Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 93

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

USA > Ohio > Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I > Part 93

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

585

ERIE COUNTY.

1836 Oliver Newberry purchased 500 barrels of flour, at $8 per barrel, and took it to Chicago, then a struggling frontier village, and sold it for $20 a barrel, citi- zens holding a public meeting thanking him for not asking $50. It was all the flour the people of Chicago had for the winter. Board in Chicago was at that carly day enormously high, owing to the scarcity of food, the country around being then an unproductive wilderness.

Before the starting of the flouring-mills in the fire-lands, the earliest settlers in some cases took their wheat in boats over the lake to the French mills, near Detroit. A touching in- cident is told of a party of men who started with their year's wheat in a boat and landed near the close of the day on one of the islands and then went inland a short distance to select a place to camp over night. Ou their return to the shore, lo and behold their boat was no- where to be seen. A sudden gust of wind had freed it from its mooring and it had floated off with its precious load upon the broad expanse of Lake Erie. What situa- tion could be more deplorable ! They were

on a lone island and no way of escape. There were no passing vessels to rescue them. The lake was at that time but a solitude of water. Thoughts of their families, starvation for them and starvation for themselves seemed inevitable. Poor men ! they broke down, shed . tears, and passed a night of woe. Morning came. Heartbroken, they wan- dered down to the shore and gazed upon the wild waste of waters. Then all at once in a little nook, safe and close in shore, they dis- covered their boat. A change of wind in the night had floated it back as silently as it had floated away.

Kelley's Island is a township of Erie county ; lies in the lake, thirteen miles from Sandusky, and contains a little over four square miles. It was originally called Cunningham's Island, from a Frenchman, who came here about 1803. He was an Indian trader, and built a cabin or trading shanty. In 1810 came two other Frenchmen, Poschile and Bebo; all three left the island in the war period, at which time Gen. Harrison, in command of the "Army of the Northwest," stationed a guard on the west point of the island to watch the movements of the British and Indians on the lake. In 1818 a man named Killam came with his family and one or two men. The steamboat " Walk-in-the-Water," the first built upon the lakes, came out this year, and Killam furnished her with fuel-all red cedar. In 1820 the " Walk-in-the-Water" was wrecked at Point Albino. In 1833 Datus Kelley, of Rockport, in connection with his brother, Irad Kelley, of Cleveland, bought the island, with a view of bringing into the market the red cedar with which much of the island was then covered. At this time there were only three or four families, and those squatters, on the island, and only six acres of cleared land. In 1836 Mr. Datus Kelley moved his family to his island home, and remained until his death, in 1866, in his seventy-eighth year. He was a man of great force of char- acter, and careful not to sell land to any settlers except to people of thrift and general good habits ; the result of this is apparent in the fine moral status of its present population. The census of 1840 gave it a population of 68; that of 1880, 888.

The sales of wood, cedar, and stone soon repaid many times the entire purchase, and the tillable land, a strong limestone soil, proved to be of superior quality. The stone trade grew into great proportions. Large quantities of limestone were then quarried for building and other purposes. Some of the most elegant structures of our cities are built with the Kelley Island limestone.

Another element came in to effect a revolution in the pursuits of the people. About the year 1842, Mr. Datus Kelley noticing that the wild grapes upon the island were remarkably thrifty, brought from his former residence at Rockport the Catawba and Isabella grape vines, and found the soil and climate surprisingly well adapted to the culture of the grape. Mr. Charles Carpenter, son-in-law of Mr. Kelley-born in Norwich, Conn., in 1810-planted the first acre of grapes as a field crop, and the demonstration was such that in a few years there were nearly 1,000 acres set to vines, about one-third of the entire area of the island. Large profits for a time resulted from the sale of the fruit packed for table use, and as a consequence the price of land advanced several hundred per cent. The excess of

586

ERIE COUNTY.

supply over demand for table use, and also the quality of the crop for that pur- pose, led to the manufacture of wine, and there were in course of time erected on the island cellars which, including those of the Kelley Island Wine Company, had a capacity of storing half a million gallons of wine. The average crop of grapes by 1880 had grown to 700 tons, all of which was manufactured into wine. Mr. Carpenter, mentioned above, was not only prominent as a horticulturist, but he took a deep interest in the artificial propagation of fish ; was active and prominent in inducing the State to experiment in the propagation of white-fish, and was put in charge of a branch of the State Fish Hatchery on Kelley's Island.

