USA > Ohio > Highland County > A history of the early settlement of Highland County, Ohio > Part 18
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In connection with the numerous dif- counter in this country, most of their descendants have heard the homely but indispensable pack saddle referred to as an implement then familiar to every- body. Like many of the contrivances of the time, it has long since grown out of use, has disappeared from among the necessaries of inan and is now almost effaced from the minds of the inhabit- ants of the country. In the many and weary trips taken by the first settlers of Highland to the Scioto salt works, near where the town of Jackson, in Jackson
ficulties the early settlers had to en- out to the thriving settlement of New
a short time at this place before setting Market. Previous to his departure from Pittsburg he had purchased three hun- dred and fifty acres of land near the new village on which he proposed to settle. When he arrived at New Market he could find nothing better to live in thau a camp, but he speedily erected a cabin for his wife and children. Mr. Eakins was a man of wealth and totally unpre- pared for roughing it in the bush. He had brought some groceries, tea, coffee, &c., from Pittsburg, and a barrel of flour from Manchester, but when they were county, now stands, the pack-saddle was out, starvation seemed almost inevitable, the protection of the horse's back, as well as of the burden he bore. A de- scription of this old time affair, which a pioneer friend has furnished, may be of interest to many of the people of the present day.
as a supply could not readily be had. The family could not make corn bread, nor cat it when made. Mrs. Eakins was greatly down hearted and discouraged with the prospect in the new country, and wept over her afflictions. Just at
A pack saddle, he says, was made in this time James B. Finley entered her this manner : An oak board from six to cabin, rough, ragged, dirty, and a little eight inches wide, and an inch or inch drunk. He asked Mrs. E. what was the and a quarter thick, and about two feet matter. She told him in true Irish elo- long. This board is rounded off from quence her grievances, depicting in the inside so as not to hurt the horse. heart-rending language the horrors Two of these pieces are necessary. that surrounded her. Finley told her Then two pieces of tough timber two to cheer up, and he would go to work inches broad, an inch and a quarter and make some corn bread that he knew thick, and about fifteen inches long. she and the children could eat. She These pieces are let into each other near was astonished, but permitted him to the middle at an angle something less have his way. So he washed his hands, than a right angle and riveted strongly got the meal and ent a piece of lard from to the side pieces. A pad of straw is a fresh killed hog that Mr. E. had just placed under this structure and inch bought of Samuel Evans, rendered it out
£1
A HISTORY OF HIGHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.
in a pot, then put it into the dish of after he became a distinguished preach- meal, put in salt and mixed it with er, with Mrs. E. and her daughter, Mrs. water ; he then made a smooth jonny St. Clair Ross, about the Jim Finleys he wake board, spread on the dough and introduced to the Irish emigrants at baked it in the usual way before the fire. New Market to keep them from starving. When it was done, Mrs. E. and her Mr. Eakins only remained in New Mar- children thoughtit delicious. This kind ket until he could have necessary houses of bread becane a great favorite, and built on his land and some of it put into they always called it Jim Finley bread cultivation, he then moved upon it. afterwards. Finley had many a laugh
CHAPTER XX.
EDWARD TIFFIN, THE FIRST GOVERNOR OF OHIO, ENTERS UPON HIS DUTIES, AND THE FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY MEETS AT CHILLICOTHE, ROSS . COUNTY BEING REPRESENTED BY NATHANIEL MASSIE -- EZEKIEL KELLY SETTLES ON ROCKY FORK, AND ASSISTS IN THE ERECTION OF THE FIRST HOUSE IN , HILLSBORO-SAMUEL GIBSON AND HIS REMARKABLE 'MILL- JUDGE MOONEY, THE PIONEER SCHOOL-MASTER -THE GROWTH OF GREEN- FIELD, WITH A DESCRIPTION OF SOME OF ITS EARLY TAVERNS AND OTHER BUSINESS ENTERPRISES-EDOM RATCLIFF, ROBERT BRANSON, JOB HAIGHI, GEORGE GAALL AND OTHERS LOCATE IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE COUNTY.
