History of Ashland County, Ohio, Part 16

Author: Baughman, A. J. (Abraham J.), 1838-1913. cn
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1012

USA > Ohio > Ashland County > History of Ashland County, Ohio > Part 16

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Alexander Finley was the first white settler in Mohican township. Within a few weeks, however, other persons, namely, William and Thomas Eagle, Benja- min Bunn, and John Shinnebarger, all having families, settled in the neighbor- hood. The year following, (1810) Amos Norris, Vachel Metcalf, William Bryan, Thomas Newman, and James Slater, with their several families, removed to the township.

The Indians in the neighborhood at this time were an intermixture of several tribes, the Mohegans, Delawares, Wyandottes, Shawnees, Chickasaws, and one or two who claimed to be of the Cherokee tribe. They were friendly and harmless, until the war of 1812 commenced, when the main body of them disappeared, and most of them, it is supposed, became attached to the British service.

The first year or two after Mr. Finley came to the country, he obtained his supplies of flour and corn meal from Shrimplin's mill, below Mt. Vernon. This journey to the mill was performed in canoes or pirogues, down the Lake Fork and Mohican, and up Owl creek, and occupied about three days for the trip. These vessels would carry from twenty to fifty bushels of corn meal.

The forests at this period were destitute of underbrush or small timber, but were covered with sedge grass, pea vines, and weeds, which afforded excellent pasture from early spring until about August. The sedge grass, when cut in July, or earlier, afforded very nutritous and palatable food for horses and cattle during the winter. Very little iron was used in those days. The wooden "mould board" plow and wooden and brush harrows were generally in use twelve or fifteen years after Mr. Finley came to the country; and many con- tinued their use several years afterward.

The clothing of the men was buckskin and flax linen. The women were clothed in a fabric made of raw cotton and flax linen. Handkerchiefs, head- dresses, and aprons were made, by the thrifty housewives, of raw cotton. The price of calico (being from fifty to seventy-five cents per yard) placed it without the means of any but very few to purchase. An excellent and industrious girl, as late as 1822 or 1823, toiled faithfully six weeks for six yards of calico, which, in those primitive days, before the era of hoops, was deemed sufficient for a dress. The lady who appeared in the first calico dress, attracted, it may be supposed, considerable attention in "the settlement." Window glass was not in use until some years after the war of 1812, oiled paper being employed as a substitute.

When Mr. Hootman came to the township the major part of the village of Jeromeville was covered with fallen timber and hazel bush. The improvements

CHRISTIAN CHURCH, JEROMEVILLE

STREET SCENE IN JEROMEVILLE

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on the farms then settled were small, being log cabins surrounded by a few acres of partly cleared land. The roads were new and unimproved, and many of them little more than bridle-paths. The prices of produce in 1828-29 were, as I recollect distinctly : wheat, twenty-five cents; pork, one dollar and fifty cents per hundred weight; corn, eighteen cents; salt, five dollars per barrel; coffee, fifty cents per pound; tea, fifty cents per quarter ; butter, six cents ; eggs, nothing; iron, twelve and one-half cents per pound. The usual and best market place was Portland, (now Sandusky City). Twenty to thirty bushels wheat, a big load for two and four horses, ten days of travel if the roads were good, two weeks if not good. Massillon became a market town. The opening of the Ohio canal run the price of wheat up at once to forty cents, then fifty, and then our farmers at that time were satisfied, and expressed the wish that the price would continue at that as they then could make money. Our nearest grist- mill was an old concern known as Goudy's Mill, southeast of Hayesville, with one run of stone, old niggerhead or boulder stone at that. Another was Smith's Mill, below Mohicanville. In the winter, when those small streams were frozen, we went to the Clearfork to Manner's Mill. Sometimes we had to go to Owl Creek, in Knox county.

There were the remains of no less than five ancient fortifications in Mohican township; the embankments very regular and very distinctly defined, until cultivation has nearly destroyed their original features. Three are near Jeromeville, and two near the junction of the Muddy and Jerome Forks. They embraced areas averaging about one and a half acres. A mound near the old Indian village, bearing unmistakable evidence, after excavation, of its being a work of art and upon which trees, the growth of centuries, were standing, was also in existence.

