," through the forests and over steep mountains, they came down upon waters running west of northwest, through pleas- ant hills and rich meadows. They encountered a river "like the Thames at Chelsea," and following its course, came, on the six- teenth day, to "a fall that made a great noise," probably the falls of Kanawha. Here the journey ended, the Indians refusing to go further, under the pretense that they could catch no game on ac- count of the dryness of the ground and the sticks; but really from dread of the tribes down that river, from whom, as they reported, travelers never returned. In the country below, they also reported, there was a great abundance of salt .- This is the earliest historical allusion to the salt licks of the Ohio Valley, and, inasmuch as one of the most noted Indian trails ran from the mouth of the Kanawha to the northwest, by way of the Scioto licks, it is possible that they may have been referred to.
LA SALLE-There is something in a name after all. Captain Batts, true to his name, was blind to his opportunity and missed immortality by not pushing on and discovering the Ohio river. It is true that La Salle is said to have discovered the beautiful river a year before Captain Batts' expedition set out, but the news had not reached Europe, and even to this day the fact has not been clearly established. Robert Cavalier was born in 1643 on the La Salle estate near Rouen in France. He came to Montreal in 1666, and entered soon afterward upon his career as explorer. Parkman believes that he discovered the Ohio river in the early months of 1670, and descended it as far as the rapids at Louisville. At any rate, the French laid claim to the Ohio Valley, and annexed it to Louisiana in 1713.
FIRST WHITE VISITORS-The name of the first white man to visit the Scioto licks will never be known, but there is every reason for believing that he was a Frenchman, of that class known as Bushrangers, whom King describes as follows: They were a mix- ture of the smuggler and trapper, deemed outlaws because they would not purchase licenses under the rigid monopoly in the fur trade as farmed out in Canada. In this way, thousands of French-
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
men disappeared, who had been sent over to the colony at much expense; the king and his ministers constantly complaining of the loss of their subjects. Far ont in the forests of the west, safe from the king's reach, they were living with the savages, marrying and hunting, fiddling, drinking and smoking, in entire independence. Of such were many of the earliest settlers of Ohio. Living thus, they must have accompanied some bands of Indians, sooner or later, on a salt-making expedition to these licks. It is probable that many such visitors had learned of their existence before 1725, for the licensed fur traders of Canada began to visit the Southern Ohio country about that time.
FIRST ENGLISH VISITORS-A state of war existed at all times between the French and English borderers. The French found willing allies in the Indians, for the two races understood each other better and mingled more readily. Nearly all the French Bushrangers had Indian wives, and in time their half breed pro- geny became numerous in the Ohio country. The latter class hated the English with the combined hatred of Frenchman and Indian, and they spared no effort to stir up their savage kindred against the English borderers of Pennsylvania and Virginia. As early as 1735 they began to make raids into the Alleghenies to destroy isolated and outlying settlements. The border warfare thus instituted was condneted with the greatest ferocity and cruelty, and lasted sixty years. During that period no English settler in the mountains felt himself safe for a day from an attack by the Indians. They went armed at all times, whether at work, or on pleasure bent. When they left their homes in the morning they were never sure that they would live to come back, or that the cabin, which held all that was dear to them, would be standing when they came. From 1735 to 1795, the Indians went on these manhunting excursions just as regularly as Ohio men now go into the mountains of Virginia after game. As a rule they killed every person, man, woman or child; but there were times when a brave chose a handsome lad for adoption, or a half-breed saved an attrac- tive girl or woman for a wife, or some courageous man was spared, that the Indians might have the pleasure and gratification
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
of torturing him at the stake. All the expeditions up the Kanawha returned by way of the Scioto licks, and it is probable that the first English visitors to them, belonged to one or the other of the classes of captives mentioned. The Indians told the early salt boilers that it was the custom to burn white prisoners at the stake during the Indian gatherings at the licks in the summer and fall, and that the stake stood on the point overlooking the Crossin sulphur spring, near the site of the town well. Scores of English captives were tortured at this point between the years 1735 and 1794.
DE CELORON'S EXPEDITION-Notwithstanding the alli- ance between the French and Indians, daring English traders entered the Obio country during the first quarter of the Eighteenth century, and by 1731 they had penetrated as far as the Wabash. During the next 15 years English traders came in such numbers that the French became alarmed and sent to Canada for a force to drive out the invaders. The government acted promptly and sent out an expedition of 250 French and Indians, under the com- mand of De Celoron. They left Montreal June 15, 1749, moved on by way of Lakes Erie and Chautauqua, down the Allegheny and the Ohio, as far as the Big Miami, and back to the Maumee. They reached the mouth of the Big Miami August 30, 1749. De Celeron everywhere proclaimed the dominion of France and drove out the English traders. The French were now supreme in the valley, and although Gist, an Englishman, succeeded in stirring up some trouble in 1750, their traders had a monopoly of the trade until 1762. During that period they visited the licks regularly.