On the 3rd of March, 1803, Edward Samuel Huntington ; Washington coun- Tiffin, who had been elected Governor ty, Ephraim Cutler, Benjamin Ives Gill- of Ohio, under the State constitution man, John McIntyre and Rufus Put- adopted the previous winter, was sworn man. Edward Tiffin was President of in and entered upon the duties of his this Convention and Thomas Scott Sec- office at Chillicothe. He had been retary. President of the Convention that fram- On the first of May, 1803, the county ed the constitution, and shared in a of Warren was struck off from Hamilton large degree the confidence of the peo- and named for Gen. Joseph Warren, ple. The other members of that time- who so gloriously fell at Bunker Hill. honored convention of honest and sensi- Greene county was formed from Ross ble men, who did in twenty-five days county on the same day, (May Ist, 1803,) what the united wisdom of the State and named for Gen. Nathaniel Greene, fifty years afterwards utterly failed to of the Revolution.
accomplish in a convention which pro-
The first General Assembly under the
tracted its labors to the enormous length State Constitution met at Chillicothe on of eight months-to-wit: they made a the 1st day of March, 1803. In this good constitution,-were from Adams body Gen. Nathaniel Massie represented Ross, which still included what is now alson and Thomas Kirker -- from Bel- Highland county, in the Senate, and
county-Joseph Darlington, Israel Don- mont county, James Caldwell and Elijah
Woods ; Clermont county, Philip Gacth Such laws were enacted during this ses-
Elias Langham in the Lower House. sion as were deemed necessary for the new order of things. Eight new coun- ties were also established by the Legis- lature at this session, viz : Gallia, Scio- to, Franklin, Columbiana, Butler, Wayne, Greene and Montgomery. The first State officers elected by the Assem -. bly were Michael Ballwine, Speaker of
and James Sargent; Fairfield county, Henry Abrams and Emanuel Carpenter; Hamilton county, John W. Browne, Charles Willing Byrd, Francis Dunlavy, William Goforth, John Kitchél, Jere: miah Morrow, John Paul, John Rilly, John Smith and John Wilson ; Jefferson county, Randolph Bair, George Ium- phrey, John Milligan, Nathan Upde- the House of Representatives; Nathan- graff and Bezaleel Wells ; Ross county,
iel Massie, Speaker of the Senate ; Wil- Michael Baldwin, James Grubb, Nathan- liam Creighton, jr., Secretary of State ; iel Massie and Thomas Worthington; Col. Thomas Gibson, Auditor; William Trumbull county, David Abbott and MeFarland, Treasurer ; Return J. Meigs,
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A HISTORY OF HIGHLAND COUNTY, OIIIO.
jr., Samuel Huntington and William venient to the lick and in full view of Spring, Judges of the Supreme Court; it, from which he could select his deer Francis Dunlavy, Wyllys Stillman and out of, some times ten or fifteen, that Calvin Peas, Judges of the Common would be under his eye at the same Pleas Courts ; John Smith and Thomas time. Mr. Kelley helped raise the first Worthington, Senators to Congress. cabin, and consequently the first house The second session of the Legislature in the town of Hillsborough. Simon convened in December of the same year, at which the militia law was revised and a law passed to enable aliens to enjoy the same proprietary rights in Ohio as Kenton once encamped within half a inile or a mile of Kelley's lick as early as 1791, and shot a deer at it. Some thirty- five or forty years afterwards he came to native citizens. The revenue system of this county to give evidence in regard to the State was established at this session the lines and corners of a survey known and acts passed providing for the incor- as the Gibson survey. At that time he poration of townships, and the estab- well remembered the lick, and after go- lishment of Boards of County Commis- ing to it he took his course and went as sioners.
far as he thought his encampment was Jeremialı McLeane was the first Sheriff of Ross county and what is now Highland under the State organization. The settlers in a portion of Ross in and about New Market, on Whiteoak, ('lear Creek, Turtle Creek, Rocky Fork and the East Fork of the Miami of course had to attend court at Chillicothe, either from it. He then said he believed he was on the ground he had encamped upon in '91. "If so," he said, "after 1 returned from the lick on the evening I killed the deer, I stuck iny tomahawk left handed into an ash sapling, which stood near the fire, and hung my shot- pouch on it." He then took his knife as parties, jurors or witnesses, more or and cut the bark and wood off of the less of them at every term. From the side of a small ash tree and found the Davidson and Finley settlement on mark of the tomahawk, which was re- Whiteoak the distance is forty-five garded as conclusive evidence on the miles to Chillicothe. So when it be- subject in dispute. Kenton never had come necessary to go to court, they, in been there but the one time before and the style with which necessity had made that only to encamp during the night. them familiar, shouldered their rifles, Such is the memory of a thorough stowed away a supply of jonny cake and woodman of the carly pioneer days.
