USA > Ohio > Historical collections of Ohio, containing a collection of the most interesting facts, traditions, biographical sketches, anecdotes, etc., relating to its general and local history : with descriptions of its counties, principal towns, and villages > Part 57
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There are in Zanesville, 2 Catholic churches, 2 Baptist, 2 Epis- copal Methodist, 1 Protestant Methodist, 3 Lutheran, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Episcopalian, 1 Universalist and 1 African. Some of these are extensive and beautiful buildings. In Putnam, there is a handsome Presbyterian church, of the new school order, and a spacious Epis- copal Methodist church. For educational purposes, there is an ex- tensive female seminary in Putnam, designed as a boarding school, and male and female district schools. South Zanesville and West Zanesville have district school buildings; and in Zanesville, much attention has been bestowed upon that subject for a few years past. The founder of the town, JOHN M'INTIRE, left his immense estate, now worth probably $200,000, to found and sustain a school for the benefit of the poor of Zanesville, and a handsome brick edifice has been erected for their accommodation. The town owns two large buildings, one for males, the other for females, in which schools are kept that acknowledge no superiors. Each building is capable of accommodating 350 scholars; and the scholars, under one gen- eral head, are classified and placed in charge of assistants, but may, on any extraordinary occasion, be all brought into one room. The price of tuition for the wealthy, is from 50 to 75 cents per quarter ; the public money pays the rest. But the beauty of the system is, that such as are not able to pay, are admitted to all the advantages enjoyed by the most wealthy, even to the learned lan-
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guages, without money and without price. Every child, then, in Zanesville, is provided with the means of education.
There are in Zanesville upwards of thirty stores for the whole- saling and retailing of dry goods, besides hardware stores, wholesale and retail groceries, drug stores, confectionary establishments, shoe stores, hat stores, &c.
The court house, with a western wing for public offices, and a similar one on the east for an atheneum, has a handsome enclosure, with shade trees and fountain in front, making altogether an object of interest to the passing traveller, and a place of pleasant resort for citizens. The atheneum was commenced as a library company, by a few individuals, nearly twenty years ago, and soon becoming incorporated, put up a handsome two story brick building, as a wing to the court house. The lower rooms are rented for offices, while the upper are occupied by the company for their reading room, library, &c. Strangers have, by the charter, a right of admission, and during their stay in Zanesville, can always find there access to many of the leading journals of the United States, and to a library of between 3 and 4000 volumes, embracing very many choice and rare books, in literature and science ; while additions are annually made with the funds arising from rents and $5 per annum paid by each stockholder. There is a commencement for a cabinet of min- erals and curiosities ; but that department has never flourished as its importance demands.
The water works of Zanesville are very great. The water is thrown, by a powerful forcing pump, from the river, to a reservoir upon a hill half a mile distant, 160 feet above the level of the pump, and thence let down and distributed by larger and smaller pipes into every part of the town, furnishing an ample supply for public and private purposes, as well as providing a valuable safeguard against fire. By attaching hose at once to the fire plugs, the water may be thrown without the intervention of an engine, by the pressure of the head, far above the roofs of the houses. The public pipes are all of iron, and at present there are between six and seven miles of pipe owned by the town, besides that owned by individuals, and used in conveying water from the streets and alleys to their own hydrants. Much of this, however, is of lead. The cost to the town has been about $42,000. The reservoir is calculated to contain about 750,000 gallons. The present population of Zanesville, is probably some- thing under 8,000, excluding Putnam, West Zanesville and South Zanesville.
Putnam is less dense in its construction than Zanesville, and con- tains many beautiful gardens. It being principally settled by New Englanders, is in appearance a New England village. The town plat was owned, and the town laid out by Increase Matthews, Levi Whipple and Edwin Putnam. The latter two are dead; Dr. Matthews still resides in Putnam.
The town was originally called Springfield, but there being a Springfield in Clarke county, the name of the former was changed
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MUSKINGUM COUNTY.
to Putnam. The view represents Putnam as it appears from the east bank of the Muskingum, about a mile below the steamboat
PUTNAM 1.
Putnam.
.
landing, at Zanesville. The bridge connecting Putnam with Zanes- ville, is seen on the right. On the left is shown a church, and the top of the seminary a little to the right of it.
