USA > Ohio > Jefferson County > Steubenville > Century History of Steubenville and Jefferson County, Ohio and Representative Citizens, 20th > Part 44
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Salem. A party from New Lisbon wanting help, employed the mother and daughter. Jacob Clinton, working for George, got an idea there was reward for information of fugitive slaves. He succeeded in corre- sponding with the owner, the result of which proved beneficial to all concerned. A plot was concocted; Clinton was to go to New Lisbon (now Lisbon) and represent himself as a son of Judge George and con- vince the mother that her son, who was at George's, was very lonesome and wanted his sister for company. After some per- suasion the mother yielded, and the dauglı- ter was given up. Clinton had scarcely got out of sight when suspicion arose. A run- ner was sent to Salineville. The runner. returning, reported the suspicion well based. At once a company was organized at New Lisbon, headed by David George, which followed Clinton to Wellsville, but too late to catch him, the boat having gone. In the meantime the negro boy kept by George was hidden in a coal bank. While Dr. Farmer and Judge George were talk- ing the matter over, a fine team drove up, a stylish person alighted and came into the house. He asked if a colored boy was there, and being informed there was, said: 'I am So and So, from New Lisbon; the mother sent me after the boy; the little sister is very lonesome and wants her brother for company.' Farmer and George, taking in the situation, made things so hot for the gentleman that he was glad to drive off toward Steubenville. The mother and boy were immediately sent to Canada."
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swimming his best, and to land only a few minutes later than he. His subsequent hunt failed to secure his property, and the master was mystified. At his wits' end, he said, 'That nigger must have gone off on an underground road.' The aptness of the title was seen at once, and the rapid transmission of the story within and be- yond the state soon fixed this designation on the 'system.'" The change of title from "road" to "railroad" was very easy and natural after the latter became a fa- miliar term. This "system" had at least twenty-three "ports of entry" along the Ohio River front, that is recognized points of crossing. The outlets along the lake were Toledo, Sandusky, Cleveland, Fair- port and Ashtabula. The aggregate length of the recognized roads or trails in Ohio has been figured at 2,800 or 3,000 miles, of which Jefferson County furnished 117. As to the total number of slaves res- cued through their means the guesses are all the way from 40,000 to 80,000. Certain it is that the number is very large. It is stated on what is claimed to he good au- thority that William Lambert, who died in Detroit a number of years ago, helped 30,- 000 to freedom in thirty-three years, or nearly a thousand a year. There is no way of verifying these figures, and they are given for what they are worth.
In connection with the Abolition move- ment Jefferson County hecame the seat of not only the first, but so far as the writer is informed, the only enterprise of the kind in the country. In 1825 Nathaniel Benford, of Charles City County, Virginia, liberated seven of his slaves and sent them to Benjamin Ladd at Smithfield, who had heen a neighbor of Mr. Benford, leaving there in 1814. They were placed on a farm on Stillwater Creek, Harrison County, but eventually scattered. Mr. Benford, who was a Quaker, was said to have been in- fineneed in his actions by David Minge, an- other neighbor who had freed eighty-seven slaves and sent them to Cuba. The prob- lem with Mr. Benford, as it was with all who desired to free their slaves, was
whether their condition would really be im- proved thereby. He concluded to try the experiment of a colony and in 1829 gave manumission papers to nine families of slaves on his plantation and sent them to Smithfield. He furnished Mr. Ladd with funds, and the latter, under his instruc- tions, purchased from Thomas Mansfield two hundred and sixty acres of land in Wayne Township about two miles from Smithfield, erecting cabins and furnishing the immigrants with farming implements. The settlement was on Melntire Creek, from which it took its name, sometimes called Hayti from the West Indian black republie. The heads of the original fam- ilies were: Nathaniel Benford, who took the name of his master; Ben Messenburg, Collier Christian, Lee Carter, Paige Ben- ford, David Cooper, William Toney, Field- ing Christian and Fitzhugh Washington. Nathaniel was sort of a chief in the colony on account of the confidence reposed in him by his master in Virginia. By reason of his large family he received more property, all of which property was divided into par- cels of from three to fifteen acres and dis- tributed according to number of children in each family. The longevity of all the original settlers has been something re- markable. William Toney died at the age of a Inmdred a few years ago, and even when far advanced in years was a man of imposing stature-well-knit muscles, ca- pable of almost any physical exertion. Fielding Christian was called "Old Field- ing," for fifty years, aud at his death, in 1883, the surviving members of the settle- ment claimed that he was over one hundred and ten. Others died at advanced ages and in so far as known none of the original col- onists are now living.
