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 72
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490
TUSCARAWAS COUNTY.
is, that if they are called out they will side with the company, whose object is to take their lives." " Is there no one who will stand by you to prevent so dastardly a murder ?" rejoined Wright. " None but M'Connel, who captured them." "Have you any arms ?" " None but an old broadsword and a pistol." " Well," replied W., " go call M'Connel, get your weapons, and come up to the tavern ; I'll put away my horse and make a third man to defend the prisoners ; we must not have so digraceful a murder committed here."
Wright put up his horse, and was joined by Laffer and M'Connel. About this time the military company came up to the tavern door, and there halted for some refreshments. Mr. Wright knew the captain and many of the men, and went along the line, followed by the sheriff, inquiring their object and remonstrating, pointing out the disgrace of so cowardly an act as was contemplated, and assuring them, in case they carried out their brutal design, they would be prosecuted and punished for murder. Several left the line, declaring they would have nothing more to do with the matter. The captain became angry, ordered the ground to be cleared, formed his men and moved towards the jail. M'Connel was at the jail door, and the sheriff and Wright took a cross cut and joined him before the troops ar- rived. The prisoners had been laid on the floor against the front wall as a place of safety. The three arranged themselves before the jail door-M'Connel with the sword, sheriff Laf- fer had the pistol, and Wright was without weapon. The troops formed in front, a parley was had, and Wright again went along the line remonstrating, and detached two or three more men. He was ordered off, and took his position at the jail door with his companions. The men were formed, and commands, preparatory to a discharge of their arms, issued.
In this position the three were ordered off, but refused to obey, declaring that the prisoners should not be touched except they first dispatched them. "Their firmness had its effect ; the order to fire was given, and the men refused to obey. Wright again went along the line remonstrating, &c., while M'Connel and Laffer maintained their position at the door. One or two more were persuaded to leave the line. The captain became very angry and ordered him off. He again took his place with his two companions. The company was marched off some distance and treated with whiskey; and after some altercation, returned to the jail door, were arranged and prepared for a discharge of their rifles, and the three ordered off on pain of being shot. They maintained their ground without faltering, and the com- pany gave way and abandoned their project. Some of them were afterwards permitted, one at a time, to go in and see the prisoners, care being taken that no harm was done. These three gentlemen received no aid from the citizens ; the few that were about looked on merely. Their courage and firmness were truly admirable
The Indians were retained in jail until Governor Meigs, who had been some time ex- pected, arrived in New Philadelphia. He instructed Gen. A. Shane, then a lieutenant, re- cruiting for the United States service, to take the Indians with his men to the rendezvous at Zanesville. From thence they were ordered to be sent with his recruits to the head- quarters of General Harrison, at Seneca, at which place they were discharged.
Another incident occurred in Lieutenant Shane's journey to head-quarters, which illus- trates the deep-rooted prejudices entertained by many at that time against the Indians. The lieutenant with his company stopped a night at Newark. The three Indians were guarded as prisoners, and that duty devolved by turns on the recruits. A physician, who lived in Newark, and kept a small drug shop, informed the officer that two of his men had applied to him for poison. On his questioning them closely what use they were to make of it, they partly confessed that it was intended for the Indians. It was at night when they applied for it, and they were dressed in fatigue frocks. In the morning the lieutenant had his men paraded, and called the doctor to point out those who had meditated such a base act ; but the doctor, either unwilling to expose himself to the enmity of the men, or unable to discern them, the whole company being then dressed in their regimentals, the affair was passed over with some severe remarks by the commanding officer on the unsoldier-like conduct of those who could be guilty of such a dastardly crime of poisoning.
A singular legal anecdote is related as having occurred at New Philadelphia at an early day.
The court was held on this occasion in a log tavern, and an adjoining log stable was used as a jail, the stalls answering as cells for the prisoners. Judge T. was on the bench, and in the exercise of his judicial functions severely reprimanded two young lawyers who had got into a personal dispute. A huge, herculean backwoodsman, attired in a red flannel shirt, stood among the auditors in the apartment which served the double purpose of court and bar-room. He was much pleased at the judge's lecture-having himself been prac- tising at another bar-and hallooed out to his worship-who happened to be cross-eyed-in the midst of his harangue, " give it to 'em, old gimlet eyes !" " Who is that ?" demanded
491
TUSCARAWAS COUNTY.
the judge. He of the flannel shirt, proud of being thus noticed, stepped out from among the rest, and drawing himself up to his full height, vociferated " it's this 'ere old hoss!" The judge, who to this day never failed of a pungent repartee when occasion required, called out in a peculiarly dry nasal tone, " sheriff! take that old hoss, put him in the stable, and see that he is not stolen before morning."
