Century history of Delaware County, Ohio and representative citizens 20th, Part 11

Author: Lytle, James Robert, 1841- [from old catalog] ed
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago, Biographical publishing company
Number of Pages: 926

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It was not long, however, until others ar- rived. In April of the year 1802, Thomas Cellar and Josiah McKinnie established them- selves on the Olentangy, two miles below Car- penter in the same township, Thomas Cellar being the owner of a tract of 4,000 acres within the present township limits. About two years later three brothers, John, Ebenezer and Aaron Welch, together with a brother-in-law, Capt. Leonard Monroe, settled in the neighbor- hood of the Carpenters. A few years later there was added to the Liberty Township set- tlement Ebenezer Goodrich, George and Seth Case, and David Thomas.

Before the Liberty settlement had received all these additions, however, colonists were be- ginning to erect their cabins in other parts of the county. One of the earliest after the ar- rival of Carpenter and Powers, was Henry Perry, who, unlike most of the others, was not a New Englander, but came direct from Wales and thus became the fore-runner of the Welsh colony, which has numbered among its

members many of the county's most substantial citizens. He settled in the region which has since been organized into Radnor Township, and his cabin stood about three-fourths of a mile from the site of the present village of Radnor. There is an interesting story re- lated in connection with this settlement. Perry had brought his two boys, then only nine and eleven years of age, with him. When it became necessary for him to return to Phila- delphia to pilot the remainder of his family to their new home, he left the two boys all alone in the cabin in the wilderness. The win- ter was one of exceptional severity, the cabin open, "having neither daubing, fireplace or chimney," and food extremely scarce. Yet these boys withstood bravely all these hard- ships, fearlessly encountered all the dangers of the unbroken forest, and in addition made a considerable clearing by the time their father returned. It was such courage as this which conquered the wilderness and appropriated it for the purposes of a civilization of which the native red men never so much as conceived. The ground on which Perry settled had been originally purchased by David Pugh. This man laid out a village on his land which he called New Baltimore and which he antici- pated would some day develop into a large and flourishing town. It was not the first town. however, which was laid out in Delaware County. That honor belongs to Berkshire.

The date of Perry's settlement in Radnor Township was 1803. The next year marks the coming to the county of a man who was to have perhaps more to do with the shaping of her destinies during the early years of her history than any other. Colonel Moses Byxbe was a native of Berkshire County, Massachu- setts. Ile was a man of exceptional energy, with great decision and force of character. He had. before his coming to Ohio. accumulated large wealth and acquired a position of commanding influence in his native town of Lenox. In his business of tavern and store-keeper he had come into possession of a number of military land warrants, which he located in what are now the townships of Berkshire and Berlin. The tract which he first owned comprised

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8.000 acres. He threw all his energies into the task of colonizing his western possessions and soon succeeded in organizing a colony of emi- grants who set out for their new homes in June of the year 1804, arriving at the place on Alum Creek which was afterwards called Berkshire in honor of their native county. There is said to have been a still earlier settle- ment within the bounds of Berkshire Town- ship, however, in the person of Thomas Cow- gill, who is reputed to have built his cabin in the southern part of the township in 1801. As was the case with the other settlements which we have mentioned as having perhaps preceded the Liberty Township settlement, however. if this one in Berkshire Township really did exist it had little influence on the later development of the county. At a point where Colonel Byxbe's colony located was laid out the first town in Delaware County. preceding by a year the town which had an existence on paper, at least, in Radnor Town- ship, and which was platted in 1805. Had Colonel Byxbe adhered to his original inten- tions. Berkshire would now have been. per- haps. a place of much larger .population and proportions than it is. For reasons which will appear when we come to speak more particu- larly of the township and of the city of Dela- ware. Colonel Byxbe abandoned his efforts in behalf of Berkshire and devoted himself to the building up of the town of Delaware. He made a number of journeys between his native state and his possessions in Delaware County. and many among the early settlers were in- duced to become such through his influence.

