Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 39

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 1006

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The German Baptists or, as they are com- monly called by outsiders, Dunkers or Dunk- ards (the name being derived from the German word to dip), had their first organization in Germany about the year 1708, in a portion of country where Baptists are said to have been unknown ; the original organization eon- sisted of eight persons, seven of whom were bred Presbyterians and one in the Lutheran faith ; they agreed to "obey from the heart that form of doctrine once delivered unto the saints." Consequently, in the year 1708, they repaired to the river Eder, near Schwar- zenau, and were buried with Christ in bap- tism. They were baptized by trine immer- sion and, organizing a church, elose Alex- ander Mack their first minister. He was not, however, the originator of their faith or practice, the church never having recognized any person as such. Meeting with opposi- tion and persecution, they emigrated to America and settled, in the year 1719, near Philadelphia and Germantown, Pennsylvania. And from that little band of eight persons have sprung all the Dunkers in America. As the church has no statistics, its numbers can only be estimated. The estimate is about 100,000 souls, mostly in Pennsylvania, Vir- ginia, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska. They are mostly farmers, some mechanics and a few professional men, but such a thing as a Dunkard lawyer is unknown.

Their religion inculcates industry and fru- gality, abstaining from extravagance and worldly display. They are very desirable citizens in any community, as by their in- dustry and freedom from excesses of all kinds, they create and develop the wealth of a country blessed with their presence, and by their example exert a healthy influence upon the morals of those associated with them.

They regard the New Testament as the only rule of their faith and practice ; believe in the Trinity and contend for the literal interpreta- tion of the Old and New Testaments, as works of Divine inspiration. All idiots, infants and those who die before knowing good from evil will be saved without obedience, having been sufficiently atoned for by the death of Christ. None, however, are recognized as members' of the church until after baptism, which must be entire immersion, the applicant kneeling and being dipped forward three times, one for each person of the Godhcad.

Fcet-washing is their next ordinance, the authority for which is narrated in John 13. It is observed as a preparation for the love- feast and communion. The brethren wash the fect of brethren only, and sisters of sisters :

the sexes never washing the feet of each other, as has been sometimes stated. Those who perform this are not chosen, but any person of the same sex may voluntarily per- form it.

The love-feast is a real meal, the quality or kind of food being unlimited, Christ's supper being the authority for it. After this, imme- diately preceding the communion, is the salu- tation of the kiss as observed by the apostles and Christian churches following them. In this ordinance the sexes do not interchange salutation.

At communion, the next ordinance, the sisters with heads covered with plain caps and brethren with heads uncovered give thanks for bread and wine. The minister breaks bread to the brethren and they to each other ; he also breaks bread to the sisters, but they do not break bread to each other; it is the same in passing the wine. The communion is always observed at night, the hour of its institution by Christ ; usually once or twice a year in every church.

There are also the ordinances of laying on of hands and anointing the sick with oil, founded on James 5 : 14, 15.

The church government is republican in form, matters of difference and questions of doubt being first submitted to the council of each church, and when not settled they are carried to the district council composed of one delegate each from twenty churches, sometimes less. If still unsettled it is carried to the national conference if a matter of gen- eral interest ; but no local matter can be re- ferred to that body.

In the lower councils all matters arc decided by vote of brethren and sisters ; but the sisters do not participate in the official deliberations of the national conference.

Their mode of worship does not materially differ from that of other denominations, save that the Lord's prayer is repeated after every prayer, and the service closed without bene- diction ; the minister simply says : " We are dismissed in the name of the Lord," or some similar phrase. During the service the sisters keep their heads covered with a plain covering, in compliance with Paul, who says : "It is a shame for a woman to worship or prophesy with her head uncovered."

The Dickey Church (so named after Elias Diekey, one of its leading speakers), the pioneer Dunkers' church of Ashland county, was erected about 1860 in Montgomery town- ship, but a new and larger edifice was erected in 1877. It owes its institution to the efforts of the late Jos. Roop, who about 1839-40 in- vited Mr. Tracy to address a few people at his

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house, and the meetings were continued until the present organization was formed. The Maple Grove or Beighly church was ereeted four or five years before the Diekey building, but the latter was the earliest church organi- zation.