Dover.
Dover, 3 miles Nw. of New Philadelphia, was laid out in the fall of 1807, by Slingluff and Deardorff, and was an inconsiderable vil- lage until the Ohio canal went into operation. It is now, through the enterprize of its citizens and the facilities furnished by the canal, one of the most thriving villages upon it, by which it is distant from
View in Zoar.
[On the right is shown the hotel ; on the left, the store-beyond, up the street, is a build- ing of considerable elegance, the residence of Mr. Bimeler. Among the carefully culti- vated shrubbery in the gardens adjoining, are cedar trees of some twenty feet in height, trimmed to almost perfect cylinders.]
492
TUSCARAWAS COUNTY.
Cleveland 93 miles. Its situation is fine, being upon a slight eleva- tion on the west bank of the Tuscarawas, in the midst of a beautiful and fertile country. The view was taken on the line of the canal : Deardorff's mill and the bridge over the canal are seen on the right ; in the centre of the view appears the spire of the Baptist church, and on the extreme left, Welty and Hayden's flouring mill. The town is sometimes incorrectly called Canal Dover, that being the name of the post-office It contains 1 Presbyterian, 1 Lutheran, 1 Moravian, 1 Baptist, and 1 Methodist church ; 6 mercantile stores, 1 woollen factory, 2 furnaces, 1 saw and 2 flouring mills, 3 tanneries, 2 for- warding houses, and had in 1840, 598 inhabitants, since which it is estimated to have doubled its population.
Eleven miles N. of the county seat, and eight from Dover, is the settlement of a German community, a sketch of whom we annex from one of our own communications to a public print.
In the spring of 1817, about two hundred Germans from Wirtemberg embarked upon the ocean. Of lowly origin, of the sect called Separatists, they were about to seek a home in the New World to enjoy the religious freedom denied in their fatherland. In August they arrived in Philadelphia, poor in purse, ignorant of the world, but rich in a more exalted treasure. On their voyage across the Atlantic, one young man gained their veneration and affections by his superior intelligence, simple manners and kindness to the sick. Originally a weaver, then a teacher in Germany, and now entrusting his fortunes with those of like faith, Joseph M. Bimeler found himself, on reaching our shores, the acknowledged one whose sympathies were to soften and whose judgment was to guide them through the trials and vicissitudes yet to come. Acting by general consent as agent, he purchased for them on credit 5,500 acres in the county of Tuscarawas, to which the colonists removed the December and January following. They fell to work in separate families, erecting bark huts and log shanties, and providing for their immediate wants.
Strangers in a strange land, girt around by a wilderness enshrouded in winter's stern and dreary forms, ere spring had burst upon them with its gladdening smile, the cup of priva- tion and suffering was held to their lips and they were made to drink to the dregs. But although poor and humble, they were not entirely friendless. A distant stranger, by chance hearing of the distress of these poor German emigrants, sent provisions for their relief-an incident related by some of them at the present day with tears of gratitude.
For about eighteen months they toiled in separate families, but unable thus to sustain themselves in this then new country, the idea was suggested to combine and conquer by the mighty enginery of associated effort. A constitution was adopted, formed on purely re- publican and democratic principles, under which they have lived to the present time. By it they hold all their property in common. Their principal officers are an agent and three trustees, upon whom devolve the management of the temporal affairs of the community. Their offices are elective, females voting as well as males. The trustees serve three years, one vacating his post annually and a new election held.
For years the colony struggled against the current, but their economy, industry and in- tegrity enabled them to overcome every obstacle and eventually to obtain wealth. Their numbers have slightly diminished since their arrival, in consequence of a loss of fifty per- sons in the summer of 1832, by cholera and kindred diseases, and poverty in the early years of their settlement, which prevented the contracting of new matrimonial alliances.
