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 32
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WOODVILLE is fourteen miles northwest of Fremont on the Portage River and on the N. W. O. R. R. It was laid out in 1838 by Hon. A. E. Wood on what was known on the Western Reserve and Maumee turnpike, being on the great travelled route between Cleveland to Toledo. School census, 1888, 232.
GIBSONBURG is eleven miles northwest of Fremont on the N. W. O. R. R. Population, 1880, 589. School census, 1888, 217 ; J. L. Hart, Superintendent of Schools.
LINDSEY is seven miles northwest of Fremont on the L. S. & M. S. R. R. Population, 1880, 409. School census, 1888, 152.
TOWNSEND is five miles northeast of Clyde, on the I. B. & W. R. R. Census, 1890, 1,358.
GREEN SPRING VILLAGE.
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SCIOTO COUNTY.
SCIOTO.
SCIOTO COUNTY was formed May 1, 1803. The name Scioto was originally applied by the Wyandots to the river ; they, however, called it Sci, on, to; its signification is unknown. The surface is generally hilly, and some of the hills are several hundred feet in height. The river bottoms are well adapted to corn, and on a great part of the hill land small grain and grass can be produced. Iron ore, coal, and excellent freestone are the principal mineral productions of value. The mannfacture of iron is extensively carried on in the eastern part of the county. The principal agricultural products are corn, wheat and oats.
Area abont 640 square miles. In 1887 the acres cultivated were 52,195; in pasture, 31,961 ; woodland, 64,518; lying waste, 8,359; produced in wheat, 109,9446 bushels; rye, 88; buckwheat, 173; oats, 104,516; barley, 3,375; corn, 619,367 ; broom-corn, 16 pounds brush ; meadow hay, 9,552 tons ; clover hay, 445 ; potatoes, 52,127 bushels ; tobacco, 22,500 pounds ; butter, 246,756 ; cheese, 2,181 ; sorghum, 16,506 gallons ; maple syrup, 223; honey, 3,514 pounds ; eggs, 221,085 dozen ; grapes, 2,010 pounds; wine, 181 gallons ; sweet potatoes, 1,902 bushels ; apples, 18,887 ; peaches, 3,719 ; pears, 237 ; wool, 10,185 pounds ; milch cows owned, 3,498. Ohio Mining Statistics, 1888 : Iron ore mined, 11,816 tons ; fire clay, 39,290 ; limestone, 1,000 tons burned for fluxing ; 10,070 cubic feet of dimension stone. School census, 1888, 12,454; teachers, 189. Miles of railroad track, 94.
TOWNSHIPS AND CENSUS.
1840.
1880.
TOWNSHIPS AND CENSUS.
1840.
1880.
Bloom,
913
2,211
Porter,
1,014
2,274
Brush Creek,
401
2,093
Rush,
778
Clay,
696
1,148
Union,
570
1,168
Green;
973
1,935
Valley,
951
Harrison,
686
1,325
Vernon,
902
1,481
Jefferson,
578
919
Washington,
653
1,131
Madison,
830
1,852
Wayne 'Tsp and Ports-
Morgan,
265
1,019
mouth City, co-ex-
Nile,
860
1,905
tensive,
1,853
11,321
Population of Scioto in 1820 was 5,750; 1830, 8,730; 1840, 11,194; 1860, 24,297; 1880, 33,511 ; of whom 25,493 were born in Ohio; 1,569, Kentucky ; 1,125, Pennsylvania ; 967, Virginia; 276, New York ; 153, Indiana ; 1,815, German Empire; 400, Ireland ; 309, England and Wales; 256, France; 33, British America, and 28, Scotland. Census, 1890, 35,377.
The mouth of the Scioto river at Portsmouth is ninety feet below Lake Erie, and 474 feet above the sea. The Seioto falls, from Columbus to Portsmonth, 302 feet, as given by Col. Ellet ; distance in a direct line, about ninety miles, or a trifle over three feet of fall to the mile. The Kentucky hills opposite rise abruptly to the height of 633 feet above low-water mark in the river.
CELORON DE BIENVILLE'S EXPEDITION.
Celoron De Bienville, the French explorer, in 1749, in his expedition down the Ohio to take possession of the Ohio country for France, landed at the month of the Scioto. They remained from the 22d to the 26th of August. There had been here for years a Shawanese village, and living with them a party of English traders. Celoron warned them off, and although he had over 200 men, he re- frained from force.
