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* Among the militia of this expedition was the famous Indian killer, Lewis Wetzel, from Western Virginia. Just before the expedition set out on its return, an Indian chief appeared on the opposite bank of the river proposing "a talk." He was invited over by General Broadhead, and assured of safety. But while he was talking, Wetzel slipped up behind him, and, drawing a tomahawk which he had concealed in his hunting-shirt, sunk it in the chiefsskull, instantly killing him. Legends of Wetzel's shrewdness and courage are abundant, and there is no doubt he was one of the most successful trappers and hunters and In- dian fighters of his time. He and his friends had suffered much at the hands of the Indians. He moved, in 1795, to the frontier, on the Mississippi, that he might trap the beaver and hunt the buffalo and deer, and occasionally shoot an Indian. The exploit (not in some lights very creditable, but showing his intense antipathy to the red- skins) above mentioned was his only one performed in Coshocton county as reported by his admirers.
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Early Military Expeditions.
again reached the proportions attained before the "Broad- head Campaign."
Usually, and as to the great mass of them, the Delaware Indians entertained very friendly feelings for the whites. In their old home in Pennsylvania, from the day of Wm. Penn's treaty down, they had received a treatment calculated to produce such feelings, and the influence of the Moravian missions among them was felt unto the same end. Far more Indian blood than white was shed about the forks of the Muskingum, and there is neither dark and bloody battle- field nor site of sickening family massacre within the limits of the county of Coshocton. The numerous bullets found in after times, in the plowed fields near Coshocton, were doubtless from the volleys fired by the expeditions, or from the rifles of the early settlers, with whom shooting at marks was a grand pastime. At one time seven hundred Indian warriors from the West encamped near the town, many with rifles. Accepting the idea of the poet, that " peace hath her victories as well as war," it may be claimed that one of the grandest of these was won at Goschachgunk, the Delaware capital. When the Revolutionary War broke out, it was a matter of the utmost importance to the colonists to secure at least the neutrality of the Indian tribes, and efforts were accordingly made. Two treaties were made at Pittsburg in successive years-1775 and 1776-binding to neutrality the Delawares, and some of the immediately adjacent nations.
At the opening of 1777, the hatchet sent from Detroit (the British headquarters), was accepted by the Shawnees, Wyandots, and Mingoes. Rumor had it that it was also to be sent to the Delawares, and if they declined it they were to be treated as common enemies, and at once attacked by the British and their Indian allies. The famous chief Cornstalk himself came to Goschachgunk, reporting that despite his efforts the Shawnees were for war; parties were already out, and ammunition was being forwarded for their use from Detroit. Even a portion of the Delawares had been already pledged to take up arms. At this crisis- so threatening to the colonists-a general council of the
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Historical Collections of Coshocton County.
Delawares met at the capitol, on the 9th of March, 1777. Some of the young warriors appeared with plumes and war paint. After earnest discussion and eloquent speeches, especially from White Eyes, it was resolved to decline the hatchet should it be offered. Three times during that sum- mer it was tendered and as often declined. Despite the taunts of their own race-against even a faction of their own nation-rejecting bribes and spurning threats, the people stood, month after month, as a mighty wall of pro- tection to the western colonists. Looking to the plainly discernible natural consequences of a different decision in that grand council, it is not without reason that the claim may be made, that one of the grandest victories for the colonists in the American Revolutionary war was won at the Delaware capitol, at the forks of the Muskingum. Subsequently, indeed, by the machinations of renegades like Simon Girty (who was several times at the capitol), and the tannts of the tribes, a part of the nation was led to join the British Indians ; but these were too few, and it was too late to do the colonists much harm, especially with the wisest and bravest of the nation committed to peace and friendliness with the Americans. In 1778, the right- ful authorities of the nation made a complete treaty of alli- ance with the commissioners of the United States, therein providing for carrying out a cherished project of White Eyes, that the Delaware nation should be represented in the Colonial Congress, and become, as a Christian Indian state, one of the United States. By the neighboring tribes the Delawares were often taunted with being unduly gen- tle-" women "-and were always remarked upon as having too many captives ; making exertions to secure as such those commonly appointed by other Indians to the toma- hawk or stake. On one occasion, as already noticed, at their principal village, there were turned over to Boquet's forces two hundred and six captives, of whom thirty-two men and fifty-eight women and children were from Vir- ginia, and forty-nine men and sixty-eight women and
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Early Military Expeditions.
