History of Ashland County, Ohio, Part 4

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 4

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

"What constitutes a State ? Not high-raised battlements, or labor'd mound, Thick wall or moated gate; Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crown'd : No! Men, high-minded men ; Men, who their duties know; But know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain,- These constitute a State."

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THE TOWN OF ASHLAND.

Ashland was originally known as Uniontown, and was laid out July 28, 1815, by William Montgomery. It retained the name of Uniontown until the establishment of a postoffice in 1822. There was another Uniontown in the state and the name given the postoffice was Ashland, and the town was changed to the same name.

The following were among the first families which located there: William Montgomery, Jacob Shaffer, Elias Slocum, George W. Palmer, Alanson An- drews, Samuel Urie, Joseph Sheets, David Markley, Amos Antibus, Joel Luther, and Mr. Nightingale. Jacob Shaffer, above named, was a shoemaker and a revolutionary soldier, and lived in a small dwelling upon the lot later occupied by the store of Judge Wick.

Daniel Carter, from Butler county, Pennsylvania, raised the first cabin in the place about the year 1811, which stood where the store of William Granger was later in Ashland. Robert Newell, three miles east, and Mr. Fry, one and one-half miles north of the village, raised cabins about the same time. In 1817 the first store was opened by Joseph Sheets.

Francis Graham gave the following statement of the early settlement of the town :

The first school was kept by Mr. Williamson, a cripple, in 1821 and 1822.

The first church was erected by the Methodists, on the lot where the courthouse now stands, and was of stone.

The first blacksmith was the late Samuel Urie. The shop stood where the Citizens' Bank was built, on Main street.

The first cabinet-maker and undertaker was the late Colonel Alexander Miller, who resided on the Daniel Gray lot.

HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY

The first tinner was John Croft, who was secured by the late George Swine- ford, on the lot where the agricultural works of Whitney & Company now are. The next, the late Hugh Davis, at the east end of town.

The first carding-machine was owned by the late Andrew Drumb, asso- ciated with his brother, the late Uriah Drumb.

Mr. Swineford, also an early settler in Ashland, gave the following account :

The first grist-mill in Montgomery township, one mile north of Ashland, by Thomas Oram, in spring of 1816.

First sawmill, two miles from Ashland, in Milton township, by Allen Lockhart.

First church, Methodist Episcopal, at Eckley's, now Smith's mills, in Vermillion township, 1819, and Old Hopewell, in Milton, 1817.

First dry-goods store in Uniontown, Joseph Sheets, succeeded by Francis Graham.

First blacksmith, Ludwick Cline, on Wooster road, two miles east of Ashland.

First cabinet-maker and undertaker, the late Alexander Miller.

First carding-machine, stood where Smith's mill now is in Vermillion township, built by Andrew Newman; the next by the late Andrew and Uriah Drumb, in Ashland.

The first tannery stood where Whiting's agricultural works now stand, built by John Croft, and subsequently owned by the late George Swineford.

The first wagon-shop, where Barkholder's sawmill now stands, and was owned by Henry Wachtell.

The first blacksmith in Ashland was the late Samuel Urie.

The second cabinet-maker in Ashland, the late Jacob Grubb.

Ashland is eighty-nine miles northwest of Columbus, and fourteen from Mansfield.

Ashland will go steadily forward in the increase of her population, in wealth, and number of valuable improvements. It is surrounded by a fine, pro- duetive country, and can sustain a much greater population.

"Ashland-A 20th Century Inland City," a chapter on the Ashland of today, will be found elsewhere in this work, written by William A. Duff, a promising young writer who was born and reared in Ashland.

Francis Graham, who was for many years a prominent citizen of Ashland county, came to Uniontown (now Ashland) in 1821, and brought with him from Sandusky City a small stoek of dry-goods and groceries. Uniontown at that time was a small village, containing about fourteen or fifteen families; a small tannery, two distilleries, a sawmill, a wheelwright shop, a blacksmith shop, and there was one physician there at that time-Dr. Joel Luther. Mr. Graham stated that previous to this, David Murphy, in 1818, had brought to Uniontown a small stock of goods, but did not replenish his stock. Mr. Graham upon his arrival, found Uniontown without a store, without a church, without a tavern and without a postoffice. Mr. Graham said: "Upon my arrival with my stock I rented a room for my goods from Mr. Sheets, and engaged board with him at one dollar a week. Said Sheets entertained travelers when they called. there being no tavern in the place. In 1822, John Hull, the wheelwright, opened

HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY

a tavern in a small building, which was some years after moved back to give place for what was afterward the Slocum House. I found goods in demand, but no money in the country to buy them. They would go off like hot cakes if I would sell on credit, but that would be a dangerous course for me to pursue, as my means were quite limited, and if my goods were sold without getting in exchange for them something that would buy more, it would place me in a criti- cal situation ; but I saw no alternative, and trust I must; at the same time I would take in exchange for my goods anything I could turn into money, or considered better than goods, and in pursuing that course, I found some hard bargains on my hands before the year came round.

The products of the country brought low prices at any time, from the fact that there was no market or demand for them beyond home consumption. It was very difficult for people to raise money to pay their taxes. Wheat might have been had for twenty-five cents a bushel, cash, but no one wanted it only for family use; consequently there were no large quantities of that article raised. Oats traded off at twelve to fifteen cents a bushel; corn was in better demand, and brought in store goods from fifteen to twenty cents per bushel, and became almost a lawful tender, because it could be converted into whiskey.

The farmers sold their corn to the merchant for goods or to the distiller for whiskey, and sometimes took it west myself. Horses, cattle, and hogs were sought for to some extent by trading men.

MARKET PRICES FROM 1817 To 1824.

Salt-at lake, per barrel, twenty-five dollars ; Coffee-fifty cents per pound ; Calico-fifty to seventy-five cents per yard; Powder-per pound, two dollars; Lead-per pound, fifty cents.

Nearest mills at Wooster (Stibbs's,) and Owl Creek, below Mt. Vernon, thirty-seven miles from Ashland.

Cows-four dollars to six dollars ; Wheat- per bushel, average twenty cents ; Corn-per bushel, average five to eight cents; Oats-per bushel, average six cents; Ginseng, (dried)-per pound, twenty-five cents; Deerskin, (dried)-per pound, twelve and one-half cents. No money, but "trade."

Hunting at that time was more profitable than cultivating the soil-the products of the forest being of more value than those of the fields.

The article of maple sugar was an important item of trade in Ashland county, and gave material aid to the community, not from the high prices it commanded, for it was worth but from five to six and a fourth cents per pound, according to quality ; but from the large quantity made. It was not unusual in good seasons for sugar, for many of the farmers who had large crops, or sugar orchards, to make in one season from eighteen hundred to twenty-five hundred pounds of sugar. I will here name a few of the most noted sugar makers of those days in the vicinity of Uniontown, viz., Jonas Crouse, Andrew Proudfit, Abraham Huffman, and Elisha Chilcote, as some of the individuals who made for several years after I came to Uniontown about the quantities of sugar above named; even the poor man who had but a small crop, if he

HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY

made but three or four hundred pounds, it enabled him to get many necessaries that he could not have otherwise paid for. During the spring and summer months, I took at my store large quanties of maple sugar; I generally put it into new flour barrels, which would contain, when filled, from two hundred and twenty to two hundred and fifty pounds; very dry sugar being lighter than damp. I took of that article one year forty-two barrels. Sugar could not readily be sold for cash, but could be bartered for salt, white fish, iron nails, windowglass, and castings at the furnace, in Licking county, or at Vermillion, now in Erie county, Ohio. I have already said there was no market in

Uniontown for wheat, nor for some years after, beyond home consumption. About the year 1825, John Stewart, an early settler of Richland county, and a very worthy man, and for many years surveyor of Richland county, built a flour- ing mill on the Rockyfork, say three miles southeast of Mansfield. When his mill was completed, he put a notice in James Purdy's seven by nine paper, then published in Mansfield, saying his mill is now in running order, and he wished to purchase wheat, and would pay thirty-one and a fourth cents, cash, for good merchantable wheat delivered at his mill. The farmers about Uniontown were much elated with the idea of getting cash for wheat, and a number of them loaded their wagons with wheat, and carried it to Stewart's market for thirty- one and a fourth cents a bushel. I well recollect one of them who sold Stewart wheat was my neighbor Henry Gamble, who is yet living and can speak for him- self."