The following chronological memoranda of events of interest that have occurred in past years, furnished by Judge Ingmand, will be found of general and local interest :

November 13, 1833. Lights were seen falling on the early morning of this day, (three or four hours before daybreak,) having the appearance of showers of stars.

May 15, 1834. The first frost that, since the settlement of the country, occurred which had been known to materially injure the wheat crop.

June 21, 1834. A terrific storm passed over Jeromeville and a district of country west, which appeared to have its most violent force between the latter place and the vicinity of the farm upon which the County Infirmary is now situated, prostrating in its pathway forest trees and fences, unroofing buildings, removing them from their foundations, etc.

1835. The summer remarkably wet, bottom lands much overflown, and too wet for tillage. Hay crop badly damaged, and cattle died the following winter in consequence of eating it. A comet appeared during the fall of the same year. November 11, a severe storm, which did much damage to Buffalo and other ports on the American side, and to the shipping on the lakes.

May 2, 1841. A snow storm of rare violence.

July 21, 1843. Frost.

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September 27, 1844. Snow covered the ground, and lay upon it all the following day. October 18, a violent snow storm at Buffalo. May 7 and 25, 1845. Frosts appeared, which again destroyed the wheat crop of this year.

To those familiar with the days of log cabins, the phrase so often used, "the latch string is out," is clearly understood .. This latch or fastening was made of wood, and in order to enable those from without to enter the dwelling, a small string was attached to the latch, (which was always on the inside) and passed through the door to the outside, and hence, to prevent the entrance of any person, the inmates would pull in the latch string, so that when it was not seen on the outside of the door, it was evidence that no one could be admitted. One window was usually all that was considered necessary in a log cabin. This was made by cutting out one log, some two feet in length, and then closing up by putting in small sticks, in the form of sash, and pasting greased paper over them to cause it to admit the light more readily.

As stoves were almost unknown in those days, a fireplace was used instead thereof. These were made by cutting out a hole in one end of the building, in some cases large enough to pass a two-horse wagon through the cavity. On the outside of the house, and connected with this, the chimney was built of wood and mortar, sometimes lined on the inside with stone and mortar, immediately ad- joining the fireplace. In front of the fireplace was a large space left in the floor, called the hearth, which was usually covered with flat stone, and hence the old phrase "hearth-stone."

As the wants of the people of that day were few, and easily satisfied, the log cabin usually contained but one room, which served as kitchen, dining room, bed room, sitting room and parlor.

Upon land in Mohican township was a prairie, which appeared originally to have been a crust of vegetable matter overlying a sheet of water. As it was evidently land of great fertility, if the water under it could be withdrawn, efforts were made thoroughly to drain it. Ditches were made, in some places, to the depth of six feet, and considerable quantities of cedar trees, some of them twelve and eighteen inches in diameter, were found imbedded in the earth. What length of time they had occupied the position in which they were found is, of course, unknown, but they appeared as free from any evidence of decay as they would have shown on the day they perished. What is remarkable is that no cedars were ever found by the early settlers, growing in that vicinity. The inference is that a cedar swamp once covered the ground, and a tornado may have violently uprooted them, thus breaking the crust and burying them beneath the surface. Swamp flag and wild grass, very little decayed, were also found at the depth of from five to six feet .. Skeletons of buffalo and elk were also discovered, some of them of immense size. The head and horns of one elk found partly imbedded were of such dimensions that, placing the points of the horns upon the ground, two men on each side supporting them in an upright position. William Eagle, a man whose height was nearly six feet, would pass under them erect.

In the early settlement of the country there was no law providing for com mon schools-no tax levied or other funds provided for payment of teachers. Hence all buildings for the use of common schools consisted of some old evacu-

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ated dwelling; or, if built for that express purpose, had to be done by voluntary contribution of citizens immediately interested.

During the war of 1812, there were three blockhouses erected in Mohican township, one on the town plat of Jeromeville, a few rods north of the present gristmill; one near the Mohican creek, about four miles south of Jeromeville, on land later owned by Henry Treace; and one about a mile farther down the creek.