Their property is now valued at near half a million. It consists of nine thousand acres of land in one body, one oil, one saw and two flouring mills, two furnaces, one woollen factory, the stock of their domain and money invested in stocks. Their village, named Zoar, situated about half a mile east of the Tuscarawas, has not a very prepossessing appearance.
Every thing is for use-little for show. The dwellings, twenty-five in number, are sub- stantial and of comfortable proportions ; many of them log, and nearly all unpainted. The barns are of huge dimensions, and with the rest are grouped without order, rearing their brown sides and red tiled roofs above the foliage of the fruit-trees, partially enveloping them. Turning from the village, the eye is refreshed by the verdure of the meadows that stretch away on either hand, where not even a stick or a chip is to be seen to mar the neat- ness and beauty of the green sward.
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493
TUSCARAWAS COUNTY.
The sound of the horn at day-break calls them to their labors. They mostly work in groups, in a plodding but systematic manner that accomplishes much. Their tools are usually coarse, among which is the German sythe, short and unwieldy as a bush-hook, sickles without teeth, and hoes clumsy and heavy as the mattock of the southern slave. The females join in the labors of the field, hoe, reap, pitch hay, and even clean and wheel out in barrows the offal of the stables. Their costume and language are that of Germany. They are seen about the village going to the field with implements of labor across their shoulders, their faces shaded by immense circular rimmed hats of straw-or with their hair combed straight back from their foreheads and tied under a coarse blue cap of cotton, toting upon their heads baskets of apples or tubs of milk.
Systematic division of labor is a prominent feature in their domestic economy, although here far from reaching its attainable perfection. Their clothing is washed together, and one bakery supplies them with bread. A general nursery shelters all the children over three years of age. There these little pocket editions of humanity are well cared for by kind dames, in the sere and yellow leaf.
The selfishness so prominent in the competitive avocations of society, is here kept from its odious development by the interest each strikingly manifests in the general welfare, as only thus can their own be promoted. The closest economy is shown in all their opera- tions for as the good old man Kreutzner, the Boniface of the community, once observed in broken English, when starting on a bee line for a decaying apple cast by a heedless stran- ger into the street-" saving make rich !" Besides acting as host in the neat village inn, this man, Kreutzner, is the veterinary Æsculapius of this society, carrying out the universal economy still farther by practicing on the homeopathic principles! Astonishing are the results of his skill on his quarto-limbed patients, who, from rolling and snorting under acute pains of the abdominal viscera, are, by the melting on the lips of their tongues of a few pills of an infinitesimal size, lifted into a comfortable state of physical exaltation.
With all the peculiarities of their religious faith and practice we are unacquainted ; but, like most sects denominated Christian, there is sufficient in their creed, if followed, to make their lives here upright, and to justify the hope of a glorious future. Separatists is a term applied to them, because they separated from the Lutheran and other denominations. They have no prayers, baptisms nor sacraments, and, like Jews, eschew pork. Their log church is often filled winter evenings, and twice on the Sabbath. The morning service consists of music, instrumental and vocal, in which a piano is used, together with the reading and explanation of the scriptures by one of their number. The afternoon exercises differ from it in the substitution of catechising from a German work for biblical instruction.
They owe much of their prosperity to Bimeler, now an old man, and justly regarded as the patriarch of the community. He is their adviser in all temporal things, their physician to heal their bodily infirmities, and their spiritual guide to point to a purer world. Although but as one of them, his superior education and excellent moral qualities have given him a commanding influence, and gained their love and reverence. He returns the affection of the people, with whom he has toiled until near a generation has passed away, with his whole soul. He has few thoughts for his fatherland, and no desire to return thither to visit the home of his youth. The green hills of this beautiful valley enclose the dearest objects of his earthly affections and earthly hopes.
The community are strict utilitarians, and there is but little mental development among them. Instruction is given in winter to the children in German and English. They are a very simple-minded, artless people, unacquainted with the outer world, and the great questions, moral and political, which agitate it. Of scarcely equaled morality, never has a inember been convicted of going counter to the judicial regulations of the land. Thus they pass through their pilgrimage with but apparently few of the ills that fall to the common lot, presenting a reality delightful to behold, with contentment resting upon their counte- nances and hearts in which is enthroned peace.
