A history of the early settlement of Highland County, Ohio, Part 11

Author: Scott, Daniel
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: [Hillsboro, Ohio] : The Gazette
Number of Pages: 442


USA > Ohio > Highland County > A history of the early settlement of Highland County, Ohio > Part 11


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and commeneed preparations to improve with a view to his permanent residence deal, in their judgment, in the way of there. Meantime the Smiths were push- hunting bear and deer. They were fresh from the east where game had then be- gun to disappear, and though not first- class hunters, yet they secured abund- ance and to spare.


ing forward their enterprise, to which General Massie lent his assistance. He wanted a mill on his side of the stream, for the convenience of the settlers on his improved lands, and he therefore joined with them in constructing a dam across the creek. In this way an abundance of water was obtained to run both mills.


While others were enjoying the chase or idling away their time, Jacob Smith was prospecting about the falls and set- tling in his own mind all the prelim- The mill built by the Smiths was a good inaries of the mill that was to be. He one for the day, and they subsequently went to Chillicothe to see Gen. Massie, improved and enlarged it untilit became


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A HISTORY OF HIGHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.


one of the principal mills of the country. pioneers of the earlier days of the It was put into successful operation in North-west, it may not be an inexcusa- the fall of 1798. Massie's mill was a ble digression to say a few words about small affair, and not wishing to interfere Gen. Duncan MeArthur, who was in with the industrious and persevering every point of view, perhaps, the best Smiths he made no attempt to enlarge specimen of a western man that this or improve it, and of course it never be- country has produced. came of much cousequence.


He was born in Duchess county, New York, on the 14th day of January, 1772. His parents were natives of the High-


In September, 1798, General McArthur having entered and surveyed, two years before, a large tract of superior upland lands of Scotland, and his mother was on the west bank of Main Paint, west oi of the Campbell clan, so illustrious in Chillicothe, and having witnessed the Scottish story. She died while Duncan unexampled success of General Massie's was quite a youth. When he was eight speculation at that place, set out with a years of age his father moved with his small party to lay out a town on his family to the western frontier of Penn- lands. They journeyed through the wil- sylvania. The Revolutionary war was derness, there being no road of any de- then in progress, and all the energies scription then open from Chillicothe and courage of the frontier men were called forth to protect themselves from Indian depredation. Under these cir- cumstances schools were unknown. But


west, and arrived at the place of opera- tion with their pack horses and camp equipage. After thoroughly exploring the thickly wooded lands on the west by the time Duncan was thirteen he side of the stream, McArthur selected had managed to learn to read and write tolerably well, although, being the old- est son, he was constantly kept at hard work on the farm to aid in supporting his father's large family of children. His father was very poor, and as soon as the small crop of corn was laid by, the most eligible, being a gently rising tract beginning at the creek and extend- ing west. This ground was then covered with a dense forest, in which not a sound of a white man's axe had ever be- fore been heard. Adopting the most natural as well as the most beautiful Duncan was hired out, either by the plan, the proprietor proceeded to lay off day or month, to the neighboring the town on a very liberal scale, in farmers. squares, with wide streets, intersecting At this time there were no wagon roads across the Alleghany mountains, and all the merchandise, such as powder, lead, salt, iron, pots, kettles, blankets, rum, &c., &c., were carried over on pack-horses. In this business young McArthur early engaged, and the dan- at right angles. An in and out-lot, in one part of the plat, were donated to actual settlers ; a square-the southwest corner of Main and Washington streets .- was donated by the proprietor for the purpose of a court house and jail, and also a lot for a burying ground. The gers and excitement incident to it opinion was strongly impressed upon his doubtless possessed more charms to his mind that the place would, at no distant day, be the seat of justice of a new and rich county, and he therefore acted in view of such an event.


The town being blazed out, staked off and platted, there remained nothing more to give identity to it but a name, which McArthur decided should be


GREENFIELD.


