Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume II, Part 38

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 916

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At the battle of Captina John Baker was killed. He had borrowed Jack Bean's gun, which the Indians had taken. This gun was recaptured on the waters of Wills' creek, about sixteen or eighteen miles west of Woodsfield, and still remains in the posses- sion of some of the friends of the notorious Bean and the lamented Baker, in this county, as a memorial of those brave Indian fighters. Henry Johnson, who had the fight with the Indians when a boy, is now living in the county.

In the latter part of the last century the celebrated French traveller Volney travelled through Virginia, and crossed the Ohio into this county from Sisters- ville. He was under the guidance of two Virginia bear hunters through the wilderness. The weather was very cold and severe. In crossing the dry ridge, on the Virginia side, the learned infidel became weak with cold and fatigue. He was in the midst of an almost boundless wilderness, deep snows were under his feet, and both rain and snow falling upon his head. He frequently insisted on giving over the enterprise and dying where he was ; but his comrades, more ac- customed to backwoods fare, urged him on, until he at length gave out, exclaiming, "Oh, wretched and foolish man that I am, to leave my comfortable home and fireside, and come to this unfrequented place, where the lion and tiger refuse to dwell, and the rain hurries off! Go on, my friends ! better that one man should

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perish than three." They then stopped, struek a fire, built a camp of bark and limbs, shot a buek, broiled the ham, which, with the salt, bread and other neces- saries they had, made a very good supper, and everything being soon comfortable and cheery, the learned Frenchman was dilating largely and eloquently upon the ingenuity of man.

HEROIC ADVENTURE OF THE JOHNSON BOYS.

The account which follows of the heroism of two pioneer boys was given by one of them, Henry Johnson, to a Woodsfield paper about 1835 or 1840. Both he and his brother John settled in Monroe. John married into the Okey family and Henry married Patty Russell. He was the first Mayor of Woodsfield. I saw him at Woodsfield in 1846. He was then nearly seventy years of age, a fine speeimen of the fast vanishing raee of Indian hunters ; tall, ereet, with the bear- ing of a genuine baekwoodsman :

I was born in Westmoreland county, Pa., on the 4th day of February, 1777. When I was about eight years old, my father having a large family to provide for, sold his farm with the expectation of acquiring larger pos- sessions farther West. Thus he was stimu- lated to encounter the perils of a pioneer life. He crossed the Ohio river and bought some improvements on what was called Beach Bottom flats, two and a half miles from the river, and three or four miles above the mouth of the Short creek. Soon after he came there the Indians became troublesome. They stole horses and various other things and killed a number of persons in our neighbor- hood.

When I was between eleven and twelve years old, I think it was the fall of 1788, I was taken prisoner with my brother John, who was about eighteen months older than I. The circumstances are as follows : On Satur- day evening we were out with an older brother, and came home late in the evening ; one of us had lost a hat and John and I went back the next day to look for it. We found the hat, and sat down on a log and were cracking nuts. After a short time we saw two men coming down from the direction of the house ; from their dress we took them to be two of our neighbors, James Perdue and J. Russell. We paid but little attention to them till they came quite near us. To escape by flight was now impossible had we been dis- posed to try it. We sat still until they came up to us. One of them said, " How do, broder ?" My brother then asked them if they were Indians and they answered in the affirmative, and said we must go with them.

One of them had a blue buckskin, which he gave my brother to carry, and without further ceremony we took up the line of march for the wilderness, not knowing whether we should ever return to the cheerful home we had left ; and not having much love for our commanding officers, of course, we obeyed martial orders rather tardily. One of the Indians walked about ten steps before and the other about the same distance behind us. After travelling some distance we halted in a deep hollow and sat down. They took out

their knives and whet them, and talked some time in the Indian tongue, which we could not understand. I told my brother that I thought they were going to kill us, and I believe he thought so too, for he began to talk to them, and told them that his father was cross to him and made him work hard, and that he did not like hard work, that he would rather be a hunter and live in the woods. This seemed to please them. for they put up their knives and talked more lively and pleasantly to us. We returned the same familiarity and many questions passed be- tween us ; all parties were very inquisitive. They asked my brother which way home was and he told them the contrary way every time they would ask him, although he knew the way very well ; this would make them laugh ; they thought we were lost and that we knew no better.