dried venison in their saddle bags and
Jonathan Berryman was doubtless tho set out through the woods to the nearest first to take steps towards rearing an direct trace. When they arrived at the orchard of fruit trees in the present court house they stacked their arms and having disposed of their horses were ready for business.
county of Highland. He brought with him from Jersey a careful selection of apple and peach seeds. The apple seeds In April, 1803, Ezekiel Kelly settled on the Little Rocky Fork, three miles south of Hillsboro, and commenced improving the farm on which he continued to re- side till his death. Mr. Kelley was a he planted almost immediately on his arrival, and being impressed with the belief that they would not do well unless they were bedded in manure from a cow yard, and knowing that none of the native of Maryland and emigrated to the essential could be obtained in the new vicinity of Chillicothe in the fall of 1798. settlement at New Market, as early as The fever and ague in the rich bottoms the fall of '99, he took with him a small of the Scioto finally drove him out as sack full from Manchester. Thus pro- well as many others, and he sought health among the oak hills of the Rocky Fork. Immediately east, and about a vided he planted his apple seeds and had the gratification in due course of time of furnishing the neighborhood half mile from where he built his cabin with fruit trees from his nursery. He and made his clearing near the banks of also had the first bearing appletrees in the creek, was one of the best deer licks the county. The peach seeds which he bore abundant and most delicious fruit. Mr. B. also cultivated bees and within a few years from the time he unloaded his wagon in the woods south of the town plat of New Market, his imm presented in the country. For some years after he planted grew and in four or five years settled there he furnished several of his neighbors with venison as regularly as butchers do the people of the town with fresh beef. He had his day set for them to come and had the venison ready for them. This lick was frequented by a a most inviting appearance.
great many deer, and previous to this In the fall of 1503 Samuel Gibson had been a place of resort for elks and moved with his family from Mason buffalos. Mr. Kelley had prepared a county, Kentucky, and settled on the good and comfortable hiding place con- Rocky Pork three miles southeast of the
So
A HISTORY OF HIGHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.
present town of Hillsborough. His land settler in Kentucky participated in the had been entered by Simon Kenton in border wars with the Indians. The land 1791, and surveyed some seven years af- terwards. Mr. Gibson had made some necessary preparations on his.land for
on which he lived and died in Ohio, was entered on warrants received for services in the Continental Line. The entry was the accommodation of his family prior , defective and the latter years of the old to moving. The year following, feeling man were embittered by a series of al- the necessity of a inill, he went to work most interminable law suits to settle the and fixed up a small tub-mill near the title and he finally, like many others of place where Bishir's saw mill now the early settlers, had to buy his own stands. This was a mere temporary af- land in order to be permitted to close fair of a corn-cracker, but was doubtless his days in peace at his own hearth- the first on the creek. There used to be . stone.
some rather ludicrous stories told in re- The first school that we have any 111- lation to this mill, one of which is that timation of in or about the town of it ground so very slow that after the Greenfield was kept in a little old cabin iniller threw grain in the hopper in the outside of the town plat by Judge morning he could leave it for a good Mooney about 1803 or 1804, and no portion of the day, starting the mill and house was erected in the town for the setting it at a proper gauge, In his ab- sence, the story goes, the ground squir- rels would come into the mill and take a position at the point of the shoe which fed the stones and catched the corn as it fell and before it entered the eye, when one got his jaws full he would "take his turn at the mill." So when the miller returned the grist was gener- ally gone and the mill clattering away but comparatively no meal in the chest. purpose of a school house until 1810. This was built out of round poles or logs and covered with clapboards. A place was cut out for a door and a log out of each side for windows. The building was about sixteen feet square, one-half of the floor of which was laid with puncheons, the other half, adja- cent to the fire place, which occupied one whole end, was naked earth. Broad rails with legs were used for
