USA > Ohio > Jackson County > A history of Jackson County, Ohio, Volume I > Part 8
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
"An act to regulate the Scioto salt works" was passed Feb- ruary 19, 1810, repealing all former acts relating to them, and
83
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
providing among other things that the agent should be appointed for three years,; that the limit of licenses should be January 1, 1813; that the rent should be reduced to five mills a gallon, and that whoever, leasing lot for salt making, finds water, of which 250 gallons will make one bushel of salt, to supply 40 kettles, shall get a lease of ten years from the discovery. This provision was intended to encourage boring for stronger brine.
An act was passed January 30, 1811, requiring owners and occupiers of salt works and wells to enclose the same with fencing. This act was occasioned by the finding of a body of a dead man in one of the salt water vats. Murder was suspected, but not proven. Salt was becoming very scarce, and the next Legislature passed the following law February 17, 1812:
AN ACT TO ENCOURAGE EXPERIMENTS AT THE SCIOTO SALT WORKS-Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Ohio, That the Governor of this state be authorized to
appoint a suitable person or persons to perforate the rock at the Scioto salt works, for the purpose of obtaining salt water of a superior quality, by descending two hundred feet into said rock, unless such water in strength and quantity as is pro- vided for in the fourth section of the law to regulate the Scioto salt works, passed nineteenth of February, one thousand and eight hundred and ten, should sooner be obtained; and such person or persons so appointed shall receive for such service an adequate sum, not exceeding three hundred dollars, to be paid out of the treasury of the state, upon satisfactory evidence being made to the Governor of this state within eighteen months from and after the taking effect of this act that such service lias been duly and faithfully performed; and it is hereby provided that the place where such experiment shall be made shall not interfere with the right of any other persons.
Section 2. Be it further enacted, That the person appointed by the governor, agreeably to this act to perforate the rock at Scioto Salt works, shall, if successful in the experiment, have the
84
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
right to lease and occupy the water so discovered, free from rent, for the term of five years, as an additional compensation, and for that purpose, the agent at the said salt works, shall on application, execute to such person, a lease for the term of five years, for the well containing the salt water as aforesaid, and such lot of land as will be necessary to carry on the manufacture of salt. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after the first day of May next.
It appears that no experiments were made under this act, for on February 5, 1813, there was passed "An act to authorize exper- iments to be made at the Scioto Salt works." This act designated Abraham Claypool as an agent to contract for the perforating of the rock, at two places, "provided the first trial is unsuccessful," and to report his proceedings to the next session of the legisla- ture. A sum not exceeding $1,500 was appropriated for his ex- penses.
Claypool did not succeed, and on February 7, 1814, an act was passed to encourage the manufacturing of salt at the Scioto Salt works. William Givens, Joseph Armstrong, John Johnston, Ross Nelson, John W. Sargent, John Prather and Asa Lake had petitioned for assistance to dig each a salt well, they to bear incidental expense, and in return to have exclusive use for five years. In this connection it may be mentioned that John Nelson did sink a well to the depth of 240 feet, John Wilson to the depth of 260 feet, and Henry Harmon to the depth of 276 feet. But no stronger brine was discovered.
An act to make further experiments, passed February 15, 1815, directed William Givens to sink a well to the depth of 350 feet and to be two and a quarter inches in diameter at the bottom, for which he was to be paid $700. Givens found many difficulties in the way, and on February 24, 1816, an act was passed extending his time to April 1, 1816, to finish and tube his well.