They conducted us over Short creek hills in search of horses, but found none; so we continued on foot. Night came on and we halted in a low hollow, about three miles from Carpenter's fort and about four from the place where they first took us. Our route being somewhat circuitous and full of zigzags we made headway but slowly. As night began to close in around us I became fretful ; my brother encouraged me by whispering to me that we would kill the Indians that night. After they had selected the place of encamp- ment one of them scouted around the camp, while the other struck fire, which was done by stopping the touch-hole of the gun and flashing powder in the pan. After the Indian got the fire kindled he reprimed the gun and went to an old stump to get some dry tinder wood for fire ; and while he was thus em- ployed my brother John took the gun, cocked it, and was about to shoot the Indian ; but I was alarmed, fearing that the other might be close by and be able to overpower us ; so I remonstrated against his shooting and took hold of the gun and prevented the shot. I. at the same time, begged him to wait till night and I would help him to kill them both. The Indian that had taken the scout came back about dark.

We took our suppers, talked some time and went to bed on the naked ground to try

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to rest, and study out the best mode of attack. They put us between them that they might be the better able to guard us. After a while one of the Indians, supposing we were asleep, got up and stretched himself down on the other side of the fire and soon began to snore. John, who had been watching every motion, found they were sound asleep and whispered to me to get up. We got up as carefully as possible. John took the gun which the Indian struck fire with, cocked it and placed it in the direction of the head of one of the Indians; he then took a toma- hawk and drew it over the head of the other ; I pulled the trigger and he struck at the same instant ; the blow falling too far back on the neck only stunned the Indian ; he attempted to spring to his feet, uttering most hideous yells. Although my brother repeated the blows with some effect the conflict became terrible and somewhat doubtful. The Indian,

however, was forced to yield to the blows he received upon his head, and, in a short time, he lay quiet and still at our feet.

After we were satisfied that they were both . dead, and fearing there were others close by, we hurried off and took nothing with us but the gun I shot with. We took our course towards the river, and in about three-quarters of a mile we found a path which led to Carpenter's fort. My brother here hung up his hat that we might know on our return where to turn off to find our camp. We got to the fort a little before daybreak. We re- lated our adventure, and a small party went back with my brother and found the Indian that had been tomahawked ; the other had crawled away a short distance with the gun. A skeleton and a gun were found some time after near the place where we had cncamped.

Woodsfield in 1846 .- Woodsfield, the county-seat, one hundred and eighteen miles easterly from Columbus, and eighteen from the Ohio river, was founded in 1815 by Archibald Woods, of Wheeling, George Paul, Benj. Ruggles and Levi Barber. It contains one Episcopal Methodist and one Protestant Methodist church, a classical academy, one newspaper printing office, six stores and had, in 1830, 157 inhabitants, and in 1840, 262; estimated population in 1847, 450. The view was taken in the principal street of the village, on the left of which is seen the court-house. At the foot of the street, on the left, but not shown in the view, is a natural mound, circular at the base and rising to the height of sixty feet .- Old Edition.

WOODSFIELD, county-seat of Monroe, one hundred miles east of Columbus, on the B. Z. & C. R. R., forty-two miles from Bellaire and seventy from Zanesville.

County officers, 1888 : Auditor, Henry R. Muhleman ; Clerk, Elisha L. Lynch ; Commissioners, John Ruby, J. W. Warner, Alexander Harman ; Coroner, A. G. W. Potts ; Infirmary Directors, Jacob Wohnhas, Geo. L. Gillespie, Frederick Stoehr ; Probate Judge, Albert J. Pearson; Prosecuting Attorney, Geo. G. Jennings ; Recorder, Edward J. Graham ; Sheriff, Louis Sulsberger ; Surveyor, W. S. Jones ; Treasurer, Cyrus E. Miller. City officers, 1888 : John W. Doherty, Mayor ; George P. Dorr, Clerk; Fritz Reef, Treasurer ; Wm. Lang, Marshal. Newspapers: Monroe Gazette, Republican, estate of John W. Doherty, editors and publishers ; Monroe Journal, German, Fritz Reef, editor and pub- lisher ; Spirit of Democracy, Democratic, Hamilton and Van Law, editors and publishers. Churches : one Christian, one Methodist Episcopal, one Catholic, one Evangelical. Banks : Monroe, S. L. Mooney, president, W. C. Mooney, cashier.