The Putnam Female Seminary is an incorporated institution, and has been in operation about 10 years. The principal edifice stands in an area of 3 acres, and cost, with its furniture, about $20,000 Pupils under 14 years of age are received into the preparatory de- partment. Those over 14 enter the upper department, in which
The Putnam Female Seminary.
the regular course of study requires 3 years, and excepting the lan- guages, is essentially like a college course. It is proposed soon to extend the time to 4 years, and make the course the same as in col- leges, substituting the German for Greek. The average number of
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pupils has been about 100. "By reason of the endowments, the term bills are very much less than at any similar school in the country. Exclusive of extra studies, the cost per year will not exceed $100 per scholar." There are 5 teachers in this flourishing institution, of which Miss Mary Cone is the principal. It is under the general direction of a board of trustees.
Dresden is situated on the Muskingum side cut of the Ohio canal, at the head of steamboat navigation on the Muskingum, 15 miles above Zanesville. It is the market of a large and fertile country by which it is surrounded, and does a heavy business. It possesses su- perior manufacturing advantages, there being a fall of twenty-nine feet from the main canal to low water mark on the river. The adja- cent hills abound with coal and iron ore. It contains 1 Presbyterian and 1 Methodist church, about 15 stores, a market house, and 1000 or 1200 inhabitants.
Taylorsville, laid out in 1832 by James Taylor, is on the Mus- kingum, 9 miles below Zanesville, at what are called Duncan's Falls, and has about 500 inhabitants. On the opposite side of the river is a village called Duncan's Falls. In the two villages united, are 6 stores, 1 Catholic, 1 Lutheran and 1 Methodist church, 1 fulling mill, 1 carding machine, and two merchant mills. An Indian town existed in the neighborhood when the whites first made their settlement.
Chandlersville, 10 miles SE. of Zanesville, has 2 churches, 3 stores, and about 300 people. In boring for salt in that neighborhood, in January, 1820, some pieces of silver were dropped into the hole by some evil disposed person, and being brought up among the borings, reduced to a fine state, quite a sensation was produced. The parts were submitted to chemical analysis, and decided by a competent chemist to be very rich. A company was immediately formed to work the mine, under the name of "the Muskingum Mining Com- pany," which was incorporated by the legislature. This company purchased of Mr. Samuel Chandler, the privilege of sinking a shaft near his well, from which the silver had been extracted. As this shaft was sunk near the well, it did so much injury, that Mr. Chand- ler afterwards recovered heavy damages of the company. The com- pany expended about $10,000 in search of the expected treasure, ere they abandoned their ill-fated project.
Norwich, 12 miles E. of Zanesville, on the national road, has 4 stores, 2 churches, and about 500 inhabitants. The country in this region is well adapted to wheat, and the population embraces many substantial and independent farmers.
New Concord, 3 miles east of Norwich, on the same road, has in the place or immediate vicinity, several churches, 3 stores, and about 400 inhabitants. Pleasantly located, on an eminence north of the central part of the village, is Muskingum College. In March, 1837, the Trustees of New Concord Academy-an institution which had been in operation several years-were vested with college powers by the legislature of Ohio, to be known by the name of Mus- kingum College. It is a strictly literary institution, and the first
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class graduated in 1839. Al- though pecuniary embarrass- ments have impeded its pro- gress, it has continued uninter- ruptedly its operations as a col- lege. These difficulties having been recently removed, its pros- pects are brightening.
Gratiot, on the national road, on the line of Licking county, contains 3 churches, 1 grist and 1 saw mill, a carding machine, and about 300 inhabitants.
The following are small vil- Muskingum College. lages in the county. The lar- gest contains several stores and churches ; but none have over 300 inhabitants. Uniontown, or Ful- tonham, Roseville, Adamsville, Mount Sterling, Frazeyburg, Otsego, Irville, Meigsville, Nashport, Hopewell, Newtonville, Jackson and Bridgeville.
OTTAWA.
OTTAWA was formed March 6th, 1840, from Sandusky, Erie and Lucas counties. Ottawa, says Bancroft, is an Indian word, signify- ing " trader." It was applied to a tribe, whose last home, in Ohio, was on the banks of the Maumee. The surface is level, and most of the county is within the Black Swamp, and contains much prairie and marshy land. A great part of the soil is owned by land compa- nies in New York. A very small portion of the eastern part is within the "fire-lands." There were but a few settlers previous to 1830, since which many have emigrated to it, from the central part of the state. On the peninsula which puts out into Lake Erie, are exten- sive plaster beds, from which large quantities of plaster are taken. Upon it are large limestone quarries, extensively worked. The principal crops are corn, potatoes, wheat and oats. The following is a list of the townships in 1840, with their population.