The next township to receive the pioneer was Berlin, and here, too, the first settlement was made on a tract owned by Byxbe. The first settler was George Cowgill, who came in 1805, and he was closely followed by David Lewis, Sr., and his family, who located on a tract which had been purchased by Joseph Constant of Peekskill, New York. Not long afterward came Joseph Eaton, Sr., and John Johnston, with their families, from Hunting- don. Pennsylvania, and later David Isaac, Philander Hoadley and Chester Lewis, from Waterbury, Connecticut.

A beginning having been made, it was not long until every township in the county had been started on the pathway to civilization through the advent of the white settler. In 1806 Scioto was occupied, the first family here. that of Richard Hoskins, like the one in Rad- nor, having come originally from Wales. Genoa, Kingston, Delaware, Marlborough. Trenton, Harlem, and perhaps Porter, received their first inhabitants as early as 1807. Be- tween this period and the year 1812 all the remaining townships in the county were oc- cupied, and what a few years before had been a desolate, unbroken wilderness. now began to teem with the life of the new population which was henceforth to render the region forever- more an uncongenial habitation for the native child of the forest.

GROWTH OF POPULATION.

It may be interesting here to note the growth of the population. The first year in which a census seems to have been taken was in 1810. before all the townships, even. had yet been occupied. In that year Delaware County had 2,000 inhabitants. It is to be re- membered, however, that the extent of the county's limits were greater at that time than they were later on after a part of its territory had been taken to help in the formation of other counties, a matter which will be dis- cussed hereafter. In 1820 there were 7.639 people in the county, in 1830, 11.523. and in 1840, 22,060. At the time of the next census, in 1850. the present boundaries of the county had been fixed and the population then was 21,817. In 1860 it was 23.902; in 1870, 25 .- 175: in 1880. 27.381. This was the high- water mark in the county's growth in popula- tion. as the census in subsequent decades shows an actual decline. In 1890 the number of inhabitants was 27.189. and at the last census in 1900 it was only 27.401. There is nothing in this decrease of population in the past few years that would indicate an unhealthful con- dition of affairs, and the experience of Dela- ware County is not, in this respect, an ex- ceptional one. A number of counties in the

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY

state could be cited where an exactly similar condition exists. Yet their condition, as well as that of Delaware County, has been one of constant and unbroken prosperity. The causes which brought the early settler to the com- munity have simply ceased, in later times, to operate, and where there has been growth in recent years, as there has been in some cases, it has been from an influx of laborers into the county seat towns, where especial facilities for the establishment of manufacturing plants are afforded.

FIRST EVENTS.

There seems to be considerable uncertainty as to who has the honor of being the first ad- dition to the population of Delaware County, not from emigration but by birth upon its soil. There have been at least three claimants for the distinction, two of them in Liberty Town- ship and one in Berlin. If the dates which have been handed down to us are correct, Jeremiah Gillies was born in Liberty Township on Au- gust 7, 1803. In the same township Benjamin Powers was born October 6, 1803. The "County Atlas," published in 1875, asserts that J. C. Lewis, who was born in Berlin Township, September 29, 1806, was the first white child born in the county. If either of the dates given above, however, are correct, there would appear to be little ground for the claim which is made for Lewis.

The first death, as well as the first birth, is a matter of interest. Death did not enter the pioneer settlement until three years after its founding, and then it claimed the wife of Captain Carpenter. She died on the 7th of August, 1804, and was buried on a knoll on the Carpenter homestead which is supposed to have been a burying ground of the ancient inhabitants of the territory. The next to suc- cumb was one of the Welch brothers, men- tioned among the early settlers of the town- ship.

PIONEER INDUSTRIES.