children from Pennsylvania. These were not indeed all captured by the Delawares ; but a large proportion was, and others of them would doubtless have been butchered but for the influence of the Delawares, who would sometimes arrange with the tribes further south and west for their captives. The legend of the Walhonding (White Woman), telling how the captive virgin wildly fled from the camp and threw herself from an uprearing and overhanging rock,* into the seething waters of the storm-swollen river, choosing death rather than captivity, is significant of the horrors attending captivity, even among the Delawares.t It is, however, most likely that she was a captive of the Monsey or Wolf tribe of Delawares, who were, perhaps, the worst representatives of the nation. Experience and tastes no doubt differed among the captives. It is said that some of the captives delivered to Boquet were com- pelled to go with him, and some escaped after the expe- dition started toward Fort Pitt, and returned to the free forest life. Simon Girty and two brothers were cap- tured when young, and, having been adopted by the Indians, continued in their preference of Indian life. Despite all that has been said or may be claimed, it is no doubt true that even among the Delawares the savage nature was frequently displayed, especially when in the bad company of other tribes ; and they were not without much blame at the mouths of the whites, for cruelties upon the hapless settlers, whose settlements to the east and south of them they invaded, and who, individually or in small hunting or scouting parties, might fall into their hands.
It can not be doubted that their treatment of Colonel Crawford out in the Wyandot country, when they bound him to a stake, fired numerous charges of powder into his flesh, cut and beat and burned, and by every possible tor- ture put him to a lingering death, was Indian, fiendish. Yet it is to be remembered that the Delaware Indians
* Near the residence of Mrs. C. Denman, four miles northwest of Coshocton.
+ See a very different legend in Chapter XIX.
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Historical Collections of Coshocton County.
doing these things were confessedly the more bloody- minded part that had turned away from those at the forks of the Muskingum and set up their lodges in the Wyandot country ; that they were incited by the Shawnees and Wyandots, and regarded their work as a retaliation for the bloody massacre of the Christian Indians at Gnadenhütten, and other outrages that their race had suffered at the hands of those who were crowding them out of the land.
The great chief Netawatwees died about the opening of the Revolutionary war, and White Eyes in 1778 .*
Killbuck ("deer-killer") was the successor of a chief having the same name, whose town was on Killbuck creek, between Millersburg and Wooster, and who died, a very old man, in the Wyandot country, and was often desig- nated Killbuck, Jr. When baptized by the Moravian mis- sionaries he took the name of William Henry. Less shrewd and eloquent, he was a worthy associate and suc- cessor of White Eyes. He was even more pronounced in his religious views and less wavering. Adhering to the fortunes of the Americans and Moravians, he at length (in 1810) died at Goshen, near New Philadelphia.
Killbuck, aided by the other Christian Indians, for a time still held the nation very much in hand ; but by 1780 Captain Pipe got the ascendancy at Goschachgünk, and put the people on the side of the British, setting up a new town in the Seneca country. Killbuck and those who sided with him went over fully to the colonists, and left the forks, never to return. After the massacre at Gnaden- hütten, the few remaining Delawares gradually retired to
* White Eyes (so called from the unusual proportion of white in his eyes) died near Fort Laurens, on the Tusearawas, on the 10th of No- vember, 1778, of small-pox. General MeIntosh's colonial forces were at that time encamped near by. His death was a marked event of the time. His broad views and truly eloquent expression of them can not be questioned. His fair dealing with the whites, and his earnest and steadfast efforts for the civilization and christianization of his race ought not to be forgotten. A successor to the name-perhaps a degenerate son of this sire-was killed in what is now Columbiana county, in 1797, by a young man named Carpenter, whom he was, while under the influence of fire-water, assailing and threatening.