HILDRETH'S NOTES-The number and character of the acts relating to the Salt works indicate their great importance in the eyes of the pioneer statesmen of Ohio. Hildreth's notes on the Scioto saline written in 1837 deserve a place here:
85
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
Muriate of soda, or common salt, is so intimately connected with the economy and comforts of civilized man, that a short sketch of its early history (although in a manner foreign to a geo- logical report), and of its manufacture in Ohio, can hardly fail to be interesting, and worthy of our notice. As a branch of the geology of the State, there is no portion of it more vitally con- nected with the welfare of the people, than those deposits which furnish the materials for our salt wells. From the period of our first organization as a member of the Union, the "Salt Springs" arrested the attention, and received the fostering care of our legis- latures. Even before we had become a State, and were yet a ter- ritory, the great value of the salines had attracted the notice of our most sage and prudent citizens, and, in the compact made with congress, distinct and express stipulations were entered into for setting apart the most noted salt springs, and a considerable territory around them, for the benefit of the State; they being considered as too valuable to fall into the hands of individuals, who might create a monopoly. At the present period, when cul- inary salt is so cheap an article, it may seem strange to us that our fathers should have been so careful to preserve salines, the waters of which were so weak as to require six hundred gallons to make fifty pounds of salt. But when we remember that at the period referred to, before this territory became a State, the price of salt varied from four to six dollars a bushel, and that the larger portion of it was brought across the Allegheny ranges of mountains on the backs of pack-horses, we need not wonder at the high value placed upon these saline waters. At that time they were the only ones known in Ohio, and it was not even sus- pected or imagined, that at a depth of a few hundred feet, many portions of the valley were based on a rock whose interstices were filled with exhaustless quantities of brine, of such strength that one-twelfth part of the quantity would make a bushel of salt. This article so valuable and so scarce in those early days as to be looked upon almost as a luxury, has since been so abundant as to sell for half a cent a pound. The ancient and noted Scioto saline lies near the center of Jackson county, on an eastern branch of Salt creek,
86
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
a tributary stream of the Scioto river. Many of the old furnaces and wells may be said to have been seated within the boundaries of the present town of Jackson. It is among the earliest known salt springs in the western country, and may be ranked with the Big Bone and Blue Licks in Kentucky, for antiquity, from the fact of the fossil bones of the mastodon and elephant being found at the depth of thirty feet, imbedded in mud and clay. The re- mains of several of these extinct animals were discovered in digging wells for salt water along the margin of the creek, con- sisting of tusks, grinders, ribs and vertebrae; showing this creek to have been a noted resort for these huge mammalia at very remote periods. When the white hunters and traders first came into this country, it was visited by thousands of buffalo or bisons, deer, bear and nearly all the wild animals of the forest, who found the saline waters agreeable to their tastes, or perhaps needful to their health. So numerous and so constant were the animal visitors to these springs, that at certain seasons of the year the country adjacent was the most valuable and profitable hunting ground which the savages possessed. They were also in the prac- tice of making. salt here from very remote times, as has been ascertained from several of their white captives who had visited them in company with the Indians. The first attempt at its man- ufacture by the whites, was after the close of the Indian war, in the year 1795. At that time, and for several years after, the stumps, of small trees cut by the squaws, and the charcoal and ashes of their fires where the salt water had been boiled were plainly to be seen. The Indian women, upon whom all the servile employments fell, collected the salt water by cutting holes in the soft sandstone in the bed of the creek, in the summer and autumn when the stream was low. These were generally not more than a foot or two deep, and the same in width. Into these rude cavities the salt water slowly collected, and was dipped out with a large shell into their kettles and boiled down into salt. The hunters and first salt makers pursued the same course, only they sunk their excavations to the; depth of six or eight feet, and finally to twenty feet into the sandrock, and excluded the fresh water by
87
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
means of a "gum" or section of a hollow tree, sunk into the cavity. After a few years they commenced digging wells a little higher up the stream, in the alluvion or bottom lands, near the creek, and to their surprise, found they could dig to the depth of thirty feet before they came to the sandrock, which a few rods below filled the whole bed of the stream.