Their speakers receive no salary, but if one should be a poor man devoting his time and talents to the spreading of their faith, they regard it as incumbent upon them to reward him by gifts.

JEROMEVILLE is a small village eight miles southeast of Ashland, on Jerome fork of Mohican, which has one Presbyterian, one Methodist, and one Disciples church, and in 1880 had 314 inhabitants. In that vicinity, about the year 1762, Mohican John, a noted chief of Connecticut Mohegans, to the number of abont 200 it is supposed, emigrated to Ohio, and established a village upon the west side of Jerome fork, on the site of the farms of Rev. Elijah Yocum and Judge Edmund Ingmand. In the war of 1812 it was about the only settlement within the present limits of the county, and consisted of a few families, who erected pickets for their safety. There was at that time a Frenchman, named John Baptiste Jerome, who resided there and gave name to the locality. He had been an Indian trader, and had taken a squaw for a wife. The people of that nation always became more easily domesticated among the aborigines than the English. From very early times it was the policy of the French government not to allow their soldiers to take wives with them into the wilderness. Hence the soldiers and traders fre- quently married among the Indians, and were enabled to sustain themsely's with far less difficulty. In 1812, when the Indians were removed, his wife went with them, and later he married a German woman. He removed to the mouth of Hnron river, and died there. He began trading with the Indians when seventeen years of age, and was with them in Wayne's campaign. The Indian village consisted of about thirty bark huts or wigwams. The names of the heads of the families were Aweepsah, Opetete, Catotawa, Nesohawa, Buckandohee, Shias, Ground Squirrel, Buckwheat, Philip Canonicut, Billy Montour, and Thomas Jelloway.

Hill, in the " County History," says that Jerome was a brave and kindly man, small, wiry, and vivacions. Having been with the Indians at the battle of the " Fallen Timbers," he often related anecdotes of that battle, describing the amaze- ment of the Indians at the rapidity and violence of the movements of Wayne's army, the Indians comparing him to a huge " black snake," and ascribing almost supernatural powers to him. He came like a huge anaconda, inclosed and crushed them in such a frightful manner that they abandoned all hope of resistance, and were glad to make peace. He asserted that for a very long time the very name of " Mad Anthony " sent a chill of horror through the body of an Indian.

The Delaware Indians had a settlement at or near Jeromeville, which they left at the beginning of the war of 1812. Their chief was old Capt. Pipe, who resided near the road to Mansfield, one mile south of Jeromeville. When young he was a great warrior, and the implacable foe of the whites. He was in St. Clair's defeat, where, according to his own account, he distinguished himself, and slaughtered white men until his arm was weary with the work. He had a daughter of great beauty. A young chief, of noble mien, became in love with her, and on his suit being rejected mortally poisoned himself with the May apple. A Capt. Pipe, whose Indian name was Tauhangecaupouye, removed to the small Delaware reserve, in the upper part of Marion county, and when his tribe sold out their Ohio possessions accompanied them to Kansas.

Helltown and Greentown were two Indian villages in the southern part of this county. Greentown was so named after Thomas Green, a Connecticut Tory, who, sympathizing with the British and Indians in the destruction of the valley of the Wyoming, fled to Ohio and joined the Delawares, acquiring great influence among them. Among the Greentown Indians was a very aged, full-blooded, ngly-look- ing savage, who was known to the early settlers as Tom Lyons. He was born in New Jersey, and was one of the friendly Delawares with the whites at the massacre af Wyoming in 1778. On a few occasions he related his achievements. He had

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been in many battles on the border, and taken many scalps. He related some of his acts of extreme cruelty, and a few of his barbarities inflicted upon the wives and children of the border settlers. He was with the other Greentown and Jerometown Indians in the battle of the Fallen Timbers, and, as related in Hill's " History of Ashland County," gave this graphic account. It was in reply to a question of Allen Oliver, who asked him what he thought of Wayne as a white chief :

"Wayne he great chief. He be one devil to fight. Me hear his dinner horn way over there go toot, toot; then over here it go toot, toot ; then way over side it go toot, toot. Then his soldiers run forward-shoot, shoot ; then run among logs and brush. Indians have got to get out and run. Then come Long Knives with pistols and shoot, shoot. Indians run ; no stop ; Old Tom see too much fight to be trap-he run into woods-he run like devil- he keep run till he clear out of danger.