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Early Military Expeditions, etc.
the West or were taken to Canada; and in 1795 their country, of which Coshocton county forms the central part, and in which was their capitol (removed from New Comerstown), became by treaty the possession of the United States. Until after the war of 1812, a few strag- gling members of the nation, especially the Guadenhütten ones, moved about in the country, hunting, disposing of pelts, or possibly visiting the graves of their ancestors. In 1819 there were eighty Delawares near Sandusky, Ohio, and two thousand three hundred in Northern Indiana. Fragments of the nation are yet recognized in Canada and in the Indian Territory, but its power was broken and the scepter had departed when it was turned away from its loved haunts in the Tuscarawas and Walholding valleys .*
* The sources of information for the foregoing chapter are mainly Doddridge's Notes, Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio, de Schweinitz's Life and Times of Zeisberger, and Mitchener's Ohio Annals; in which works those interested in Indian history and legends will find much to their taste. See also Chapter XIX, this volume.
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Historical Collections of Coshocton County.
CHAPTER III.
NOTES ON THE SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTY* AND GROWTH OF POPULATION.
THE military expeditions mentioned in preceding chapter, besides accomplishing the immediate object for which they were undertaken, drew attention to the excellencies of the country. Wonderful stories about " the forks of the Mus- kingum " were told by the returning soldiers. The father of Geo. Beaver, of Keene township, was in Boquet's expe- dition. John Williams (brother of Charles) afterward set- tled in Mill Creek township, was in the Coshocton cam- paign ; and among the earlier settlers were several whose relatives had been in Broadhead's forces. The first white man known to have come into the territory now embraced in Coshocton county, with the purpose of abiding in it, was Charles Williams. In the spring of the year 1800, having come up the Muskingum in a canoe, he passed on up the Walhonding to what is now known as the Denman land, long called "the Paraire" (four miles above Cos- hocton), and there raised that season a patch of corn, be- sides fishing, hunting, and prospecting. The next year he fixed upon the site of Coshocton as his home, and was there joined by his brothers-in-law, the Carpenters, and William and Samnel Morrison, who, after staying with him for the season, went on up into what is now Holmes county, in the Killbuck valley. The same year, 1801, a settlement was made in Oxford township by Isaac Evans and others, who are reputed as having raised some corn and picked their land the preceding year. The Robinson and Miller settlement in Franklin township was made about the same time. The Hardestys are reputed as hav- ing been in Washington township the same year. A little later the Millers and Thomas Wiggins were located in Lafayette township. Nicholas Miller, James Oglesby, Geo.
* See notices of early settlers by townships in next chapter.
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Notes on the Settlement of the County, etc.
Mccullough, Andrew Craig, Isaac Hoagland, Benjamin Fry, and Barney Carr are repored as on the Lower Wal- honding in 1805. In 1806, Philip Waggoner, Geo. Loose, John Wolf, and Geo. Leighninger settled in Oxford town- ship, and the MeLains were in Lafayette. In the same year the Darlings, the Butlers, John Bantham, and John Elder went to the Upper Walhonding valley. In 1807, Francis McGuire, who had been living above New Comers- town, moved down to the locality known as the McGuire settlement, above Canal Lewisville. Then came Moore, Workman, Neff, Lybarger, Thompson, the Bakers, Cant- well, and Whitten to Coshocton ; and Meskimens, John- ston, and Harger to the Wills Creek region ; and Mitchell, Markley, and Williams to the north of Coshocton; and Pigman, Chalfant, Norris, Slaughter, Woolford, Wright, Stafford, Meredith, John, and Severns into the western part of the country. No regular census of the country was taken until 1820. In 1810, Muskingum county, embracing the present Muskingum, Morgan, Coshocton, and part of Holmes, had only ten thousand population. A Scotch traveler, who spent the night at Coshocton in 1806, wrote of it as having a population of one hundred and forty ; but it was doubtless not understated to him. Dr. S. Lee, who came to the place in 1811, found it a hamlet with a score or so of rude structures. Fifteen hundred would probably be a large statement as to population at the time the countyy was organized in April, 1811. Immediately after the organization, the immigration was large. The war of 1812, while temporarily checking the growth of the country, and especially the inflow of population, was yet an advantage, particularly in making the region known to the people to the East and South. Just at the close of the war there were in the county one hundred and thirty-eight resident 'andholders, owning tracts of land varying in size from tirty-five acres to four thousand and five acres. The list of these, and the townships as now named in which they resind, is as follows :
Tusarawas-John D. Moore, Nicholas Miller, Henry
IS
Historical Collections of Coshocton County.