Occasionally a crowd of squirrels around benches. This school house stood near the eye, would cause some poor fellow the northwest corner of out lot No. 16. to fall in, in which case he was then which Thomas Boyd afterwards own- bound to go through and come out, not ed. Mr. B. went to school in this house exactly meal, but a dead squirrel and in the fall and winter of 1814, till it got with the, or instead of, the meal. After so cold that they froze out the fore part the discovery was made as to the thiev- of January, 1815. Shortly after this ish propensities of the squirrels, the (1815) there was a tolerably large liewed miller was obliged to stay constantly at log school house built on the ground the mill to watch them off, and then fre- now enclosed and used as a graveyard. quently they would attack the bags in the upper part of the mill, filled with corn and awaiting their turn, and cut holes in them and rob them of much of their contents. With all this precaution it was not an unfrequent thing when a sack of meal was taken home from this mill and opened to be sifted for mush or
This house was used as a school house till about 1837. About that time James Anderson and Thomas Boyd were em- ployed to build two frameschool houses, which were used for a number of years. During all this time, however, schools were frequently kept in private houses. In 1845 the fine stone Academy was
jonny cake to find the remains of a erected and successfully used for a mashed squirrel or rat. This mill, after nigling along at this rate for a few years, school outfit for a boy in those old times was finally washed away by a great flood, after which a somewhat better structure was got up, but it was not very seminary for several years. The was very trifling. Shirt and pants, in summer, of tow linen, and in winter, of linsey-woolhat. Bare feet from April
popular and could not be relied on in to December-after that, heavy cow- dry or wet times. Mr. G. seemed unable skin shoes-frequently both knees and elbows through pants and coat. Small blue-black spelling book, Webster's-
to get a dam to answer the full purpose of saving the water, and almost every freshet that came broke it and rendered Pike's arithmetic and frequently a the mill useless for a considerable time ; piece of slate -- a sheet or two of coarse generally till the neighbors would turn paper, and a little red potter's ware ink holder, filled with ink made of maple out and help him repair it. The point has, however, been occupied by a mill bark, and with nothing more many of of some kind from that time to the pres- the boys and young men of that day ent. Mr. G. had been a revolutionary graduated; and strange as it may seem soldier in his youth, and being an early to the fortunate and bountifully sup-
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A HISTORY OF HIGHLAND COUNTY, OIIIO.
plied youth of the present day, became Creek in Highland,) Nathaniel Burnet, useful citizens in the various depart- James Mooney, Samuel Mooney, on the ments of public service-went to the waters of Buckskin Creek. John Legislature or Congress with credit to Robins, Abraham Dean, James Ed- themselves and benefit to the public- wards, David Edminson, Robert Ed- men tried to be both useful and honest minson, John Wallace, Robert Wallace, in those days when intrusted by their Samuel Davis, Benjamin Brackney, fellow citizens with public duties. Michael Hare, John Bryant, Jacob Many of those early time young inen, Davis, Jacob Hare, Alexander Seroggs, whose every hour at school did not ex- ceed three months, during some winters
William Smith, Thomas Ellis, Mordecai Ellis, James Fisher, Samuel Littler, when farm work could not be attended Demsy Caps, who settled on main Paint chiefly and in the Greenfield neighbor-
to, have, on that slender foundation, filled offices of almost every grade, from hood.
Governor down, and filled them with
Much has been said of the different dignity and honor. Thus demonstrat- modes of hunting in the early days of ing that it is not so much the school this county. An early pioneer and that makes the man, as that it is the hunter has furnished us with the fol- man who makes himself so far as his lowing novel description of fire hunt- moral and intellectual development are ing as it is by some called. He says, concerned.