To these houses all the neighborhood would run for safety whenever the alarm was given, and not unfrequently they would have to remain there for several days and nights, with but little to eat or drink. Sometimes some triv- ial circumstance would cause an alarm, and the whole neighborhood would gather into the blockhouse, and, after remaining there perhaps a day and night, the mistake would be found out, and all would return to their homes again.

CLEAR CREEK TOWNSHIP.

Clear Creek township was surveyed in 1807, by Mansfield Ludlow, but the date of its organization as a township cannot be ascertained by either township or county records. However, it is known that the population of the township in 1820 was three hundred and nine. The number had increased to one thous- and three hundred and twenty-seven in 1860. When the first settlers came to this township they found the land covered with a dense forest, and had hard labor in clearing and improving their farms. The first list of township officers on record were those of 1862, to-wit: trustees, A. F. Shaw, John Bryte, and E. T. Garrett; clerk, M. C. Percival; assessor, John Gibson; treasurer, David Stem; constables, John Swineford and John Neff ..

The town of Savannah being pleasantly situated and on a leading road it was a place of considerable business for a number of years, and during the period of the evolution of counties it was a prominent candidate for the seat of justice for a new county. Savannah was laid out December 25th, 1818, and was named Vermillion, although the place was locally known as Haneytown, for the Rev. James Haney, an early resident of the place, and who had served several terms in the legislature as a representative from Ashland county. Rev. Haney was a man of good sense as well as of fine sentiment, and in a letter to a friend, speaking of the prosperous condition of the township, the result of the labors of the pioneers, also looked forward with an interest somewhat tinged with melancholy from the past to the future and expressed the inquiry as to whether succeeding generations would be informed of the names even, of those who had cleared the forest in fields and first cultivated the same. He recalled the lines of Henry Kirk White, that-

"Fifty years hence, and who will hear of Henry ?

Oh! none; another busy brood of beings Will shoot up in the interim, and none Will hold him in remembrance."

The histories then written were of a general or national character and the

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Rev. Haney did not anticipate that local histories in time would come.

The selection of Ashland as the county-seat of the new county of Ashland gave a back-set to Savannah and the business of the town began to decline, but its downward course was checked by the erection of the Savannah Academy in 1858.

The first school taught in Clear Creek township was by Mrs. Elliott in her own house in 1817-1818.

The first instance in which the population of the village of Savannah was taken separately from that of the township of Clear Creek was in 1860. It then contained three hundred and thirty-six inhabitants.

A Presbyterian church was organized in Savannah in 1833. This church was an offshoot from the Hopewell church of Ashland. A Free Presbyterian church was organized in Savannah in 1851, with F. M. Finney, minister. The United Presbyterian church was organized there in June, 1858, by combining members of what was before known as the Associate and the Associate Reform Presbyterian churches, with J. W. Ashenhurst as pastor. The Associate Reform Congregation of Savannah was organized in September, 1831, by the late Rev. James Johnson, of Mansfield. The first house of worship in Savannah was built in 1834. A Disciple church was organized in the township in the year 1830. The denomination which was then known as the Disciples is now called "Christians," but the proper denominational name for this sect of people is "The Church of the Disciples of Christ."

In 1837 the names of the town and postoffice were changed from Vermillion to Savannah.

In 1822 the only mill in the township was a horsemill, built and owned by Thomas Ford. The first sawmill in the township was erected by Joseph Davis on the Clear Creek in 1822. In 1824 John Hendricks built a frame gristmill on the Vermillion, a short distance below the mouth of the Clear Creek. In 1827 John and Thomas Haney erected a gristmill on Mulhollen's run, a short distance south of the town. Prior to the erection of gristmills in Clear Creek township, the pioneers had to take their grists to Odell's in Wayne county-a distance of from thirty to thiry-five miles.

The first election in the township was held at the house of John Freeborn. The first physician in the township was Dr. Cliff. Prior to that the nearest physician was at Ashland.

The cabin of Thomas Ford was a prominent place of holding religious meetings in pioneer times in Clear Creek township. Men and women traveled often six or eight miles on foot, through the woods, at night they lighted their pathways by torches of hickory bark, to enable them to attend the services. In 1830, a church building was put up, known as "Ford's Meeting House." This meeting house was considered the best structure devoted to religious ser- vices in that part of the county. The four quarterly meetings of the circuit of the Methodist Episcopal church-Mansfield being included in the circuit- were held in this church for several years. The first religious service held in Ford's Meeting House was the funeral of Thomas Ford, who died October 10, 1830, aged fifty-seven years. His was the first interment in the graveyard adjoining the church.

