Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume II, Part 51

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

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THE LEGEND OF DUNCAN'S FALLS.

Duncan's Falls are nine miles below Zanesville. It is one of the most inter- esting places on the Muskingum. A writer (C. F.), under date of August 4, 1887, gave to the Ohio State Journal these interesting items :

Years before this fine valley was known to the white man a branch of the once great Shawnee nation built Old Town, an Indian village, on the site of Duncan's Falls. For years White Eyes, the chief, was on friendly terms with the white people, and rendered them assistance in his Indian way. At the head of the falls or rapids a dam was built in 1836 to improve the navigation of the river. A large flouring mill, four stories high, containing eight pairs of buhrs, was erected in 1838 at a cost of $75,000. A covered bridge, 798 feet long, connects the vil- lages of Duncan's Falls and Taylorsville, crossing the river below the dam.

The legendary and historical interest of Duncan's Falls has more than interest im- parted to it by the tragic fate of the adven- turous trapper who gave his name to this place. The different accounts of this intrepid trapper are the same excepting in dates of his death. One places it in 1774 and another in 1794, the evidence being in favor of the first date. He came from Virginia to this place, and being on friendly terms with the Indians at the Old Town village, he was per-

mitted to remain by their chief. White Eyes, to hunt and trap and carry on a little trade with them. This continued for perhaps four years, when he discovered his traps had been meddled with and some of his game stolen. This so enraged him that he resolved to watch and see, if possible, who the guilty party was, when he discovered an Indian taking game from his traps, whereupon he shot the thief. He continued to watch for some months, and made it a point to shoot

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MUSKINGUM COUNTY.

all Indians who meddled with his rights. He found it necessary to keep himself concealed from them.

They were not the friendly Indians of Old Town, but a hostile band who roved on the west side of the river. They were enraged and sought an opportunity to capture him. Duncan's place of abode was unknown to them, and when, sometimes, they saw him on one side of the river and again on the other side. they watched to see how he crossed, and could find neither skiff nor boat. This was a great mystery, and he baffled them for a long time. Finally they discov- ered he crossed the river on rocks with a stont long pole, and his manner of crossing was to skip from rock to rock with the aid of the pole, or lay it down from one rock to another, where the water was deep, and walk over ; then move the pole and so get across. This he did generally in the night. On the fatal night two parties of the bravest Indian warriors, lying in ambush watching, saw him, equipped with his gun and pole, leap lightly from rock to rock, ull he approached the main channel. Here he placed his pole, one end on each side of the channel, and had passed halfway over when a volley from the Indians struck him and he fell dead in the middle of the river. Next day his body was found one-half mile below on a gravelly rip- ple. This point was given the name of "Dead Man's Ripple," from the fact that the dead body of Duncan was found on it, and the falls at that place were called Duncan's Falls, because it was there that Duncan fell.

After the death of Duncan, his habitation was found up a small stream on the east side a short distance below " Dead Man's Ripple." The rock cave has ever since been known as Duncan's Cave. On the island, between the river and the canal, years ago, a gun was found. The gun was purchased by Mr. Brelsford, of Zanesville, a gunsmith, who shortened the barrel and put on a new stock, as the old one was worthless, and took from it a load of powder that had probably been put in by Duncan. The gun is at present

owned by Col. Z. M. Chandler, of the Sev- enty-eighth regiment, O. V. V. I., of the Ninth ward, Zanesville, who highly prizes it for its great antiquity, and being the gun, as it is supposed, that was carried by the daring Duncan.

Much of this account of Duncan is gath- ered from the " Indian Wars," a small book published in Virginia the beginning of this century.

The course of the river above the falls for a few miles is east, and one-half mile from the head of the falls it runs south, the rapids being one and one-fourth miles. The dam put across the river to improve the naviga- tion was built in 1835. The canal is one mile long, but the bend in the river makes the river channel on the falls longer than by the canal.

