History of Ashland County, Ohio, Part 9

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 9

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The settlers exercised a good deal of ingenuity in making traps to secure the wild animals of the forest. This was one of the principal occupations and sources of pleasure for the boys. In certain localities it seemed almost impos- sible for the pioneers to raise sheep or hogs on account of the depredations of wolves and bears; the latter invariably preferred pork to mutton, but the wolves always attacked the sheep in preference. The state offered six dollars each for wolf scalps; this and other considerations stimulated the efforts of the settlers to destroy them. Many of the young men devoted their time almost exclusively to this business. For the purpose of catching them, a wolf pen was constructed of small logs, six feet long, four feet wide and three feet high. It was formed like a large box, with puncheon floor, the lid was made of heavy puncheons, and was removed by an axle at one end made of a small round stick. The trap was set by the ordinary figure 4 combination, and baited with any kind of meat except wolf meat, the animal preferring any other to his own. Upon gnawing the meat the lid fell, enclosing the unwary native for the benefit of the trapper.

Steel traps were generally used for the mink and muskrat, but for the coon the figure 4 arrangement was often used. The habits of this animal (as well as of all others) were taken into consideration. It is well known that the coon frequents swails, swamps and stagnant pools in search of frogs, of which he is very fond, and upon which he subsists largely when roastingears are not at hand. In his search for frogs he will traverse the logs that are always to be found in the swamp. The trapper understands this, and places his trap upon the log upon which the unwary animal must enter the swamp or make his exit therefrom. The trap is simply a small log, placed lengthwise of the log which the coon must walk, and held up by the figure 4, to the treadle of which three or more strings are attached and stretched along between the two logs in such a way that the coon must come in contact with them in his passage, and thus spring the trap, letting the small log fall upon him. This small log must be made sufficiently heavy by weights to crush him.

Wild pigeons were once very numerous, and were caught in large numbers in traps. During the season when the mast was ripe and plenty, millions of these birds frequented the country. The flocks were so great that they would sometimes be hours in passing over a given spot, and it is said that they would occasionally obscure the sunlight, and bring on twilight in midday by their im-

HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY

mense numbers. For the last twenty years these birds have been gradually disappearing until at present only small flocks are occasionally seen. Probably the clearing up of the country and the gradual disappearance of the mast-bearing trees has caused them to seek other feeding grounds. They were here slaughtered in great numbers, both by gun and trap, and were considered a great table delicacy.

When the white settlers first touched the borders of this country, a great variety of wild animals contended with the Indian for supremacy. Some of the native animals of this primeval forest had gradually given way to the general westward movement of the white race.

The elk was gone when the pioneers came, but the numerous wide-spreading antlers he once carried, were found profusely scattered in the forest, showing conclusively that he had once been here in considerable numbers, and at no remote period; but probably no living wild elk was ever discovered here by the pioneers.

Panthers were not numerous, but occasionally one was seen or heard, and a few were killed during the first ten or fifteen years after the first settlement. They disappeared from this section about 1812.

Bears were more numerous and remained longer, an occasional straggler being seen at intervals of many years, until 1846, or later. Bruin was hard on young domestic animals, pigs particularly, he had a good appetite for, and it was with great difficulty that the pioneers were able to raise their own pork.

Wolves were found in great abundance, and long continued to be a great annoyance to the settlers. The legislature encouraged their extermination by laws which authorized the payment of liberal sums for wolf scalps, both old and young. The records of the county commissioners show that large sums were paid the pioneers of the county for wolf scalps, four dollars being the price for full grown and two dollars for those less than full size. They have long since disappeared.

Deer were very abundant, and for many years after the first settlement, supplied the pioneers with most of their animal food. The pioneers were mostly hunters, and the chase yielded them much profit as well as amusement. So numerous were the deer in early times that an hour's hunt was generally sufficient for securing a fine buck or the more palatable doe or fawn. So plenty and tame were they, that they were killed frequently with a shot gun charged only with squirrel shot.

Gray foxes, raccoons and ground-hogs were plenty, and hunting them afforded fine sport. The two latter of these are yet found in limited numbers, but the first has, probably, entirely disappeared.

Red foxes, catamounts, wild-cats and porcupines, were found in large numbers, but they early disappeared, except the first named, which may, perhaps, even yet be occasionally found.

Rabbits and squirrels, if not here before the settlement of the county, came soon after in great numbers, and still remain. They seem to follow rather than precede the settlements.