"Capt. Celoron, knight of the military order of St. Louis, was acting under
OTOTOR
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SCIOTO COUNTY.
the orders of the Marquis de la Gallissonniere, Governor-in-Chief of New France, to drive back intruders and vindicate French rights in the valley of the Ohio." Ile had under him a chaplain, eight subaltern officers, six cadets, twenty soldiers, 180 Canadians and thirty Indians, Iroquois and Abinakis. This expedition crossed over from Canada, and embarking on the headwaters of the Allegheny, floated into the Ohio and down it to the mouth of the Great Miami. Thence, making his way up that stream as far as Piqua, in what is now Miami county, he burned his canoes, crossed over on ponies to a French fort on the site of the city of Fort Wayne, and thence returned to Montreal, where he arrived on the 10th of November.
Celoron planted six leaden plates at the mouths of various streams, as at that of the Kanawha, Muskingum, the Great Miami, etc., signifying a renewal of pos- session of the country. This was done with ceremony. "His men were drawn up in order ; Louis XV. was proclaimed lord of all that region ; the arms were stamped on a sheet of tin, nailed to a tree; a plate of lead was buried at the foot, and the notary of the expedition drew up a formal act of the whole pro- ceeding."
The plate at Marietta was found in 1798 by some boys on the west bank of the Muskingum, and that on the Kanawha in 1846, by a boy playing on the mar- gin of the river.
Celoron planted no plate at the mouth of the Scioto. One of his plates, as he was on his way to the Ohio, was stolen from him by a Seneca Indian and after his return, in the winter of 1749-1750, fell into the hands of Gov. Geo. Clinton ; a liberal translation of which here follows :
"In the year 1749-the reign of Louis XV. King of France, we, Celoron, commandant of a detachment sent by Monsieur the Marquis of Gallisonnière, Commander in Chief of New France, to establish tranquillity in certain Indian villages of these Cantons, have buried this plate at the confluence of the Ohio and of To-RA-DA-KOIN, this 29th July-near the river Ohio, otherwise Beautiful River, as a monument of renewal of possession, which we have taken of the said river, and of all its tributaries and of all the land on both sides, as far as to the sources of said rivers,
-inasmuch as the preceding Kings of France have enjoyed [this possession] and have maintained it by their arms and by treaties, especially by those of Ryswick, Utrecht and Aix-la-Chapelle.
Christopher Gist in 1751 on his journey to the Indians of Ohio, visited the Shawnese village at the mouth of the Scioto. It was known to all the traders as "the Lower Town" to distinguish it from Logstown on the upper Ohio, which last was 14 miles below the site of Pittsburg. Gist describes the Lower Town as on both sides of the Ohio, immediately below the mouth of the Scioto. It contained about 300 men. On the Ohio side were about 100 houses and on the Kentucky side about 40 houses. On the Ohio side was a large council house 90 feet in length, having a light cover of bark. In this house the Indians held their councils.
The mouth of the Scioto was a favorite point with the Indians from which to attack boats ascending or descending the Ohio. We have several incidents to re- late, the first from " Marshall's Kentucky," and the two last from "McDonald's Sketches : "
Indian Decoy Boats .- A canoe ascending the Ohio about the last of March, 1790, was taken by the Indians near the mouth of Sci- oto, and three men killed. Within a few days after, a boat coming down was deeoyed to shore by a white man who feigned distress, when fifty savages rose from concealment, ran into the boat, killed John May and a young woman, being the first persons they came to, and took the rest of the people on board prisoners. It is probable that they owed, according to their ideas of duty or of honor, these sacrifices to the manes of so many of their slaughtered friends, while the caprices of fortune, the progression of fate, or the mistaken credulity of Mr.
May, and his imitator, is to be seen in the essay to insure their safety by advancing to meet these savages with outstretched hands as the expression of confidence and the pledge of friendship. Mr. May had been an early adventurer and constant visitor to Kentucky. He was no warrior ; his object was the acqui- sition of land-which he had pursued with equal avidity and success to a very great extent. Insomuch, that had he lived to secure the titles many of which have been doubtless lost by his death, he would proba- bly have been the greatest landholder in the country.
Soon after this event, for the Indians still continued to infest the river, other boats were
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SCIOTO COUNTY.
taken and the people killed or carried away captive.
The 2d of April they attacked three boats on the Ohio, near the confluence of the Sci- oto ; two being abandoned fell into the hands of the enemy, who plundered them; the other being manned with all the people, made its escape by hard rowing.