It is not known why this name was adopted. Certainly it proceeded from or slip of the horse's foot would have no local cause, and it is therefore to be precipitated it into the abyss beneath


inferred that he, prompted by, a senti- ment never found absent from a gener-


lofty and daring soul than the small pittance of wages the service brought him. At that time it was almost an every day occurrence to see a long line of pack-horses, in single file, cautiously winding their way over the wild and stupendous Alleghanies, on a path scarce- ly wide enough for a single horse. When surmounting the dizzy heights they often turned round the points of projecting rocks, where the least jostle


and crushed it to atoms. So narrow and dangerous were the passes in many


ous and noble heart, named it for a places, that a horse loaded with bulky village in Erie county, Pennsylvania, articles could not pass these projections without being first unloaded, the pack- ers then carrying with the utmost care


near which he had passed his boyhood days, and where his father, brothers and


sisters then lived, and beneath whose the load to the horse, and replacing it church-yard willows his mother was on the pack-saddle. But the difficulties buried.


of the road were not the only dangers


As one object of this domestic history the resolute packers had to encounter ; is to preserve the recollection of the the wily Indian frequently lay in


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A HISTORY OF HIGHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.


ambush to kill the packers and rob the though the honors awarded him by his train.


fellow citizens necessarily introduced


At the age of eighteen, young Mc- him into polished society, yet his Arthur bid adieu to his humble home natural good sense and manliness always pointed his straightforward and inde- pendent course, and the frank manners and generous nature of the backwoods- man never forsook him. He was phys- ically a splendid specimen of a man -- upwards of six feet in height and as straight as an arrow-hair and eyes black as night, complexion swarthy ; his whole frame stout, athletic and vig- orous, and a step as elastic and light as a deer. To his strong good sense and chivalric courage, which amounted at times to a reckless daring, he added the generosity and disinterested friendship ever characteristic of noble natures, and though his early struggles and priva- tions were rewarded by wealth and honors, there are few who will say, on reading the history of his eventful life, that he received more than was justly due his sterling merits in the varied services, so cheerfully, so faithfully and so ably rendered to his fellowmen. and friends, and joined Harmar's expe- dition against the Indians. From that time forward he became identified with the history of the present State of Ohio, and without the aid of friends, without the advantages of education, and with- out the society so essential to mental improvement, he forced his way, step by step-a farmer's boy, a packer, a private in the aring; a salt boiler, a hunter and trapper, a spy on the fron- tier, a chain carrier, a surveyor, a mem- ber of the Legislature-to the highest honor within the gift of the people of his adopted State-its Governor. He endeavored to do his duty in every sta- tion in which it was his fortune to act, and by his great energy, courage and endurance generally led those with whom he was associated, when all stood upon an equality in point of authority. As an assistant surveyor, McArthur rapidly accumulated a fortune, and


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CHAPTER XII.


WISHART'S TAVERN, AND THE NEW POST MASTER-THE VILLAGE OF NEW AMSTERDAM -- JOB WRIGHT MAKES THE FIRST SETTLEMENT AT GREEN- FIELD -THE HALCYON DAYS-PERMANENT SETTLERS OF NEW MARKET IN 1800-A TEA PARTY-THE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT REMOVED TO CHIL- LICOTHE.


IN the spring of 1799 Henry Massie, deeming it important, both for milling and other purposes, to have a connec- tion with the settlement at the falls of Paint and Chillicothe, made a pack horse trace from New Market to the set-


cothe, and on to Marietta, Zanesville and the old States beyond the moun- tains.


During this summer improvements progressed slowly in and around New Market. Wishart's hotel was occasion- tlement at the falls, from which there ally honored by an exploring guest or a was already a trace down to Chillicothe. surveying party, but no additional During that summer Gien. William Lytle, houses were erected, though many of who was born in Cumberland county, the trees were cut away and much of the Pennsylvania, and early emigrated to undergrowth taken out so that the lines Kentucky, and took an active part in of the two principal eross streets were


many of the desperate Indian fights on the border, made a trace from the present town of Williamsburg, then called Lytlestown, to New Market. Lytlestown had been laid out the fall before by Gen. Lytle and a settlement commenced. A


pretty clearly defined to the eye.