The beaver and otter were here in considerable numbers, and were much sought after by the trapper for their valuable furs. The former has long

HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY

since disappeared, and the latter is exceedingly scarce, if indeed, any remain. Muskrats are very numerous and have continued so, affording much profit to the hunter and trapper.

Wild turkeys were also very abundant in pioneer days, and so continued for many years, affording no inconsiderable portion of the food of the early settlers. They were so numerous and tame that they could be procured by the hunter on very short notice. They are yet occasionally found in the woods.

Pheasants were not so numerous as the turkey, and have almost wholly disappeared.

Wild geese and ducks were plenty around the little lakes and swamps, and along the streams. These are rarely seen at present.

Quails are not natives of the wilderness; neither are crows, blackbirds, bluebirds nor turtle doves, but they all became plenty after the settlement of the county, and still remain in moderate quantities.

Bees were plenty, and the tables of the pioneers were generally supplied with honey.

Cranes, woodcocks, woodpeckers and pigeons were plenty, and yet remain, with the exception of the first named.

Birds of prey, such as turkey buzzards or vultures, hawks, ravens, owls and eagles, were very numerous, but have been slowly disappearing, particularly the eagle, which is now seldom seen.

Singing birds of various kinds became plenty soon after the settlement of the county, and yet remain.

The streams abounded in fish of large size. The pike were from two to five feet in length. It has almost, if not entirely, disappeared from the waters of the county.

The catfish were plenty and of large size, but there were no eels. The white perch and sucker were numerous and of large size; the black jack and clear jack were here and grew large, but have long since disappeared. The streams, no less than the forests, contributed to the support of the early settlers. Indeed, so plenty were game, fish, fur animals and the fruits and other spon- taneous productions, that it was hardly necessary to till the ground to procure subsistence.

Serpents were of many varieties and in great abundance. Especially numerous were the rattlesnake, the copperhead, the viper, blacksnake, the garter and watersnake. They were often found in the cabins of the settlers, and even in their beds. It was not unusual for the settlers to be bitten by them, but few, if any deaths occurred from this cause, as the settlers understood the treatment of snake bites.

The flax was grown in the summer, scutched in the fall, and during the long winter evenings was heard the buzz of the little flax-wheel, which had a place in every cabin. Even those who are not pioneers can remember this flax- wheel, for it was in use as late as 1850, or later. It stood in a corner, generally ready for use by having a large bundle of flax wrapped around its forked stick, a thread reaching to the spindle, and a little gourd filled with water hanging conveniently at the bottom of the flax-stick, and whenever the good pioneer mother had a little spare time from cooking for a dozen work hands, caring for a

HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY

dozen children, milking a dozen cows, and taking care of the milk and butter, be- sides doing all the housework and keeping everything clean and neat as a pin, she would sit down to this wheel and with foot on the treadle and nimble fingers, pile thread upon thread on the spindle, to be reeled off on a wooden reel that counted every yard with a snap, and then it was ready for the great loom that occupied the loft. This loom was a wonder-it would be a wonder today, with its' great beams, larger than any beams they put in the houses of today-its treadles, its shuttles, etc. Day after day could be heard the pounding of that loom, the treadles went up and down, the shuttles flew swiftly from one hand to another through the labyrinth of warp, and yard after yard of cloth rolled upon the great roller. And then this cloth was to be cut into little and big clothes and made up with the needle, and, remember, this and a great deal more than any one can think of was to be gone through with every year. Wool went through about the same operation, only it was spun on the large wheel, colored with butternut bark and other things, but woven on the loom and made up for winter clothing.

The cultivation of domestic animals, both beasts and fowls, for the purposes of food, began early. Cows for milk, butter, beef, and leather, and swine for pork, were bred, ear marked and turned into the woods to browse. "Root hog or die," was the law for man and beast, but the woods were prolific and the hogs grew fat. The young pigs were exceptionally a sweet morsel for the bear. Bruin always singled out these young animals in preference to any other meat ; but the pigs were often successfully defended by the older hogs, who, upon the least signs of distress from one of their number, would go boldly to the rescue and fiercely attack the foe, however formidable; often the pig was released and bruin, or the panther, compelled to ascend a tree for safety.