Miller, John Noble, Isaac Workman, and Charles Will- iams.
New Castle-David John, Thomas John, Obed Meredith, T. Hankins, John Wolf, Matthew Duncan, David and Mar- tin Cox, and Robert Giffin.
Washington-Payne Clark, Mordecai Chalfant, Isaac Hol- loway, Peter Lash, Geo. Smith, and Frederick Woolford.
Franklin-O. Davidson, Valentine Johnston, Catharine Johnston, Michael Miller, Sr., Wm. Robinson, James Rob- inson, Benjamin Robinson, Jos. Scott, James Tanner, Wm. Taylor, Abraham Thompson, John Walmsly, and Jacob Jackson.
Oxford-Jacob Reed, David Douglas, Henry Evans, Isaac Evans, John Junkins, George Looze, John Mills, Wm. Mulvain, Jas. Mulvain, John Mulvain, Andrew McFarlane, Ezekiel McFarlane, Samuel McFarlane, Benjamin Norman, George Onspaugh, Wm. Peirpont, Geo. Stringer, Philip Wolf, Philip Waggoner's heirs, and James Welch.
Linton-Hugh Addy, Wm. Addy, Wm. Evans, James McCune, John McCune, James Meskimens, Joseph Scott, Geo. McCune, and Amos Stackhouse.
Pike-Daniel Ashcraft.
Keene-George Armory, Elizabeth Armory, and John Colver.
Tiverton-Isaac Draper.
Jefferson-Joseph Butler, Thomas Butler, and Robert Darling. .
Virginia-Beal Adams, Patrick Miller, Joseph McCoy, Richard Tilton, and Joseph Wright.
Adams-David Mast.
Lafayette-Hugh Ballantine, Archibald Elson, William Johnston, George Miller, Sr., Francis McGuire, Thomas McLain, Elijah Nelson, Matthew Orr, Lewis Vail, and Jane Wiggins.
father Am
Bedford-James Craig, Ezra Horton, and Thomas H -- ton.
Bethlehem-Henry Crissman, Benjamin Fry, John shaf- fer, John Thompson, Geo. Skinner, and Wm. Trimke.
A number of these landholders were heads of qute con-
19
Notes on the Settlement of the County, etc.
siderable families, and upon some of the large tracts were several tenants. A list of those who were croppers and hired men, and of those occupying town-lots, and of those who were on their lands under contract for purchase, is not accessible. It is, however, known that besides those whose names appear in this list, and their children, the following persons were residents of the county at that time, several of them having been so for a number of years preceding : Richard Fowler, Wm. Lockard, James Willis, Joseph Har- ris, C. P. Van Kirk, Peter Casey, Geo. Carpenter, Joseph Neff, Wm. and Sam'l Morrison, Jas. Jeffries, Dr. Sam'l Lee, Wright Warner, A. M. Church, Thos. L. Rue, Wm. Whit- ten, Thomas Means, Thomas Foster, Barney Carr, James Oglesby, Geo. Bible, John Bantham, Wm. Bird, Jas. Cal- der, Wm. Mitchell, Lewis Vail, Asher Hart, John Will- iams, Adam Johnston, John Dillon, Abel Cain, Joseph Vail, Rezin Baker, Israel Baker, John Baker, James Buckalew, Benjamin Burrell, Joseph Burrell, James Cant- well, Barney Cantwell, J. G. Pigman, J. W. Pigman, John Elder, Archibald Ellson, Samuel Clark, Ezekiel Parker, Andrew Lybarger, John Hershman, Peter Moore, the Mc- Lains, Wm. Biggs, Geo. and Levi Magness, Richard Hawk, Isaac Shambaugh, and Elijah Newcum.