Manufactures and Employees .- Gazette, newspaper, 4; Spirit of Democracy, newspaper, 4 ; George Richner & Sons, flour, etc., 4 ; Helbling & Stoehr, doors, sash, etc., 5 .- State Report, 1887. Population in 1880, 861. School census, 1888, 339. Census, 1890, 1,031.

JOHN WATERMAN OKEY, at one time chief-justice of the State, was born near Woodsfield, January 3, 1827. He was of joint English and Scotch-Irish stock, and some of it very long-lived. An inscription on the tombstone of his great-grandmother at Woodsfield showed that she lived to the advanced age of one hundred and three years. The only institution of learning he ever attended was the Monroe Academy. He studied law at Woodsfield ; became Probate Judge and Judge of Common Pleas; in 1865 removed to Cincinnati, when, in connection with Judge Gholson, he prepared " Gholson & Okey's Digest of Ohio

Drawn by Henry Howe.

WOODSFIELD IN 1846.

WOODSFIELD IN 1886.

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Reports ; " and also, with S. A. Miller, "Okey & Miller's Municipal Law." In 1877 he was elected Supreme Judge on the ticket with R. M. Bishop for Gover- nor ; again in 1882 on the ticket with Geo. Hoadly, by a majority of 16,500 over his principal competitor. The Judge had a marvellous memory. There was not a single case in the whole fifty-seven volumes of Ohio Reports with which he was not familiar, and scarcely a case which he could not accurately state from memory. He died in 1885.

On this visit in Woodsfield we made the acquaintance of Hon. James R. Morris, who was the postmaster of the town. This gentleman represented this district in Congress from 1861 to 1865. In 1877 was published an illustrated atlas of the Upper Ohio river valley, for which Mr. Morris supplied the historical facts appertaining to Monroe. From this, mainly, the following items are derived :

The First Permanent Settlement of which there is any well-authenticated history was made in the year 1791. Philip Witten, a brother-in-law of the noted Indian scouts and fighters, Kinsey and Vachtel Dickenson, in 1791 settled in Jackson township. He came there with his family from Wheeling, and his descendants still live on the same farm. The next settlement in order of time was on Buck- hill Bottom in 1794. and was made by Robert McEldowney, followed by Jacob Vellom and others. Settlements were made at and near the mouth of Sunfish creek and Opossum creek by the Vandwarters, Henthornes, Atkinsons and others, about the years 1798- 9. About 1802 a settlement was made on the site of Calais. In 1798 an improvement had been made there by Aaron Dillie, from Dillie's Bottom, Belmont county. About the same time a settlement was made by Michael Crow and others on Clear Fork creek. Cline's settlement on the Little Muskingum was begun about the year 1805; that at and around the site at Beallsville at about the same time, and Dye's settlement, in Perry township, in 1812.

Woodsfield Founded .- In 1814 the com- missioners selected the site of Woodsfield, then an unbroken forest, for the county-seat. Tradition says that in order to get the streets or a part of them cleared out, Mr. Archibald Woods, of Wheeling, from whom the town was named, and a heavy landholder in this region, got a keg of brandy and invited all the men and boys within a circuit of five miles to come into the place on a certain Sat- urday, have a grand frolic and clear ont Main street. This was done and the first trees felled.

In 1820 Woodsfield contained 18 houses, 6 of them of hewed logs and the remainder cabins. In the fall of 1818 the householders of Woodsfield were Patrick Adams, James Carrothers (whose son George was the first child born in the town), Joseph Driggs, Ezra Driggs, John Snyder, Anson Brewster, Jas. Phillips, Messrs. Sayers, Michael Davis, John Cole, Henry H. Mott, Stephen Lindley, John King. Henry Jackson, Amos B. Jones, David Pierson and Mrs. A. G. Hunter.

Woodsfield was incorporated in 1834, and in 1836 Henry Johnson (of the Indian killing fame) was elected the first Mayor. He died

at Antioch and is buried in the Woodsfield graveyard.

The first court-house and jail combined was built of logs in 1816, at a total cost of $137. The wood work cost $100, and the stone and other work $37. The lower story was a jail, and the upper a court-room. The second court-house was built of brick in 1828-29, and burnt in 1867. It was suc- ceeded by the present brick structure, which cost $40,000. The first court for the county was held in 1815, at the house of Levin Okey. The first resident lawyer was Seneca S. Salis- bury, who came to Woodsfield in 1821. In 1832 Daniel Arnold, from Cadiz, established the first newspaper, the Woodsfield Gazette. The members of Congress from this county have been Joseph Morris, 1843-47 ; Wm. F. Hunter, 1849-53 ; Jas. R. Morris, 1861-65.