"in the summer when meat was scarce,
Greenfield does not seem to have im- mother would tell us in the morning to proved much for some years after the quit work in time to go to a lick or first settlement, and up to 1814 the down on Paint to get some venison. town plat in the language of one of its We would go down and encamp-span- mnost worthy citizens, was green enough. cel our horses, hunt a nice hickory tree At that date a large amount of the lots and lean an Indian ladder against it. were in woods-hazel thickets, green- One would then climb up eight or ten brier and grapevines covering them. feet and hack it round with a toma- A portion only was in cultivation. hawk and split the bark part of the way The first tavern of any note in the town down, so as to be reached from the was built about 1501 and kept by Fran- ground. Then we would peal the whole cis P. Nott. Others had kept apologies of the bark off in one piece to the for houses of entertainment for a short ground, cut holes with the tomahawk, time while they could get something to press it open and prop it with a stick cat and a keg of whisky. A Mr. Sim- near enough each end so as to turn it mons also kept tavern in town. He up. We then took off a little of the was succeeded by Noble Crawford, who rough bark outside and bent the ends built the first stone house in the town up and tied them fast with bark. We then placed a strong piece of bark up- right in the bow of the canoe -- for it is
and occupied it as a tavern. It was also occupied by others after him for the same purpose. This house also was an Indian bark canoe they have made owned by T. McGarraugh, and if the -and placed in front of that a large covering could be removed from over candle, made by taking adry spicewood the door arch, which has been there for stick and rolling beeswax around it. many years, we might be able to decide Behind this shade we would take our as to the date of its erection, for there, seats so the candle would not shine on it is said, is cut in the solid rock "Trav- us. The hunter would sit immediately elers Rest," by Noble Crawford, A. D. behind the bark shade which had the 18 -. The date is believed to be 1812. candle in front it with his rifle across The first blacksmith in the town was his lap. The steersman in the hind started in 1807 by Joseph Bell, and the end of the canoe, with a small stick first hatter shop about the same time by four feet long in his hand, would pole it Josiah Bell. The first tannery was gently through the water that the deer started by Samuel Smith in 1812. In in mossing, as they always are during the spring of 1811 David Bonner put in the warm weather, would not be alarm- operation a wool carding machine and ed. The light would attract their atten- soon after, cotton machinery, but this tion and as they could see nothing but part of the works did not pay and was abandoned. Wi. Robbins was the first cabinet maker in the town and Edward Leonard the first tailor.
it and hear no sound, they would stand like they were rooted to the earth, in minte amazement, gazing at it until we would glide within a few feet of them. When thus entirely certain of his aim
Between 1500 and 1805 settlements were made by Jonathan Wright, George the hunter would single out one and Heath, John Buck, JJohn Kingrey, (who fire. In this way we easily killed from built the first grist mill on main Paint two to five of a night. This hunting
A HISTORY OF HIGHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.
was done in Paint. The noise of the received from their mothers. Indeed gun woukl scare the deer for a few moments, but we would glide on down the stream, and perhaps get another
they had but little time to think of any higher accomplishment than that of the wool cards, the spinning wheel and the shot before we reached the point where loom, for on their industry depended not we intended to stop. We would then take off our candle a short distance into the woods after making fast our canoe, build a little guat fire to keep off the musquitoes and perhaps lie down and sleep an hour or two. Then we would start up again and thus in the course of the night we would pass up and down
only the thrift of the domestic establish- ment, but to a great extent the comfort of the whole family in the way of cloth- es, as all was made at home. They raised flax for shirting, and to pull and prepare it for weaving generally de- volved upon the women folks. The cus- tom was to make flax pullings to which several times, and generally getting a all the girls of the neighborhood were shot every time and in the morning we invited, and always attended in their returned with plenty of venison.
best rig. They would commence work
During the fall of 1804 Edom Ratcliff in the afternoon, six, eight or ten of with his family emigrated from Ran- them-nice rosy cheeked girls full of dolph county, North Carolina, and set- tled on Turtle Creek in the present township of Union, in Highland county,
life and fun, and by sundown would have the patch pulled and nicely spread out for curing. Sometimes a young beau or on the farm where Thomas Ratcliff re- two would dress up in their Sundays, sided until recently. About the same and volunteer to help for the pleasure time Robert Branson and family came of working by the side of a favorite lass. from Virginia and settled on and im- As a general thing some kind of a frolic proved the farm formerly owned by the was gotten up for the men folks at the Rev. James Quinn. Shortly after build- same time. Chopping, grubbing or some useful employment -- for in those days ing his cabin the family were very much annoyed by snakes crawling through the the carly settlers, both men and women, never failed to make their social gather- ings serviceable in some way to some
yard and about their spring. So terrify- ing were these things, that they were afraid to go for water after dark. After one -- then in the evening when the girls living in almost constant dread and fear were through with the flax and the for two or three years, Mr. Branson con- young men with their work, they all cluded there must be a den of snakes in the spring. So he called upon his neighbors, Robert McDaniel and his son John, and they went to work and quar- "ried the rock at the head of the spring and killed about sixty rattlesnakes, which broke up the den and freed the family from annoyance and fear from them.
met at supper. After this was over, they did not fail in satisfactory amuse- ments for the night, which was not un- frequently exhausted in dancing. These were truly the days of peace, health and happiness. These customs at flax pull- ings, choppings, log rollings, raisings, quiltings, &c., continued until within a few years past in the less improved por-
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