All of the original colonists were known for miles around. Many were gardeners who received their instructions from old Benny Messenburg, who displayed remark- able taste in laying out flower plats and had great success in raising vegetables, He had a time for everything and the moon had to be just so, together with certain
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M. E. CHURCH. BERGHOLZ
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, RICHMOND
U. P. CHURCH, RICHMOND
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M. E. CHURCH, AMSTERDAM
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AND CEMETERY, AMSTERDAM
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other favorable circunstances before the of being hillside land, all facing east, and ground could be broken or the seed planted. taking everything into consideration a bet- ter location for their material progress and future success and attaining competency could hardly have been chosen. tomed as they were, to the cultivation of the richest land in the valley of the James River, they were especially ignorant of any means of fertilization and of prevent- ing the wear of the virgin soil. Carter Christian had more than a local reputation as a cook. His face would shine and glisten like a reflector when he saw any one eat heartily and heard him praise his culinary art. Lee Carter was a porter for a long time at the "Old Black Bear" in Steubenville, and told marvelous stories of the people he had mnet and the consider- ation paid him. Evens Benford was a hackster. The others were farmers, rais- ing on their own ground what was neces- sary for their comfort and hiring out to the neighboring farmers for wages to clothe their families. "Old Fielding" was always in demand at every butchering. many people believing that if he did not bleed the pigs the hum or sausage would not brown properly when cooked. The wives of the men were employed by their neighbors and often their services were invaluable, owing to their faithfulness.
Upon the land given them they attempt- ed at first to raise the crops of Virginia, including tobacco, flax and hemp, but these soon wore out the soil, and afterwards the usual crop consisted of a small patch of corn, oats or rye to be used principally as food for their animals, while the rest of the land, if cultivated at all, was worked by the women, who put in the garden truck. The land was of course originally woodland to a great extent, and had to be cleared. When this was done their knowledge of agriculture was so meagre and their nat- nral indolence so great that much of it soon became grown over with red brush and rank weeds until it became aguin ut- terly worthless for their purposes. The negroes were satisfied as long as they conld fill their stomachs, and the traits of thrift and energy and faculty for the accumula- tion of property for a rainy day were so little developed that in the course of time the property became as valueless as when first purchased. With regard to the land itself, originally it was as fertile and as capable of prolific crops as any in Jefferson Connty. The land had another advantage
Among the strange and curious charac- teristics of the peculiar colony at Hayti. the religious fervor during "bush" meet- ings and revivals certainly predominated. Although many of the original settlers had very little knowledge of the Bible, what they did know was to them during these meetings, "like honey and the honey- comb." The historical personnges being real men and the entire conduet of the an- vient Jews worthy of imitation in every re- spect, their faith in all matters spiritual being unlimited, their preaching and ex- hortations on some disputed points of mod- ern theology were certainly unique, if not decidedly amusing. The music of the sing- ing at the "bush" meetings was nothing like the brilliant noise of the present day,, irritating rather than soothing to the nerves, but was truly an adequate expres- sion of their deep and intense feeling. The hymns were those in the Methodist hymnal, which were lined off in the old fashioned wny by the preacher reading two lines and the congregation singing them. But to these hymns they added an ad libitum chorns, each one supplying what to him seemed appropriate to the occasion and the simple meter. Some of these ndditions might have seemed somewhat irreverent to the refined, and they certainly were so peculiar that they could never have been suggested by any other imagination than that possessed by the negro.