Mr. Graham further stated: "I have said there was no postoffice in Union- town, when I came to it in 1821. In 1822, I got up a petition to the Postmaster- General for a postoffice at Uniontown, Richland county, Ohio, by the name of Uniontown, praying that Francis Graham be made postmaster, and forwarded it to the Hon. John Sloan, then our Representative in Congress from the Rich- land and Wayne county distriet, asking him to do me the favor to present the petition to the Postmaster-General, and use his influence for the establishment of the office and my appointment as postmaster. Mr. Sloan in due time responded to my call, saying he had presented my petition, that the Postmaster-General declined granting ns a postoffice at Uniontown, by that name, as there were already two Uniontown postoffices in the state, and there should be but one. Mr. Sloan then made choice of the name of Ashland, their being no postoffice in Ohio by that name. The papers came in due time, and Francis Graham was postmaster.

"I have already related how we obtained a postoffice at Uniontown. Well, the postoffice was Ashland, and the village Uniontown, and continued so for two or three years after the postoffice was established, when the citizens petitioned the legislature, praying that the name of Uniontown be changed to that of Ashland, and Uniontown became extinct.

"I have said in the fore part of this epistle there was no church in Union- town. When I came to it in 1821, the good people of Uniontown and vicinity who possessed morality enough to appreciate the preaching of the gospel, had built a log meetinghouse in the country, one mile west of the village, on the road to New Haven. Here, I must say, the location of said meetinghouse did not comport with my views of church matters; but directly vice versa-for I

HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY

say build your chuch where there are people. It is more natural and more con- venient for the country people to go to town than it is for the citizens of the town to go to the country to meeting. But the wise heads who had the responsible duty to discharge of locating said meetinghouse, had said that was the place for it, and the citizens of the village could go out there to meeting. The Rev. William Matthews, a Presbyterian divine, and a very worthy man, preached in said house, every third Sabbath, and some of the citizens did go to hear him; but not near as many as should have gone.

"Mr. Matthews preached in said house for a few years after my arrival at Uniontown, and was then succeeded by the Rev. Robert Lee, from Westmore- land county, Pennsylvania, who purchased and lived on the farm for mauy years, now owned by Peter Vantilburg, on the Olivesburg road. Mr. Lee preached in said meetinghouse for a number of years and then removed to Lees- ville, in Crawford county. Mr. Lee was succeeded by the Rev. William Robinson, an elderly gentleman, who resided for a time in Ashland, and removed from there to Orange, then in Richland county. I think I am not mistaken in saying the old man was killed in Wayne or Stark county, while riding in his carriage by the fall of a tree. In the year 1834, the Presbyterians purchased a lot of John Smith, who owned a farm and lived where Christopher Mykrant's brick house now stands, on Cottage street, and erected thereon the Hopewell church. From that time the country meeting-house place was vacated as a place of public worship, and the trustees sold the building to the widow Haggerty for a dwelling house a few years after. About the year 1824 or 1825, the Methodist Episcopals of Uniontown and vicinity organized a society, and for some time held their meetings in a log building, occupied as a schoolhouse, which stood on Main street.

FEATURES OF PIONEER LIFE.

Certain features of social pioneer life will now be given, one of which is the marriage custom of racing for the bottle.

Young men did not go far away from home to get wives then. They courted and married girls of their own neighborhood. The marriage usually took place at the home of the bride and the wedding festivities continued for two days. After the marriage service, congratulations were extended, followed

by a dance or "hoedown" in the evening. The first day was called the bride's day, the day following was the groom's day or in-fair, upon which the company of the previous day would re-assemble and ride on horseback in procession to the home of the groom's parents. The post of honor was to race for the bottle, for which two persons were selected. Generally men were chosen for this office, but sometimes the honor was conferred upon a gentleman and a lady, as many women were expert riders in those days. The racers rode at the head of the procession and when the cavalcade got within a mile of the groom's home, a signal was given and off the racers went at Pegasean speed, often taking short cuts through fields, the horses vaulting logs and fences, if any were in their

HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY

way. The groom's father would be standing at the door with the bottle in his outstretched hand, the winner would catch the same and hold it proudly aloft as he returned to meet the company, and then a halt would be called, the bottle passed around and the health of the bride and groom drank. They would then proceed to the house where the in-fair dinner would be served.