Such a series of aggression at length roused the people of the interior, and Gen. Scott, with 230 volunteers, crossed the Ohio at Limestone, and was joined by Gen. Harmar with 100 regulars of the United States ; these marched for the Scioto. The Indians had, however, abandoned their camp, and there was no general action. On the route a small Indian trail was crossed ; thirteen men with a subaltern were detached upon it ; they came upon four Indians in camp, the whole of whom were killed by the first fire.
The Four Spies .- This spring, 1792, four spies were employed to range from Limestone (now Maysville) to the mouth of Big Sandy river. These four were Samuel Davis, Dun- can McArthur (late Governor of Ohio), Na- thaniel Beasley (late canal commissioner and major-general of the militia), and Samuel McDowell. These men upon every occasion proved themselves worthy of the confidence placed in them by their countrymen. Noth- ing which could reasonably be expected of men but was done by them. Two and two went together. They made their tours once a week to the mouth of Big Sandy river. On Monday morning two of them would leave Limestone and reach Sandy by Wednesday evening. On Thursday morning the other two would leave Limestone for the mouth of Sandy. This they would meet or pass each other about opposite the mouth of Scioto river; and by this constant vigilance the two sets of spies would pass the mouth of Scioto, in going and returning, four times in each week. This incessant vigilance would be continued until late in November, or the first of December, when hostilities generally ceased in the later years of the Indian wars. Sometimes the spies would go up and down the Ohio in canoes. In such cases one of them would push the canoe, and the other go on foot, through the woods, keeping about a mile in advance of the canoe, the footman keeping a sharp lookout for ambuscade or other Indian sign.
Adventure of McArthur and Davis. -- Upon one of these tours, when Davis and McAr- thur were together, going up the river' with their canve, they lay at night a short distance below the month of Scioto. Early the next morning they crossed the Ohio in their canoe, landed and went across the bottom to the foot of the hill, where they knew of a fine deer- lick. This lick is situated abont two miles below Portsmouth, and near Judge John Collins' house. The morning was very calm an I a light fog hung over the bottom. When Davis and MeArthur had arrived near the lick, MeArthur halted and Davis proceeded, stooping low among the thick brush and weeds to conceal himself. He moved on with
the noiseless tread of the cat until he got near the liek, when he straightened up to look if any deer were in it. At that instant he heard the sharp crack from an Indian's rifle and the singing whistle of a bullet pass his ear. As the morning was calm and foggy the smoke from the Indian's rifle settled around his head, so that the Indian could not see whether his shot had taken effect or not. Davis immediately raised his rifle to his face. and as the Indian stepped out of the smoke to see the effect of his shot, Davis, before the Indian had time to dodge out of the way, fired, and dropped him in his tracks. Davis immediately fell to loading his rifle, not thinking it safe or prudent to run up to an Indian with an empty gun. About the time Davis had his gun loaded, McArthur came running to him. Knowing that the shots he had heard were in too quick suecession to be fired by the same gun, he made his best speed to the aid of his companion. Just as MeAr- thur had stopped at the place where Davis stood, they heard a heavy rush going through the brush, when in an instant several Indians made their appearance in the open ground around the liek. Davis and McArthur were standing in thick brush and high weeds, and being unperceived by the Indians, crept off as silently as they could and put off at their best speed for their canoe, crossed the Ohio and were out of danger. All the time that Davis was loading his gun the Indian he had shot did not move hand or foot ; consequently he ever after believed he killed the Indian.
Attack on the Packet Boat .- During the summer of 1794, as the packet boat was on her way up, near the mouth of the Scioto, a party of Indians fired into the boat as it was passing near the shore, and one man, John Stont, was killed, and two brothers by the name of' Colvin were severely wounded. The boat was hurried by the remainder of the crew into the stream, and then returned to Maysville. The four "spies" were at Maysville, drawing their pay and ammuni- tion, when the packet boat returned. Not- withstanding the recent and bloody defeat sustained in the packet boat, a fresh crew was immediately procured, and the four spies were directed by Col. Henry Lee (who had the superintendence and direction of them), to guard the boat as far as the mouth of Big Sandy river. As the spies were on their way up the river with the packet boat, they found concealed and sunk in the mouth of a small creek, a short distance below the mouth of the Scioto, a bark canoe, large enough to carry seven or eight men. In this canoe a party of Indians had crossed the Ohio and were prowling about somewhere in the conn- try. Samuel McDowell was sent back to give notice to the inhabitants, while the other three spies remained with the packet boat till they saw it safe past the mouth of Big Sandy river.