Much has been written on the varied ex- periences encountered in pioneer life; and, to

those of us who have come on the scene of action long after the forests were cleared and all the various enterprises and industries that characterize the modern community were in full swing of their activity, the details of life in this former day are always of absorbing interest. As our particular purpose here, how- ever, is to recount those facts which have to do exclusively with Delaware County, we must refer the reader to other works for the de- scription of pioneer life in general. Could the facts now be obtained, through which the story of the beginning of each enterprise that is now interwoven with the social and business life of Delaware County could be written, it would possess for us an interest equal to that which we have in events of much larger importance in themselves, though not so vitally interwoven with our own personal affairs. It perhaps did not occur, however, to the humble tavern- keeper of the early times, or the pioneer mer- chant or miller or blacksmith, that they were making history ; and the record that has come down to us of the early activities in these vari- ous lines of enterprise, are extremely meager. As regards the early store-keepers of the county we can not do better than quote the statement found in the county history pub- lished in 1880: "With all our research we have been unable to learn who opened the first store in Delaware, or whether the first store in the county was in Delaware or Berkshire. We are inclined to the opinion, however, that the honor belongs to Berkshire, as it was laid out as a town sometime before Delaware, prob- ably three or four years before, and doubtless a store was established soon after. Major Brown is said to have been the first tradesman at the place, but did not remain in business very long. Stores were not so much of a necessity then as they are now. After Brown sold out a man named Fuller brought a stock of goods to the place, but neither did he re- main long. *

* The first merchant at Delaware of whom we have been able to learn anything was Hezekiah Kilbourn, but at what date he commenced business we could not learn. Lamb and Little were also among the pioneer merchants of Delaware, as was An- thony Walker. The latter gentleman liad a

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store-a kind of branch concern-in Thomp- son Township at quite an early date, which was carried on by one of the Welches as agent of Walker. Williams & Cone were early mer- chants at Delhi, and a man named Dean kept a store on Goodrich's farm in Liberty Town- ship for a number of years. In what is now Concord Township, was established one of the early stores of the county. It was owned and operated by a couple of men named Winslow. * * and consisted of a box of cheap goods exposed for sale in a small tent, at the mouth of Mill Creek. Shortly after this mer- cantile venture Michael Crider opened a small store on the farm of Freshwater and eventu- ally moved to Bellepoint." In the early days the mercantile business was no slight under- taking. Without any of our modern facilities for safe and rapid transportation, all goods had to be brought overland from points in the far distant East, principally Philadelphia, at great expense and risk, and it is not strange that we find that many a person who attempted the enterprise was compelled to abandon it after a loss. Naturally the stores were not of the specialized character that they possess, at least in the larger places, today, but con- tained commodities of every variety that could be used in the primitive settlements. The set- tlers depended, too, on providing themselves with many of the necessities for which we are now accustomed to look to our merchants.

There were two commodities which, to most, are almost absolute essentials to exist- ence and which the early settlers had the greatest difficulty in obtaining. These were flour and salt. In consequence we find among the earliest activities of the Delaware County pioneer, an effort to provide a supply of these articles. It will be remembered that mention has already been made of the fact that there was supposed to be a "Salt Lick" in Brown Township, and that by reason of this very im- pression a whole quarter section of land therein was reserved to the State.

One of the earliest attempts to produce salt in the neighborhood was by Dr. John Loof- bourrow, one of the first settlers of Brown Township. Having learned from the Indians

where they obtained their salt, he, in com- pany with a colored servant, began the manti- facture of the commodity and, for several years, succeeded in obtaining a moderate quantity. Some years later, however, some other parties who thought they saw possibili- ties of salt production greater than those which were being used, leased a larger area of land in this section from the State and commenced boring wells. They failed to find salt water in paying quantities, however, and the entire tract which had been reserved was ultimately sold by the State as has already been stated. An effort was made near the present village of Stratford, at one time, to find salt water. A shaft was sunk and there really was found to be salt water in the vicinity. As the digging had to be done by hand, however, without any of our modern facilities, the attempt was soon abandoned. It was likewse thought at one time that salt could be obtained in the re- gion which is now Porter Township, but here too the expectations proved to be ill founded. The price of salt ranged from $5.00 to $6.00 per bushel. As illustrating the difficulties en- countered and the hardships which the early settlers were compelled to undergo in order to obtain this article we quote the following incident from the "County Atlas": "David Lewis, Jr., (a resident of Berkshire) dug out a canoe and prepared for a voyage in quest of of salt. From the time of leaving until his return his chances for a fire with which to cook food depended on his flint in the musket-lock and his 'punk' which he carried with him. The tiny craft completed, he loaded it with deer. raccoon and other skins, shoved out into Alum Creek and started down stream. The first night found him at Worthington. He went to Chillicothe and, selling his load, bought a bushel of salt for which he paid five dollars. Lewis could not ascend the current and. abandoning his canoe, shouldered his purchase. and started by way of Indian trail and bridle path for home. His shoulders were worn by the weight of his precious burden. but he was near home, when, in crossing a stream on a log, unfortunately his feet slipped and he fell into the water. The salt was gone and he

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY

was home again. his shoulders smarting with the brine and his mind chafed at the loss."

