USA > Ohio > Historical collections of Ohio in three volumes ; an encyclopedia of the state : with notes of a tour over it in 1886 contrasting the Ohio of 1846 with 1886-90, Vol. III > Part 12
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Must Have Hogs .- In 1850 a very strong syndicate was formed by men of abundant capital with the view of getting up a corner on stock hogs. Their organization extended all over the country, their headquarters for Ohio being at Columbus. The syndicate sent out its agents everywhere, and was rapidly getting the control of all the young hogs in the market.
They seemed to make a particularly elean sweep of southern Ohio, and before the mag- nitude of their operations was discovered they had secured about every stock hog in sight. This was a move that Emmitt & Davis could not stand, as they were always in need of stock hogy to which to feed their distillery slops. Mr. Emmitt got track of a nice bunch of young hogs that could be secured in Franklin county. The hogs were held at a stiff price, and before deciding to buy them, Mr. Emmitt sent for Mr. Davis.
"We need the hogs, don't we, Davis?" he asked.
" Yes, sir." was the answer.
"I think you had better go up and buy" them."
A Tough Experience .- Mr. Davis mounted his little gray mare the next morning and rode up into Franklin county to buy the stock hogs and drive them home. It was a miser- able journey of sixty miles, over rough roads and in very distressing weather. He reached his destination, bought and paid for the hogs, and made all arrangements for starting them on the homeward road the morning after the deal was completed. The hogs were quartered that night in an exposed field near the road. A heavy rain had fallen, and later on a terrible sleet veneered all creation out- doors with a thick encasement of ice. The poor hogs caught the full fury of the storm, and when Mr. Davis went into the field at daylight the next morning, he kicked hog after hog in the endeavor to get them to their feet, but many of them were stark dead. With the animals that were in a condition to be driven, he started for Waverly. It was a terrible trip, but Davis, although an old man, never complained of the hardships of it.
RACE HATRED.
An unusual history of race hatred within the limits of Ohio is that related by a correspondent of the Chillicothe Leader, as existing in Waverly, and which we give herewith :
A Town Without a Negro Citizen .- The one thing that distinguishes Waverly over every other city or town in Ohio having a popula- tion of 2,000, is the fact that she does not harbor a single negro within her borders. This antipathy to the negro at Waverly dates back to the earliest settlement of the town. When Waverly was still in its swaddling- clothes there was a "yellow nigger" named Love living ou the outskirts of the town. He was a low-minded, impudent, vicions fellow, very insulting, and made enemies on every hand. His condnet finally became so objectionable that a lot of the better class of citizens got together one night, made a de- seent upon his cabin, drove him out and
stoned him a long way in his flight toward Sharonville. He never dared to come back. Our first acquaintance with negroes about Waverly was with rather rough, objectionable members of that race, and many things or- curred to intensify the prejudice which many of our people always held against the ne- groes.
A Friend of the Negro .- Dr. William Blackstone was a strong exception to the general rule. He was a friend of the negro, their champion, and the prejudiced whites acensed the doctor of "encouraging the d ---- d niggers to be impudent and sassy to ns." Opposed to Blackstone was a strong family of Burkes, and a number of the Downings,
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PIKE COUNTY.
who thought that the only correet way to treat a negro was to kill him. This was their doctrine, and they proclaimed it, with much bravado, on all occasions.
Outrages on Negroes .- - There was a splen- did fellow, u darkey named Dennis Hill, who settled at Piketon and established a tanning business, who was ahost harassed to death by the negro-haters. He finally left this sec- tion and went to Michigan, where he grew rich.
A lot of Virginia negroes settled up on Pee Pee creek, in the neighborhood of the Burkes and the Downings. Some of them prospered nieely, and this enraged their white neighbors. Tim Downing was the leader of the gang that made almost constant war on these negroes. Downing's crowd got to burning the hay and wheat of the colored farmers, harassing their stoek, interfering in their private business, and doing everything in their power to make life absolutely mis- erable to the colored people. They concen- trated the brunt of their hatred against the most prosperous of these eolored farmers, whose names I can't recall.