Antiquities .- Kelley's Island was a favorite place of resort of the aborigines, which is shown by the remains of mounds, burial-places, and implements. Here is the famous "Inscription Rock," which archaeologists have regarded as the work of the Eries, or Cat nation, which was annihilated in a wholesale slaughter by the Iroquois in 1655. The following brief description is from the pen of Mr. Addison Kelley :

This Inscription Rock lies on the south shore of Kelley's Island, in Lake Erie, about 60 rods east of the steamboat landing. The rock is 32 feet greatest length, and 21 feet greatest breadth, and 11 feet high above the water in which it sets. It is a part of the same stratification as the island, from which it has been separated by lake action. The top presents a smooth and polished surface, like all the limestone of this section of coun- try when the soil is removed, suggesting the idea of glacial action ; upon this the inscrip- tions are ent ; the figures and devices are deeply sunk in the rock.

Schoolcraft's "Indian Antiquities" says of it: "It is by far the most extensive and well sculptured and best preserved inscription of the antiquarian period ever found in America." It is in the pictographic charac- ter of the natives; its leading symbols are readily interpreted. The human figures, the pipe, smoking groups, and other figures de- note tribes, negotiations, crimes, and tur- moils, which tell a story of thrilling interest, connected with the occupation of this section by the Eries- of the coming of the Wyandots -of the final triumph of the Iroquois, and flight of the people who have left their name on the lake.

In the year 1851 drawings of these inscrip- tions were made by Col. Eastman, of the United States army, who was detailed by the government at Washington to examine them on the representation of Gen. Meigs, who had examined them. Copies of the inscriptions

were made and submitted to Shingvauk, an Indian learned in Indian pictography, and who had interpreted prior inscriptions sub- mitted to him.

We copy a few lines from Schoolcraft's " American Antiquities," page 85 to 87 in- clusive : "No. 6, is a chief and warrior of distinction ; 7, his pipe, he is smoking after a fast ; 15-16, are ornaments of leather worn by distinguished warriors and chiefs ; No. 14, ornaments of feathers ; 33, is a symbol for the No. 10, and denotes ten days, the length of his fast ; 34, is a mark for the No. 2, and de- signates two days, and that he fasted the whole time, except a morsel at sunset.

"Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23. 24, 25, 26, and 43 represent different objects relied upon by the chief in the exhibition of his magical and political powers, denoting in him the sources of long life and potent influences ; figures 30, 19, 41, denote a journey in snow shoes ; 31-40, war clubs ; 78, a road; 122, serpents who beset his path, etc., etc."

These inscriptions were first brought to the knowledge of ""the white man," about the year 1833-4, soon after the purchase of the island by Datus and Irad Kelley, being dis- covered by Mr. Charles Olmstead, of Connec- ticut, while tracing, and studying the glacial grooves. Since then the rock has been visited by thousands of persons, and has become much worn, and some of it is so much oblit- erated as to prevent a full photograph being taken of it, as it was when first discovered.

Prior to photographing the view shown of Inscription Rock Mr. Bishop and Mr. Addison Kelley, the latter shown on its summit, passed half a day in going over the partly obliterated lines in red chalk because red photographs black.

The most celebrated locality perhaps in the world to show the marks of the re- ceding glaciers is in this island region, and especially are they strong on Kelley's Island, as described on the third page of the article in this work, " Glacial Man in Ohio." Col. Chas. Whittlesey, in a paper read before the "American Association for the Advancement of Science," August, 1878, entitled "Ancient Glacial Action, Kelley's Island, Lake Erie," says: "These islands originally formed a part of the main land on the south and of the low coast to the west. Probably all of the lake west of Point Pellee, in the pre-glacial period, was more land than water.

587

ERIE COUNTY.

Instead of a lake with islands it must have been a country with lakes, rivers and swamps." Some of the furrows on this island worn by the ice are two feet deep.

In this region whenever the rocks are laid bare the evidences of ice action are very marked. In Sandusky City many of the cellar bottoms show polished, grooved and striated surfaces.

VERMILLION is on the L. S. & M. S. and N. Y. C. and St. L. R. R., at the mouth of Vermillion river, which was so named by the Indians on account of a paint they found along its banks. Census of Vermillion in 1880, 1,069. School census, 1886, 329; J. Q. Versoy, principal. The first settlers in this vicinity came between the years 1808 and 1810 and were Wm. Haddy, William Austin, George and John Sherarts, Enoch Smith, Horatio Perry, Solomon Parsons, Ben- jamin Brooks, Barlow Sturges, Deacon John Beardsley, James Cuddeback and Almon Ruggles, surveyor of the Fire-Lands and land agent for the company. One of these, Capt. Wm. Austin, said he often held Commodore O. H. Perry on his knees when a baby. About 1842 the harbor here was dredged to a depth of fourteen feet, a light-house built and ship-building extensively prosecuted.