SAVANNAH ACADEMY, SAVANNAH

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HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY

In about 1820, the first schoolhouse in the southern part of the township was built on the line of the land of Abraham Huffman. The house was of hewn logs, eighteen by twenty feet, cabin roof, puncheon floor, puncheon tables and puncheon seats. It had greased paper windows, and the facilities for heating were limited to fires made in a fireplace such as were in general use in the cabins of those days, and afforded in cold weather insufficient heat to admit of practice in writing, as the ink would almost freeze in the pen in the process of transferring it from the inkstand to the paper. The first teacher was Robert Nelson, of Milton township, who continued in that capacity two or three years.

As evidence of the privations endured by many in the early settlement, Mr. Vanostrand mentions the case of a worthy family who came to the country destitute of either provisions or money, who subsisted a greater portion of one season upon pumpkins alone-commencing their use as food while the vege- table was yet unripened. The family would perhaps have suffered death by starvation, had it not been for the friendly aid afforded them by the neighbors, after learning their situation.

Every house in Clear Creek, as was the case in other townships in the early settlement, manufactured the wearing apparel for its own household. The males were dressed in buckskin and domestic linen; and the women and child- ren were also dressed in fabrics the product of their own fields and households.

There were no woolen goods, as sheep would be devoured by the wolves; and after the wolves had so far disappeared as to invite the introduction of sheep, the climate and wild food were discovered to be unfavorable to their life and health.

Jacob Myers immigrated to Clear Creek township, April 23,1829. His native state was Pennsylvania, Green county, where he was ordained as a clergyman of the Baptist church. He purchased and entered the land which forms the tract upon which he has since resided, on sections 3 and 4, Clear Creek township.

Among the pioneer families of Clear Creek township, the following names are recalled: Elias Ford, Peter Vannostrand, William Shaw, James Haney, John Freeborn, David Burns, John Richards, Thomas Ford, Abraham Claberg and John Bryte .. Elias Ford came to Clear Creek township in 1819, and the Fords have been numerous and prominent in the township ever since. One of the number, Thomas H., became lieutenant governor of Ohio and was later a Colonel in the Union army in the war of the Rebellion.

David Bryte settled in Clear Creek township in 1821. He later located in Mansfield, where he served as deputy sheriff for two terms and in 1840 was elected sheriff of Richland county. He died in 1872.

COMMUNICATIONS FROM REV. JOHN HANEY.

Under date of November 10, 1861, the Rev. John Haney wrote the following communication from Lansing, Iowa, to Editor Knapp, of Ashland. Mr. Haney writes as follows :

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"In compliance with your request, I will state that the settlement of what is now Clear Creek township, Ashland county, commenced in the spring of eighteen hundred and fifteen (1815). In the winter preceding the Rev. James Haney, (my father) John and Richard Freeborn and William Shaw built a small keelboat in Cross Creek township, Washington county, Pennsylvania, and hauled it a distance of twelve miles to the Ohio river. On the evening of the 10th of March of that year, Richard Freeborn, William Shaw, Daniel Devlin, my father and myself embarked on the boat which we had freighted with our goods, provisions, etc., from Wellsburg, Virginia, to the nearest navigable point on the Muskingum waters, thence to our destination. John Freeborn went by land with our horses and cattle. On reaching the mouth of the Muskingum we

met unusually high water, which retarded our progress and made the labor of propelling our keelboat very severe. Daniel Devlin and I were then only six-

teen years of age each. After many adventures and perils, we arrived at a place called Finley's bridge, about five miles south of Jeromeville, on the 26th of April, where we met our horses and pack saddles. On the evening of the 29th, we encamped on the ground now known as the old grave yard, on the line between Clear Creek and Orange townships, one and a half miles southeast of Savannah. The names of the parties there encamped were John Freeborn, Richard Freeborn, his wife Elizabeth and infant daughter Mary, William Shaw, his wife and daughters Eleaner and Jane, small children, Rev. James Haney, his sons John and Thomas and daughter Mary, aged respectively sixteen, four- teen, and twelve at that time. The balance of the family came out in the fall.