The following is a list of villages in the county, with their distances and directions from New Philadelphia, and their population in 1840, some of which are thriving places, and have since much increased : Bolivar, at the junction of the Sandy and Beaver with the Ohio canal, 11 N., 253; Lockport, on the Ohio canal, 2 sw., 191; New Cumberland, 10 NE., 138 ; Port Washington, on the Ohio canal, 18 sw., 116; Shanesville, 12 w., 226, and Sandyville, 12 NE., on the Sandy and Beaver canal, 243. Eastport, Lawrenceville, Rogers- ville, Strasburg, Westchester, Gnadenhutten, Trenton and Uhrichs-
494
UNION COUNTY.
ville are also small places : the last of which is a thriving town, on Stillwater creek, by which large quantities of produce are shipped to the Ohio canal, only a few miles distant.
UNION.
UNION was formed April 1st, 1820, from Delaware, Franklin, Mad- ison and Logan, together with a part of old Indian territory. The surface is generally level, and most of the soil clayey. The south- western part is prairie land, and the north and eastern woodland of great fertility when cleared. In the eastern part are valuable lime- stone quarries. The principal products are corn, grass, wheat, oats, potatoes, butter and cheese. The following is a list of its townships in 1840, with their population.
Allen, 714
Jackson,
352
Paris,
1151
Claiborne, 497
Leesburgh,
720
Union, .. 894
Darby, 736
Liberty,
922 Washington, 154
Dover, 457
Mill Creek,
524
York, 439
Jerome, 868
The population of Union, in 1830, was 3,192, and in 1840, 8443, or 19 inhabitants to the square mile.
The first white men who ever made a settlement within the county were James Ewing and his brother Joshua. They purchased land and settled on Darby Creek, in what is now Jerome Township, in the year 1798. The next year came Samuel Mitchell, David Mitch- ell, Samuel Mitchell, jr., Samuel Kirkpatrick, and Samuel McCul- lough ; and in 1800, George Reed, Samuel Reed, Robert Snodgrass, and Paul Houston.
James Ewing's farm was the site of an ancient and noted Mingo town, which was deserted at the time the Mingo towns, in what is now Logan county, were destroyed by Gen. Logan of Kentucky, in 1786. When Mr. Ewing took possession of it, the houses were still remaining, and, among others, the remains of a blacksmith's shop, with coal, cinders, iron-dross, &c. Jonathan Alder, formerly a prisoner among the Indians, says the shop was carried on by a ren- egade white man named Butler, who lived among the Mingoes. Ex- tensive fields had formerly been cultivated in the immediate vicinity of the town.
The county was erected through the exertions of Col. James Curry, who was then a member of the state legislature. He resided within the present boundaries of the county from the year 1811 until his death, which took place in the year 1834. He served as an offi- cer in the Virginia continental line, during the chief part of the revolutionary war. He was taken prisoner when the American army surrendered at Charleston, S. C. In early youth he was with the Virginia forces at Point Pleasant, at the mouth of the Kenhawa, and took part in the battle with the Indians at that place. His account of that battle differed, in one respect, from some of the
495 .
UNION COUNTY.
·accounts of it which we have read. His recollection was perfectly distinct, that when the alarm was given in the camp, upon the ap- proach of the Indians in the morning, a limited number of men from each company were called for, and sent out with the expectation that they would have a fine frolic in the pursuit of what they sup- posed to be a mere scouting party of Indians. After the party thus detached had been gone a few minutes, a few scattering reports of rifles began to be heard. Momently, however, the firing became more rapid, until it became apparent that the Indians were in force. The whole available force of the whites then left the camp. Du- ring the forenoon, Mr. C. received a wound from a rifle ball which passed directly through the elbow of his right arm, which disabled him for the remainder of the day.
During his residence in Ohio he was extensively known, and had many warm friends among the leading men of the state. He was one of the electors by whom the vote of the state was given to James Monroe for president of the United States. The last of many public trusts which he held was that of associate judge for this county .*
Central view in Marysville.
Marysville, the county seat, so named from a daughter of the original proprietor, is 30 miles Nw. of Columbus, on Mill Creek, a tributary of the Scioto. It contains 1 Presbyterian and 1 Metho- dist church, an academy, 1 newspaper. printing office, 3 mercantile stores, and had in 1843, 360 inhabitants ; it is now estimated to con- tain about 600.