At the October election, in 1814, there were one hundred and three electors in Tuscarawas township, which, how- ever, embraced at that time not only the township proper on both sides of the river, but also all the territory north of the Tuscarawas, and east of the Walhonding rivers.
After the war the accession to the population was large, running through several years. In those years 1815-1820 came the progenitors of the since well-known Burns, Crowley, Ricketts, Sells, Mossman, Heslip, Renfrew, Boyd, Gault, Thompson, Roderick, Squires, James, Tipton, Powelson, Luke, Borden, Neldon, Ravenscraft, Norris, Winklepleck, McNabb, Slaughter, Mulford, Stafford, Cre- sap, and Lemert families. In 1818 there were 285 resident landholders.
The personal and family records of the period running from 1814 to 1820 (especially the earlier part of it) are full
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Historical Collections of Coshocton County.
of stories of laborious efforts and wearying hardships in clearing and planting and building. The large inflow of population involved a great deal of exposure. The conveni- ences of life, even with those best supplied, were scarce. Sickness, incident to all new countries, abounded, especially was a form of congestive chills known as "the cold plague" very prevalent, carrying off many of the settlers and dis- couraging immigration. Milling facilities were still poor and remote. Corn meal and bacon afforded, in many cases, almost the whole support. Even whisky, the panacea of those days, was not yet plenty. Yet, despite all drawbacks, children were born and settlers came in, and in 1820 the census-taker found 7,086 inhabitants in Coshocton county.
From 1820 to 1830 there was apparently an increase of only a few over four thousand, making the population in the latter year 11,162. It must, however, be borne in mind that in that period, by the formation of Holmes county, a number of people, hitherto counted as of Coshocton county, were set over, and the limits of the county decreased. Still the immigration was not heavy, especially in the earlier part of the period. Reports of the sickliness of the river region and of the rough ways of the settlers had gone abroad. It may be stated in this connection that the ad- vancement of the county in both population and wealth has been regarded by many as having been hindered in all its earlier stages by the fact of there having been a large number (thirty-three) of four-thousand-acre tracts taken up by military land warrants, and held mainly by non-resi- dents, cultivated only by a few cabin tenants, if at all.
From 1830 to 1840 the population of the county was nearly doubled, there being in the latter year 21,590 inhab- itants. This large increase was largely owing to the open- ing of the Ohio canal.
The immigration of that period was of a much more miscellaneous sort, and having almost nothing of the old Virginian and Marylander element, so prominent in the first settlement of the county. New York, Western Penn- sylvania, Eastern Ohio, Germany, and Ireland were most largely represented.
2I
Notes on the Settlement of the County, etc.
The population of the county in 1850 was 25,674; in 1860, 25,032; and in 1870, 23,600. It will be seen by these figures that there was a decrease within the twenty years from 1850 to 1870.
The same condition of things has been noted in many other counties in Ohio, especially such as have hitherto been most largely agricultural. It is observed in this con- nection that the cities and larger towns of the State show the chief gains attributed to it. Thus, while Coshocton county lost during that time above noted, the town of Co- shoeton more than doubled its population, which in 1840 was 845, and in 1870, 1,757-being in 1875 about 2,800. The disposition to forsake the farm for the shop and store and office, the "go-west " fever, the readiness of fore- handed farmers to purchase at good prices the small tracts adjoining their larger ones, the enlargement of the stock interest, the development of manufacturing interests, and even the casualties of war, have all had to do with this generally diminished population, especially in the rural districts, and the filling up of the cities and towns.
