USA > Ohio > Biographical and historical memoirs of the early pioneer settlers of Ohio, with narratives of incidents and occurrences in 1775 > Part 22
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In 1794, when salt was worth six or eight dollars a bushel, he projected an expedition into the Indian country, near the Scioto river, for the discovery of the salt springs, said to be worked by the savages, near the present town of Jackson. At the hazard of his own life and all those with him, ten or twelve in number, he succeeded in finding the saline water, and boiled some of it down on the spot, in their camp kettle, making about a table spoonful of salt. While here he narrowly escaped death from the rifle of an Indian, who discovered them unseen by the party, and after the peace related the circumstance of his raising his rifle twice to fire at a tall man who had a tin cup strung to his girdle on the loins, and who was known to be Mr. Greene. As he might miss his object, being a long shot, and be killed himself, he desisted and hurried back to the Indian village, below the present town of Chillicothe, for aid. A party of twenty warriors turned out in pursuit, and came on to the bank of the Ohio, at Leading creek, a few minutes after the whites had left it with their boat, and were in the middle of the river. They were seen by the men in the boat, who felt how narrowly and providentially they had escaped.
The right of this discovery was sold to a merchant in Philadelphia for fifteen hundred dollars, and divided with his partners.
In 1795, after the perpetual motion had become an ac- knowledged failure, he turned his attention to the feasibility of applying steam to the moving of boats on the western
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GRIFFIN GREENE.
waters, and invented an engine so perfect in its model as to attract the confidence of Mr. Elijah Backus, a man of dis- cernment, and owner of the island opposite to Farmers' castle, and since known as Blennerhasset's. He became jointly concerned in the project, and about the year 1796, they visited Philadelphia and employed an ingenious me- chanic to build a steam engine. In this enterprise they ex- pended about a thousand dollars. The man proved to be unskillful or unfaithful, and the work was dropped without being finally put to the test.
In January, 1802, he was appointed postmaster at Ma- rietta, where he had previously moved his family, in place of David Putnam, Esq., removed by G. Granger. This office he held until his death. In July, 1802, he was ap- pointed collector for the district of Marietta, under the revenue laws of the United States, by Thomas Jefferson. He was also inspector for the port of Marietta, ships being built and cleared from that place. After his decease, his son Philip held the post-office to the period of his death, in 1806, when it was given to Griffin Greene, jun.
He died in June, 1804, aged fifty-five years, after a linger- ing illness which he bore with patience and fortitude, fully persuaded of a happy immortality.
Mr. Greene was a man of intelligent aspect, quick appre- nension, and a ready, vigorous application of his mind to any subject before him. In person he was tall, of genteel and accomplished manners, having seen and associated with much refined company and men of talents. His dress was that of the fashionable days of the Revolution, and very becoming to one of his stature. As a man of genius and intellect, he ranked with the first of the Ohio Company's settlers, abounding as it did with able men.
HON. PAUL FEARING.
Mr. FEARING was born in Wareham, county of Plymouth, Mass., the 28th of February, 1762, and was the son of Noah and Mary Fearing. His parents were industrious, hon- est people, with no pretensions to distinction above the class of common farmers, who formed the glory and the strength of the country, before and at the time of the strug- gle for independence. He had one brother older than him- self, and one sister younger. Lucy married Mr. Wyllis, an eminent attorney of Massachusetts.
Of his early childhood but little is known; but as the boy is said to be the father of the man, he was doubtless an up- right, open-hearted youth. The minister of the parish pre- pared him for college, as was common in that day, which he must have entered before the close of the war, as he graduated in 1785, at a time when the resources of the country were at the lowest ebb. From some reverses in the fortune of his father, about the period of his graduation, he was unable to assist his son in the payment of the customary fee on that occasion, and young Fearing was in danger of missing the honors of the university, for the want of a small sum of money. At this unpleasant crisis, Joseph Barrel, a gentleman of Boston, heard accidentally of the circum- stance, and kindly proffered the loan of the requisite sum, which was gratefully accepted. Having decided on law, for a profession, he commenced the study in May, 1786, in the office of Esq. Swift, of Windham, Conn., where he re- mained nearly two years, and was admitted as an attor- ney in the courts of law of that state, on the 19th of Sep- tember, 1787, by Richard Law, judge of the supreme court.