First German and Swiss Settlements .- Under the leadership of Father Jacob Tisher, in April, 1819, ten German-Swiss familics embarked on a flat boat on the river Aar at the city of Berne. They descended the Aar to the Rhine, and thence down the Rhine to the city of Antwerp. There they took pas- sage on the " Eugenius," a French vessel for New York. After a passage of 48 days they landed at Amboy, New Jersey, where they purchased teams and six of the families started overland for Wheeling. The little colony now consisted of Father Tisher, Jacob Tschappat, Daniel Fank hauser, Nicholas Fank- hauser, Jacob Marti and their families, and Jacob Nispeli, single. After a tedious jour- ney they reached Wheeling, and again em- barked on a flat boat, their destination being the great Kanawha river.

Landing at the mouth of Captina, there they found two Pennsylvania Germans- Geo. Goetz and Henry Sweppe-who informed them there was plenty of Government land in Monroe county, near by, and a part of them were induced to remain, house room not being obtainable for all. On the 15th of September Father Tisher and a part of his little band continued down the river, and landed 16 miles below at Bare's landing. Jacob Bare, a Marylander, who could spcak German, persuaded them to settle there.

Thus this little colony in two bands began the first German-Swiss settlements in Mon- roe county, the one party in what is now

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in Switzerland township, the other in Ohio township. In that region there was scarce a settler back from the river, it being an al- most unbroken forest. Immigration now fairly set in from Germany and Switzerland, and these fertile hills became the happy homes of an industrious, virtuous people. Their leader, Father Jacob Tisher, was the first missionary for the German work of the Methodist church, and travelled in this and adjoining counties. His circuit was nearly 200 miles in extent, which he made on foot once every four weeks. He was very success- ful in organizing societies, and laid the foundation of a work now embraced in many circuits and stations. He died at the ad- vanced age of 86 years.

Judge Morris illustrates the narrowness and intolerance of early times often shown by members of different religious sects to- wards each, by an anecdote of a Baptist clergyman, who often preached in the Baptist church established in 1820 on Opossum creek, in Centre township, the first Baptist church in the county. He writes : "Rev. Joseph Smith, a pious, zealous and some- what eccentric minister, officiated at this and all the other Baptist churches in the county for many years.

"His eccentricities led him to be very hostile to other denominations, especially to Methodists. The congregations to which he ministered were scattered over a wide extent of territory. At one time in making his rounds the back of his horse became very sore, and he was told by a friend if he would get a wolf's skin and put it under the saddle it would cure it. He replied : 'I don't know where to get one, unless I skin a Methodist preacher.

Subscription Schools .- In early times sub- scription schools were common. Judge Mor- ris, in speaking of a subscription school in Greene, opened in 1825, and taught by John Miller, thus quotes from a correspondent : "The terms of subscription were $1 per scholar for a term of three months. The teacher boarded around among the scholars ; that is, he boarded in the families of the scholars for the length of time warranted by the number of pupils sent by the family.

"Before the holidays the teacher was com- pelled to sign an article that on Christmas or New Year's day he would treat the boys to ginger cakes, cider and apples, or they would bar him out of the school-house, or if he got in first they would smoke him out. If he still refused to sign the article, they would take him to the nearest creek and duck him. "The writer remembers being in a school- house in 1829-30, when the teacher was barred out ; but, he climbed on the roof of the school-house, covered the chimney and smoked the scholars out. After thus having worsted them he still refused to sign the ar- ticle ; but after some delay, waiting for an attack upon him, he treated them bountifully and gave them half a holiday, which was spent at the various games of amusement common in those days.'

Squatters .- The early settlers were more numerous in the region around the mouth of the Sunfish than elsewhere. "Most of the first settlers," says Morris, "were squatters, that is, a family moved into the county and settled on Congress land, and when the head of the family found himself able, he would enter the land upon which he had squatted. It was considered a very mean trick in those days for a person to 'enter out' a squatter who was doing his best to raise the means to pay for the home he was making for himself and family ; and scarcely any one would do it without consent of the squatter, who was frequently paid for his improvements when he found himself unable to enter the land."