The first settler known came from South Carolina, and for a short time lived here in 1798. His name was Jacob Ayers. His son Moses settled on the fine farm now owned by John Miller. The other son, Nathaniel, lived until he died upon the farm now owned by Charles Patterson, five miles down the river. The Ayers bored the first salt well on the river in 1816. Capt. Monroe Ayers, for years one of the most successful steamboat- men, is a grandson of Jacob Ayers. He is now retired and lives in Zanesville.

In 1799 John Briggs came to Duncan's Falls from Lancaster county, Pa. Many of his grandchildren live in this county and two of them reside at Duncan's Falls, Mrs. Jacob Rutledge and Mrs. John Wilhelm. The vil- lage is beautifully situated on high ground in sight of the river, the railroad on the oppo- site side. The river, dam and rocky bluff at the head of the falls on the south side of the river, is one of the grandest views on the Muskingum river.

Taylorsville, a village opposite Duncan's Falls, is on a high bluff, and is one of the best locations for a town on this river. A bridge 898 feet long crosses the river, con- necting Taylorsville and Duncan's Falls.

NEW CONCORD is sixteen miles east of Zanesville, on the B. & O. R. R. and old National road. It is the seat of Muskingum College, John D. Irons, D. D., president. Newspapers : Enterprise, Independent,. Jas. H. Aiken, editor and publisher ; Muskingum Review, Students of Muskingum College, editors and pub- lishers. Churches : 1 Baptist, 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Reformed Presbyterian and 1 United Presbyterian.

Manufactures and Employees .- Robert Speer, flour and lumber, 3 hands ; H. O. Wylie, flour and feed, 3; Given & Co., cigars, 8 .- State Report, 1888. Population, 1880, 514. School census, 1888, 224; A. H. McCulloch, school superintendent. Capital invested in manufacturing establishments, $15,000. Value of annual product, $16,000 .- Ohio Labor Statistics, 1888.

In onr edition of 1847 we gave the annexed paragraph in regard to the college here, in- cluding the picture : "Pleasantly located on an eminence north of the central part of the

village is Muskingum College. In March, 1837, the Trustees of New Concord Academy -an institution which had been in operation several years-were vested with college powers

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MUSKINGUM COUNTY.

Drawn by Henry Howe, in 1846. MUSKINGUM COLLEGE.

by the Legislature of Ohio, to be known by the name of Muskingum College. It is a strictly literary institution and the first class graduated in 1839. Although pecuniary embarrassments have impeded its progress, it has continued uninterruptedly its opera- tions as a college. These difficulties having been recently removed, its prospects are brightening."- Old Edition.

The old building shown was destroyed by fire to be succeeded by a larger and better structure. In the now fifty-three years of the existence of this institution, its students. have numbered several thousands and its graduates about three hundred young men and women. About one hundred of these have entered the Christian ministry and are now laboring in this country and in foreign lands, and her alumni are well represented in other professions.

Dresden in 1846 .- Dresden is situated on the Muskingum side-cnt of the Ohio canal, at the head of steamboat navigation on the Muskingum, fifteen miles above Zanesville. It is the market of a large and fertile country by which it is sur- rounded, and does a heavy business. It possesses superior manufacturing advan- tages, there being a fall of twenty-nine feet from the main canal to low water mark on the river. The adjacent hills abound with coal and iron ore. It con- tains 1 Presbyterian and 1 Methodist church, about 15 stores, a market-house and 1,000 or 1,200 inhabitants .- Old Edition.

DRESDEN is twelve miles north of Zanesville, on the Muskingum river and C. & M. V. R. R. Coal, limestone and iron-ore abound in the vicinity. City officers, 1888 : J. L. Adams, Mayor ; R. M. Hornung, Clerk ; F. H. F. Egbert, Treasurer ; Frank Comer, Marshal. Newspaper : Doings, Independent, W. M. Miller, editor and publisher. Churches : 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Episcopal, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Christian, 1 Lutheran and 1 German Methodist. Bank : L. J. Lemert & Sons. Population, 1880, 1,204. School census, 1888, 376; Corwin F. Palmer, school superintendent.