Flour was just as difficult to obtain as salt. The even greater necessity for its production led the early settlers to turn their attention first of anything, so far as manufacturing enter- prises were concerned, to the establishment of mills. It is related of Jacob Foust, one of the earliest settlers of Troy Township that, when his wife was sick and could obtain nothing to eat which she relished, he shouldered a bushel of wheat and carried it all the way to Zanesville, seventy-five miles distant, to have it ground. Owing to the limited capacity of the few mills that really did exist in the early times great hardship was entailed on the pio- neers. It is recounted of one man that he traveled a distance of one hundred and fifty miles, from mill to mill, in a vain effort to have a sack of wheat ground, finally return- ing with the wheat. The rude block and pestle served the purpose of the pioneer before the erection of mills. but it was a very imper- fect and laborious method of obtaining meal and hominy.

EARLY ROADS.

Another matter to which the settlers early gave attention was the construction of roads. At first there were nothing but the "blazed" pathways and the old Indian trails. These could suffice, however, for but a short time as the population increased. Accordingly we find that the first business transacted by the county commissioners on the organization of the county related to the construction of a road. The entry on the commissioners' record is as follows: "June 15, 1808. A petition for a county road on west side of Whetstone ( Olentangy) River, beginning at the Indian line; thence to south lines of the county, as near the river as ground and river angles will permit. Petition granted, and Messrs. Byxbe. Nathaniel Wyatt and Josiah McKin- nie appointed viewers, and Azariah Root, sur- veyor." This road was afterward abandoned when the Columbus and Sandusky Pike Road was given a charter. The road as first con-

structed was used as a military road during the War of 1812. the supplies to our army at Fort Meigs being transported over it. The road constructed later by the Columbus and Sandusky Pike Road Company runs a little west of this road and about where the pres- ent pike is located. The old road is still made use of by some of the farmers as a lane. The first road company chartered in central Ohio by the legislature was this Columbus and Sandusky Pike Road Company, and Delaware County had several of the incorporators- William Little, Reuben Lamb, Hosea Wil- liams, Ezra Griswold and Milo Pettibone. In about a decade, however, the charter was re- voked, as the road was not constructed ac- cording to specifications, and the matter was placed in the hands of a Board of Commission- ers. The toll gates were done away with, but for a long time the road was in a very unsatis- factory condition. It is hard to realize, in this modern era, the annoyance to which travelers were subjected by the toll gates. It is easy to understand, however, the mood which led many a one to evade them, when possible, and to appreciate the state of mind which wouldl be experienced when the traveler, after floun- dering through the mud would be compelled to pay directly for the privilege. The stage- coach was the only public means for transpor- tation of passengers and, in the palmy days of this institution the fare was five cents per pas- senger.

Delaware County is abundantly blessed with good roads at the present time. having ap- proximately 1600 miles of road, at least one- fourth of which is already piked or in the proc- ess of being so. The pikes have, until re- cently, been largely confined to the western part of the county, their cost of construction here being much less than in the east. At the present time, however, in accord with the gen- eral movement for good roads that is asserting itself throughout the State, many miles of road in the eastern part of the county are being piked and it will not be long until this portion of the county will compare favorably with any other.