A post office was established in the fall at New Market, a weekly pack mail line between Chillicothe and Cincinnati having been put into operation, and the enterprising landlord of the log cabin pack-horse trace, having been made to hotel appointed postmaster. This form- Cincinnati, communication was thus ed a new and important era in the opened through New Market to Chilli- anna's of the place. It at once ceased to


A HISTORY OF HIGHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.


be a villa in the words, and, though as spectable for a new place, and the pub- set it had but one house in it and that lie became advised of the important fact precured by the luxuriant growth of that such a place as New Market had a intter wer is, which had lately blossom- real existence on the pack-trace some ed and now tilled the air with their where between Zanesville and Cincin- Boating and silky petals, detached by nati. They also learned that there was such an individual as William Wishart, post master. The business of writing letters did not, however, prove lucra- tive, and as very few of those to whom


the gentle September breezes, thence- forth assumed an air of importance. The hotel was as yet without a sign, other than the palpable fact that it was the only visible stopping place at that he wrote chose to keep up the corre- point on the trace, and was pretty well spondence, he finally abandoned it, and covered over with coon, deer, and other resigned his place of P. M.


skins, stretched to dry and awaiting a This same fall Jacob and Enoch Smith, becoming impressed with the in- creasing importance of their mill and settlement at the falls of Paint, very naturally conceived the idea of laying out a town too. They accordingly pro- cured the services of a surveyor, the name of whom unfortunately tradition has failed to hand down, and proceeded to run the lines of streets, alleys, &c., market. A pole fence inclosed the tavern, which consisted of one room twelve by sixteen, together with sundry stalks of corn which had had roasting ears on them once, and quite a number of goodly looking pumpkins that seemed to be patiently awaiting their manifest destiny. The place had become a post town, and the burly Scotch landlord had risen in dignity with the town. "Of of a pretty good sized town, all things course," he very naturally reasoned, considered ; which after it was blazed "many gentlemen will now pass this out, the streets all named, chiefly for trace to and from Cincinnati-may be distinguished officers of the revolution- the Governor himself." So he forth- ary era except two, Virginia and Hud- with determined to fix up to meet the son streets, they proceeded to name emergency in a manner creditable to New Amsterdam. The Smiths were himself and the town. He accordingly doubtless of Dutch origin, and in naming managed to get a barrel of whisky, the first ever in the place, from Manchester, and with two tin cups, opened a bar of considerable promise in one corner of the tavern.


their great manufacturing emporium of the falls, their thoughts were of the Fatherland beyond the waters. This place, however, with all its promise of rich lands, great water-privileges and collection of world-renowned names for


It was interesting on mail days to witness the sensation produced at this itself and streets, was doomed to an post town, by the clear ringing notes of early death. It never attained to any the postman's horn, and to mark the great consequence, and soon ceased to importance which that functionary, clad be noted among the towns of the in buckskin hunting shirt, coonskin cap, country. It has long since disappeared, &c., with heavy dragoon holsters under and with it has also gone from the busy bearskin cover, assumed when he arriv- world the fact that it ever had an ex- ed, and the deference with which he istence, though the mill stood and did was received by mine host. But keep- good service for many years.


ing post office in an uninhabited town


In the early part of this same fall in the woods soon convinced the effici- (1799) the first improvement was made ent master that there was no money in in the newly laid out town of Greenfield, it, however mueh honor there might be, by one Job Wright, an odd sort of slack for neither letters nor papers were found in the bags directed to New


twisted genius from the bluffs, south- west of Chillicothe. His father and


Market. From this the post master family had moved iron North Carolina naturally inferred that outsiders by a few years before, and settled there; some unaccountable ignorance or stu- but Job did not like to live in a thickly pidity, were not aware of the fact that settled neighborhood, so he gathered up such a post town as New Market existed his wife, children, gun and dogs, and in the north-western territory with such packed off to find a more congenial a post master as Wm. Wishart, or they locality. He journeyed on briskly up certainly would direct letters to it. He, the creek, stopping when it suited his therefore, prompted by a laudable desire inclination, to hunt on its banks or fish to enlighten his fellow-men on the sub- in its waters, in both of which exercises he was an adept. He finally arrived at the place where McArthur had laid out ject, set about writing letters to every person he ever knew, and many whom he had only heard of. The business of his town, and finding it totally uninhab- the office, thus, for a time, became re- ited and hunting good, he determined