Dresden is in Cass township; it is an interesting historic point from the fact that Major Jonathan Cass, of the Revolutionary army, the father of Gov. Lewis Cass, located hereabouts forty military land warrants, including 4,000 acres, and in 1801 brought his family here. Another of his sons, Charles L., served with such distinction in the war of 1812, particularly at the battle of Lake Erie, that the citizens of Zanesville presented him with a sword. A magnificent monument erected by the Cass family stands in the Dresden cemetery.

ROSEVILLE is in Clay township, ten miles south of Zanesville, on the C. & M. V. R. R. Newspaper : Independent, Independent, G. H. Stull, editor and pub- lisher. Churches : 1 Christian, 1 Lutheran, 1 Methodist, 1 Protestant Methodist, and 1 Presbyterian.

Manufactures and Employees .- Henry Combs, flour and lumber, 2 hands ; Brough Brown, flour and feed, 4; J. B. Owens, flower-pots, etc., 23; W. B. Lowery, stew-pots, etc., 6 ; W. B. Brown, flour, etc., 3; G. W. Walker, fruit jars, etc., 4; H. Sowers, jugs, jars, etc., 3; Jas. L. Weaver, stoneware, 3 ; Johr Burton, jugs, jars, etc., 2; Kildow, Dugan & Co., stew-pans, 10; W. A. Hurl, wagons, buggies, etc., 4; Dollison & Parrott, wagons, buggies, etc, 5 .- State Re- port, 1888.

Population, 1880, 531. School census, 1888, 208. Capital invested in manu- facturing- establishments, $80,000. Value of annual product, $86,000 .- Ohio Labor Statistics, 1888.

TAYLORSVILLE, laid out in 1832, by James Taylor (P. O., Philo), is ten miles

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MUSKINGUM COUNTY.

southeast of Zanesville, on the Muskingum river at Duncan's Falls, and Z. & O. R. R. It has 1 Methodist, 1 Catholic, 1 Lutheran and 1 United Presbyterian church. Population, 1880, 501. School census, 1888, 202.

FRAZEYSBURG is thirteen miles northwest of Zanesville, on the P. C. & St. L. R. R. It has churches-1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Presbyterian and 1 Disciples. Population, 1880, 484. School census, 1888, 190.

UNIONTOWN, P. O., Fultonham, is ten miles southwest of Zanesville, on the C. &. E. R. R. 1 Presbyterian, 1 Methodist and 1 Lutheran church. Popula- tion, 1880, 223. School census, 1888, 104.

ADAMSVILLE is thirteen miles northeast of Zanesville. Population, 1880, 280. School census, 1888,-142.

NOBLE.

NOBLE COUNTY was organized March 11, 1851, the last of the eighty-eight counties formed within the State, and named in honor of James Noble, one of the first settlers living near Sarahsville. His name had previously been given to Noble township, of Morgan county, and when this county was formed it was used for the entire county. The townships of Beaver, Wayne, Seneca and Buffalo came from Guernsey county ; Marion, Stock, three-fifths of Centre, Enoch, Elk, and the greater part of Jefferson came from Monroe; Olive, Jackson, Sharon, Noble, Brookfield and two-fifths of Centre came from Morgan ; and a small por- tion of Jefferson from Washington county.

Area abont 400 square miles. In 1887 the acres cultivated were 63,935 ; woodland, 40,991 ; in pasture, 127,715; lying waste, 2,887; produced in wheat, 143,135 bushels ; rye, 655; oats, 116,279; corn, 533,459 ; meadow hay, 28,721 tons ; potatoes, 33,262 bushels; tobacco, 577,319 lbs. ; butter, 538,790 ; sorghum, 11,862 gallons ; honey, 14,743 lbs. ; eggs, 511,330 dozen ; apples, 1,474 bushels ; peaches, 1,643 ; pears, 627; wool, 443,828 lbs .; milch cows owned, 5,276. Ohio mining statistics, 1888 : Coal, 6,207 tons ; employing 13 persons. School census, 1888, 7,238 ; teachers, 146. Miles of railroad track, 53.