The greatest quantity of salt made at the Scioto licks, was from the year 1806 to 1808, when there were twenty furnaces in operation, making on an average, from fifty to seventy bushels per week. During this period, it was worth $2.50 per bushel, or five cents a pound. These furnaces were located along the borders of the creek for the distance of four miles. At one time there were fourteen furnaces in operation near the town of Jackson. At that early day the roads were generally mere bridle paths through the woods, and nearly the whole amount of salt made was transported in bags on pack-horses, and distributed through the middle and western portions of the State. That we may understand the high value placed on the salines both by congress and the people of Ohio, it will be proper to revert to the legislative acts on this subject, and to know that the grant was made with the express stipulations that the State should never sell them, nor lease them for a longer period than ten years at any one time. In the year 1803, amongst the earliest proceedings of our legislators, we find an act regulating the leasing and the managing of the "Public Salt Works." An agent was appointed to take charge of the lands, to lease small lots for digging wells and erecting furnaces, and to see that no individual or company monopolized the manufacture of salt. To prevent which, it was expressly enacted that no one person, or company, should work more than 120 kettles, nor less than 30. For this privilege the lessee paid a rent to the State of twelve cents a gallon, on the amount of capacity of his kettles, annually. A fine of $5 per kettle was laid on every person who made salt without a license. The agent himself was forbidden to engage in any way in the manufacture of the article. In the year 1804 the rent was reduced to four cents per gallon, and the amount limited to 4,000 gallons of capacity. In 1805 the rent was.
88
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
again reduced to two cents, and in 1810 to five mills. At this time, a much stronger water had been obtained on the Kenawha, by boring into the rock strata to the depth of one hundred feet. In February, 1812, the legislature appropriated $300 to defray the expense of boring two hundred feet, and in 1813 they appropriated $1,500 for the same purpose, which does not appear to have been expended. In 1815, the State ordered $750 to pay the expense of boring to the depth of 350 feet, under the direction of William Givens, with a proviso that the water procured must be of such strength as to make 50 pounds of salt from 250 gallons of brine. It seems that Mr. Givens executed the work faithfully, and then added another 100 feet to the depth at his own expense, as I am informed by Mr. Crookham, who was amongst the earliest of the salt makers, and from whom much of the history of the first pro- ceedings in digging wells was obtained. At this depth, viz: 450 feet, the boring ceased. A stronger water was procured, but it was in small quantity and did not rise to the top of the well; probably from a deficiency of carburetted hydrogen gas, which, at several other works, rises in great volume, and forces the water for many feet above the surface. Forcing pumps for raising water were not then in use, as they now are, at the various salines. No less than 15 acts were passed on the subject of the Scioto Salt works.
BRIGGS' NOTES-The following statement was written by Caleb Briggs, of the Ohio geological survey, in the same year: Brine has been obtained in the Waverly standstone series, by sink- ing through the conglomerate at the licks in Jackson county, and good water obtained, but not in quantity sufficient to be profitably used in competition with the Kenawha salt wells in Virginia. The salines at Jackson early attracted the attention of the western pioneers, and from them alone, was obtained most of the salt used in the early settlement of the State. They were finally abandoned, in consequence of much stronger brine having been obtained in Virginia. These wells with the exception of those called "mud wells," were commenced in the superior part of the conglomerate,
89
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
which on this account was denominated the "salt rock." They varied in depth from 10 to 450 feet, with no sensible improvement in the strength of the brine, except in the deepest, which was bored at the expense of the State; and in this no difference was observed in the saturation of the water, till the strata had been penetrated 350 feet, when it continued to improve till the work ceased. Mr. George Crookham, by whom the information in regard to these wells was communicated, says he thinks the brine at the depth of 350 feet was equal in strength to that used on the Kenawha, but the quantity was comparatively small. The "mud wells" (re- ferred to above), were dug to the depth of 24 to 30 feet, in clay, sand and gravel, which occupy a basin-shaped cavity in the superior part of the "salt rock" at Jackson. The brine without doubt was produced by the percolation of water through the rock into this reservoir. The wells at Jackson in addition to the dis- advantage of having been commenced too low in the series, were situated on a stream, the waters of which run in a direction oppo- site to the dip, through deep valleys and ravines, which so inter- rupt the continuity of the strata that a considerable portion of the saline matter finds its way into the water courses, and flows off in a westerly direction.