"Abraham Huffman, Robert McBeth and Patrick Elliott, were among the first settlers of Clear Creek township.

"The entire range of surveyed townships from the north to the south side of Richland county, in which Clear Creek was situated, constituted but one organized township, at first named Vermillion. The date of the organization of Clear Creek township I do not distinctly recollect. It was either John or Richard Freeborn who personally applied for the organization and gave the name. It was the name given by the Messrs. Freeborn to the principal creek in the township when they first saw it in the summer of 1814, and they gave the township the same name. I do not recollect who were the first officers of the township, but I do remember that, for several years the officers served without pay. Robert McBeth was the first justice of the peace.

"I am unable to recall the years that my father represented Richland county in the Ohio legislature. It was, however, during the period that the state organized its canal system.

"My impression is that Mrs. Elliott taught the first school in the township at her own house. I think the first religious meeting was held at father's house, three-fourths of a mile east of Savannah. At any rate, Rev. James Haney preached the first sermon ever preached in the township. For sometime after the commencement of the settlement of the country, religious meetings were held at private houses. If I am not mistaken, the first religious society was formed at Mr. Thomas Ford's and the first administration of the sacrament took place there. The precise time when and where the first church building was erected, I do not recollect.

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"The village of Savannah was laid out in the winter of 1818, by myself. It was first called Vermillion. The first man who settled in the town was Joseph Fast. The first schoolhouse was a small log building erected on the northeast corner of the town plat. Jacob Mclain was the first brickmaker and hatter in the town. Garnett Whitelock was the first blacksmith. Joseph Davis built the first sawmill on Clear creek, one and a half miles west of Savannah.

"John and Richard Freeborn planted the first apple seeds, which furnished the trees for several of the oldest orchards in the township. Thomas Ford erected the first horsemill for grinding grain in the township.

"The Indians hunted for several years after the first settlers came. They were principally Delawares and Wyandots. Game was plenty for several years after the first settlements were made. The wild pasture was good at first. Horses and cattle did well, but sheep were unhealthy until the country was improved.

"The streams had more water in then than now. The general health was pretty good, considering that the climate was damper than at present. The principal diseases were intermittent fevers and rheumatism. The social con- dition of the first settlers was good. Their common wants brought them in con- tact favorable to the cultivation of the social virtues. Few of the settlers did more toward improving the country than Abraham Huffman. He was a man of great industry and energy, always ready to administer to the wants of the needy. His uncompromising hostility to what he considered wrong, sometimes caused him trouble that many others could have avoided.

"Robert McBeth was an intelligent man, of fine social qualities, and sterling integrity.

"Patrick Elliott was emphatically an honest man.

"Thomas Ford was a highly reputable and intelligent citizen."

SULLIVAN TOWNSHIP.

Mr. S. Parmele, one of the party which surveyed Sullivan township gave the following account of the survey and early settlement of the township :

"Sullivan township was surveyed in 1816, by Esquire Baldwin, of Newburg, Cuyahoga county, assisted by myself and others. The survey was commenced in the month of October; and the surveying party camped in the woods two weeks, there being no settlement nearer than Harrisville east, and Elyria north; no road but a line of marked trees. A road was laid out in the time of the war of 1812, nearly parallel with the present, but had never been marked. Game was very plenty. Business of importance recalled Mr. Baldwin to Newburg; being absent longer than was expected, the county not having very comfortable quarters, I started after him, there being no mode of communication but by messengers. I traveled on foot the whole distance by the aid of marked trees and trail not very well defined after I had left Harrisville.

"On the 8th of November, a very heavy fall of snow obstructed my walking very much; it was about a foot deep in the woods, but I went through. After all this fatigue and delay, I was obliged to return without him. On my return night overtook me, and I was unable to follow the trail; but, nothing disheartened

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History of Ashland County, Ohio, Part 16

Author: Baughman, A. J. (Abraham J.), 1838-1913. cn Publication date: 1909 Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1012

Author: Baughman, A. J. (Abraham J.), 1838-1913. cn
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1012