History of Ashland County, Ohio, Part 24

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 24

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No drive out of Loudonville abounds in as much beautiful scenery as the one south of Mt. Vernon avenue over the old State road. You pass the site of the once flourishing tannery of the Schauweker Brothers, who amassed a fortune here in their business. The grounds in part are now owned by the Queen Manu- facturing Company, one of Loudonville's flourishing manufacturing concerns. As you ascend Brewery or "Ghost" Hill a panoramic view of Loudonville is presented that is simply charming. To the right of the winding roadway rises the City Waterworks Park until it reaches an altitude several hundred feet above the valley below. On its lofty summit lies sleeping like a monstrous leviathan the City Reservoir, whose throbbing arteries ramify every street of the town, even to the remotest ends of it, slaking the thirst of all animate beings of the city, cleansing it of all manner of microbes that might endanger life or health, or laying combat to the fire demon that would at the midnight hour seek to destroy the homes or other treasures of its peaceful citizens. If the plans of the city fathers are carried out in years to come Waterworks Park will be a beauty- spot and the pride of the town. From its lofty heights an enchanting landscape unfolds before the vision. The smoke from the hundreds of peaceful homes and the few busy factories settles over the valley below like a cloud of incense and the many lofty church spires pointing heavenward give evidence of a devout and God-fearing people. Beyond the confines of the town stretches out a landscape of vernal green that serves as a background to a charming birds-eye

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picture of our lovely city. Across it, all like threads of steel, passes the roadway of one of the century's greatest wonders in the realms of commericial exchange -- a modern railway, with its giant engines and monstrous trains like phantoms flitting to and fro.

What a contrast between the present and the conditions that existed a gener- ation ago! We say a generation ago-we can almost draw the limit a little closer. As we are ascending the roadway over the hill we imagine we can hear the rumblings of the old-fashioned stage coach approaching us, the same drawn by four foaming steeds and our old and good friend Sylvester Danner handling the ribbons and cracking the whip over the heads of the dashing horses, as he was wont to do for eight years before the advent of railroads in this country.

In those pioneer days one of the great thoroughfares of this country was the road we are now traveling and the stage coach was the most commodious and expeditious mode of travel. Although we are removed only a generation from this primitive state of our country's history we can hardly realize that the steam engine, electric car, telegraph and telephone service are creations of the past decade or two.

As we are passing down the road we greet our good friends, Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Bell and the dear ones at home, who are enjoying life's comforts on the old Barron farm, now owned by our townsman, W. S. Fisher.

We next halt at the home of Casper Paul and his brother, who always have a kind word for the stranger within their gates.

As we journey on we cast our eyes over the broad and fertile acres of our good friend Frederick Feichter, than whom no thriftier and more successful yeoman lives in Hanover township. He has made farming a life study and his success is due to applying his knowledge to all his farming operations.

As we pass along we are charmed by the beauties of nature as displayed in the fertile valley that stretches out before us. On either side are silhouetted against the horizon the everlasting hills which seem like giant sentinels guarding the valley below, which is glistening under the effulgence of the morning sun. Through the erosions by the elements during ages and centuries the hills have receded, thus broadening the valley and adding many fertile acres to the farm land. Upon the hillsides are lazily roaming herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, reminding us of the "cattle upon a thousand hills" mentioned in the Sacred Word. The edges of the roadside are fringed with blossoming elders and a great profusion of wild flowers of all descriptions. The wheat fields are waving in the gentle breeze, reminding us that harvest-time will soon be here. The pasture fields are carpeted over with a deep green and all nature never looked lovlier than it does now.

The slow and sluggish Blackfork draws its serpentine length through the beautiful valley and on either side is hemmed in by strips of a luxuriant growth of willows and underbrush. Close beside this stream the Walhonding Valley railroad seeks to parallel it, but on account of many crooks and turns has to leap from one side to the other.

While we are drinking in the beauties of the valley and its environments we notice over the farthest hill tops, where the valley swings to the east, the smoke curling up and then, a shrill whistle of an approaching train. Where a few

HOTEL ULLMAN, LOUDONVILLE

LOUDONVILLE PUBLIC SCHOOL

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generations ago was curling the smoke from the red man's wigwam and where was heard his dread war whoop are now the quiet homes of a peaceful and pros- perous people, who enjoy all the luxuries that are the inheritance of civilization and Christianization.