Raiding the Wrong Man .- One night they organized a big raid into the colored settle- ment, with the avowed purpose of " clearing out the whole nest of d-d niggers." They went fully armed, and didn't propose to stop short of doing a little killing and burning. One of the first eabins they surrounded was that of the especially hated eolored man spoken of. They opened fire upon it, hoping to drive the negro out. But the darkey-an honest, peaceable fellow-wasn't to be easily frightened. He, too, had a gun, and taking a safe position near one of the windows of his cabin, he blazed away into the darkness in the direction from which the shots had come. A wild ery of pain followed his shot. The buckshot from his gun phinged into the right leg of Tim Downing's brother, entting an artery. Downing fell, but he was picked up and carried to the home of Bill Burke. '
Downing's Death. - The crowd abandoned the attack after Downing's fall, and followed him to Burke's house. There Downing bled to death. A coroner's jury, of which I was a member, was empanelled and returned a verdict to the effeet that Downing had come to his death from the effects of a gunshot
wound-but the jury refrained from saying who had discharged the gun. The gang of whites to which Downing belonged sur- rounded the house in which the jury was in session, and threatened it with all sorts of vengeance if it did not return a verdict ex- pressing the belief that Downing had been murdered by the negro. But their threats didn't proenrethe desired verdict. They after- wards had the negro arrested and tried for murder, but he was acquitted.
Cowardly Rerenge .- The morning after the fatal raid the Downings, Burkes at. 1 their friends, armed themselves and marched to the negro's cabin. - They lay in wait there until the darkey's son, a nice, young fellow, came out of the cabin. They opened fire on him, and one of the bullets struck him in the head, fracturing his skull and allowing a portion of his brains to escape. When the young man fell the crowd broke / and ran. The wounded negro lingered quite a long while, suffering most frightfully, and finally died. No one was ever punished for this crime. After these two tragedies the negro moved away.
Hle Met his Match .- Tim Downing had a brother, Taylor, living up near Sharonville, and this man concluded that he had to have "an eye for an eye," to avenge his brother's death. One morning, just after Downing's death, he was going through the woods with his gun on his shoulder, and came upon a negro ehopping rails. He told the darkey to make his peace with God, as he was going to kill him right there.
The darkey knew that Downing meant what he said, and quick as a squirrel's jump he made a dash at Downing with his ax, striking him full on the side of the face, and shattering his jaw in the most frightful fash- ion. Downing lived, but he was horribly marked for life. The negro was arrested and tried, but was acquitted. This only en- raged the white gang more, and they made life in this neighborhood entirely too hot for the negro. It was under such circumstances as these that the bitter anti-negro feeling at Waverly had its origin. This race hatred was fostered and extended until even mod- erate-thinking people, on any other subject, came to believe that they couldn't stand the presence of a negro in Waverly.
WILLIAM HEWITT, THE HERMITT.
On an adjoining page is given a view of the Cave of the Scioto Hermit, which we visited to make the drawing for our first edition, and therein gave the fol- lowing account : About eleven miles south of Chillicothe, on the turnpike road to Portsmouth, is the cave of the hermit of the Scioto. When built, many years ago, it was in the wilderness, the road having since been laid out by it. It is a '. rude structure, formed by successive layers of stone, under a shelving rock, which serves as a back and roof.
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Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.
CENTRAL VIEW IN PIKETON.
Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.
CAVE OF WILLIAM HEWIT, The Hermit of the Scioto.
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PIKE COUNTY.
Over it is a monument, bearing the follow- ing inscription :
WILLIAM HEWIT, TIIE HERMIT,
Occupied this cave fourteen years, while all was a wilder- ness around him.
He died in 1834, aged 70 years.