Bay, 231 Erie,
196 Portage, 357
Carroll, 262 Harris,
318
Salem, 108
Clay, 176
Kelley's Island, 68 Van Rensselaer, 27
Danbury, 515
The population of Ottawa, in 1840, was 2258, or about 6 inhabi- ( tants to a square mile.
The first trial of arms in the war of 1812, upon the soil of Ohio, occurred in two skirmishes on the peninsula in this county, on the 29th of September, 1812, between a party of soldiers, principally
50
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OTTAWA COUNTY.
from Trumbull and Ashtabula counties, under the command of Capt. Joshua T. Cotton, and a superior body of Indians. Our men be- haved with coolness and courage. The results were unimportant, and but a few were killed on either side .*
That noted event in the late war, in the northwest-Perry's victory-took place on Lake Erie, only a few miles distant from the line of Ottawa. A description of this action, we annex, from Per- kins's Late War.
At Erie, Commodore Perry was directed to repair, and superintend a naval establishment, the object of which was to create a superior force on the lake. The difficulties of building a navy in the wilderness can only be conceived by those who have experienced them. There was nothing at this spot out of which it could be built, but the timber of the forest. Ship builders, sailors, naval stores, guns and ammunition, were to be transported by land, over bad roads, a distance of 400 miles, either from Albany by the way of Buffalo, or from Philadel- phia by the way of Pittsburgh. Under all these embarrassments, by the first of August, 1813, Commodore Perry had provided a flotilla, consisting of the ships Lawrence and Niagara of twenty guns each, and seven smaller ves els, to wit, one of four guns, one of three, two of two, and three of one ; in the whole fifty-four guns. While the ships were building, the enemy frequently appeared off the harbor and threatened their destruction ; but the shallow- ness of the water on the bar-there being but five feet-prevented their approach. The same cause, which insured the safety of the ships while building, seemed to prevent their being of any service. The two largest drew several feet more water than there was on the bar. The inventive genius of Commodore Perry, however, soon surmounted this difficulty. He placed large scows on each side of the two largest ships, filled them so as to sink to the water edge, then attached them to the ships by strong pieces of timber, and pumped out the water. The scows then buoyed up the ships so as to pass the bar in safety. This operation was performed on both the large ships, in the presence of a superior enemy. Having gotten his fleet in readiness, Commodore Perry proceeded to the head of the lake, and anchored in Put-in-Bay, opposite to, and distant thirty miles from Malden, where the British fleet lay under the guns of the fort. He lay at anchor here several days, watching the motions of the enemy, determined to give him battle the first favorable opportunity. On the 10th of September, at sunrise, the British fleet, consisting of one ship of nineteen guns, one of sev- enteen, one of thirteen, one of ten, one of three, and one of one, amounting to sixty-four, and exceeding the Americans by ten guns, under the command of Commodore Barclay, ap- peared off Put-in-Bay, distant about ten miles. Commodore Perry immediately got under weigh, with a light breeze at southwest. At 10 o'clock, the wind hauled to the southeast, which brought the American squadron to the windward, and gave them the weathergage. Commodore Perry, on board the Lawrence, then hoisted his union jack, having for a motto the dying words of Captain Lawrence, " Dont give up the ship," which was received with repeated cheers by the crew.
He then formed the line of battle, and bore up for the enemy, who at the same time hauled his courses and prepared for action. The lightness of the wind occasioned the hos- tile squadrons to approach each other but slowly, and prolonged for two hours, the solemn interval of suspense and anxiety which precedes a battle. The order and regularity of naval discipline heightened the dreadful quiet of the moment. No noise, no bustle, prevailed to distract the mind, except at intervals, the shrill pipings of the boatswain's whistle, or a mur- muring whisper among the men, who stood around their guns, with lighted matches, nar- rowly watching the movements of the foe, and sometimes stealing a glance at the counte- nances of their commanders. In this manner, the hostile fleets gradually neared each other in awful silence. At fifteen minutes after eleven, a bugle was sounded on board the enemy's headmost ship, Detroit, loud cheers burst from all their crews, and a tremendous fire opened upon the Lawrence, from the British long guns, which, from the shortness of the Lawrence's, she was obliged to sustain for forty minutes without being able to return a shot.