When the grove which adjoins the church was lighted np with torches and fires, the flickering light cast upon the suble and shining countenances, making them look like beings of another world; the pathetic sound of the preacher's voice and the ap-
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pearance of his body swaying to and fro in unison with the singing words; the loud and fervent ejaculations of the elders; their weird music, sounding doubly strange and plaintive by reason of the surround- ings, all formed a picture in the mind that cannot be eradicated. There have been in- stances during these meetings of members passing into such a state of eestatie bliss that they fell into a trance, remaining in that condition for hours. During the re- vivals in the winter season many have been the jokes played on the congregation. U'sn- ally for a Week after the meeting ull white people were kept out of the church and the doors and windows barred against them. To get even for this some of the young white men of the neighborhood climbed to the roof and stopped the chimneys, literally smoking out the congregation. Every man, woman and child believed the smoke to be a contrivance of the devil who was after some one of them, each thinking he was the fuel designed for the brimstone. On an- other occasion several of the white boys stole a goose and carrying it to the top of the church waited for the religious fervor to reach its height. An old woman of the congregation began praying in front of the old wood-fire place, calling for "de Spirit ob de Lawd to 'eend right now." Down came the goose and out of the church went the congregation through the door, win- dows and every other opening they could find, confident that they had been witnesses to a manifestation of the Spirit descending like a dove. Several of the eminent col- ored preachers were born there, among them Rev. John Smith and Wilson Toney, both eloquent men and zealous workers. Those who came from Virginia were most- ly Methodists, although the Baptists were a good minority. Melutyre Creek has often been the scene of dippings at which many ludicrous incidents have occurred. None of these negroes were Friends, notwith- standing the benefits they received from this body, but the quiet, passive way of their worship had no attractions for the boisterous disposition of the negro. There
was one, however, Lucy Cardwell, who in practice and in principle was n Quaker, and whose piety and patience under long snf- fering were made the subject of a long Abo- lition tract written by Elizabeth Ladd. Closely allied to the strong religious fer- vor of their natures was their superstition, a trait which they brought from Virginia, and which was enhanced by the belief in necromaney and a species of voodooism prevalent nt Melntyre long before their ar- rival. Before the Hayti colonists had left Virginia there were few families for miles around Melntyre who had not their pe- enliar signs, omens and disasters to be avoided by certain incantations and the in- tervention of a witch doctor. It did not take the negroes long to fusten on to every ghostly story and every charm against im- pending evil and make it peenliarly their own. The negro was not only more ready to believe in the supernatural than the pio- neers, but was more loath to give up this be- lief when it once took hold, no matter how absurd it became to the whites after inves- tigation proved it false. Thus the whites would ridicule notions that they themselves once entertained with much zeal, while the negro would eling to them until they be- came a part of him. For a long time no wealth could hire a Melutyre negro to puss Oak Grove school honse after nightfall, and he approached it in day time with fear and trembling. They claimed that mearthly lights were often seen flitting abont the win- dows, carried by grinning skeletons and hendless figures clothed in white who had nightly orgies, where during the day chil- dren went to school. They had a mortal terror of caves and old coal banks, thinking them the abodes of evil spirits. They had a curions superstition connected with aban- doned coal banks. They claimed that if a man bronght his Bible to the front of a coal mine, built a fire and burned it, at the same time adjuring God, performing a certain walk, and repeating aloud a certain sepul- chural incantation. old Nick would come ont of the bank with horns, forked-tail and breathing sulphurons flames from ont his
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nostrils, and grant any wish-with the have been very exclusive in their alliances simple provision that the mortal soul would be the property of hell when disso- lution came.
The negroes would under no circum- stances go out of a different door of a house than by that which they entered, saying it would bring bad luck. There are plenty of white people today who act on the same belief. They would make soft soap and prepare articles of food only when the moon was in a certain phase, plant turnips only on July 25 and cucumbers before day- light with no clothing on other than a shirt, and then walking backward into the house. In churning, if butter did not come as soon as it should, a vexation known to all farmers' wives, they would bind the out- side of the churn with a rope of green grass or drop a heated horseshoe into the sour cream. If the butter did not appear after this they were not perplexed by any means, but would find some fault in the manner in which the churn was bound or in the man- ner by which the horseshoe was heated.