But we have reached the "Old Stone House," about which cluster many happy and also sad memories. In years past this ancient landmark was owned in succession by two of Loudonville's eminent physicians, Drs. J. C. Pell and A. B. Fuller. Both have passed from life's busy stage of action, but we never pass along the road but that memory reverts to them and our heart saddens at the thought that their lives were not spared for many more years of usefulness and affectionate association with those near and dear to them. The present tenants of the old house are Mr. and Mrs. Frank Whisler. We have a tender spot in our hearts for the good housewife that presides over the destinies of the household in the old mansion. Several years ago while returning with a friend from a fishing expedition, we halted at the stone spring in front of the house for a drink, but the kind lady, who was boiling applebutter, offered us big draughts of sweet cider, which was most delicious. We shall never forget the kindness.

Further down the road we pass the site of the old wooden mill but it has long since fallen into decay and it is now only a memory.

We now reach the Garrett bottoms, lands that are fertile as any in the country. When William Garrett and his young wife came to this section from their New Jersey home they settled on this tract of land and spent the remainder of their days upon it. They here amassed a fortune through frugality, industry and honorable dealings with their neighbors. Although living on the farm Mr. Garrett served for years as vice president of the Loudonville Banking Company. The farm of about four hundred acres is now owned and occupied by their daugh- ter, Mrs. John Nyhart. Mr. and Mrs. Nyhart live in a palatial farm house just across the Clearfork. As one views the contentment of these tillers of the soil and the bounty with which they are provided you are reminded of the condition of the farmers of the storied Arcadian land before the invasion of the enemy.

On the north bank of the Clearfork, opposite the wooden bridge, stands one of the oldest landmarks of Hanover township. The house is occupied by Alfred Maxwell and family, who do the farming for Mr. Nyhart. The house was erected over ninety years ago and during stage coach days was a country tavern. Ed. Hibbard was then the landlord and, as a tavern in those days always included a bar where all kinds of intoxicating liquors were dispensed, the old citizens of that country relate many exciting doings when the warring elements of the back- woods localities met and while under the influence of liquor settled their diffi- culties. Our old friend, Joshua Mapes, who lives near the old hotel site, is now in his eightieth year, is the first male child born on Pine Run and never was farther away from his old home than Mt. Vernon. He remembers many of the fights at the old tavern and when a boy saw Indians, wolves, bears, deer, wild cats and even panthers and elks roaming the bottoms.

At the Nyhart home an old wooden bridge spans the Clearfork, one of those relics of stage coach days, which are now fast passing away. In a few more years this may have to give way to a modern stone and iron structure in order to accommodate the interurban electric line from Loudonville to Mt. Vernon.

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South of the bridge, with a beautiful hillside for a background, stands the old stone election house which was built about forty years ago, replacing a struc- ture which Mart Ernst afterwards used as a barn until the great flood of June, 1899, carried it down the stream.

We wish to digress a little here to relate an incident that an old newspaper man told us at the hotel in Mansfield, several years ago. He was born and raised in the state of New York and learned the art preservative. He got the western fever and started for Cincinnati to seek employment. He passed through Loudonville on a stage coach. After working in Cincinnati for a few months he became homesick and started for home again over the same tedious stage coach line. He said he remembered Loudonville from the fact that one night he stayed in a country tavern in a little village between Loudonville and Mt. Vernon. He dreamed of home and the dear ones there and then a beautiful picture came up before his vision. He thought he was standing on a high elevation and before him lay a valley that was resplendent in beauty. In the meadows of the low lands herds of cattle were grazing, a stream of crystal water was winding its serpentine length through the valley and a country road was passing through it. To the left of the valley was a high bluff surmounted by a heavy primeval forest and down along the hillside near the road was projecting the snag of a dead tree and underneath it was gushing forth from the caverns of the hillside a stream of

clear water. Every outline seemed as real as life in his dream and it made an impression on him that he never forgot. In the morning the tedious journey was again resumed and the dream of the night was haunting the homesick young man all along the route. As the stage coach reached a point, as he described it, about four miles south of Loudonville, as they were descending a steep hill, he beheld the exact landscape as pictured in the vision the night before. There was not a single detail omitted. In relating this incident he said he could not account for it, but he would give five dollars now if he could be once more at the same spot and view the same landscape.