The boys often found wild turkeys' nests in the woods, and would bring home the eggs, and place them, to be hatched, under a trusty old hen, in an outside chimney corner, where they could assist the hen in defending the eggs and brood from the opossum or hawk. A flock of turkeys sometimes originated in this way, but more often, as they grew to maturity, they would fly away into the woods and never reappear. This grandest of birds is identical in civilized and savage life, and is the peculiar production of America. The wild ones were always a dark brown, like the leaves of their native woods, but when tamed, or "civilized" the diversity of color becomes endless.

When cornbread and milk were eaten for breakfast, hog and hominy for dinner and mush and milk for supper, there was little room for tea and coffee; and at a time when one bushel of wheat for a pound of coffee and four bushels for a pound of tea, were considered a fair exchange, but little of these very expensive articles was used.

Next to water, the drink of the pioneers .was whiskey-copper-still rye whiskey. Everybody drank it. It was supposed to be indispensable to health, to strength and endurance during the labors of the day, and to sleep at night. It was supposed to be absolutely indispensable to warmth and animation in cold, chilly winter weather. It was the sacrament of friendship and hospitality ; it was in universal use; yet there was probably less drunkenness in those days

HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY

than at present. The whiskey was absolutely pure; it was not drugged, doctored and poisoned as it is today.

At a little later time, say from 1820 to 1840, the pioneers were living a little easier. Their farms were partially cleared, many of them were living in hewed log houses and many in frame, and even brick houses. Most of them had barns and innumerable out-houses. They generally had cattle, horses, sheep,

hogs and poultry, and were living in comparative comfort. Their neighbors were near, and always dear. Their schools and churches had improved some- what, yet even at a later day there were hundreds of log schoolhouses and churches. About three months in a year was all the schooling a farmer's boy could get. He was sadly needed at home from the age of five years, to do all sorts of chores and work on the farm. He was wanted to drive the cows to water and to pasture; to feed pigs and chickens and gather the eggs. His duties in the summer were multifarious; the men were at work in the field harvesting, and generally worked from early morning until late at night, and the boys were depended on to "do the chores;" hence it was impossible to spare them to attend school in summer. There was no school in spring and fall. In winter they were given three months' schooling. Their books were generally anything they happened to have about the house, and even as late as 1850, there was no system in the purchase of school books.

Parents purchased for their children whatever book pleased their fancy, or whatever the children desired them to purchase. A geography was a geography, and a grammar a grammar, regardless of who was the author. This great confusion in school books made trouble for the teacher, but that was of small moment. He was hired and paid to teach whatever branches, out of. whatever books the parents thought were best. The branches generally taught in the early schools, however, were reading, writing, spelling and arithmetic, and later, geography and grammar. Boys attending school but three months in a year made but little progress.

There were always three or four classes in spelling, and this exercise was the last before school was dismissed in the evening. The old books were conned over year after year, until they were worn out and the children grew up to manhood and womanhod, and never knew, and perhaps do not know to this day, what was in the back part of them. This was the kind of a start many a great man had.

There was always much competition in the spelling classes as to who should get the "head mark." In the later schools it was the custom that the best speller might stand at the head until he missed, when the one who spelled the word correctly should take his place, and he then stood next to the head; but they did things differently in the earlier schools; the head of the class once gained and held until the last spelling at night, the headmark was received and the lucky scholar then took his place at the foot of the class, to again work his way gradually to the head. These classes sometimes contained thirty or forty scholars, and it was something of an undertaking to get from the foot to the head. Spellingschools were the beauty and glory of school-days. The scholars were always coaxing the teacher to appoint a night for a spellingschool, and were usually gratified one or two nights in a month or oftener. A night

HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY

was chosen when the moon shone, and the sleighing was good, and then the entire neighborhood and perhaps the adjoining neighborhood would turn out to the spellingschool; whole families came on the great two-horse sled, including the old lady and gentleman, all the children, little and big; even the baby and the dogs came. Schools in adjoining districts sent their best spellers to try and carry off the honors.

KATOTAWA ..