As April was moving time, the spring was the favorite season in which to marry, and apple blossoms were the favorite flowers used for bridal wreaths and their beauty for that purpose has never been excelled.

Each couple as soon as possible went to homes of their own. And so, under the showery, sunshiny April sky-

"Across the hills they went, In that new world which is the old."

In contrasting the morals of the past and present, speakers and writers frequently refer to the fact that there were distillers in the early days, trying thereby to create the impression that the pioneers were a dissipated people, but such was not the case, for early settlers were at least as moral and temperate as are the people of today. The conditions of the country were different then. There was no market for grain, except for local consumption. Distilleries were erected, whiskey made, hauled to the lake and shipped to Detroit and other markets, and money was thus obtained to pay taxes, etc. Corn was converted into whiskey, because that product was a more marketable commodity, and sold for cash. A certain quantity of whiskey was drunk by the pioneers, perhaps, but whiskey was their only beverage, beer being a later production. The "still-house" of the past was an important factor in commercial circles, in the early years of our country history, as whiskey, maple sugar, ginseng, beeswax and potash were the only exportable commodities of that period. Then, too, the whiskey of those days was not adulterated and could be drank by the hard- working pioneers with apparent immunity from deleterious results.

The pioneers were a people of heroic virtues. The situation forbade much devotion to literature. The actual life of the men who made civilization possible had no time for the literary pursuits. They made history, but did not write it. The flourishing condition of our country today is the result of the labors of the pioneers-the men who toiled for our betterment, not knowing whether succeeding generations would even be informed of the names of those who had hewn down the forests and cultivated the land.

IN THE EARLY SETTLEMENT.

In the early settlement of Ashland county it required from fifteen to fifty days to make the journey from the east to this part of Ohio, as the early settlers made the trip with ox teams and pack horses, sometimes on foot. Where vehicles were used, aged persons and young children were permitted to ride, others frequently had to walk. Many of these early settlers were poor and · came to the "Garden Spot of the World" as Ohio was then called, to seek their fortunes amid new environments. In making the journey, streams had fre-

ASHLAND COUNTY INFIRMARY

SHLAND COLLEGE - ASHL'D. O .-

ASHLAND COLLEGE, ASHLAND

HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY

quently to be forded. It was not unusual for horses to give out on the long journey, which would cause delay of weeks or even months. The roads then were little more than blazed trails and the axe had frequently to be used to cut away timber that teams might pass.

It would require a volume to tell of the habits and customs of the pioneers; of their trapping and hunting; of their solitary lives in the great woods, sur- rounded by wild animals and savage Indians; of their cabins and furniture, and of the long winter evenings by the log-heap fires.

When the pioneer had erected his cabin home, it was not only a home and shelter for the pioneer and his family, but for every stranger who passed that way, "without money and without price." The latch string was always out, for these pioneers were great hearted people, and no man was turned away empty. Their cabins, often not more than fifteen or twenty feet square, made of rough beech logs, with the bark still adhering to them, were frequently occu- pied by a dozen, or even a score, of people for the night, and no complaints made for want of room; genuine hospitality always finds room enough, and never apologizes for lack of more.

The cabins which the pioneers built and in which they lived have been often described; their form and proportions, and general appearance have been re- peatedly impressed upon the mind of the student of history. They were built of round logs with the bark on, and side chimneys of mud and sticks, puncheon floors, clapboard roof, with and without a loft or second floor, and all put together without a nail or particle of iron from top to bottom. These buildings stood many a year after the original inhabitants moved into better quarters. They served for stables, sheep-pens, hay-houses, pig-pens, smith-shops, hen- houses, loom-shops, schoolhouses, etc. Some of them are yet standing in this county, and occupied, to some extent, in some portions of the county as dwellings.