To the west from the covered bridge the Clearfork is paralleled on both sides by a country road. We take what is called the "Narrows" road. At times this is a dangerous thoroughfare, as the hillsides give way and go thunder- ing down into the river below. When the foliage is all out a vista to extreme beauty presents itself. The music of the birds from the deep, umbrageous re- cesses of the wooded hillside is charming and the air is redolent with the perfume of many flowers. At this time of the year and possibly a little earlier the hill- sides are festooned with large patches of wild flowers of the brightest hues, which gleam through the dark foliage and present a charming scene. To the right the roadside is lined by bushes which are growing at the edge of the beautiful Clear- fork and through them as you pass along you get glimpses of the clear and placid stream. Many are the woodland voices calling us and the admirer of the beauti- ful in nature can go adrift in these woodpaths and will be charmed by the exquisite chorus of bird music. The full chorus of bird song is really almost over by the middle of June, but there is enough song and activity left to enchant you. Even upon the crest of the hillside the sable crows are holding an ani- mated convention on the contiguous tree tops and discussing the prospects of the farmer's corn crop in yonder field.

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As you emerge from the charming vista along the "Narrows" your memory will revert to a sad scene enacted on the night of June 19, 1899, when Isaac Hunter lost his life in the great flood. The writer with a friend passed along this road on the morning of that memorable day. The sun shone brightly and when we reached the Hunter cabin a beautiful view presented itself. We both remarked : "What a beautiful scene for a picture!" The modest little cabin was in the center of the scene, around it were strewn promiscuously farming utensils, threshing and sawing machinery and the general indications were that there was no woman connected with the household. The background consisted of hills covered with the most beautiful foliage. It was just such a setting to a picture that an artist would admire. On our return home that evening we engaged a photographer to drive down the following morning to take the picture for "Loudonville Illustrated." Scarcely an hour afterwards the most destruc- tive storm for years commenced to rage. Our townsman, E. F. Shelley, passed the Hunter cabin after the storm had commenced and by the flashes of lightning recognized the old man as he was standing in the cabin door with a pan in his hand. No one saw him alive afterwards. The floodgates of heaven seemed to have been turned wide open and the reverberations of thunder from hillside to hillside and flashes of vivid lightning struck terror to the stoutest hearts. Horsetail Run, a little rivulet, soon became a roaring river, extending its borders to both hillsides and carrying death and destruction before it. The county bridge and the Hunter cabin were mere toys in the embrace of this infuriated water demon. The horror felt and experienced by the only occupant of the little cabin can only be imagined. His fate was not known until the next morn- ing when the ruins plainly indicated it. His remains were found ten days later along the banks of the stream near Greersville.

Our good friend Mart. Ernst and his wife, who live only a few rods up the run from the site of the Hunter cabin, were saved as by a miracle. Their home was surrounded by water and all out-buildings were carried away by the flood. Mr. Ernst, by the way, is a veritable walking encyclopedia on matters pertain- ing to hunting and fishing and is conversant with the entire legendary lore of the Clearfork country. His friends call him as a special distinction "The Old Coon Hunter of the Clearfork."

Beyond his home where the road makes another turn Horsetail run reveals hundreds and thousands of round stones of all sizes. This has been the Mecca of relic hunters for many years. Many a pleasant hour was spent in years past in the bed of this almost dried-up run by our departed friends, H. B. Case and John Freshwater and the Dominie that presides over the spiritual destinies of Zion Lutheran church, the Rev. M. R. Walter, hammers in hand and cracking open the "dornicks" to find some rare geological specimens. The following are some of the fossils with which this special locality abounds: spirifers, crinoids, conularias, micronemas, newberris, lingulars, trilobite Lodienzis, etc. It may be of interest to some of our readers that according to the geological reports of Ohio that the only sections in the world where the Trilobite Lodienzi is found is in this special locality and at Lodi, in Medina county.

It takes its specific name from the town of Lodi.

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VIII.

MILITARY.

It is a matter little known to the world in general that Ashland county was the scene of a conflict between the British and Americans during the war of 1812. Such, however, is the case and the following account thereof has been written under the title of

TWO BATTLES OF COWPENS.