Wayne great fight-brave white chief. He he one devil."

While going through the description of the fight, "Old Tom " gesticulated and grinned, as much as if in the midst of the battle. Terror was evinced in the whole of the mimic battle he was then fighting over, and being about the ugliest-looking Indian the settlers had ever seen, the effect of his speech was to the highest degree expressive.

The exact location of the Indian village Helltown is not known, but it was sup- posed to be on the south line of what is now Green township, on the banks of the Clear fork of the Mohican. It probably derived its name from a Pennsylvania captive who spoke the German language, in which " Hell " signifies clear or trans- parent, so called after the stream on which it was situated.

When Col. Crawford in the spring of 1782 invaded the Indian settlements of the upper Sandusky the Helltown Indians fled thither for safety. The village was the home of a number of well-known Delaware chiefs, among others Thomas Armstrong ; also the occasional residence of the noted Capt. Pipe, one of Col. Crawford's executioners. In 1783 Thomas Armstrong, with the original inhab- itants of Helltown (that village having been abandoned) and a few Mingoes and Mohawks, established the village of Greentown, some three miles west of the present village of Perrysville. It was on a bluff extending to the north banks of Black fork, or " Armstrong's " creek, almost entirely surrounded by alder marshes, and a very strong position. The huts, numbering about 150, were constructed of poles covered with bark, and irregularly placed around a knoll, with a playground in the centre, at the west side of which was built the council house and cemetery in a grove.

Up to 1795 it was a station on the route for captives on the way to Detroit and other points in the Indian Territory.

Two tragedies in the autumn of 1812 were enacted by the Indians not far from the old Indian village of Greentown. These were the murder of Martin Ruffner, Frederic Zimmer (or in English Frederic Seymour) and family, on the Black fork of the Mohican, and the tragedy at the cabin of Mr. James Copus. Hill's " History of Ashland County" gives very full details. We here first take the briefer his- tory as published on pages 429-30 in the first edition of this work. In a note there we stated that our informant for the first tragedy was Mr. Henry Nail, from whose lips, now just forty-two years ago, we derived it; and for the second, we said :

" We have three different accounts of this affair : one from Wyatt Hutchinson, of Guernsey, then a lieutenant in the Guernsey militia ; one from Henry Nail, who was with some of the wounded men the night following ; and the last from a gen- tleman living in Mansfield at the time. Each differs in some essential particulars. Mnch experience has taught us that it is almost impossible to get perfectly accurate verbal narratives of events that have taken place years since, and which live only in memory." And to this remark of ours made in that long ago we here add the additional reason for conflicting testimony, viz., the rarity of perfect accuracy of observation and strength of memory, combined with the faculty of clearness in statement :

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The Massacre of the Ruffner Family .- There was living at this time-said Mr. Nail -on the Black Fork of the Mohican, about half a mile west of where Petersburgh now is [now Mifflin], a Mr. Martin Ruffner. Hav- ing removed his family for safety, no person was with him in his cabin, excepting a bonnd boy. About two miles southeast stood the cabin of the Seymours. This family con- sisted of the parents-both very old people -a maiden daughter Catharine, and her brother Philip, who was a bachelor.

One evening Mr. Ruffner sent out the lad to the creek bottom, to bring home the cows, when he discovered four Indians and ran. They called to him, saying that they would not harm him, but wished to speak to him. Having ascertained from him that the Sey- mours were at home, they left, and he hurried back and told Ruffner of the circumstance ; upon which he took down his rifle and started for Seymour's. He arrived there, and was advising young Seymour to go to the cabin of a Mr. Copus, and get old Mr. Copus and his son to come up and help take the Indians prisoners, when the latter were seen ap- proaching. Upon this young Seymour passed out of the back door and hurried to Copus's, while the Indians entered the front door, with their rifles in hand.

The Seymours received them with an ap- parent cordiality, and the daughter spread the table for them. The Indians, however, did not appear to be inclined to eat, but soon arose and commenced the attack. Ruffner, who was a powerful man, made a desperate resistance. He clubbed his rifle, and broke the stock to pieces ; but he fell before superior numbers, and was afterwards found dead and scalped in the yard, with two rifle balls through him, and several fingers cut off by a tomahawk. The old people and daughter were found tomahawked and scalped in the house.