FAIRFIELD.

FAIRFIELD COUNTY was formed December 9, 1800, by proclamation of Gov. St. Clair and so named from the beauty of its fair fields. It contains every variety of soil, from the richest to the most sterile. In the north and west it is generally level and the soil fertile. The southern part is hilly and broken, the soil thin and in many places composed of sand and gravel. A great and permanent source of wealth to the county is its vast sandstone quarries, the stone from which is largely sent to other parts of the State for building purposes. Area 470 square miles. In 1885 the aeres cultivated were 130,721 ; in pasture, 93,071; woodland, 42,005; lying waste, 5,258 ; prodneed in wheat 160,756 bushels ; corn, 2,649,925 ; butter, 713,868 pounds; wool, 146,192; cattle owned, 23,448; sheep, 30,391; hogs, 32,538. School census, 1886, 10,663 ; teachers, 205. It has 95 miles of railroad.

TOWNSHIPS AND CENSUS.

1840.

1880.

TOWNSHIPS AND CENSUS.

1840.

1880.

Amanda,

1,937

1,840

Madison,

1,085

1,387

Berne,

2,431

2,625

Pleasant,

2,025

2,281

Bloom,

2,288

2,179

Richland,

1,960

1,520

Clear Creek,

1,716

2,080

Rush Creek,

2,426

8,605

Greenfield,

2,148

2,036

Violet,

2,400

2,197

Hocking,

2,120

2,412

Walnut,

2,098

2,070

Liberty,

2,778

3,070

The population in 1820 was 16,508; 1840, 31,858 ; 1860, 30,538 ; 1880, 34,- 284, of whom 29,963 were Ohio-born ; Pennsylvania, 1,058; Germany, 1,C18; Ireland, 230 ; Virginia, 623; New York, 135; Indiana, 143.

From the lecture delivered before the Lancaster Literary Institute, in March, 1844, by George Sanderson, Esq., we derive the following sketch of the history of this region :

The lands watered by the sources of the Hockhocking river, and now comprehended

within the limits of Fairfield county, when first discovered by the early settlers at Mari-

588

FAIRFIELD COUNTY.

etta, were owned and occupied by the Wy- andot tribe of Indians. The principal town of the nation stood along the margin of the prairie, between the south end of Broad street and T. Ewing's canal basin, and the present town of Lancaster, and extending back to the base of the hill, south of the Methodist Episcopal church. It is said that the town contained, in 1790, about 100 wig- wams and a population of 500 souls. It was called TARHE, or in English the Crane-town, and derived its name from that of the prin- cipal chief of the tribe. Another portion of the tribe then lived at Tobey-town, nine miles west of Tarhetown (now Royalton), and was governed by an inferior chief called Tobey. The chief's wigwam, in Tarhe, stood upon the bank of the prairie, near where the fourth Jock is built on the Hocking canal, and near where a beautiful spring of water flowed into the Hockhocking river. The wigwams were built of the bark of trees, set on poles in the

form of a sugar camp, with one square open, fronting a fire, and about the height of ~ man. The Wyandot tribe numbered at that day about 500 warriors. . By the treaty of Greenville, in 1795, the Wyandots ceded all their territory on the Hockhocking river to the United States.

The Crane chief, soon after the treaty, with many of the tribe, removed and settled at Upper Sandusky ; others remained behind for four or five years after the settlement of the country, as if unable or unwilling to tear them- selves away from the graves of their fore- fathers and their hunting-grounds. They were, however, so peaceably disposed towards the settlers, that no one felt willing to drive them away. In process of time, the game and fur became scarce. and the lingering In- dian, unwilling to labor for a living, was forced by stern necessity to quit the country, and take up his abode with those of his tribe who had preceded him, at Upper Sandusky.

In 1797 Ebenezer Zane opened the road known as "Zane's Trace," from Wheeling to Limestone (now Maysville). It passed through the site of Lancas- ter, at a fording about 300 yards below the present turnpike bridge, west of the town, and then called the "crossings of the Hockhocking." He located one of his three tracts of land, given by Congress for the performance of this task, on the Hockhocking, at Lancaster.