Mearthur's Adventure .- At this place the spies parted from the boat and commenced their return for Maysville. On their way up they had taken a light canoe. Two of them
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SCIOTO COUNTY.
pushed the canoe, while the others advanced on foot to reconnoiter. On their return the spies floated down the Ohio in their canoe, till they came nearly opposite the mouth of the Scioto river, where they landed and Dun- van McArthur [afterwards Governor of Ohio] went out into the hills in pursuit of game. Treacle and Beasley went about a mile lower down the river and landed their canoe, intending also to hunt till MeArthur should come up with them. MeArthur went to a deer lick, with the situation of which he was well acquainted, made a blind, behind which he concealed himself and waited for game. Ile lay about an hour when he dis- covered two Indians coming to the lick. The Indians were so near him before he saw them that it was impossible for him to retreat without being discovered. As the boldest course appeared to him to be the safest, he determined to permit them to come as near to him as they would, shoot one of them and try his strength with the other. Imagine his situation. Two Indians armed with rifles, tomahawks and scalping-knives, ap- proaching in these ciremstances, must have caused his heart to beat pit-a-pat. Ile per- mitted the Indians, who were walking to- wards him in a stooping posture, to approach undisturbed. When they came near the lick, they halted in an open piece of ground and straightened up to look into the lick for game. This halt enabled MeArthur to take deliberate aim from a rest, at only four- teen steps distance ; he fired, and an Indian fell. MeArthur remained still a moment, thinking it possible that the other Indian would take to flight. In this he was mis- taken ; the Indian did not even dodge out of of his track when his companion sunk lifeless by his side.
As the Indian's gun was charged, MeAr- thur concluded it would be rather a fearful job to rush upon him, he therefore deter- mined upon a retreat. He broke from his place of concealment and ran with all his speed; he had run but a few steps when he found himself tangled in the top of a fallen tree; this caused a momentary halt. At that
instant the Indian fired and the ball whistled sharply by him. . As the Indian's gun as well as his own, was now empty, he thought of turning round and giving him a fight upon equal terms. At this instant several other Indians came in sight, rushing with savage screams through the brush. He fled with his utmost speed, the Indians pursuing and firing at him as he ran ; one of their balls entered the bottom of his powder-horn and shivered the side of it next his body into pieces. The splinters of his shattered pow- der-horn were propelled with such force by the ball that his side was considerably injured and the blood flowed freely. The ball in passing through the horn had given him such a jar that he thought for some time it had passed through his side; but this did not slacken his pace. The Indians pursued him some distance: MeArthur, though not very fleet, was capable of enduring great fatigue, and now he had an occasion which demanded the best exertion of his strength. He gained upon his pursuers, and by the time he had crossed two or three ridges he found himself free from pursuit, and turned his course to the river.
When he came to the bank of the Ohio, he discovered Beasley and Treacle in the canoe, paddling up stream, in order to keep her hovering over the same spot and to be more conspicuous should MeArthur make his es- cape from the Indians. They had heard the firing and the yelling in pursuit and had no doubt about the cause, and had concluded it possible, from the length of time and the di- rection of the noise that McArthur might have effected his escape. Nathaniel Beasley and Thomas Treacle were not the kind of men to fly at the approach of danger and for- sake a comrade. MeArthur saw the canoe and made a signal to them to come ashore. They did so, and MeArthur was soon in the canoe, in the middle of the stream and out of danger. Thus ended this day's adventures of the spies and their packet boat and this was the last attack made by the Indians upon a boat in the Ohio river.
Prior to the settlement at Marietta, an attempt at settlement was made at Ports- mouth, the history of which is annexed from an article in the American Pioneer, by George Corwin, of Portsmouth.
In April, 1785, four families from the Redstone settlement in Pennsylvania, descended the Ohio to the mouth of the Scioto and there moored their boat under the high bank where Portsmouth now stands. They commenced clearing the ground to plant seeds for a crop to support their families, hoping that the red men of the forest would suffer them to remain and improve the soil. They seemed to hope that white men would no longer provoke the Indians to savage warfare.
Soon after they landed, the four men, heads of the families, started up the Scioto to see the paradise of the West, of which they had heard from the mouths of white men who had traversed it during their captivity among the natives. Leaving the little colony,
now consisting of four women and their chil- dren, to the protection of an over-ruling Providence, they traversed beautiful bottoms of the Scioto as far up as the prairies above and opposite to where Piketon now stands. One of them, Peter Patrick by name, pleased
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SCIOTO COUNTY.
with the country, cut the initials of his name on a beech near the river, which being found in after times, gave the name of Pee Pee to the creek that flows through the prairie of the same name; and from that ereck was de- rived the name of Pee Pee township in Pike connty.