Appended will be found the population, as enumerated by the Federal census-takers, of the several townships for 1850, when the maximum population was attained, and also for 1870 :
1850.
1870.
Adams
1,419
1,113
Bedford.
1,221
918
Bethlehem
822
850
Clarke
833
867
Crawford.
1,552
1,245
Franklin
966
972
Jackson
2,037
1,767
Jefferson
9:29
1,059
Keene
1,078
787
Lafayette
1,040
920
Linton
1,592
1,600
Mill Creek
872
586
Monroe
760
832
New Castle
1,229
1,005
Oxford.
1,112
1,140
Perry
1,340
932
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Historical Collections of Coshocton County.
Pike.
1,080
773
Tiverton
842
804
Tuscarawas
1,593
2,725
Virginia.
1,226
1.014
Washington
998
768
White Eyes.
1,132
923
23
Notices of Earliest Settlers, etc.
CHAPTER IV.
NOTICES OF SOME OF THE EARLIEST SETTLERS, AND OTHER MATTERS OF IN- TEREST PERTAINING TO EACH TOWNSHIP.
TUSCARAWAS TOWNSHIP.
THE first " settlement " made in the county was in this township. Charles Williams,* a native of Maryland, re- siding for a time in Western Virginia, and yet later on the Lower Muskingum, came up the river in a canoe, and lo- cated on the site of Coshocton, early in the year 1801 ; hav- ing spent part of the preceding year in what is now Beth- lehem township, but without definite purpose as to place of settlement. George Carpenter, a brother-in-law of Will- iams, and William and Samuel Morrison, came soon after- ward, but, after stopping to help Williams raise a crop of corn, passed on up the Killbuck, becoming the earliest set- tlers in what is now Holmes county. Another brother-in- law of Williams, John Hibits, came a little later, and sub- sequently located in the Upper Walhonding valley. Sev- eral of the early residents were " croppers," and after a time picked up a piece of land and settled in some other township.
Nicholas Miller, from Virginia, came in about 1803- spent his long life in farming, dying at a good old age. John D. Moore (father of Commissioner Moore), also from Virginia, came a little later-was an easy-going, quiet farmer, dying many years since in the township. Peter Moore was a regular trapper and fisher. John Noble had a little farm near the ford, three miles below Coshocton ; for a time kept a ferry there in later years. J. Fulton was from Maryland-lived on the place best known as the Ricketts farm, about a mile southeast of Coshocton. He had a mill (run by the water of a big spring), making more corn-meal and whisky than anything else, said to have
* See " Biographical Sketches."
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Historical Collections of Coshocton County.
been the first mill set up in Coshocton county. Among others recognized as very early settlers were J. Workman, from Virginia (the father of General Jesse Workman), a farmer ; Joseph Neff, from same State, a tailor ; Asa Hart, from New Jersey, a blacksmith ; Andrew Lybarger (grandfather of Representative E. L. Lybarger), from Pennsylvania, a tanner; Wm. Whitten, a general business man, the first justice of the peace; Dr. Samuel Lee ;* Thomas L. Rue ;* Adam Johnson (a son-in-law of Charles Williams and the father of Matthew, Charles, and Wm. A. Johnson), the first county clerk and auditor ; Wilson McGowan, from Mount Holly, New Jersey, a gentleman of the continental style, wearing a " queue," and flourishing a gold-headed cane ; Alex. McGowan, a younger brother of the above, who set up as a physician of the Tompsonian school, but was chiefly occupied in public office, having been many years auditor, etc. ; Cornelius Van Kirk (a very stalwart man), the first tax-collector and sheriff'; James Cantwell, a farmer ; Geo. Mccullough, an Indian scout and hunter ; James Winders and Geo. Arnold, corn-raisers, and, as reputed, general " whisky punishers."
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