In 1797, Zane's trace having opened a com- munication between the Eastern States and Kentucky, many individuals in both direc- tions, wishing to better their condition in life by emigrating and settling in the "back- woods," so called, visited the Hockhocking valley for that purpose. Finding the country surpassingly fertile, abounding in fine springs of the purest water, they determined to make it their new homes.

In April, 1798, Capt. Joseph Hunter, a bold and enterprising man, with his family, emigrated from Kentucky and settled on Zane's trace, upon the bank of the prairie, west of the crossings, and about 150 yards northwest of the present turnpike road, and which place was called "Hunter's settle- ment." Here he cleared off the underbrush, felled the forest trees and erected a cabin, at a time when he had not a neighbor nearer than the Muskingum or Scioto rivers. This was the commencement of the first settlement in the Upper Hockhocking valley, and Capt. Hunter is regarded as the founder of the flourishing and populous county of Fairfield. He lived to see the county densely settled and in a high state of improvement, and died about the year 1829. His wife was the first white woman that settled in the valley, and shared with her husband all the toils, suffer- ings, hardships and privations incident to the formation of the new settlement. During the spring of the same year (1798) Nathaniel Wilson, the elder, John and Allen Green, John and Joseph M'Mullen, Robert Cooper, Isaac Shacffer and a few others, reached the valley, erected cabins and put out a crop of corn.

In 1799 the tide of emigration set in with

great force. In the spring of this year two settlements were made in the present town- ship of Greenfield. Each settlement con- tained twenty or thirty families. One was called the Forks of the Hockhocking, and the other Yankeetown, Settlements were also made along the river below Hunter's, on Rush creek, Raccoon and Indian creeks, Pleasant run, Fetter's run, at Tobeytown, Muddy Prairie, and on Clear creek. In the fall of 1799 Joseph Loveland and Hezekiah Smith erected a log grist-mill at the upper falls of the Hockhocking, now called the Rock mill. This was the first grist-mill built on the Hockhocking.

In April, 1799, Samuel Coates, Sen., and Samuel Coates, Jr., from England, built a cabin in the prairie at the "Crossings of the Hockhocking," kept bachelors' hall, and raised a crop of corn. In the latter part of the year a mail route was established along Zane's trace, from Wheeling to Limestone. The mail was carried through on horseback, and, at first, only once a week. Samuel Coates, Sen., was the postmaster, and kept his office at the Crossings. This was the first established mail route through the interior of the territory, and Samuel Coates was the first postmaster at the new settlements.

The settlers subsisted principally on corn- bread, potatoes, milk and butter, and wild meats. Flour, tea and coffee were scarcely to be had ; and when brought to the country, such prices were asked as to put it out of the reach of many to purchase. Salt was an in- dispensable article, and cost at the Scioto salt works $5 per fifty pounds. Flour brought $16 per barrel; tea, 82.50; coffee, $1.50 ; spice and pepper, $1 per pound.

58g

FAIRFIELD COUNTY.

In the fall of 1800 Ebenezer Zane laid out Lancaster, and by way of compli- ment to a number of emigrants from Lancaster county, Pa., called it New Lan- caster. It retained that name nntil 1805, when, by an act of the Legislature, the word " New " was dropped. A sale of lots took place soon after the town was laid off and sold to purchasers at prices ranging from five to fifty dollars cach. The greater portion of the purchasers were mechanics, and they immediately set about putting up log-buildings. Much of the material needed for that purpose was found upon their lots and in the streets, and so rapidly did the work of im- provement progress during the fall of 1800 and following winter that in the spring of 1801 the principal streets and alleys assumed their present shapes and gave as- surance that New Lancaster would, at no distant day, become a town of some importance.

About this time merchants and professional men made their appearance. The Rev. John Wright, of the Presbyterian church, settled in Lancaster in 1801, and the Rev. Asa Shinn and Rev. James Quinn, of the Methodist church, travelled on the Fairfield circuit.

Shortly after the settlement, and while the stumps yet remained in the streets, a small portion of the settlers occasionally indulged in drinking frolics, ending frequently in fights. In the absence of law, the better disposed part of the population determined to stop the growing evil. They accordingly met and re- solved, that any person of the town found in- toxicated, should, for every such offence, dig

a stump out of the street, or suffer personal chastisement. The result was, that after sev- eral offenders had expiated their crimes, dram drinking ceased, and for a time all became a sober, temperate ^ nd happy people.