The aged professed to be able to cure any disease to which flesh is heir by means of incantations and by the judicious use of certain herbs, the medical properties of which they alone knew how to extract and apply. Every autumn they would have the roofs of their cabins filled with bunches of herbs and roots which they had the fullest confidence would work wonderful cures. One of their teas had for its chief com- ponent part material found about sheep barns, and one of the most efficacious plasters was formed in a large measure of what they put upon enenmber vines to drive away bugs and worms. They had fertilizers for the growth of all vegetables, all of them homely and senseless, and they were constantly assuring their neighbors that they would have no luck if they did not use them.
Their claims of relationship to each other is a peculiar feature, as they recog- nize the ties of kinship as far away as the forty-sixth consin. That they are all re- lated some way is probably a fact, as they
with families of color outside the settle- ment. Some of the older members who were rather light in color took great pride in secretly conveying the claim that they traced their paternity to some of the first families in Virginia.
Politically, every man in the settlement votes the Republican ticket, although sur- rounded by and employed by the strongest Democrats in the county. Next to their re- ligious meeting nothing is of greater inter- est or of greater importance to them than political meetings. An hour before the time for which the meeting is announced the school house bell rings and all the men, women and children of the settlement, to- gether with their white neighbors, flock to the school house. The speaker arriving, one of their number is chosen chairman, and a speaker not accustomed to them is completely broken up by their peculiar ejaculations of approval or dissent. Sev- eral years ago two Republicans went out from Steubenville to address the colony on the issues. The first speaker was Hon. John M. Cook, who was not familiar with their peculiarities, and was dressed in a tight- fitting suit of blue, and appearing smaller than he is in stature. Hardly had he begun when he was so badly startled that he al- most forgot his speech, by an old darkey opening his mouth like an alligator's and shouting, "God bress de little lamb!" Fin- ishing shortly to make way for the next speaker, the late T. B. Coulter, who bore his three hundred pounds very gracefully, he was still worse put out by the alligator's mouth again opening and exclaiming, "God bress de lion of the tribe of Judee."
The cabins occupied by the colony are in a poor condition. The land once so fertile and admirably situated for abun- dant crops is now for the most part stony and sterile. Scarcely any care has been taken to improve it and almost every por- tion is so overgrown with brush and weeds that it would now be impossible to improve it. The descendants of the original set- tlers manage to eke out an existence upon
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it, and are recognized as quiet, law abiding ing the eighty-five years they have occupied citizens. Mr. Ladd took great interest in the welfare of the colony. As stated he came from Virginia in 1814, and purchased from his father-in-law the farm known as the "Prospect Hill," adjoining Smithfield. In 1817 he erected a building for the pur- pose, and commenced to pack pork and eure bacon, said to be the first enterprise of the kind west of the Alleghenies. He had four packing houses on his farm and one at Martin's Ferry.
An M. E. church was built for the com- munity in 1845, and a Baptist in 1870. They have a separate school district sometimes with black, and sometimes with white teach- ers. There are about 40 voters there, indi- cating a population of probably two hun- dred.
In view of the propositions at different times to segregate the colored population of the United States into one or more sep- arate communities the MeIntire settlement has been viewed with some interest. As stated, the evidence of improvement dur-
this place has not been marked, notwith- standing they have been surrounded by white neighbors of at least average intelli- gence. Several drawbacks, however, must be taken into account. The holdings be- ing small and cultivated in the unscientific method in vogue not only among negroes, but whites, the soil would naturally de- teriorate. Hayti is not the only place where this has happened. In the second place the field was too limited for the more progressive and vigorous element, which naturally sought homes elsewhere to such an extent that although there are plenty of children, the adult population remains practically stationary. No Moses has arisen among their own people to teach them bet- ter ways, and even as to their superstitions the whites are in no position to throw stones. As stated they are as a rule quiet and lawabiding, but they cannot be said to have solved any important sociological problem.