Encamping near the site of Piketon, they were surprised by a party of Indians, who killed two of them as they lay by their fires. The other two escaped over the hills to the Ohio river, which they struck at the mouth of the Little Scioto, just as some white men going down the river in a pirogue were pass- ing. They were going to Port Vincennes, on the Wabash. The tale of woe which was told by these men, with entreaties to be taken on board, was at first insufficient for their relief. It was not uncommon for Indians to compel white prisoners to act in a
similar manner to entice boats to the shore for murderous and marauding purposes. After keeping them some time running down the shore, until they believed that if there were an ambuscade of Indians on shore they were out of its reach, they took them on board and brought them to the little settle- ment, the lamentations at which cannot be described nor its feeling conceived, when their peace was broken and their hopes blasted by the intelligence of the disaster reaching them. My informant was one who came down in the pirogue.
There was, however, no time to be lost; their safety depended on instant flight-and gathering up all their movables, they put off to Limestone, now Maysville, as a place of greater safety, where the men in the pirogue left them, and as my informant said, never heard of them more.
THE FIRST SETTLERS.
Thos. M'Donald built the first cabin in the county, but we are ignorant of its site or the date of its erection (Col. John M'Donald, his brother, is our authority for this assertion). Early in the settlement of the country the village of Alexan- dria was founded at the mouth of the Scioto, on the west bank, opposite Ports- mouth, which, at the formation of the county, was made "the temporary seat of justice and courts ordered to be held at the house of John Collins." Being situ- ated upon low ground liable to inundations, its population dwindled away so that the locality ceased to exist as a town.
The historian of Scioto county, the late Mr. Samuel Keyes, to whom its people are much indebted for his praiseworthy efforts to pre- serve its pioneer history, stated that Samuel Marshall, Sr., the father-in-law of Thomas McDonald, built the first cabin at a point about two miles above the site of Portsmouth, in February, 1796. Ile was followed in March, by John Lindsay. Mr. Marshall and John Lindsay had moved up from Manches- ter and were probably the first permanent settlers in the county. Mr. Keyes also stated that Marshall put in the first crop of corn; that the first person married was a daughter of his and that the first child born in the county was another daughter.
The distinction of having built the first cabin is also claimed for John Belli, he hav- ing bought land at the mouth of Turkey creek in 1795, but did not remove there until a later date. Hezekiah Merritt is another claimant for the honors of first settlement. He while on his way stopped during the summer of 1796, at a point near Lucasville. where he built a temporary cabin and raised a crop of corn. However, the question of a few months priority of settlement is not a matter of vital importance.
In 1795 Major Isaac Bonser, who had been sent out by parties in Pennsylvania, staked out land preparatory to settlement at the month of the Little Scioto river. In August of the succeeding year, he returned with five families and descending the Ohio river in flat- boats they took possession of this land.
These five families were those of Isaac Bon- ser, Uriah Barber, 'John Beatty, William Ward and Ephraim Adams.
Among other early settlers in the county were John Collins, David Gharky, Joseph Fenrt, the Hitchcock family, James Munn, John W. and Abraham Millar, Philip Sala- day, Martin Funk, Thomas Gilruth, Dr. Thomas Waller, William Lawson, Philip Noel, Henry Utt, Wm. Montgomery, James Cochrane, Captain William Lucas and his sons William and Joseph Lucas, John Incas, Robert Imneas (afterward Governor of Ohio), Stephen Cary, Samuel G. and William Jones.
The original proprietor of Alexandria was Col. Thomas Parker, who served in the Rev- olutionary war and located the land at the mouth of the Scioto. In 1799 his brother Alexander Parker laid off the town; Elias Langham was the surveyor. This was the first town in the county and until Portsmouth was laid out bid fair to become the principal town of the county.
Portsmonth was laid out in 1803, by Henry Massie, and named for Portsmouth, Va., the former home of Mr. Massie. Owing to its higher elevation and freedom from floods, it soon ontstripped Alexandria, was made the county seat and its rival city was subsequently abandoned.
The first permanent settler on the site of Portsmonth was Emannel Traxler, in the year 1796. He built on the extreme west of the high ground, near what is now Scioto street. Vincent Brodbeck occupied the place in
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SCIOTO COUNTY.
1880. The first child born in Portsmouth was the daughter of Uriah Barber, named Polly, and born in 1804.
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