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PAUL FEARING.
In July he was enabled to refund the money to Mr. Bar- rel, and notes in a brief journal of passing events, "I shall feel under obligation to Mr. Barrel, and am to pay the in- terest by forgiving fees to some poor client." This act still further elucidates the benevolent heart of his friend, and proves that he felt good-will toward all mankind.
During this year the Ohio Company was matured, for es- tablishing a colony in the Northwest Territory, and was a general topic of conversation in New England. The glow- ing descriptions of the country and climate in the valley of the Ohio, caught the fancy of many young men, as well as older persons, and he decided on visiting that distant region. On the 1st of May, 1788, he bid adieu to his friends, and embarked at Boston in a vessel, by the way of Baltimore, for Muskingum, where he arrived on the 16th of that month. Here he put his trunk into a wagon, and commenced the journey across the mountains on foot. When he reached the little village of Fannetsburgh, at the foot of the first ranges, he was inoculated with the small-pox, having been exposed to the disease in Baltimore. The eruption came out while he was on the journey, but it does not appear that he laid by, on account of it, although detained two or three days by the breaking down of the wagon. He reached Pittsburg the 10th of June, and embarked the same day, in a boat for Marietta, where he arrived on the 16th. On the 4th of July, he says, Gen. Varnum delivered an ora- tion, and a public dinner was given in honor of the day. At this feast was served up a famous fish, called the Pike, that weighed a hundred pounds. The dinner was spread under a long bowery at the mouth of the Muskingum. Many patriotic toasts were given, and guns fired from Fort Harmer. About twenty families came on from New Eng- land, in the course of the summer and autumn. In May and June, Judges Parsons and Varnum, with Col. Sargent,
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secretary of the territory, arrived, and on the 9th, Gov. St. Clair. The 15th of that month he delivered his inaugural address, in presence of the judges, officers of the fort, and the assembled citizens of the territory. It was responded to, on the part of the people, by Gen. Rufus Putnam. On the 20th of July he listened to the first sermon ever preached in the English tongue northwest of the Ohio, by the Rev. Mr. Breck from Massachusetts. The Moravian missionaries had preached in the Delaware tongue, at Shoenbrun and their mission stations on the Tuscarawas river, as early as twenty years before this time. On the 2d of September, 1788, the first Court of Common Pleas was held in the north- west block-house of Campus Martius, when he was admitted as an attorney, and on the 9th of that month, received the following certificate from two of the United States judges :
"The undersigned, judges of the territory of the United States, northwest of the river Ohio, make known that they have admitted Paul Fearing, Esq., an attorney at law of said court, and have given unto him permission to appear before, and practice in, any and all the Courts of Record, and others that are or shall be erected in the said territory.
SAMUEL H. PARSONS, JAMES M. VARNUM.
Marietta, September 9th, 1788."
On the 9th of this month the Court of Quarter Sessions sat for the first time, and he was appointed attorney, or counsel, in behalf of the United States, for the county of . Washington, which was the first organized in the territory. But little law business was done this year, the attention of the settlers, as well as that of Mr. Fearing, being given to the clearing of lands, and making preparations for a per- manent home in the wilderness.
In December the Indians of several tribes came in to Fort Harmer, to make a treaty of amity with the United
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States, under the superintendence of Gov. St. Clair, who is styled commissioner plenipotentiary. It was a slow affair, the Indians being much divided as to the policy of the measure, some declining to treat at all, unless the Ohio river was made the boundary between their possessions and the whites; although, at former treaties, they had ceded to the United States a large portion of the present state of Ohio. They saw with feelings of anger and regret, the gradual encroachments of the whites on their country, and that in a few years they would be driven beyond the Mississippi. They finally made a treaty, agreed to by a portion, only, of the tribes, and these did not adhere to it long. In the fol- lowing year their country on the Miami was invaded by Gen. Harmer, and the war actually commenced by the Americans. It was a disastrous campaign, and terminated in favor of the Indians.