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CHAPTER XX
A COMPANY OF WORTHIES
Men Who Have Made the County Famous-Those Who Hare Excelled in Literature, Music and the Fine Arts-Captains of Industry and Financiers-Pictures of Early Living.
The history of the settlement of Jeffer- ture shone out through a plensing face of remarkable freshness and beanty of comt- plexion, with mild blue eyes, one of which had a peculiar droop when excited by anger or other cause. Dark hair set off a frame which is said to have towered over six feet high, and in appearance as well as in ac- tion our subject was every inch a man. To go back nearly 200 years, about the begin- ning of the 18th century, James Wells left his English home, and settled in Baltimore, Md. There Alexander Wells, his son, was born on March 12, 1727. He was married to Lenh Owings, the ceremony taking place in St. Paul's church, Baltimore, and as the result of his union, Bezaleel Wells was born in 1769. Four years later his father moved to Washington County, Pennsylvania, then a part of Angusta County, Virginia, erect- ing the first frame dwelling within the pres- ent limits of Washington County. Bezaleel remained with an uncle in Baltimore until he was thirteen years old, when he joined his parents, and accompanied them to Charlestown, now Wellsburg, which was to be his home until manhood. During his short stay in Washington County he had a taste of pioneer life, in carrying nrms for the farmers who had built a fort for pro- tection against the Indians, while they la- bored in the fields. They were nttacked son County, its development and progress naturally inelndes references to the men who took a leading part in that work, and we here devote a short chapter to some personal characteristics and history out- side of those already recorded. First is that of Beznleel Wells, who was not only founder of the town of Steubenville, but its mainspring for many years. In the par- lor of the Wells homestead at Ross Park, on Spring avenue, Stenbenville, hang two oil portraits. They were painted 83 years ago by an artist named Stien, who was probably not only the sole portrait painter in this part of the country, but a youth of exceptionni promise. Such were his abili- ties that those who knew him predicted for him n most brilliant future. But shortly after painting these pictures he left for Europe to complete his studies. On the way he sickened and died. The portraits referred to were among the last of his works, if indeed not his very last. That alone would give them peculiar interest. but to those who live in this valley they repre- sent much more. One of them portrays the lineaments of Bezaleel Wells, and the other, Sarah Griffith Wells, his wife. Mr. Wells, when this picture wns painted, was 58 years of age, still apparently in his prime. A genial, kindly, yet energetic na- several times, but none of the Wells family
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was injured. Young Bezaleel received as very agreeable days. The Ohio being wade- thorough an edneation as this country af- able, I crossed it in that way, in order to say that I had been in Virginia. The Bishop held a service one day at Cross Creek, a church well attended, but without a honse in sight of it." forded at that time, his father being a man of means. He graduated at William and Mary College, and made a special study of surveying. This was invaluable to him in a new country, and he did a great deal of The property at that day was intersected by a deep ravine, now filled up, crossed by a footbridge which existed until a few years ago. work for the goverment. He had his choice of cash or land for his services, but took the latter, and in 1706 selected a tract of 1.100 acres on this side of the river whose southern boundary was what is now North street, in the city of Steubenville. His father who died at Charleston, in 1813, had received 2,000 acres from the colonial governor, Lord Dunmore, on Short Creek, Near where Ohio's flowing waters glide, Va., in return for public services. James Ross, of Pittsburgh, owned the tract ad- joining that of Bezaleel Wells, on the sonth, and in 1797 the two laid ont the town of Steubenville. Mr. Wells doing the survey- ing of the whole. The first sale of lots took place on August 25, 1797, which marks the Here fancy and simplicity unite, beginning of our city.
A stranger writing to the Herald of April 8. 1820, in a long poem extols the beauties of the place, from which we take the fol- lowing introduction :
And Nature counts the sun's resplendent rays,
The enchanting Castle, well of man the pride,
Arrests the passing stranger's wistful gaze.
And taste and culture happily combine, Delightful spot, where fruits and flowers invite,
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