But little is known of the history of the hermit. He was, it is said, a Virginian, and married early in life into a family of respectability. Returning one night from a journey, he had ocular proof of the infidelity of his wife, killed her paramour, and instantly fled to the woods, never to re- turn or associate with mankind. He event- ually settled in the Scioto valley and built this cave, where he passed a solitary life, his rifle furnishing him with provisions and clothing, which consisted of skins of animals. As the country gradually filled up he became an object of curiosity to the settlers. Ile was mild and inoffensive in his address, avoided companionship with those around, and if any allusion was made to his history, evaded the subject. Occasionally he visited
Chillicothe, to exchange the skins of his game for ammunition, when his singular ap- pearance attracted observation. In person, he was large and muscular ; the whole of his dress, from his cap to his moccasins, was of deerskin ; his beard was long and unshaven, and his eye wild and piercing. In passing from place to place he walked in the street to prevent encountering his fellow-men. Many anecdotes are related of him.
He planted an orchard on government land, which afterwards became the property of a settler ; but so sensitive was he in regard to the rights of others, that he would not pluck any of the fruit without first asking liberty of the legal owner. While sitting concealed in the recesses of the forest, he once observed a teamster deliberately cut down and carry off some fine venison he had placed to dry on a limb of a tree before his cave. Hewitt followed, got before him, and as he came up, suddenly sprang from behind some bushes beside the road, and presenting his riffe to his bosom, with fierce and determined manner bade him instantly return and re- place the venison. The man tremblingly obeyed, receiving the admonition, "never again to rob the hermit." A physician rid- ing by, stopped to gratify the curiosity of his companions. He found the hermit ill, administered medicine, visited him often gratuitously during his illness, and effected a cure. The hermit ever after evinced the warmest gratitude.
In the above account, William Hewitt is stated to have refused to associate with mankind, a result of the infidelity of his wife and the killing of her para- mour. This fact was related by the hermit to the father of Col. John McDonald. Hon. James Emmitt, who knew Hewitt intimately, states that the cause of his solitary life was a quarrel with other members of his family over the disposition of his father's estate. Disgusted by the avariciousness of his relatives he sought the solitude of the Western wilderness. This occurred about 1790, when Hewitt was twenty-six years old. He first located in' a cave in what is now Jackson county, Ohio, but as the game upon which he subsisted began to grow scarce with the advent of the settler and trader, he removed into what is now Pike county.
Mr. Emmitt gives many interesting reminiscences of Hewitt, from which we extract the following : .
The Hermit's Cave .- Almost at the base of the Dividing Ridge's gentle slope to the southward, he found a cave in a lowly hill- side. This cave was nothing more than a great ledge of rock; projecting out eight or ten feet over a shelving bank, and forming a one-sided room of fair dimensions. The rock-ceiling was so low, however, that at no point could a man of ordinary stature stand erect. Hle enclosed the cave's open front with a loosely laid up wall of rock. At one end of the cave he erected a heavy oaken door, which he had hewn out with his little tomahawk. This door was swung on very clumsy wooden hinges, and was fastened by driving a peg through its outer board and into a crevice in the rocky wall.
A Magnificent Physique .- When Hewitt
first came into this section, and took posses- sion of his cave, he was a splendid specimen of a man. He was six feet two inches in height, broad and deep-chested, and as straight as a nickel-tipped lightning rod. He weighed something over 200 pounds, and was as strong and active as a gladiator.
Clad from head to foot in buekskin-moc- casins, leggins, hunting shirt, belt and hat- and always armed with gun, tomahawk and knife, Hewitt, the hermit, was a very pic- turesque citizen to suddenly meet in the woods.
An Ohio Robinson Crusoe .- When he took possession of his cave, be it remembered, there ,were very few people in this section, and the only road traversing this country from north to south, was known as Yoakum's
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PIKE COUNTY.