Indian Medicine-man .- Dr. N. E. Hent- horn, recently deceased, in a letter to John B. Noll, Esq., says : " In 1831 I was return- ing home from Cincinnati by land and stopped over night at Jackson's tavern, in Reading, 12 miles from the city. When the landlord ascertained where I was from, he said that his father and an old Indian would like to talk with me.

I went to their room and Mr. Jackson, Sr., said he knew my grandfather at the old block house at Wheeling ; said that at the time Boggs was killed at Boggs' island, the In- dians were pursued by the whites, and that he, Jackson, wounded this Indian, and when about to kill him with his tomahawk, the Indian told him he was the medicine-man of his tribe, and if he would spare his life he would cure a cancer on his (Jackson's) nose, which he did; that the Indian had lived with him ever since, and was with him in the war of 1812, under General Harrison.

Indian Decoy .- "The Indian told me that the Indian name of Sunfish creek was Buck- chitawa, and Opossum creek was in the In- dian tongue Eagle creek. He further told me of the killing of a big Indian at Buck- ehitawa, about the time of the settlement at Marietta.

Big Indian .- "The Indians had a white prisoner whom they forced to decoy boats to the shore. A small boat was descending the river containing white people, when this prisoner was placed under the bank to tell those in the boat that he had escaped cap- tivity and to come to shore and take him in. The Indians were concealed, but the big In- dian stuck his head out from behind a large tree when it was pierced by a bullet from the gun of the steersman of the boat. The In- dians cried 'Wetzel !' 'Wetzel !' and fled. This was the last ever seen of the prisoner. The Indians returned the next day and buried the big Indian, who, he said, was twenty inches taller than he was, and he was a tall man.

" When Chester Bishop was digging many years ago a cellar for Asahel Booth at Clar- ington, he came across a skeleton, the bones of which were carefully removed by Dr. Richard Kirkpatrick, and from his measure- ment he estimated the man when living would have been 8 feet and 5 inches. It is

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probable that these were the bones of the big on Eagle, Buckchitawa and Captina creeks, but the veins were thin."

Indian. He further told me there was lead

TRAVELLING NOTES.

My original visit to Woodsfield was in March, 1846. I came in the character of a pedestrian, with my knapsack on my back, loaded with some 14 pounds. A steamboat had landed me on the Ohio some 16 miles away, and I came up the hills meeting scarcely a soul or seeing much else than hills and trees.

Woodsfield was then much out of the world. Indeed the entire county was quite primitive ; its people largely dwelt in cabins. This seemed to me a good thing, saving many the worry of having so much to look after. "Great posses- sions, great cares."

Monroe county was away from all travel, except on the river fringe. This is 29 miles long and the river hurries by, falling in that distance 20 feet 62 inches, and mostly in ripples.

The county had a decided political character and was such a sore spot to the old Whigs from its stunning Democratic majorities that they called it "Dark Monroe." Still, I thought I could travel over it in safety without a lantern.

On my arrival at Woodsfield I had an un- usually pleasant reception, and when my book was published the indwellers of Dark Monroe showed their love for their Ohio land by an unusually large patronage. The be- havior of the people was such that the jailer's office was of little account. His business was so poor that if he had depended upon fees and board money for a living he must have starved. Neither did the sheriff get a chance to hang anybody, for a capital crime had never been committed in the county. In such a condition of things the Woodsfield newspaper suffered for want of interesting home news to chronicle, excepting after an election, when the Democratic rooster showed his outstretched plumage.

I came this last time by the " Poor Man's Railroad," described on page 318. When I got here I inquired for three old acquaintances I had made in 1846, and as usual in such cases the answer was, "dead." They were Henry Johnson, Daniel H. Wire and Jamie Shaw. Henry Johnson, having been born one hundred and nine years before, of course was dead. He was one of the ever-to-be-re- membered two Johnson boys who killed two Indians in the old Revolutionary war. He died in 1850, at Antioch, that is, four years after I made his acquaintance, and was buried at Woodsfield.

DANIEL H. WIRE, who gave me the pre- ceding historical sketch, died before the war. When I saw him he was a young lawyer, and at one time prosecuting attorney for the county. He ran for Congress on the Demo- cratic ticket. This was in 1855, during what was termed the "Know-Nothing Craze." The Know-Nothings carried that year many of the Ohio districts, and this among them. Wire's personal popularity was so great that it saved the county ; its usual majority was some 1,600, but it went through by about four hundred.

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume II, Part 38

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio Number of Pages: 916

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 916