Commodore Perry, without waiting for the other ships, kept on his course in such gallant ยท and determined style, that the enemy supposed he meant immediately to board. At five minutes before twelve, having gained a nearer position, the Lawrence opened her fire, but
* Hon. Joshua R. Giddings, then a lad of 16, was present on the occasion. In the La- dies' Repository was published two or three years since a lengthy account of these skir- mishes from his pen.
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OTTAWA COUNTY.
the long guns of the British sti'l gave them greatly the advantage, and the Lawrence was exceedingly cut up without being able to do but very little damage in return. Their shot pierced her side in all directions, killing the men in the birth-deck and steerage, where they had been carried to be dressed. One shot had nearly produced a fatal explosion ; passing through the light room, it knocked the snuff of the candle into the magazine ; fortunately, the gunner saw it, and had the presence of mind immediately to extinguish it. It appeared to be the enemy's plan, at all events to destroy the commodore's ship; their heaviest fire was directed against the Lawrence, and blazed incessantly from all their largest vessels. Commodore Perry, finding the hazard of his situation, made all sail, and directed the other vessels to follow, for the purpose of closing with the enemy. The tremendous fire, how- ever, to which he was exposed, soon cut away every brace and bowline of the Lawrence, and she became unmanageable. The other vessels were unable to get up ; and in this dis- astrous situation, she sustained the main force of the enemy's fire for upwards of two hours, within cannister distance, though a considerable part of the time not more than two or three of her guns could be brought to bear on her antagonist. The utmost order and regu- larity prevailed during this scene of horror ; as fast as the men at the guns were wounded, they were carried below, and others stepped into their places ; the dead remained where they fell, until after the action. At this juncture, the enemy believed the battle to be won. The Lawrence was reduced to a mere wreck ; her deck was streaming with blood, and covered with the mangled limbs and bodies of the slain ; nearly the whole of her crew were either killed or wounded ; her guns were dismounted, and the commodore and his officers helped to work the last that was capable of service. At two, Capt. Elliott was enabled, by the aid of a fresh breeze, to bring his ship into close action in gallant style ; and the com- modore immediately determined to shift his flag on board that ship ; and giving his own in charge to Lieut. Yarnell, he hauled down his union jack, and taking it under his arm, ordered a boat to put him on board the Niagara. Broadsides were levelled at his boat, and a shower of musketry from three of the enemy's ships. He arrived safe and hoisted his union jack, with its animating motto, on board the Niagara. Capt. Elliott, by direction of the commo- dore, immediately put off in a boat, to bring up the schooners, which had been kept back by the lightness of the wind. At this moment, the flag of the Lawrence was hauled down. She had sustained the principal force of the enemy's fire for two hours, and was rendered incapable of defence. Any further show of resistance would have been a useless sacrifice of the relics of her brave and mangled crew. The enemy were at the same time so crip- pled, that they were unable to take possession of her, and circumstances soon enabled her crew again to hoist her flag. Commodore Perry now gave the signal to all the vessels for close action. The small vessels, under the direction of Captain Elliott, got out their sweeps, and made all sail. Finding the Niagara but little injured, the commander determined upon the bold and desperate expedient of breaking the enemy's line ; he accordingly bore up and passed the head of the two ships and brig, giving them a raking fire from his starboard guns, and also a raking fire upon a large schooner and sloop, from his larboard quarter, at half pistol shot. Having gotten the whole squadron into action, he luffed and laid his ship alongside of the British commodore. The small vessels having now got up within good grape and canister distance on the other quarter, enclosed their enemy between them and the Niagara, and in this position kept up a most destructive fire on both quarters of the British, until every ship struck her colors.
The engagement lasted about three hours, and never was victory more decisive and com- plete. More prisoners were taken than there were men on board the American squadron at the close of the action. The principal loss in killed and wounded was on board the Lawrence, before the other vessels were brought into action. Of her crew, twenty-two were killed, and sixty wounded. When her flag was struck, but twenty men remained on deck fit for duty. The loss on board of all the other vessels, was only five killed, and thir- ty-six wounded. The British loss must have been much more considerable. Commodore Barclay was dangerously wounded. He had lost one arm in the battle of Trafalgar. The other was now rendered useless, by the loss of a part of his shoulder-blade ; he received also a severe wound in the hip.