Trace. It was merely a wagon trail, and passed Hewitt's cave at a point about 100 yards distant from the present curve-beautified turnpike. When the travellers up and down Yoakum's Trace first became aware of the fact that there was a sort of buckskin-clad Robinson Crusoe skulking about the woods, armed to the teeth, they were much alarmed, and their alarm was heightened when it became evident that the Recluse of Dividing Ridge didn't seek their company. But this fear gradually diminished as they became more familiar with his appearance and manners, and managed to strike up an acquaintance with him. There was this peculiarity about Hewitt, while he never sought any man's company, he never acted the fool about meeting people, when a meeting was unavoidable. When brought into contact with his fellow-men, he always bore himself with striking native dignity ; rather with the air of a man who felt himself to be a trifle superior to the or- dinary run of citizens.
The Hermit's Antecedents .- One day, in 1832, Mr. Emmitt, while at the Madeira Hotel, in Chillicothe, was accosted by a gentleman, who introduced himself, and said that he was from Virginia. He came to Ohio, he said, to look up a man named William Hewitt, who years before had dis- appeared from his Virginia home, and had been lost to the knowledge of his friends un- til a few months before.
Mr. Emmitt heard the story of Hewitt's flight from home-related above-and then proffered to accompany the stranger to Hewitt's cave. The two men rode down to the cave, knocked, and were bidden to enter. They found Hewitt comfortably seated on his fur-carpeted floor. He did not get up to receive his visitors, but in a friendly way made them welcome. He did not at first recognize the stranger, but when told who he was, he said :
"How are you. Bill," as though it had only been yesterday that they had met.
The stranger sought Hewitt to acquaint him with the condition of his property back in Virginia, and how it had been abused by those who then had unlawful possession of it. Hewitt heard him through, with but little show of interest, and when urged by the stranger to return and claim his property, he answered, with some vehemence : "Never mind ; I'm going back some of these days, and then I'll give 'em hell." He didn't seem to care anything about the value of his property, but showed that he was filled with bitterness toward those on whose account he had re- nounced civilization and home.
The stranger went back to Virginia, a dis- satisfied and rather disgusted man.
A Pitiable Condition .- Hewitt, as he grew old, became very careless in his personal habits, and for two years preceding his death never changed his buckskin garments. Hle had grown fat and lazy, and made no exertion that was not a necessity. And as he grew old he became more sociable. One day, in the winter of' 1834, he stopped at the house of
a widow woman, named Lockhard, with whom he ate a hearty dinner.
After dinner he was taken violently ill with a chill. Mr. Emmitt, who was then one of the Poor Commissioners of Pike county, was notified of Hewitt's illness, and he had the old man removed to a frame building in Waverly. Dr. Blackstone was summoned and gave the man needed medical assistance. The Hermit was stricken with pneumonia.
His person was in an absolutely filthy con- dition. The dirty buckskin garments were cut from his person, and he was given a thorough bath-the first he had had for three years, or longer. He was newly and comfort- ably clothed by Mr. Emmitt, was provided with a male nurse, and made as comfortable as possible. The ladies of Waverly were very kind to him, and daily brought him many delicacies. He began to improve, and one night, about a week after he was taken ill, his nurse, a man named Cole, left him alone, and went up to Downing's Hotel to spend the night. When he returned in the morning Hewitt was dead.