TOWNSHIPS AND CENSUS.

1840.

1880.

TOWNSHIPS AND CENSUS.

1840. 1880.

Beaver,

1,829

Marion,

1,582

Brookfield,

1,000

Noble,

1,420

Buffalo,

804

Olive,

2,332,

Centre,

1,850

Seneca,

1,004

Elk,

1,539

Sharon,

1,221

Enoch,

1,480

Stock,

1,543

Jackson,

1,267

Wayne,

761

Jefferson,

1,506

Population of Noble in 1860 was 20,751 ; 1880, 21,138, of whom were born in Ohio, 19,101; Pennsylvania, 577; New York, 50; Virginia, 312; Kentucky, 6; Indiana, 27 ; German Empire, 305; Ireland, 117; England and Wales, 77; Scotland, 19; France, 10; and British America, 6. Census, 1890, 20,753.

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NOBLE COUNTY.

This county, in its form, is exceedingly crooked. It has in its boundary line thirty corners, which we believe makes it the most zig-zag county in the State. It is divided into two main slopes by a dividing ridge across it nearly east and west through the townships of Marion, Centre, Noble, Buffalo and a corner of Brook- field. The streams north of this ridge are Will's creek and its tributaries, which flow into the Muskingum at Coshocton, Tuscarawas county ; and those south, Duck creek and its tributaries, which flow into the Ohio four miles above Marietta.

The county is generally hilly and undulating, containing many natural mounds. The hills are not so rugged but what they can generally be cultivated to their summits, a feature not common to hilly countries. Hence there is but little waste land in the county. An abundance of limestone is found in the uneven sections, even to the tops of the largest hills. This being continually exposed to the air crumbles and mixes with the soil, rendering it akin in fertility with the lower levels. The variety of soil gives a wide scope to agriculture. The farms being generally small induce many of the farmers to direct their attention to the grow- ing of grain and tobacco ; consequently, the lands are under a higher state of cul- tivation than in other counties where the farms are larger.

The principal products are hay, corn, wheat, oats, rye, tobacco, sorghum, apples, pears, beef, cattle, sheep and swine. In 1873 it was the second county in the pro- duction of tobacco in Ohio. But finding its cultivation exhausted the soil, farmers turned their attention more to cattle-raising. It is one of the best apple- producing counties in Ohio. The mineral resources are abundant. Coal abounds and nearly all the hills contain iron-ore, building-stone, petroleum, salt, etc.

Enoch, Elk, and parts of Jefferson and Stock are exclusively of foreign Ger- man birth and of Catholic faith. In Enoch is a massively-built cathedral, cost- ing $40,000. Marion township was originally settled by Scotch-Irish, a thrifty, substantial people. The balance of the county was settled by people from Pennsylvania and Virginia and a few New Englanders. These last were the very first settlers of the county. They were New Englanders from the Marietta settlement, who followed up the valley of Duck creek, a stream which empties into the Ohio, four miles above Marietta.

The early settlers were greatly troubled with wolves who committed depreda- tions upon the stock. An old settler, who died in 1879, at the age of 93, caught in a trap a wolf that had been preying upon his sheep. He told a friend that he was so exasperated that he flayed him alive out of revenge.

In the novel "Prairie Rose," by Emerson Bennett, is a story of Lewis Wetzel recapturing a white girl named Rose from the Indians. (See Belmont county, Vol. I, page 308.) The scene of the rescue was a point on Wills creek, about five miles east of Summerfield.

A Monster Tree .- Near Sarahsville stood, as late as 1880, one of the mammoth white oak trees for which this section of Ohio was famous. In 1875 it was measured by then Gen. R. B. Hayes and Hon. John H. Bingham, while on a political tour. Above the articulation of the roots it girth was thirty-four feet six inches. Its trunk tapered but little and ran up to the height of seventy-eight feet without a single bend. At that height it branched out into one of the most majestic tops ever found on a tree of its kind.