SURVEY OF JACKSON COUNTY-The history of the Salt works is so interwoven with the early history of Jackson county that they can not be separated. It was the presence of the salt boilers that attracted the first settlers into the lands adjoining the licks. The earliest came as squatters, but the Indians having ceded, by the treaty of Greenville, all their claims to southern Ohio, Congress began preparations for throwing the land open to settle- ment. Accordingly, on May 18, 1796, it enacted: That a surveyor general shall be appointed, whose duty it shall be to engage a sufficient number of skillful surveyors, as his deputies; whom he shall cause, without delay, to survey and mark the unascertained outlines of the lands lying northwest of the river Ohio, and above the mouth of the river Kentucky, in which the titles of the Indian tribes have been extinguished, and to divide the same in the man- ner herein after directed. Two years elapsed before the surveyors
90
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
began their work in Jackson county. When they entered the dis- trict between the Ohio company and the Scioto river, they found it necessary, according to the statement of Whittlesey, to run a correctional meridian, because of the excess in the sections abut- ting on the west line of the company at range fifteen. The cor- rection was made by establishing a true meridian between ranges seventeen and eighteen, with sections of an exact mile square. Be- tween the Ohio river and Hamden, in Vinton county, the correction north and south, amounted to a mile. The errors from the variation of the needle were such that quarter sections abutting on the true meridian on the east were nearly as large as full sec- tions on the west. Three townships, Milton, Bloomfield and Madi- son are in rage seventeen and east of this true meridian. This ex- plains the jogging of the sections along this line, a circumstance that has puzzled many. It may be mentioned here as a coincidence that Oak Hill, Berlin and Wellston are located on this meridian. The first surveying in Jackson county was done in May, 1798, under the direction of Elias Langdon. During this month, township six of range eighteen, now known as Franklin, township seven in range nineteen, now included in Liberty, and that part of township five, range twenty, now included in Scioto, were surveyed. The next month Levi Whipple surveyed township nine, range seven- teen, now included in Milton township, and in July following he surveyed township seven, range seventeen, which is now a part of Madison. Elias Langdon returned to the county in April, 1799, and surveyed Hamilton township. The next surveying was done in August, 1799, by Thomas Worthington, assisted by J. B. Finley, who afterward became a noted Methodist divine. They surveyed township eight, range eighteen, now known as Washington, and that part of township seven, range twenty, now included in Jack- son township. Worthington was a native of Virginia who settled in Chillicothe in 1798. He took an active interest in politics from the first, and in 1803 he was elected the first United States senator from Ohio, serving until 1807. He was elected a second time to the same office in 1810, but resigned in 1814 to accept the governorship, which office he filled for four years. Few men of today would be
91.
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
willing to make this exchange, but the service of the State was considered the most honorable in those early days. Worthington died in 1827. There was no surveying done in 1800, and the next work done was in March, 1801, by Jesse Spencer, who surveyed township eight, range nineteen, now included in Jackson township. Jefferson township was surveyed in June, 1801, by John G. Macon. He surveyed that part of township six, range seventeen, included in Madison in the same year. Bloomfield was surveyed in October, 1801, by Benjamin F. Stone. The same person surveyed that part of township ten, range seventeen, now included in Milton, in the following November. Elias Langdon surveyed township six, range nineteen, now included in Scioto, and township six, range twenty, included in Liberty, in June, 1801. He completed the survey of the county in December, 1801, with the survey of Lick township. The law of 1796 provided that the lands now included in Jackson county should be offered for sale at the Pittsburg land office, but there is no record that any land was entered until after the Chilli- cothe land office was established.
ROSS COUNTY-The licks remained a part of Washington county for the first ten years after the founding of Marietta. In the summer of 1796, Colonel Nathaniel Massie laid out the town of Chillicothe, and the population increased so rapidly that Gor- ernor St. Clair established the new county of Ross. This occurred on August 20, 1798. Nearly all the territory now included in Jackson county was placed for the time in Ross. When Scioto county was organized, May 1, 1803, a portion of it was cut off and placed in the new county. The part remaining in Ross was erected into a separate township.