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1 HISTORY OF HIGHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.


to halt there. So he went to work like family, who look to him for support. a sensible man for once and built a cabin Game having gradually receded before for his wife and child the first thing. the steady march of civilization, his oll This cabin was the first house of any hunting grounds have ceased to furnish description built in Greenfield, and their accustomed indueements to the istood on the north-east corner of Main chase, and his best efforts are bui and Washington streets, on the ground scantily rewarded. He determines to now occupied by the Franklin House. endure it no longer, and soon is packed .Job was, by profession, a hair siere up and on the route to better hunting maker, and plied his trade whenever grounds, and he makes his location the weather was neither suitable for solely with reference to this one thing. hunting nor fishing. These hair sieves It may be the inaccessible hill rezio :. were in those days articles of no mean which no farmer would think of taking importance in the humble domestic es- . as a gift, will prove to be the very phee tablishments of the new settlers, for the for the professional hunter. and in the simple reason that wire sieves could not first settlement of the North-western be had for love or money, and corn meal Territory such was the fact. whether ground or pounded is not very In the spring of 1796 John Kincade, a palatable until the bran is separated .revolutionary veteran, set out with his from the meal. By this trade Job man- family, from Augusta county, Virginia. aged to procure the small quantity of for the North-western Territory to bread used in his family, but he depend- locate his hard-earned land wanant. ed chiefly for subsistence on what he and settle down on the home thus pre- could catch from the creek. Heremain- vided for his old age. He packed ed only a few years at Greenfield, not through, as was the general custom, and liking to be hampered up by neighbors, crossing the Ohio river at Point Piens- and disappeared shortly after the place ant, continued on to the west of tho assumed the appearance of a town. Job Scioto river, knowing that in the mill- had a favorite place for fishing with a tary district he alone could locate his way- hook and line. This was a prominent rant. He finally came through the Hills to a remarkably large, beautiful and pure spring of water, near the banks of Suntich. Here he resolved to hell. locate his land around the spring alol settle down. This spring is about sis miles east of the village of sinking


rock which stood about one hundred and fifty yards above where the bridge now stands. It was partly surrounded by very deep water, which even yet it is said affords excellent fishing. Almost every day Job's red head and long beard, reaching half way down his Spring, in this county, and is known as beast, might be seen on his perch, rod in hand, looking more like a big bald eagle than a human hair sieve maker


Kincade's big spring to this day. The settlement in the course of a year be- came known, and in the year 179. of genuine North Carolina growth. He Charles and James Hughey purchased fished so long and constantly at this hole land of Joseph Karr, in the vicinity. that it took the name of "Job's hole," which it has borne up to this day.


James settled on his land the following March, and in September Charles arriv-


Most persons who design moving to a ed with his family on his, which inercas- new country are controlled, to a consid- ed the settlement to thirteen persons. erable extent, by descriptions of those This settlement was then frequently who have already visited it, and gener- visited by Indians, who still continued. to chase the deer on the Suntich hill -. and was then a part of Ross county. Shortly after the addition of Charles Hughey to the settlement. it was agai; increased by the arrival of two fin iljes from Pennsylvania, and during the win- ter of 1790 Reuben Bristol, from Kes- tueky, and Abraham McCoy. an Irish- ally base their motives to the proposed change, on the rich lands of which they have heard. Others, possessing, per- haps, more fancy than thrift emigrate almost solely to gratify a long cherished dream of pleasant hills and valleys with pure gushing springs afd sylvan shade far removed from the eares and vexa- tions of social life, where they may clear man, became permanent settlers. By and till their little fields, tend their this time they had grown quite strong flocks, and, in the enjoyment of their as a community and all were freelo !!- few friends, steal through life in har- ers. The neighborhood now numbers mony, quiet and happiness. Then the thirty-three persons, and might safely bold woodsman of the frontier of his be pronounced a happy community. native State, who has spent most of his The most complete and unbroken har- time from boyhood in the exciting and mony prevailed. All the essentials of alluring employment of hunting, finds social life were present. and none of the himself at last the head of a growing vices incident to society had become


A HISTORY OF HIGHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.