On the 9th day of December, 1800, the governor and council of the Northwest Terri- tory organized the county of Fairfield, and designated New Lancaster as the seat of jus- tice. The county then contained within its limits all, or nearly all, of the present counties of Licking and Knox ; a large portion of Perry, and small parts of Pickaway and Hock- ing counties.

The first white male child born in Fairfield was the son of Mrs. Ruhama Greene. This lady emigrated to this region in 1798 and settled three miles west of Lancaster, where her child was born. The sketch appended of her is from Col. John McDonald, of Ross county.

Mrs. Ruhama Greene was born and raised in Jefferson county, Virginia. In 1785 she married a Mr. Charles Builderback, and with him crossed the mountains and settled at the mouth of Short creek, on the east bank of the Ohio, a few miles above Wheeling. Her husband, a brave man, had on many occa- sions distinguished himself in repelling the Indians, who had often felt the sure aim of his unerring rifle. They therefore deter- mined at all hazards to kill him.

On a beautiful summer morning in June, 1789, at a time when it was thought the enemy had abandoned the western shores of the Ohic, Capt. Charles Builderback, his wife and brother, Jacob Builderback, crossed the Ohio to look after some cattle. On reaching the shore, a party of fifteen or twenty Indi- ans rushed out from an ambush, and firing upon them, wounded Jacob in the shoulder. Charles was taken while he was running to escape. Jacob returned to the canoe and got away. In the meantime, Mrs. Builderback secreted herself in some drift-wood, near the bank of the river. As soon as the Indians had secured and tied her husband, and not being enabled to discover her hiding-place, they compelled him, with threats of imme- diate deach, to call her to him. With a hope of appeasing their fury, he did so. She heard him, but made no answer. "Here,"

to use her words, "a struggle took place in my breast, which I cannot describe. Shall I go to him and become a prisoner, or shall I remain, return to our cabin and provide for and take care of our children?" He shouted to her a second time to come to him, saying, "that if she obeyed, perhaps it would be the means of saving his life." She no longer hesitated, left her place of safety, and sur- rendered herself to his savage captors. AII this took place in full view of their cabin, on the opposite shore, and where they had left their two children, one a son about three years of age, and an infant daughter. The Indians, knowing that they would be pursued as soon as the news of their visit reached the stockade, . at Wheeling, commenced their retreat. Mrs. Builderback and her husband travelled to- gether that day and the following night. The next morning the Indians separated into two bands, one taking Builderback, and the other his wife, and continued a westward course by different routes.

In a few days the band having Mrs. Builder- back in custody reached the Tuscarawas river, where they encamped, and were soon rejoined by the band that had had her husband in charge. Here the murderers exhibited his scalp on the top of a pole, and to convince her that they had killed him, pulled it down and threw it into her lap. She recognized it

590

FAIRFIELD COUNTY.

at once by the redness of his hair. She said nothing, and uttered no complaint. It was evening ; her ears pained with the terrific yells of the savages, and wearied by constant travelling, she reclined against a tree and fell into a profound sleep, and forgot all her suf- ferings until morning. When she awoke, the scalp of her murdered husband was gone, and she never learned what became of it.

As soon as the capture of Builderback was known at Wheeling, a party of scouts set off in pursuit, and taking the trail of one of the bands, followed it until they found the body of Builderback. He had been tomahawked and scalped, and apparently suffered a lin- gering death.

The Indians, on reaching their towns on the Big Miami, adopted Mrs. Builderback into a family, with whom she resided until released from captivity. She remained a prisoner about nine months, performing the labor and drudgery of squ. ws, such as carry- ing in meat from the hunting-grounds, pre- paring and drying it, making moccasins, leg- gings and other clothing for the family in which she was raised. After her adoption, she suffered much from the rough and filthy manner of Indian living, but had no cause to complain of ill-treatment otherwise.

In a few months after her capture, some friendly Indians informed the commandant at

Fort Washington that there was a white woman in captivity at the Miami towns. She was ransomed and brought into the fort, and in a few weeks was sent up the river to her lonely cabin, and to the embrace of her two orphan children. She then recrossed the mountains, and settled in her native county.

In 1791 Mrs. Builderback married Mr. John Greene, and in 1798 they emigrated to the Hockhocking valley, and settled about three miles west of Lancaster, where she continued to reside until the time of her death, about the year 1842. She survived her last husband about ten years.

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 93

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