The last of January, 1789, Mr. Fearing set out on a jour- ney to New England, in company with several persons, amongst whom was Gen. Parsons. They went up the Ohio in a boat, but when about half way to Wheeling, the float- ing ice became so troublesome that they left the river and went up by land. The travel over the mountains was ac- complished on horseback, in twenty-six days, from Wheeling to Middleborough, in Massachusetts, when at this time it can be done in three or four days, so great are the improvements in travel. He returned in August, by way of Alexandria, and being a fine pedestrian, again crossed the mountains on foot. He reached Red Stone, a famous port for boats, on . the Monongahela, on the 14th of that month, and from the low stage of water, had to wait until the 26th of November, for a rise in the river, whereas it was usually navigable as early as September. There was no road through the wil- derness, nor any inhabitants, the larger portion of the way. While waiting here in daily expectation of rain, Com
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PAUL FEARING.
Whipple came on with his family and that of his son-in- law, Col. Sproat. With them he embarked in a small boat, and reached Marietta in four days, on the 30th of the month.
The following year was passed in attending to his law business, which began to increase some, as the emigration this season was very great, being the year before the war began on the Ohio Company settlements. In November he was appointed a deputy contractor for supplying the troops at Fort Harmer with fresh meat, at the low rate of thirteen dollars and thirty-three cents a month, and rations. Labor of all kinds was at a depressed state, a common hand on a farm getting only four dollars, and a private soldier three dollars. Money was very scarce. This post he held until the close of the war, and the avails of it aided much in his support, at a time when all were suffering under the pres- sure of want.
From his first arrival in the country he kept a journal of the weather, freshets in the Ohio, &c., which are valuable in comparing our present seasons with those of the first settlement of the country. From his notes it is ascertained that the weather, previous to the assault on the block-house at Big Bottom, was very cold, and the Muskingum was crossed on the ice from the 22d of December to the 11th of January, which gave the Indians every facility for making the attack. In the course of the summer of 1791, Gen. St. Clair invaded the Indian country, and was defeated on the 4th of November, the news of which did not reach Marietta until the 4th of December, when it was brought by Maj. Denny, on his way with dispatches to Philadelphia, so dif- ficult and slow was the intercourse between the settlements in the wilderness. There were no mails until 1794, when packet-boats were established from Wheeling to Cincinnati.
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PAUL FEARING.
The Indians had full command of all the country between the lakes and the river, and no dispatch could be sent that way.
Mr. Fearing's first attempt as an advocate before the Court of Quarter Sessions, was rather discouraging to his hopes as an orator. He rose with great diffidence, being nat- urally modest, and was only able to say, " May it please your honors-may it please your honors "- another long pause, when he said, "I have forgotten what I intended to speak," and took his seat. This embarrassment vanished in his next trial, and he was able to deliver himself with fluency and fine effect. His frank, manly civility, and sound dis- criminating mind, soon made him a favorite with the peo- ple, as well as the courts, and he had at his command much of the law business of the county. The Hon. R. J. Meigs was his first competitor at the bar, and for the favor of the public. Many well contested battles were fought, and many knotty cases unraveled by these early combatants for fame. Mr. Meigs was the most prompt and witty, with a ready flow of language, and Mr. Fearing the most indus- trious and patient in investigation, so that, in final results, they were very well matched. They were the only attorneys until 1791.
The following is a list of the lawyers who practiced at the courts of Washington county, with the time of their ad- mission, until the close of the territorial government, taken from the records of the courts: Paul Fearing, September, 1788 ; R. J. Meigs, 1789; Dudley Odlin, March, 1791; Mat- thew Backus, June, 1793; William Littel, June, 1797; Sol- omon Sibley, September, 1797; David Putnam, autumn, 1798; Edwin Putnam, 1799; Wyllis Silliman, June, 1801; Philemon Beecher, March, 1802; Lewis Cass, March, 1803; William Woodbridge, 1804; Charles Hammond, 1804. The
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PAUL FEARING.
names of several of these early attorneys are identified with the history of the country, holding public posts of the first importance.
The Courts of Quarter Session and Common Pleas were held each four times in a year. The United States Court also held four sessions in a year, but at wide and distant places, viz .: at Detroit, the first Tuesday in May; at Port Vincent, the second Tuesday in June ; at Cincinnati, the first Tuesday in October; and at Marietta, the second Tuesday in November. Mr. Fearing attended regularly in this court at Marietta, and sometimes at Cincinnati, but the distance was so great, and the mode of travel so slow, that it was a tedious labor.