The Hermit's Skeleton. - Hewitt was buried in the old graveyard at Waverly, about one square southeast of the court-house. But he was not allowed to remain long in his grave. He was resurrected by Dr. Wm. Blackstone, and carved up in artistic shape. A portion of Hewitt's skeleton-the entire skull, and the bones composing the chest, ribs and backbone-was mounted by Dr. Blackstone. No one knew what became of the remainder of the skeleton until 1883, when they came to light in a most unexpected way. One day, while some of Mr. Emmitt's workmen were digging a cellarway to a house he owned, adjoining what had been Dr. Blackstone's office, they came upon a pile of bones, buried four feet below the surface of the ground, and close to the stone foundation wall. The bones were evidently those of a victim of the Doctor's dissecting-table, and Mr. Emmitt promptly concluded that they were a portion of Hewitt's skeleton. This opinion found its way into print, and a few days later he received a letter from Dr. Black- stone, of Circleville, making inquiry about the discovered bones. He said that he was in possession of what he believed to be the other portion of Hewitt's frame, bequeathed to him by his unele, Dr. Wmn. Blackstone. Mr. Emmitt boxed and sent him the bones, and they fitted, exactly, the upper half of the skeleton in Dr. Blackstone's possession. This was a remarkable reunion of bones, surely, after a separation of a half-cen- tury.
Hewitt's Monument .- The Columbus & Portsmouth turnpike was built past the mouth of Hewitt's cave in 1840, and in 1842, Mr. Felix Renick, the first President of the company, had a respectable freestone monu- ment erected on the shelving rock forming the roof to the cave, to mark the grewsome home that Hewitt ocenpied from 1820 to 1834.
The erection of this monument was a wise.
PIKE COUNTY.
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money-making scheme, and has paid for it- self an hundred times over. Thousands of people have driven up or down that pike- and paid their toll both ways-in order to see the monument, and the cavo where the old
Hermit lived, slept on a bed of finest decr- skin, ate his choice venison, and laughed at the cares of a struggling, feverish world. Hle always ate his pawpaws in peace.
PIKETON is five miles south of Waverly, on the Scioto river and S. V. R. R. Newspaper : Sun, Republican, W. E. Bateman, editor and publisher. Popula- tion, 1880, 665. School census, 1888, 217.
JASPER is seven miles southwest of Waverly, on the Scioto river and Ohio canal. School census, 1888, 103.
BEAVERTOWN, P. O. Beaver, is eleven miles southeast of Waverly, on the O. S. R. R. It has three churches. School census, 1888, 66. .
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PORTAGE.
PORTAGE COUNTY was formed from Trumbull, June 7, 1807 ; all that part of the Reserve west of the Cuyahoga and south of the townships numbered five was also annexed as part of the comity, and the temporary seat of justice ap- pointed at the house of Benjamin Tappan. The name was derived from the old Indian portage path of about seven miles in length, between the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas, which was within its limits. The surface is slightly rolling ; the upland is generally sandy or gravelly, and the flat land to a considerable extent clay. The country is wealthy and thriving, and the dairy business is largely carried on.
Area about 490 square miles. In 1887 the acres cultivated were 118,744; in pasture, 149,678 ; woodland, 44,233; lying waste, 2,340 ; produced in wheat, 375,877 bushels ; rye, 932; buckwheat, 635; oats, 555,086 ; barley, 194; corn, 425,143 ; meadow hay, 29,845 tons ; clover hay, 15,164; flax, 64,900 lbs. fibre ; potatoes, 183,263 bushels; tobacco, 40 lbs .; butter, 931,376 ; cheese, 1,786,500 ; sorghum, 45 gallons ; maple syrup, 88,282; honey, 11,993 lbs. ; eggs, 966,965 dozen ; grapes, 7,990 lbs .; wine, 45 gallons ; apples, 166,784 bushels; peaches, 22,301 ; pears, 1,408; wool, 199,946 lbs. ; milch cows owned, 12,240. Ohio Mining Statistics, 1888 : Coal mined, 70,923 tons, employing 157 miners and 23 outside employees ; fire-clay, 308 tons.
School census, 1888, 8,131 ; teachers, 378. Miles of railroad track, 154.
TOWNSHIPS AND CENSUS.
1840.
1880.
TOWNSHIPS AND CENSUS.
1840.
1880.
Atwater,
756
1,147
Nelson,
1,398
890
Aurora.