General Garfield in 1879, on a visit to the county, having heard from the gentlemen above of this remarkable tree and being somewhat sceptical, went and measured the tree and found their statement correct. This monarch of the forest was uprooted by a storm in 1880 and converted into fence-rails, and its top branches into a bon-fire, burned to commemorate the election of Garfield to the Presidency.

Huge Skeletons .- In Seneca township was opened, in 1872, one of the numerous Indian mounds that abound in the neighborhood. This particular one was locaily

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NOBLE COUNTY.

known as the "Bates " mound. Upon being dug into it was found to contain a few broken pieces of earthenware, a lot of flint-heads and one or two stone implements and the remains of three skeletons, whose size would indicate they measured in life at least eight feet in height. The remarkable feature of these remains was they had double teeth in front as well as in back of mouth and in both upper and lower jaws. Upon exposure to the atmosphere the skeletons soon crumbled back to mother earth.

CALDWELL, county-seat of Noble, about eighty miles east of Columbus, thirty south from Zanesville and thirty north of Marietta, is on the C. & M. Division of the W. & L. E. and on the B. Z. & C. Railroads.

County officers, 1888 : Auditor, A. C. Okey ; Clerk, Isaac W. Danford ; Com- missioners, Julius R. Grover, J. R. Gorby, Nathan B. Barnes ; Coroner, Corwin E. Bngher ; Infirmary Directors, Peter Vorhies, Richard Iams, George Weekley ; Probate Judge, C. Foster ; Prosecuting Attorney, C. A. Leland ; Recorder, Henry M. Roach ; Sheriff, Henry J. Cleveland ; Surveyor, C. S. McWilliams ; Treas- urer, James F. Rannells. City officers, 1888 : C. Foster, Mayor; C. M. Watson, Clerk ; T. W. Morris, Treasurer ; David Dyer, Street Commissioner; F. C. Thompson, Marshal. Newspapers : Journal, Republican, Frank M. Martin, editor and publisher ; Noble County Democrat, Democratic, C. W. Evans, editor and publisher ; Noble County Republican, Republican, W. H. Cooley, editor and publisher ; Press, Democratic, L. W. Finley & Son, editors and publishers. Churches : 1 Presbyterian, 1 Baptist, 1 Methodist. Bank : Noble County National, W. H. Frazier, president, Will A. Frazier, cashier.

Manufactures and Employees .- Stephen Mills & Co., doors, sash, etc., 12 hands ; Caldwell Woollen Mills, blankets, etc., 25 ; T. H. Morris, flooring, etc., 3 ; P. H. Berry, flour, etc., 4; L. H. Berry & Co., hosiery, 22; Noble County Republican, printing, 5; Caldwell Democrat, printing, 4; The Press, printing, 6; Henry Schafer, tailoring, 6 .- State Reports. 1888.

Population, 1880, 602. Capital invested in manufacturing establishments, $32,000. Value of annual product, $10,000 .- Ohio Labor Statistics, 1888. Census, 1890, 1,248.

TRAVELLING NOTES.

Caldwell was laid out in 1857, on lands belonging to Joseph and Samuel Cald- well on the west fork of Duck creek. A noble granite monument stands to the memory of the latter in the cemetery on a hill east of the town, from which we learn he died in 1869, at the age of sixty-nine years.

The first oil well in Ohio was drilled in 1814, near the town, by Mr. Thorley, father of Benjamin Thorley, drilling for salt brine; but, striking oil, it was covered up, oil not being what was wanted. About two years later, in 1816, a second well was drilled not far from the same spot, also for brine, when they struck oil mingled with the brine. This well was still running oil with the brine when we visited it. Mr. Joseph Caldwell, born in 1798, stated to us there that he helped to drill this well in company with his father, brother, John and Hughey Jackson. The drilling was done by a spring pole. They went one hundred and eighty feet when they struck oil, which they did not want. In five hundred feet they came to the brine, but it was weak.