In 1792, he was admitted an advocate in the Court of Probate. The following is the form of the oath, preserved amongst his papers, in his own handwriting : "I swear that I will do no falsehood, nor consent to the doing of any, in the courts of justice; and if I know of any intention to commit any, I will give knowledge thereof to the justices of said courts, or some of them, that it may be prevented. I will not willingly or wittingly, promote or sue any false, groundless, or unlawful suit, nor give aid or consent to the same, and I will conduct myself in the office of an attorney within the said courts, according to the best of my knowl- edge and discretion, and with all good fidelity, as well to the courts as my clients. So help me, God.
PAUL FEARING.
Washington county, ss."
"Sworn to in the General Court of Quarter Session, March 12th, 1793, before
JOSEPH GILMAN, commissioner."
The spirit and letter of the above oath were always kept in good faith while he was an attorney, as well as in all his
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PAUL FEARING.
transactions of private life. Honesty, candor, and fair dealing, were cardinal virtues which he never violated.
When the troops left Fort Harmer, Maj. Doughty, an in- timate friend, made him a present of his dwelling-house, a well finished log building, standing in the southwest angle of the fort. To this was also added the contents of his garden, planted with fruit trees; amongst them was a fine peach, still cultivated in Marietta, and called to this day, the Doughty peach. During the war, Mr. Fearing and his father occupied this house, which afforded a safe retreat from the attacks of Indians, who frequently appeared on the hill back of the garrison, where they had a view of the cleared fields in the bottoms, and watch for any one who might be out at work, a distance from the walls. Several were shot at, and one or two killed, within a quarter of a mile. Peace was established in August, 1795.
Late in November of this year, Mr. Fearing had a narrow escape from drowning. He was coming up from the settle- ment at Belpre in a canoe, which was the usual mode of travel for many years. Although a pretty skillful canoeman, yet, having with him in the boat his future wife and her sister, his attention was taken up with them, or from some other cause, in passing by a fallen tree-top which projected several rods into the river, the canoe upset, and threw them all into the water. None of them could swim but his boy, Tousant Shoeman, then about fourteen years old, who soon reached the land. In their attempts to hold on to the canoe, it would roll from their grasp. Miss Betsy Rouse, the sister of his intended wife, an active, courageous girl, exerted herself so effectually, that she soon reached the shore, after having been at the bottom once or twice. Cynthia being clad with a large camlet cloak, was more buoyant, and kept upon the surface, sometimes clinging to the canoe, and at others
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PAUL FEARING.
floating near it. After struggling along in this way for sev- eral rods, Mr. Fearing encouraging her with his voice, and retaining fully his presence of mind, although unable to as- sist her in any other way, they both reached so near the shore as to be able to get hold of the willow bushes, and were helped to the dry land by the boy, nearly famished with the cold, and exhausted with their struggles, as there was considerable ice in the river at the time. Fortunately, a large flatboat, laden with goods, came in sight, and at their request landed and took them on board. By wrapping them in warm blankets, and giving them hot drinks, they were soon restored to comfort. The boat landed them at Farmers' castle; and their next attempt to reach Marietta proved more fortunate, taking with them an experienced canoeman. When we consider the rare occurrence of flat- boats, and especially one at this particular juncture, with everything on board necessary to the comfort of the ship- wrecked company, and that there was no house between Belpre and Marietta, where they could receive aid, and the fact of their being enabled to escape from the watery ele- ment under such hopeless circumstances, the whole affair may be viewed as one of those plain and manifest interpo- sitions of Providence, in overruling and guiding the destinies of man, while a sojourner in this ever-changing world.
On the 28th of this month Mr. Fearing was married to Miss Cynthia Rouse, at his own house at Marietta. The ordinance was performed by the Hon. Joseph Gilman, one of the judges of the territory. The fruits of this marriage were a daughter and two sons.