906
666
Palmyra,
1,359
1,105
Brimfield,
1,154
1,030
Paris,
931
666
Charlestown,
851
633
Randolph,
1,649
1,684
Deerfield,
1,184
985
Ravenna,
1,542
4,224
Edinburg,
1,085
910
Rootstown,
1,112
1,217
Franklin,
1,497
4,141
Shalersville,
1,281
960
Freedom,
888
804
Streetsboro,
1,136
702
Garrettsville,
969
Suffield,
1,200
1,530
Hiram,
1,080
1,058
Windham,
907
1,029
Mantna,
1,187
1,150
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PORTAGE COUNTY.
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Population of Portage in 1820 was 10,093 ; 1830, 18,792 ; 1840, 23,107 ; 1860, 24,208 ; 1880, 27,500 : of whom 19,940 were born in Ohio ; 1,476, Pennsylvania; 1,115, New York ; 112, Indiana ; 81, Virginia ; 24, Kentucky ; 918, England and Wales ; 750, German Empire; 561, Ireland ; 165, British America ; 104, Scot- land ; 46, France, and 22, Norway and Sweden. Census, 1890, 27,868.
The. cheese industry in this county, as in others of the Western Reserve, has grown to very large proportions ; hence the term CHEESEDOM has sometimes, in slang parlance, been applied to this section of the State. The beginning of this industry dates from the first settlement, when, as soon as the pioneer cabin was up, and the family domiciled, the women prepared for cheese-making. A rail or pole with one end under the lower log of the cabin, and lying across a rudely- constructed cheese-hoop, with a weight attached to the outer end, constituted che primitive cheese-press.
After the settlers had succeeded in enclosing and seeding pastures, cheese-mak- ing increased, but great difficulty was experienced in getting it to market. In the summer of 1820 Mr. Harvey Baldwin took from Aurora the first cargo of cheese to a Southern market. He had less than 2,000 pounds hauled to Beaver Point, Pa., by wagon, there transferred to a pine skiff, and then commenced voyaging down stream, selling cheese at Wheeling, Marietta, and other river towns, until he reached Louisville, Ky., where he disposed of the last of his stock, having made a profitable venture. Later he united with Samuel Taylor and Apollis White, purchased several dairies in Bainbridge and Anburn in 1825, and sent cheese down the Ohio river.
In 1826 Mr. Royal Taylor and Russell G. MeCarty gathered a cargo of thirty tons of cheese in Aurora and Bainbridge, and took it to Louisville, where it was divided into two lots. McCarty took his to Alabama. Taylor carried his goods to Nashville, but found the market overstocked.
He says : " I hired two six-horse teams, with large Pennsylvania wagons (as they were then called), to haul 8,000 pounds each, over the Cumberland moun- tains to Knoxville, East Tennessee, at $2.50 per 100 pounds. I accompanied the wagons on foot, and sold cheese at MeMinnville, Sparta, and other places where we stayed overnight. The people with whom we stayed overnight usually pur- chased a cheese, called the family together around a table, and they generally ate nothing but cheese until they had satisfied their appetites, and then the balance (if anything was left) was sent to the negro quarters to be consumed by the slaves. My sales in Tennessee and North Carolina at that time ranged between twenty- five and thirty-seven cents per pound: The trip was somewhat protracted, as the teams could not travel more than ten or fifteen miles each day. On my return to Knoxville I purchased a horse and came home on horseback after an absence. of about six and a half months.
" Until after 1834 the Western Reserve cheese had entire control of the South- ern markets. About this time the Yankee population on the Darby Plains, in Ohio, commenced its manufacture and came into competition with ours at Cincin- nati, Louisville and some other markets. The article they offered was equal, if not superior in quality to ours, but the quantity was much less ; consequently they did not greatly diminish our sales. The increase of the consumers at the South and West kept even pace with manufacturers in the North, and hence the enormous quantities now manufactured find a ready sale. I only regret to say that the quality has not improved in the same ratio as the quantity has increased."
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