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The pioneer tavern was an institution of great importance, just as it is in later times, though in lesser degree, under another name. It was not long after the county began to be settled until we find these hostelries being es- tablished in various parts of the county as the need for them arose. They were compelled to pay a license in early times and. among the first records of the county commissioners is to be found an order fixing the price of licenses at $6.oo for the town and $4.00 for the coun- try. It was afterwards raised, in 1814, to $13.00 and $7.00. As descriptive of the first tavern established in the town of Delaware and typical of the institution itself, we quote from. an article by Dr. Ralph Hills in the Western. Collegian, a paper formerly published in Dela- ware: "The Pioneer Tavern was a few rods south-east of the "Medicine Water.' It was on the plateau just east of the ridge that lies south of the spring, and terminated near there, some three or four rods onward from the pres- ent street. The first house was a double roomed one, with a loft, standing north and south, facing the east, and was built of round logs, 'chinked and daubed.' In course of time, a second house, two stories high, was added, built of hewed logs, and placed east and west, at right angles with the south end of the first building, with a little space between them. In this space was the well with its curb, and its tall. old-fashioned, but easy-working 'well- sweep.' Around at the southwest of this was the log barn and the blacksmith shop, and a double granary or corn-crib, with a space be- tween for its many purposes, as necessary, in- deed, as the kitchen is for household purposes. Here was the grind-stone, the shaving-horse, the hewing block, the tools of all kinds and the pegs for hanging up traps of all sorts. Here the hog was scalded and dressed, the deer. raccoon and 'possum were skinned. and their skins stretched and dried, or tanned. Here also were the nuts cracked and dried. For many reasons it has a bright place in the memories of boy-hood. How few know the importance of the pioneer tavern in early days. It was, of course, the place of rest for the weary traveler, whether on foot or on horse.

It was many a day before a 'dearborn' or a 'dandy-wagon' was known on the road. But it was much more than this and seemed the emporium of everything. It was the market place for all; the hunter with his venison and turkeys ; the trapper with his skins and furs; and the knapsack peddler-the pioneer mer- chant-here gladdened the hearts of all with his 'boughten' wares. At this tavern, too. were all public gatherings called, to arrange for a general hunt, to deal out justice to some transgressor of the unwritten but well known pioneer laws. In fact it was here, at a later period, that the first organized county court was held. with the grand jury in the tavern loft and the petit jury under a neighboring shade tree."

It was only seven years after the Liberty settlement was started that Delaware County was organized into a separate civil subdivis- ion of the state. It is interesting to trace the evolution of the Ohio counties. We have al- ready mentioned the fact in a former chapter that the first county to be established in the present territory of Ohio was Washington, which, in the beginning, embraced about one- half of the present area of Ohio. The second county to be established was Hamilton. Al- though it included, at the first, only a strip be- tween the two Miamis, it was afterwards en- larged to include an area extending to the Scioto River which was the western boundary of Washington. It would seem that the terri- tory which is now Delaware County was on the boundary line between these two original counties, portions of it lying in both of them. It had likewise been included within the boun- caries of several other counties before it was set off as a separate division. The sixth county to be formed was Ross, which included Delaware. Franklin was formed from Ross and Delaware was taken off of Franklin. The original boundaries of Delaware County, how- ever, were originally more extensive than they are now. Three different times has its terri- tory been taken to form other counties. In 1820 a large part of Delaware County went to the formation of Union County. In 1824 Marion County took a slice off of the northern

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY

part, and in 1848 Morrow County took five whole townships, leaving the present area of Delaware County about 500 square miles.

ORGANIZATION OF DELAWARE COUNTY.

The Act of the Legislature creating Dela- ware County was passed February 10, 1808. It provided that from and after the first day of the next April the county of Delaware should be vested with all the privileges, powers and immunities of a separate and distinct county, and stipulated that an election should be called for the first Monday of the next May. At this election the following officers were chosen. viz. : John Welch, Ezekiel Brown and Avery Powers, commissioners; Rev. Jacob Drake, treasurer : Dr. Reuben Lamb, recorder : Solo- mon Smith, sheriff, and Azariah Root, stir- veyor.

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Century history of Delaware County, Ohio and representative citizens 20th, Part 11

Author: Lytle, James Robert, 1841- [from old catalog] ed Publication date: 1908 Publisher: Chicago, Biographical publishing company Number of Pages: 926

Author: Lytle, James Robert, 1841- [from old catalog] ed
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago, Biographical publishing company
Number of Pages: 926