There are two battles of Cowpens recorded in history-one fought in South Carolina during the war of the revolution, the other in old Richland county- in our own Buckeye state-in the war of 1812. The former was a terrible reality ; the latter a bloodless incident.

At Cowpens, a village in Spartanburg county, South Carolina, on January 17, 1781, the American army under General Morgan defeated the British under General Tarleton. The American loss in this battle was but seventy-two while that of the British was over eight hundred, making the result a signal victory for the patriots.

The Richland incident occurred in what is now Vermillion township, Ashland county, then a part of Richland ere the legislature cut up its original boundaries to create new counties.

When General Beall made his memorable march in the fall of 1812 to pro- teet the settlements in this part of the state from attacks of the savages and incursions of the British he cut a road called "Beall's trail" through the wilder- ness from Wooster to the state road at Planktown.

While enroute the army camped for two weeks in the vicinity of Hay's Cross Roads. now called Hayesville. The camp was called Camp Musser, after Major Musser, an officer in General Beall's army.

While at Camp Musser. an incident occurred known in our local history as the battle of the Cowpens.

It was on a dark rainy night that the soldiers were awakened from their slumbers by the firing of piekets at one of the outposts and the command to "fall in." soon formed the men into line to meet the foe, as it was supposed the Indians were coming to attack the camp in

"The stilly hours of the night."

The pickets reported that the enemy was advancing upon the camp in solid phalanx and the ground trembled with the tread of forming battallions and of approaching "foes."

It was the army's first experience in war's alarms and the soldiers acted as calmly as veterans of old and with steady hands opened fire upon the advancing foe( ?), lighting up with lurid glare and quickening flash the inky blackness of the night. The cracking of musketry, the charging of cavalry over logs and stumps, combined to make night grand and awful with the pomp and reality of war.

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Soon however, the tramp and bellowing of stamping cattle explained the "attack"-that the stock had broken out of the corral and advancing towards the picket post had been mistaken by the guards for hostile Indians. The incident, however, showed the vigilance of the troops, as well as their coolness and bravery in the face of danger.

A sagacious general is equal to and ready to meet surprises, midnight attacks and other emergencies.

Napoleon won at least three of his most striking victories-Marenzo, Aus- terlitz and Dresden-by passing at the right moment suddenly from an apparently passing attitude of defence to a vigorous offensive. Wellington, after the world had come to regard him as great only on the defensive, used strictly the opposite tactics with victorious results at Victoria, Orthez and Toulouse, the last of these three actions being one of such apparent temerity as can hardly be paralleled in modern history.

General Beall had many of the essential characteristics of a commander, and led his troops successfully through the wilderness in his campaign against both a savage and an invading foe, and defended himself against the jealous machinations of West Pointers.

General Beall had previously served in the army, having been an officer in General Harmar's campaign against the Indians in 1790. He was a con- gressman from Ohio in 1813-15 and died at Wooster February 20, 1843.

General Beall's campaign was made when Return Jonathan Meigs was gov- ernor of Ohio. And the story of Governor Meigs' life reads like a romance. In 1789, he was an attorney at law at Marietta and delivered a Fourth of July address, concluding with a poem-the first ever printed in Ohio:

"See the spires of Marietta rise,

And domes and temples swell into the skies."

In 1802, Meigs was chief justice of the supreme court of Ohio; in 1804 he was commander of the United States troops in the upper district of Louisiana ; in 1805, one of the judges of the territory of Louisiana; in 1807 one of the judges of the territory of Michigan; in 1808 elected supreme judge for Ohio; in 1809 chosen United States senator from Ohio; in 1810 elected governor of Ohio and re-elected in 1812; in 1814 appointed postmaster general of the United States. He died at Marietta, March 29, 1825, aged sixty years ..

Beall's battle of the "Cow-pens" has been likened, in its humorous aspect, to the battle of the "Kegs" in the war of the Revolution.

In January, 1778, the American army floated kegs, filled with combusti- bles, down the river to destroy the British shipping at Philadelphia. This was a Yankee trick the British did not understand and supposed that each keg contained a "rebel" and when the kegs were discovered the British opened fire upon them and "fought with valor and pride."