In an hour or so after dark, young Seymour returned with Mr. Copus and son, making their way through the woods by the light of a hickory bark torch. . Approaching the cabin, they found all dark and silent within. Young Seymour attempted to open the door, when it flew back. Reaching forward, he touched the corpse of the old man, and ex- claimed in tones of anguish, "here is the blood of my poor father!" Before they reached the place, they heard the Indians whistling on their powder chargers, upon which they put out the light and were not molested.

These murders, supposed to have been com- mitted by some of the Greentown Indians, spread terror among the settlers, who imme- diately fortified their cabins and erected sev- eral block-houses. Among the block-houses erected was Nails', on the Clear fork of the Mohican ; Beams', on the Rocky fork ; one on the site of Ganges, and a pickcted house on the Black Fork, owned by Thomas Coulter.

The Copus Tragedy .- Shortly after this, a party of twelve or fourteen militia from Guernsey county, who were out on a scout, without any authority burnt the Indian village of Greentown, at this time deserted. At night they stopped at the cabin of Mr. Copus, on the Black Fork, about nine miles from Mans- field. The next morning, as four of them were at a spring washing, a few rods from the cabin, they were fired upon by a party of Indians in ambush. They all ran for the house, except Warnock, who retreated in another direction, and was afterwards found dead in the woods, about half a mile distant. His body was resting against a tree, with his handkerchief stuffed in a wound in his bowels. Two of the others, George Shipley and John Tedrick, were killed and scalped between the spring and the house. The fourth man, Robert Dye, in passing between the shed and cabin, suddenly met a warrior with his uplifted tomahawk. He dodged and escaped into the house, carrying with him a bullet in his thigh.

Mr. Copus at the first alarm had opened the door, and was mortally wounded by a rifle ball in his breast. He was laid on the bed, and the Indians shortly attacked the cabin. "Fight and save my family," exclaimed he, "for I am a dead man." The attack was fiercely made, and several balls came through the door, upon which they pulled up the pun- cheons from the floor and placed them against it. Mrs. Copus and her daughter went up into the loft for safety, and the last was slightly wounded in the thigh, from a ball fired from a neighboring hill. One of the soldiers, George Launtz, was in the act of removing a chunk of wood to fire through, when a ball entered the hole and broke his arm. After this, he watched and saw an Indian put his head from behind a stump. He fired, and the fellow's brains were scattered over it. After about an hour the Indians, having suf- fered severe loss, retreated. Had they first attacked the house, it is probable an easy victory would have been gained by them.

We now give the incidents of these tragedies, and in an abridged form, as told in the "County History :"

Martin Ruffner and brother-in-law Richard Hughes erected cabins near each other in the spring of 1812, about half a mile northwest of the present site of Mifflin. Mr. Fred- erick Zimmer, Sr., put up a cabin two and a half miles southeast of Mr. Martin Ruffner and occupied it with his wife, daughter Catherine, Zimmer's son Philip Zimmer, aged 19, and

Michael Ruffner, brother of Martin, whom he hired to assist him. Martin Ruffner and a bound boy, Levi Berkinhizer, occupied the Ruffner cabin.

One day in September Michael Ruffner met two well-armed Indians near the Zimmer cabin, and being suspicious of their intentions he mounted a fleet horse and rode rapidly

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to Zimmer's and put ther on their guard, and Philip Zimmer was despatched to inform James Copus, who lived two miles further south. Having warned Copus he proceeded to inform John Lambright, who returned with him and was joined by Mr. Copus ; pro- ceeding to the Zimmer cabin, which they reached early in the evening. Finding no light in the cabin Copus crept cautiously up to it ; the door was ajar, but with some ob- struction against it : cautiously feeling his way, he placed his hand in a pool of blood. Returning to his companions he informed them of his discovery, and further investiga- tion proved that Frederick Zimmer, wife and daughter and Martin Ruffner had been mur- dered. Ruffner had made a desperate resist- ance ; he had fought his way from the cabin into the yard, his gun being bent nearly double from clubbing it ; several of his fingers had been chopped off by a tomahawk and he was shot twice through the body. The fiends had scalped their victims, who had been treacherously set upon while furnishing them refreshment, as was indicated by the table being nigh spread.