A second grade of log cabin, built later, was quite an improvement on the first, being made of hewn logs with sawed lumber for doors and window frames and floors. Glass also took the place of paper windows of the old cabin; nails were also sparingly used in these better cabins. It was sometimes built near the old one and connected with it by a covered porch. When nails were first used, for a few years a pound of them was exchanged for a bushel of wheat. They were a precious article, and were made by hand on a blacksmith's anvil, out of odds and ends of old wornout sickles, scythes, broken clevis-pins, links of chains, broken horseshoes, etc., all welded together to eke out the nail-rods from which

they were forged. The first cabins were often erected, ready for occupation, in a single day. In an emergency, the pioneers collected together, often going eight or ten miles to a cabin-raising, and, in the great woods where not a tree had been felled or a stone turned, began with dawn the erection of a cabin. Three or four wise builders would set the cornerstones, lay with the square and level the first round of logs; two men with axes would cut the trees and logs ; one with his team of oxen, a "lizzard" and a log-chain would "snake" them in; two more, with axes, cross-cut saw and frow, would make the clapboards; two more, with axes, cross-cut saw and broad-axe would hew out the puncheons and flatten the upper side of the sleepers and joists. Four skillful axemen would carry up the corners, and the remainder, with skids and forks or handspikes, would roll

HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY

mp the logs. As soon as the joists were laid on, the cross-cut saw was brought from the woods, and the two men went to work cutting out the door and chimney place; and while the corner men were building up the attic and putting on the roof, the carpenters and masons of the day were putting down the puncheons, laying the hearth and building the chimney high enough to keep out the beasts, wild or tame. In one corner, at a distance of six feet from one wall and four from the other, the bedpost was placed-only one being needed. A hole was bored in the puncheon floor for the purpose of setting this post in, which was usually a stick with a crotch or fork in the upper end; or, if an augur is not at hand, a hole is cut in the puncheon floor, and the fork sharpened and driven into the ground beneath ; rails were laid from this fork to the wall, and, usually, nice, straight, hickory poles formed the bottom, upon which straw or leaves were placed and the blanket put on. This made a comfortable spring bed, and was

easily changed and kept clean. Often the chinking and daubing of the walls, putting in windows and hanging the door were left until fall or some leisure time after the corn crop and the contents of the truck patch were secured. Often the pioneers did not erect a cabin at all until a crop was secured-living, meanwhile, in their covered wagons, and cooking beside a log in the open air, or erecting a "pole cabin," or "brush cabin," mere temporary affairs, to shelter the family until time could be had for erecting a permanent one. The saving of the erop was of more importance during the summer season than shelter; but when the first frost came, a sure indication of approaching winter, active preparations were made for the permanent cabin, and the work was pushed forward until a snug cabin stood in the midst of the forest, with a clearing around it, made principally by cutting down trees for the building. Every crack was chinked and danbed, and when completed, and a fire of hickory logs in the great fireplace, the cold did not seriously disturb the inmates. The

heavy door was hung on wooden hinges, and all that was necessary to lock it at night was to pull the latch-string inside, and the strong wooden latch against wild animals and storms. But the latch-string was seldom pulled in, for it was a serions offense for the Indians to not find the string out. The writer's mother frequently told of awakening at night and seeing Indians sitting before the blazing fire, or at the enpboard eating a lunch, and that she could not sleep again until after they had taken their leave. Many of these pioneer cabins had no loft or second floor, but when this was added it was used as a sleeping room for the younger members of the family.

What to eat, drink and wear, were questions not, perhaps, difficult of solu- tion in those days. The forest was full of game, the streams full of fish, and wild fruits were abundant. To get bread required both patience and labor; the staff of life was one the articles that must be earned "by the sweat of the brow;" it could not be gathered from the bushes, fished from the streams, or bronght down with the rifle. Every backwoodsman once a year added to his clearing, at least, a "trnek patch." This was the hope and stay of the family ; the receptacle of corn, beans, melons, potatoes, squashes, pumpkins, turnips, etc .. each variety more perfectly developed and delicious, because it grew in virgin soil. The corn and beans planted in May brought roasting ears and succotash in August. Potatoes came with corn, and the cellar, built in the side of a con-

HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY

venient hill, and filled with the contents of the truck patch, secured the family against want. When the corn grew too hard for roasting ears, and was yet too soft to grind in the mill, it was reduced to meal by a grater, and whether stirred into mush or baked into johnnycake, it made, for people with keen appetites and good stomachs, excellent food. Place before one of those brawny backwoodsmen a square foot of johnnycake and a venison steak broiled on hickory coals, and no art of civilization could produce a more satisfactory meal.

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History of Ashland County, Ohio, Part 4

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