Milford, 5 miles sw. of Marysville on Big Darby, is a flourishing village, having 1 Presbyterian and 1 Methodist church, 3 mercantile stores, and about 400 inhabitants. The following is a list of places in the county with their population in 1840 :- Essex 34, Fairsburgh 20, Liberty 44, Richwood 99, Washington 10, and York 49.
* The preceding historical items respecting this county were communicated by a resident.
496
VAN WERT COUNTY.
VAN WERT.
VAN WERT was formed April 1st, 1820, from old Indian territory. It was named from Isaac Van Wart, one of the three captors of Maj. Andre in the revolutionary war, who resided near Tarrytown, New York, at the time of his death, in 1828, aged 68 years. The surface is level, and the top soil loam, and the sub-soil blue marl and very deep, and what is remarkable, of such tenacity that water will not sink through it. Hence, in wet seasons, the crops are poor from the water standing on the soil. When the country is cleared and drained, this difficulty will be obviated. The soil is very rich, and the surface covered with a great variety of timber. The prin- cipal product is Indian corn. The following is a list of the town- ships in 1840, with their population.
Harrison, 168
Pleasant,
192
Washington, 47
Hoaglin, 40
Ridge,
211
Willshire, 434
Jennings, 88
Tully,
99
York, 181
Liberty, 117
The population of Van Wert in 1840, was 1577, or about 4 per- sons to the square mile.
Van Wert received its present boundaries and name in the spring of 1820, two years after the lands of the northwestern part of Ohio were purchased from the Indians, by the treaty of St. Mary's. With most of the 14 counties formed by the same act, it was almost an entire wilderness, the surveyors' marks upon the township lines being, with a few exceptions, the only traces of civilization in the whole region.
The ridge upon which stand the towns of Van Wert and Section Ten, is a subject of curiosity to strangers. It is of great utility to the people of this county and the others, (Put- nam, Hancock, Wyandot to Seneca,) through which it passes, being at all seasons the best natural road in this part of Ohio. It is composed entirely of sand and gravel, and has an average width of about half a mile. Its highest point is generally near the south side, from which it gradually slopes to the north. The timber is such as is usually found upon the river bottoms, and although upon it are as large trees as elsewhere, yet in their character they form a striking contrast with the forest on either side.
At a depth of about 16 feet through sand and gravel, pure cold water is found, while through the clayey soil in the country adjacent, it is often necessary to dig from 20 to 40 feet. The ridge passes out at the northwest corner of the county, and is temporarily lost in the high sandy plain near Fort Wayne. Crossing the Maumee, it can be distinctly traced, running in a northeasterly direction ; when, although frequently eccentric and devious in its course, it runs nearly parallel with the river, being distant from it from 1 to 10 miles : it is again lost in the sandy plains nearly north of Napoleon. Has not this ridge been the boundary of a great bay of Lake Erie ! when its waters were, perhaps, 180 feet higher than now ? The sand, gravel, round smooth stones and shells, all bear evidence of hav- ing been deposited by water, and the summit of the ridge is every where at the same level, or relative altitude.
Van Wert, the county seat, is 136 miles Nw. of Columbus, and was founded in 1837, by James Watson Riley, Esq. It is hand- somely situated on a natural ridge, elevated about 20 feet above the general surface of the country, on a fork of the Little Auglaize. It contains 2 stores, 1 grist and 2 saw mills, and about 200 inhabitants
The site of the town of Van Wert, has evidently been an Indian town, or a place for winter quarters; the timber standing when first visited by the writer, and probably by
497
VAN WERT COUNTY.
white men, in 1825, was all small and evidently of a growth of less than 50 years, and sev- eral wooden houses, covered with bark, were in pretty good repair when the town was laid out in 1837 ; numerous graves, on a commanding bluff upon the bank of the creek, as well as the deep worn trails upon the ridge, up and down the creek, and in various other direc- tions, bear witness that this deeply sequestered, yet pleasant spot, unknown to the whites in all the wars, from St. Clair's defeat to the close of the late war, and in fact, until after the treaty of St. Mary's, was cherished by the Indians as a peaceful and quiet home, where they could in security leave their women and children, when they sallied out upon the war path, or hunting excursions.
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