It is supposed eight or ten Indians were engaged in the slaughter, whose enmity Mr. Zimmer had incurred by tying clap-boards to their ponies' tails to frighten them away from the corn fields : any injury to an Indian's dog or pony being a cause for enduring resentment. Martin Ruffner and the Zimmers were buried in one large grave on a knoll near the scene of the tragedy. The cabins of Martin Zim- mer and Richard Hughes near the Zimmers' were not disturbed, young Berkinhizer having slept alone in that of Kuffner the night of the tragedy, Ruffner having been very friendly with the Indians, although perfectly fearless in his dealings with them.

After his discovery of the murder of the Zimmers Mr. Copus and Mr. Lambright re- turned to their cabins for their families, and removed them to the block-house at Jacob Beams'.

After several days in the block-house Mr. Copus, believing the Indians owed him no ill will, insisted on returning with his family to his cabin on the Black Fork. Capt. Martin protested against it, but as Copus persisted in going he sent nine soldiers with him as an escort. They reached the cabin in safety and retired for the night, the soldiers occupying the barn. In the night the dogs kept up a continuous barking and Mr. Copus got up toward daylight and invited the soldiers into the cabin.

In the morning the soldiers leaning their guns against the cabin (although cautioned to keep possession of them by Mr. Copus) passed out to the spring at the base of a hill near the sixth cabin for the purpose of wash-

ing. They had reached the spring, when some Indians from their concealment in a corn field near by rushed out, cut off their retreat and began hooting and tomahawking them. Mr. Copus seizing his gun rushed for the cabin door ; just as he opened it, he met an Indian ; both fired at the same in- stant and both were mortally wounded. The ball from the Indian's gun passed through the leather strap sustaining Mr. Copus's powder horn (which is now in the possession of Mr. Wesley Copus) and into his breast ; he staggered to his bed and died in a short time, begging the soldiers to defend and save his family. Two of the soldiers fled toward the forest, but were soon overtaken, killed and scalped ; another, Mr. Warnock, suc- ceeded in escaping his pursners, but was shot through the bowels and foot ; his body was afterwards found seated leaning against a tree with his handkerchief stuffed into the wound in his bowels. Mr. Geo. Dye, another soldier, was shot through the thigh just as he was entering the cabin.

The knoll near the cabin being covered with dwarfed timber served the Indians as a shelter from which they fired volley after volley into the cabin, wounding Nancy Copus, a little girl, above the knee and breaking the arm of Geo. Launtz, a soldier, who had the satisfaction however of returning his compli- ments with a bullet which caused the Indian who had shot him to bound into the air and roll down the hill on the way to the " happy" hunting grounds of his fathers.

The battle lasted about five hours, after which the Indians withdrew, carrying off their dead and wounded, but fired a parting salute into a flock of Mr. Copus's sheep, killing most of them.

After the withdrawal of the Indians a sol- dier was despatched to the block-house at Beams' for assistance. Shortly after Capt. Martin, having been out with a party of sol- diers on a scouting expedition, arrived at the cabin, too late to be of any assistance. An effort was made to pursue the Indians, but was abandoned as useless. Mr. Copus and the soldiers were buried in a large grave a rod or two from the cabin, under an apple tree. Capt. Martin then took the family and returned to the block-house. Mrs. Copus and her children remaining in the block-house several weeks removed to Guernsey county, but in the spring of 1815 returned to their cabin.

The number of Indians engaged in this at- tack was estimated at forty-five, there having been discovered back of the corn field the re- mains of forty-five fires in holes scooped in the ground, to prevent observation, over which the Indians roasted ears of corn the evening before the attack.

Two handsome monuments in Mifflin township now mark the resting-places of the victims of these tragedies. The Ruffner-Zimmer monument is ten miles southerly from Ashland, and the Copus monument twelve miles. They are so alike in structure that the engraving annexed gives a correct idea of the other.

ASHLAND COUNTY.

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These monuments were erected, at an expense of nearly $500, near the sites of the occurrences they commemorate. The project had its inception with Dr. S. Riddle, historian of the Ashland Pioneer Society, who interested its members, and the necessary sum was raised by subscription in this and in Richland county. The history of their dedication is thus given by him :

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 39

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio Number of Pages: 1006

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 1006