online developed to mar the peace abundant, but very convenient ; and, as of the Tothe drehe in the wilderness. the male portion of the inhabitants had "The e days are described by the Rev. little else to do but hunt during the Whijam Hughey, son of Charles, as winter, they rarely failed to cut and the halevon days of his life, which carry all the wood their capacious cabin then, with him, was young and prom- fire places could consume.


i'd to be happy. Bear, deer, turkey, honey and such like substantials, were casily obtained in sufficient abund- ance for all their wants. Of all the meats, however, that of the bear was prized the highest. They found some difficulty in preparing their corn for bread, and as there were no mills, the hominy mortar and grater were put into requisition as substitutes. The ad-


The permanent settlers of this town, on the first day of January, 1800, were Eli Collins and family, Isaac Dillon, Jacob Eversole, Jolin Eversole, Christian Bloom, Robert Boyce, Jacob Beam, John Emrie and the enterprising landlord of the log cabin hotel, William Wishart. Jonathan Berryman lived on his farm. adjoining the town, several acres of which he had cleared out and brought principal farmer in the neighborhood. He, that winter, had some surplus corn,


jacent stream afforded pretty good fishi- into cultivation, and was regarded the ing; and when autumnal dyes tinged the woody hills, rich clustering wild grapes and chestnuts were gathered in for which he found ready market at his abundance and stored for winter. This crib. Oliver Ross had built a house on settlement was without government, and of course without taxes, politics and all the annoyances incident to that ap- parently indispensable bitter in the cup of civilized life; and exhibited pretty clearly man's capacity for self govern- inent, and the peaceful enjoyment of


his land east of town, the best in the settlement. It was a good sized one- story house, built . of hewed logs, with clap-board roof, one room in front with a kitchen back. He had also cleared and cultivated some ground, and under a special license of Gov. St. Clair open- the bounties designed by the Creator ed a tavern. Robert Huston had also for liis subsistence, comfort and happi- built a cabin on his land adjoining the


ness. These people were by no means


town and raised a small crop of corn.


uncultivated or destitute of the ordi- This constituted the New Market settle-


nary means of mental enjoyment. They brought a few books with them from ment at this date. All the necessaries of life except corn and wild meat had to their old homes, and especially the be packed from Manchester or Chilli- Bible. Sabbath days were not neglect- cothe. Milling was of importance of ed, nor the long winter nights passed course, but not quite as much so as at unmindful of their duty io themselves present, for the people in those days, and their maker. As is most frequent- somehow or other, managed to regulate their appetites by the supplies, and did not seem to need much bread. They pounded hominy, grated meal on strong iron grates, and with an occasional grist from the mills at the falls of Paint, got along pretty well-were hearty and in good spirits, and by spring found that the free use of bear's meat, venison and bear's


ly the case with persons of pure purpose and well fixed hope, their books were chiefly of a devotional character, and it seemed their greatest delight to meet and hear some good old sermon read by one of the party, and join in singing some old hymn or song they used to hear in other days on the banks of the Susquehanna or in view of the blue out- oil and hominy had by no means reduc- line of Virginia's mountains.


ed their physical proportions. Coffee,


During the fall of 1799 New Market tea and sugar were considered superflu- improved considerably, and before cold ous and unfashionable, chiefly, how- weather set in six or seven cabins were ever, on account of the enormous prices visible from the tavern door. These they commanded. Bacon could only be were scattered round in different direc- obtained from traders who brought tions over the town plat and sent up small quantities from Redstone in Penn- their slender columns of blue smoke sylvania. It sold at twenty-five cents a through the thin November air, giving pound for sides and had to be packed promise of comfort within. Much of the from Manchester.


thick underbrush had been cut out and Occasionally an effort was made by the dense forest somewhat opened up, some lady who had brought a small which gave the town plat, to some ex- quantity of tea from her old home in Kentucky, Jersey, Virginia, Pennsyl- vania, or perhaps Manchester, for some


tent, the appearance of a rather badly managed clearing, in which the fallen trees with their brushy tops had not special occasion. One instance may not yet been prepared for burning. Winter be entirely without interest at this day. fire wood was, therefore, not only A small number of ladies were con-




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