In the year 1797 he received the appointment of judge of probate, for Washington county, under the seal and com- mission of Winthrop Sargent, then acting as governor of the territory. After the close of the war the country filled up rapidly, and in 1799 the first legislature held its session
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in Cincinnati. In 1800 the second session was held, and in this he was a member. During this period he was chosen a delegate, to represent the territory in Congress, which post he filled for 1801 and 1802, with credit to himself and the entire satisfaction of the people. About this time, the two great political parties of Federalist and Republican were organized all over the United States, and even in this remote wilderness the voice of political strife was loud and boister- ous. He was attached to the Federal party, which at this time was the most numerous.
After his return to private life he resumed the practice of the law, with increased reputation. His manly, open coun- tenance, with his well known character for uprightness and honesty, gave his pleadings great and deserved weight with a jury ; and he was often spoken of and named in a famil- iar manner, by the country people, as "honest Paul," a phrase which gave more weight and popularity to his opin- ions, than any high sounding title.
On his farm, a little below the mouth of the Muskingum, he erected a neat dwelling-house, and planted an extensive orchard of the choicest fruits, of which he was an intelligent and successful cultivator. The garden was arranged with neatness and taste, and ornamented with shrubbery, flowers, &c., showing a relish for the beautiful as well as the useful.
He was one of the first in Ohio who paid attention to the raising of merino sheep. His flocks embraced several hundreds of these valuable animals, propagated from a few individuals, bought at enormous prices, a single buck com- manding from six to eight hundred dollars, and a ewe from two to three hundred, and sometimes much more. He en- gaged in the sheep culture as early as 1808, and during the yeaning season, passed many weary and sleepless nights during the cold winter weather, in watching and protecting the young lambs from the effects of frost, so fatal to them
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PAUL FEARING.
if long exposed to its chilling influence. By his knowl- edge of their maladies, and discretion in feeding and studying their habits, he became one of the most success- ful growers of merinos, an animal difficult to rear, and re- quiring a different management from that applied to the common sheep of the country. His practical knowledge, acquired by actual experiment, was freely imparted to others, and was of great use to the farmers of this county. The growth of this valuable animal was for many years extensively conducted in this part of the state, and was profit- able so long as the government, by protecting duties, en- couraged the woolen factories to work up the wool of the country, thereby not only making the nation independent, but the people rich.
In 1810, he was appointed an associate judge of the Court of Common Pleas. The commission is signed by Samuel Huntington, then governor of Ohio. In this office he served seven years, with much credit as a sound jurist and impartial judge. At the expiration of that period, the leaders in po- litical affairs placed the office in other hands, more congenial to their views. In 1814, he received the appointment of master commissioner in chancery.
From the first entering of the lands of the Ohio Company for taxation by the state, he acted very extensively as an agent for the shareholders in the eastern states, paying their taxes, examining and preparing their lands for sale. In this way, a large portion of his time, not devoted to the care of his farm, was occupied.
In his disposition, Mr. Fearing was remarkably cheerful and pleasant, much attached to children, and never happier than when in their company. He had great sympathy for the poor and the oppressed, and was ever ready to stretch forth his hand, and open his purse for their relief.
He died the 21st of August, 1822, after a few days illness,
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JOSEPH GILMAN.
a victim to the fatal epidemic fever, which ravaged the country for two or three years, in the sixtieth year of his life. His wife died the same day, a few hours after, in the forty-sixth year of her age.
HON. JOSEPH GILMAN AND MRS. REBECCA GILMAN.
JOSEPH GILMAN was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, A. D., 1736, and was the third generation of the descend- ants of John Gilman, who emigrated from Norfolk, Eng- land, in 1637. He married Rebecca Ives, granddaughter of the Hon. Robert Hale, of Beverly, Massachusetts, one of the provincial council, and an intimate friend of Gov Hutchinson.
When the struggle for liberty commenced, he took an early and decided part on the side of the colonists. His high standing for integrity, and honorable, upright character, soon attracted the notice and favor of the Whigs, and he was appointed chairman of the Committee of Safety for New Hampshire, a post which none but the most able and influential men were selected to fill. This station brought him into immediate intercourse with a number of the lead- ing men in the adjacent states, especially Massachusetts. In the early periods of the Revolution, these committees of safety were the most important public bodies in the coun- try, transacting much of the business afterward done by the legislatures, in collecting and purchasing arms, ammuni- tions, and clothing for the state troops. Mr. Gilman, as
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