Commodore Perry, in his official dispatch, speaks in the highest terms of respect and commisseration for his wounded antagonist, and asks leave to grant him an immediate parole. Of Capt. Elliott, his second in command, he says, " that he is already so well known to the governmer t, that it would be almost superfluous to speak. In this action, he evinced his cha- racteristic bravery and judgment, and since the close of it, has given me the most able and essential assistance." The bold and desperate measure of pressing forward into action with the Lawrence alone, and exposing her to the whole fire of the enemy's fleet for two hours, before the other ships could be got up, has been censured as rash, and not warranted by tho
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OTTAWA COUNTY.
rules of naval war ; but there are seasons when the commander must rely more on the daring promptness of his measures, than on nice calculations of comparative strength. Nei- ther Bonaparte nor Nelson ever stopped to measure accurately the strength of the respective combatants. The result is the acknowledged and generally the best criterion of merit ; and it should not detract from the eclat of the successful commander, that his measures were bold and decisive.
Two days after the battle, two Indian chiefs, who had been selected for their skill as marksmen, and stationed in the tops of the Detroit, for the purpose of picking off the Ameri- can officers, were found snugly stowed away in the hold of the Detroit. These savages, who had been accustomed to ships of no greater magnitude than what they could sling on their backs, when the action became warm, were so panic-struck at the terrors of the scene, and the strange perils that surrounded them, that, looking at each other with amazement, they vociferated their significant " quonh," and precipitately descended to the hold. In their British uniforms hanging in bags upon their famished bodies, they were brought before Commodore Perry, fed, and discharged ; no further parole being necessary, to prevent their afterwards engaging in the contest. The slain of the crews of both squadrons were com- mitted to the lake immediately after the action. The next day, the funeral obsequies of the American and British officers who had fallen, were performed at an opening on the margin of the bay, in an appropriate and affecting manner. The crews of both fleets united in the ceremony. The stillness of the weather -- the procession of boats-the music -the slow and regular motion of the oars, striking in exact time with the notes of the solemn dirge-the mournful waving of the flags-the sound of the minute-guns from all the ships-the wild and solitary aspect of the place, gave to these funeral rites a most impres- sive influence, and formed an affecting contrast with the terrible conflict of the preceding day. Then the people of the two squadrons were engaged in the deadly strife of arms ; now they were associated as brothers, to pay the last tribute of respect to the slain of both nations. Two American officers, Lieutenant Brooks and Midshipman Laub, of the Law- rence ; and three British, Captain Finnis and Lieutenant Stoke of the Charlotte, and Lieu- tenant Garland of the Detroit, lie interred by the side of each other, in this lonely place, on the margin of the lake, a few paces from the beach.
This interesting battle was fought midway of the lake, between the two hostile armies, who lay on the opposite shores, waiting in anxious expectation, its result. The allied British and Indian forces, to the amount of four thousand five hundred, under Proctor and Tecumseh, were at Malden, ready, in case of a successful issue, to renew their ravages on the American borders.
Port Clinton, the county seat, laid out in 1827, is 120 miles north of Columbus. It is situated on a beautiful bay, on the right bank of Portage river. It has a good harbor-in which is a light-house-and about 60 dwellings. It is about the only village in the county, and may ultimately be a place of considerable trade.
Most of the islands in Lake Erie are off this county. Their exact situation and size was not known, until the recent survey by the United States government, and all the maps heretofore published are erroneous respecting them.
Kelly's Island, recently formed into a township of the same name, has 18 families, and 2800 acres. It is resorted to by steamers, for wood and water, and harborage in storms. Its harbor is good, and large quantities of excellent limestone are quarried, for building and other purposes : some of the most elegant structures in Detroit are built with it. The Put-in-Bay islands are North, South and Middle Bass, Sugar, Gibraltar, Strontian-so called from the quantity of strontian found there-with numerous small islets, containing half an acre and less. South Bass is the largest, and contains about 1300 acres. Upon it are several caves, which are much visited. Some of the officers slain at Perry's victory were hastily buried here, in the sand near the shore, and many of the bones have been washed away by the invading waters. Middle and North Bass
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