Francis Hopkinson wrote a mock heroic poem of this episode, from which the following lines are taken :

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" 'Twas early day, as poets say, Just when the sun was rising, A soldier stood on a log of wood, And saw a thing surprising. As in amaze he stood to gaze, The truth can't be denied, sir;

He spied a score of kegs or more, Come floating down the tide, sir.

"The soldier flew, the sailor, too, and spread the news that mischief was brewing, that the 'rebels' packed up like pickled herring were coming down to attack the town, and the most frantic scenes were enacted.

"The cannon's roar from shore to shore, The small arms made a rattle; Since wars began I'm sure no man E'er saw so strange a battle."

THE SOLDIERS OF THE WAR OF 1812.

The followng list has been furnished of the soldiers of 1812 who located in Ashland at the close of that war. While the list is doubtless correct, it may not be complete. The list is given as follows :

Abraham Armentrout, James Kilgore, E. Halstead, Nathaniel Clarke, J. F. Parker, Jacob Helbert, R. D. Emmerson, Jacob Shopbell, Solomon Urie, Samuel Burns, David Burns, John Clay, Samuel White, Joshua Glenn, Henry Gamble, William Reed, Patrick Murray, James Murray, John Tilton, Jacob Hiffner, Jr., George Hilkey, James Pollock, Abraham Doty, Andrew Stevison, Thomas Donley, John Proudfit, Francis Graham, Peter Whitright, Jacob Zigler, James Dicka- son, George Remley, Allen Lockhart, Thomas Miller, James Short, James A. Dinsmore, William Hunter, Abraham Armentrout, John Galloway, Enoch Taylor, John Taylor, Michael Riddle, Robert Nelson, Richard Winbigler, George Martin, Thomas Henry, Thomas Urie, Samuel Urie, Andrew Byerly, Isaac Smalley, James Andrews, Adam Link, Thomas McConnell, Samuel Fulton, R. Richey, W. Richey, Calvin Hibbard, Sage Kellogg, John McConnell, Jacob Jackson, James Kilgore, Thomas Willey, James Campbell, Jacob Mykrantz, Charles Hoy, George McFadden, Daniel Porter, William Craig, George Cornell, E. Halstead, Nathaniel Clark, J. S. Parker, John Hazlett, Thomas Smith, John Woodburn, Joseph Workman, John Smith, Hugh Adams, Case Macumber, Charles Tanne- hill, Elijah Hart, Sterling G. Bushnell, Abraham Johnson, David Stephens, Joseph Strickland, Samuel Taylor, William Burwell, John Burwell, Matthew Palmer, Mordecai Lincoln, Nicholas Shaffer, George Winbigler, James Cameron, George Richart, Jacob Shopbell, John Chambers, Abraham Huffman, Jacob Ridenour, Jacob Crouse, Rudolph Brandeberry, Philip Brandeberry, William Shaw, John Wertman, John. Davoult, John Lambright, Henry Neal, Harvey Sackett, Salmon Weston, Brahmon Johnson, Samuel Monroe, Daniel Beach, Samuel Camp, Jacob Roorback, Abraham Ferris, John Hall, Joseph Gates, Elias Slocum, Rev. Richard D. Emerson, Philip Markley, Jacob Switzer, Robert

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Ralston, Sr., Jacob Helbert, Levi Mercer, Sr., Wesley Richard, Thomas Pittinger, James Allison, Charles Hoy, Christopher Rice, John Smith, James Dickson, Samuel Cordell, Peter Burns.

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD.

It was during the administration of Martin Van Buren that the doctrine of the abolition of slavery began to be propagated. At first there was a dis- tinction in the anti-slavery forces between those who were opposed to the extension of slavery and those who were in favor of its abolition; as revolutions seldom go backward, the abolition doctrine was the one that finally prevailed, but before its accomplishment, a fugitive slave law was enacted, which re- quired people in the North as well as in the South to assist in returning runaway slaves to their masters. The law made it a penal offense to refuse to do so, which rendered the law so repugnant to the people of the North that they prided themselves more upon its breach than upon its observance.

Politics in those days was a matter of principle and of sentiment and the sentiment was an anti-slavery one. There is but little if any sentiment in the politics of today. Now it is a question of finance, of the tariff, with a pic- turesque tinge of imperialism.

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History of Ashland County, Ohio, Part 24

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