The oil went by the name of Seneca oil. Pedlars were accustomed to gather the oil by soaking blankets in the spring, wringing out the oil and then travelling the country on horseback and selling it to farmers' wives for rheumatism, sprains and bruises, for which in its crude state particularly it is especially efficacious.

Caldwell is a pleasing little spot. In the centre is the public square of about two acres, on which are the county buildings ; neat, inexpensive brick structures. The ground is thickly covered with shade trees

and the whole enclosed by a neat iron fence. In summer evenings the population largely come out to hear there the village band.

I am told the population is almost entirely American, not a dozen families of foreign

JOHN GRAY.

The last surviving soldier of the Revolutionary War.

CATHARINE GRAY Born May,28. 1779. Died July 6. 1864. Aged 85 Ys. IM. 8D.

JOHN GRAY DIED MAR.291868. AGED 104Y.2M23D

C. S. Curry, Photographer. THE GRAVE OF JOHN GRAY.

MOSSENSONY

C. S. Curry, Photo., Caldwell, 1886.

CALDWELL.

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NOBLE COUNTY.

birth in the village. The morals of the county are exceptionally good. There is very little crime, not a case of murder has occurred, and but two of manslaughter in its history, and the jailer's office is largely a sinecure ; three-quarters of the time the jail is without a tenant. When used it is usually for such offences as violation of the liquor law or other trifling breaches of the peace. There are but few large farms in the county ; prob- ably not an individual worth $100,000 within its bounds and no very poor people. So the entire community is one that helps to give back-bone to the nation ; one on which the heart rests with a sense of solid satisfac- tion.

Caldwell is the only spot in the Union that possesses a Union soldier who never was an officer who has a national reputation, for it is the home of one who has a higher name than that of a score of ordinary brigadiers, and that is Private Dalzell. There is a small swinging sign hanging from a small build-

ing on the public square, which is here shown :

JAMES M. DALZELL, Attorney-at-Law.

Mr. Dalzell practises law and cultivates a family. A troop of little girls with one little boy are often at his heels on the street. Patriotism begins at home and the hearth- stone is its cradle. On my arrival at Caldwell that sentiment I found at fever heat. It was just on the eve of Decoration Day and the streets were full of children assembling to prepare for its celebration, and among them was those of the Private. Mr. Dalzell is of Seoteli-Irish parentage, tall and wiry in per- son, with profuse yellowish loeks, which onee in the war time, when in Washington, caused him to retreat from a band of music, who were after him for a blast, mistaking him for General Custer.

CALDWELL is in the carly noted Macksburg oil and gas field. For the follow- ing valuable historical article npon it we are indebted to Capt. I. C. Phillips, of Caldwell :

First Discovery of Petroleum .- Petroleum was first found in Ohio, and perhaps the world, in what is now Noble county, within one mile of Caldwell, the county- seat. In 1816 Robert McKee, one of the early pioneers and a man of great en- ergy, began drilling a well for salt water, and struck a crevice containing oil, which gave him great trouble in the manufacture of salt, and which finally led. to the abandonment of the well and the drilling of other wells to obtain a supply of salt water free from the oil. This well still continues to yield oil in small quantities.

When Col. E. L. Drake found oil in Pennsylvania, David Mckee, a son of the man who first struck oil, happened to be in Pittsburg, and in conversation with some business men there who were interested in some ventures on Oil Creek, Pa., remarked, when shown a sample of the oil, that "There was plenty of that stuff on Duck creek where he lived," and promised to send his friends some of the oil, which he did, and a company was formed to develop the new region.

First Well Drilled for Oil .- To James Dutton, however, belongs the distinction of being the first man to strike oil in the new field, who was actually looking for it. He drilled a well about one and a half miles southeast of Macksburg, using a spring pole and kicking it down. At a depth of sixty-seven feet he struck what was undoubtedly a crevice containing the oil and water combined, but en- tirely without gas. From this well he pumped 100 barrels per day when at its best. Oil was worth from eight to ten dollars per barrel at that time. A season of intense excitement existed throughout the valley.

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume II, Part 51

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