APPEARANCE OF THE LICKS-The earliest description of an Ohio lick is to be found in the narrative of Colonel James Smith, published in 1799. Smith was captured by the Indians just before the battle in which Braddock met his defeat and death, and was brought to Ohio and adopted by his captors. In August of the same year he accompanied them on a salt making expedi- tion to the "Buffalo Lick," as he calls it, which he describes as follows: "We then moved to the Buffalo lick, where we killed
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
several buffaloes, and in their small brass kettles they made about half a bushel of salt. I suppose this lick was about thirty or forty miles from the aforesaid town, and somewhere between the Muskingum, Ohio and Scioto. About the lick were clear, open woods, and thin white oak land, and at that time there were large roads leading to the lick, like wagon roads." The town referred to by Smith was on the upper Muskingum, more than 40 miles away from the Scioto licks, but his language is rather indefinite, and the visit may have been made to these very licks. If this theory be accepted, Smith's visit is the first recorded in their history.
THE FIRST MAP-As already indicated, the Indians did not murder all their captives, and a certain proportion of those spared escaped from time to time and returned to their homes in Virginia. It was through the latter that the English learned definitely of the existence of the Scioto licks. A fairly accurate knowledge of their location was known in Virginia as early as 1755. Lewis Evans, the Welsh geographer, was born in 1700. Adopting a sur. veyor's career, he came out to the colonies, and he is entitled to the honor of having published the first satisfactory map of the English possessions in America. The first edition appeared in 1749. A second edition, more complete and including Virginia and the Ohio valley, was published in 1755, and the Scioto salt licks are marked upon it. Unfortunately for the cause of science, Evans died in June, 1756, but his fame is secure.
THE HALTERMAN BOYS-Three young boys, the sons of Christopher Halterman of Virginia, were brought to the licks in 1759 as captives of the Shawanese. This tribe, who roamed over the hills of Southern Ohio, and cultivated corn and tobacco patches in its fertile valleys, were the most daring of the Ohio Indians, and their war parties were constantly hovering on the borders of the English settlements. Among the pioneers was one Christopher Halterman, who, with his family, crossed the mountains and settled on the headwaters of one of the tributaries of the Ohio. He built a cabin and cleared an acre or two of rich bottom, and all seemed favorable, when he sickened suddenly and died. The widow was
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HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
a heroine, and instead of abandoning the claim and clearing, as many would have done, she determined to remain in the wilder- ness. Her oldest sons were already able to help her, and they might have prospered. Remote from all Indian trails, they had never seen a native of the forest, and lived in security. But the end came unexpectedly. A band of Shawanese passed through the region in the fall of 1759, and one of their scouts discovered the smoke from the widow's cabin. Creeping stealthily forward while the family was at breakfast, the Indians entered the cabin before their presence was discovered. Their yells over the easy victory did not daunt the mother, and she seized an ax to defend herself and children, but before she could deliver a blow an Indian sank a tomahawk in her head. Three little girls were killed in a like manner. The baby was picked up by the feet, and its head dashed against the wall of the cabin. Three likely lads remained. Their sturdy defense with their fists amused the Indians and they spared them. After scalping the dead and looting the cabin they kindled a fire on the floor and left the neighborhood at once. Setting out for the Ohio, they were joined by a number of other bands, who were engaged likewise. In a few days all arrived at the Scioto licks, where they remained for a few weeks. It was now October, and they set out for old Chillicothe, where the three Halterman boys, Christopher, Jacob and Gabriel, were adopted into the Shawanese tribe. The adoption ceremony was very im- pressive. The best description of it in existence is that written by Colonel James Smith, who was adopted by the Indians four years before the Halterman brothers. His narrative is as follows: "A number of Indians collected about me, and one of them began to pull the hair out of my head. He had some ashes on a piece of bark, in which he frequently dipped his fingers in order to take the firmer hold, and so he went on, as if he had been plucking a turkey, until he had all the hair clean out of my head, except a small spot about three or four inches square on my crown. This they cut off with a pair of scissors, excepting three locks, which they dressed up in their own mode. Two of these they wrapped round with a narrow beaded garter, made by themselves for that purpose, and the other they plaited at full length, and then stuck
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