LICK TOWNSHIP-The newly organized territory was named Lick township, and it held its first election in April, 1809. Follow- ing is the roster of officers elected: Trustees, Roger Seldon, David Mitchell and Robert Patrick; treasurer, Levi Patrick; clerk, John Brander; lister, Samuel Niblack; overseers of the poor, John James and Olney Hawkins; constables, Samuel Niblack and Phillip Strother; justices of the peace, David Mitchell and William
92
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
Niblack. Hawkins refused to serve as overseer of the poor and was fined. The vacancy was filled by the appointment of Stephen Radcliff, sr. Olney Hawkins served as grand juror at Chillicothe in 1809, and Robert Patrick and William Niblack as petit jurors. The Niblacks seem to have been among the most influential fam- ilies at the works at that time.
THE WAR OF 1812-When the second war with England began in 1812, the salt boilers proved themselves true Americans Gen- eral Tupper, of Gallia county, came tó the works looking for vol- unteers, and almost the entire male population enlisted under him. The following account of his campaign is from Atwater's history: In July, 1812, General Edward W. Tupper, of Gallia county, had raised about one thousand men for six months duty. They were mostly volunteers and infantry, but they were accompanied by Womeldorf's troop of cavalry, of Gallia county. This force was mostly raised in what are now Gallia, Lawrence and Jackson coun- ties. They marched under the orders of General Winchester through Chillicothe and Urbana and on to the Maumee river. Having reached the Maumee in August, we believe, of that year, an Indian or two had been discovered about their camp. General Winchester ordered Tupper to follow the enemy and discover his camp, if one was near. For this purpose Tupper ordered out a small party to reconnoitre the country. This party pursued the Indians some six miles or more, and returned without finding the enemy. Winchester was offended, and ordered Tupper to send out a larger force, but the troops with their half-starved horses and without a sufficiency of ammunition, refused to go. Winchester, in a rage, ordered Tupper himself to go with all his mounted men. Obeying this order, as he was just about to march, a Kentucky officer came to him and offered to join the party in any situation which Tupper should assign him. Tupper appointed him his aide, but soon afterwards, taking Tupper aside, he showed him Winches- ter's orders, appointing this Kentuckian to command the recon- noitering party. This conduct so irritated Tupper and his troops that they applied to the commander-in-chief to be allowed to serve
93.
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.
under him. This was some time afterwards, as soon as General Harrison had assumed the command of all the northwestern army. Tupper moved down the Maumee near to the lower end of the rapids, where they usually crossed at a fording place. The Indians in large numbers showed themselves on the side of the river oppo- site Tupper's camp. He attempted to cross the river with his troops in the night. The current was rapid, his horses and men were feeble, being half starved, and the rocky bottom was slippery. The current swept away some of the horses and infantry into the deep water. Seeing this, disheartened those who were left behind on the eastern bank of the river, so that only a small number of men crossed over the Maumee. Those who had crossed had wetted their ammunition, and finally all returned back into their camp before day. The Indians were hovering about the camp and a few were killed on both sides. Finally, all the British Indians along the river, anywhere near by, collected all their forces, and attacked Tupper and his troops on all sides. The enemy had from one thousand to twelve hundred men, whereas, from sickness and various casualties, our force amounted to only about eight hundred men, and they were badly supplied with provisions and ammuni- tion. However, they fought bravely, drove off the enemy, and killed and wounded a large number of his warriors. Their own loss was trifling, losing only twenty or thirty in all in the action. The enemy acknowledged the loss of upwards of fifty killed, one hundred and fifty wounded. It is highly probable that their loss was at least three hundred. Our troops were all sharpshooters, and real backwoodsmen, who were well accustomed to the use of the rifle in the woods, where they dwelt when at home. The fate of the enemy would have been much more disastrous had not our new recruits, half starved as they were, while pursuing the flying. enemy, fallen in with a drove of fat hogs in a cornfield. Leaving the pursuit of the enemy, they killed many hogs until attacked by the Indians, and losing four men killed, they turned on the enemy and drove him over the river. The British returned to Detroit and our troops returned to Fort McArthur.
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.