Upon the theory that the traditions of a place are a part of its history, we give the traditions of the locality in the eastern part of Ashland county known as Katotawa, copying the following from the Times:

"Your correspondent has received numerous inquiries as to the correct pro- nunciation and spelling of Katotawa. My own way of spelling is as I have always spelled it and pronounce it Ka-tot-a-waw. There is no real authority for spelling the word and every one can spell it his own way if he chooses. Will give some of the numerous ways of spelling: Catotaway, Katatawa, Katotowa, etc. or if you wish you can grind it out thus; Cha-tacht-a-waugh and still be correct. Believing with Josh Billings that the easiest way of spelling a word is as it is pronounced I think my way as near correct as any other. Perhaps a sketch of the tradition of Katotawa will be interesting to the readers of the

Times. Old Katotawa was a chief of one of the many tribes of Indians that once populated this-then wilderness. Through our valley runs a small stream which has its source near Polk and flows southward, unites with the creeks east

of Ashland and flows into what is called Jeromefork. On the banks of the former stream Old Katotawa or 'Cha-tacht-a-waugh' often pitched his tent and fished in its waters which are always cool being fed by fresh water springs and small tributaries, and once well stocked with river trout. When advancing civilization reached this point, as usual, the 'noble red man' was significantly pointed toward the setting sun and given Horace Greeley's advice 'Go West.' The. Indians were steadily crowded back from the frontier but not however, without several desperate fights of which the History of Ashland county gives sketches. Katotawa, then a very old man, remained alone in his hut on the banks of the stream, the few remaining days of his life. Some say that he was killed-beheaded; and the superstitious claimed that his ghost-the ghost of a headless body wandered along the river on dark and foggy nights. Your corre- spondent never had the pleasure of seeing his royal ghostship or any one who ever did; yet this is part of the tradition of Katotawa. The stream has ever since been known by that name which it is said was given by this old sachem and the prosperous valley along the Katotawa stream we call the Katotawa valley."

HYSTORIC LYONS' FALLS.

There are traditions that are not historically correct. For years past, it has been generally believed in these parts that Lyons' Falls were named for the old Indian chieftain, Captain Tom Lyons.

HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY

It may seem like uncalled-for iconoclasm to dispel belief in such a mythical personage as Lily Pipe, or to rob Lyons' Falls of Indian traditions. But his- tory should be accurately given, and its correct narration is more instructive and can be as entertainingly told as though its warp were woven with the woof of fiction.

Lyons' Falls are situated about fifteen miles southeast of Mansfield. There are two falls, and the place, which has been a noted picnic resort for many years, is wild in its primitive forest and grand in its rugged picturesqueness. During the past summer a party of ladies and gentlemen, whose names are conspicuous on the list of Mansfield's "400," took a day's outing at these falls, and a grave was pointed out to them as that of the "noted Lyons," and like many others they inferred that the Lyons buried there was the celebrated Indian chieftain of that name. Upon their return to Mansfield they told entertainingly of the wooded hills and sylvan dell, of the overhanging rocks and of the eighty-foot leap of the waters from the edge of the precipice to the basin at the bottom of the chasm, casting its sprays into the cool grottos which the hand of nature chiselled out of the everlasting rocks. And the further fact that the party had seen the grave of a great warrior, lent additional interest to the story and to the locality.

With such allurements it was not long until another detachment of the "400" also visited these noted falls, and the gentlemen of the party fired volleys over the grave, danced a war-dance and gave Indian funereal whoops and came home satisfied that they had held suitable commemorative ceremony over the earthly resting place of the body of an Indian chieftain.

Tom Lyons, the Indian, who took a prominent part in the Wyoming massa- cre (1778), and was afterwards a noted character in the early history of Richland county, was killed by a young man named Joe Haynes, to avenge the murder of a kinsman and he buried the old chief in Leedy's swamp in the southern part of Jefferson township.

The Lyons buried at the falls was Paul Lyons, a white man. He was not a hermit, as one tradition states, for he took to himself a wife, who bore him a son, and he did not particularly shun his neighbors, although he did not admit them into his confidence.

What Paul Lyons' object and motives were for leaving the civilization of the east and seeking a home amid the rocks and hills of that wild country are matters only of conjecture, for he never gave his antecedents, and refused to explain or to give reasons for hiding himself away in the forest and leading such a retired life. He had 'squatted' on land too rough to till, and never attempted to clear off the timber nor to cultivate the rocky soil. He simply built a cabin amid the trees and passed his time principally in hunting and fishing, but as the country became settled around him, and farmers needed help to harvest their crops, he often assisted them in such work. He never made any exhibi- tion of money, yet always paid cash for what he bought. He has been described as a large man, and that he had ability and education is shown by the statement of a lady now living, who says that he was an intelligent and entertaining con- versationalist and that at the funeral of a neighbor he read a chapter and sang a hymn, and that was the best reading and singing she had ever heard.

In about 1856 Lyons, while assisting in hauling logs, met with an accident

HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY

which resulted in his death, and he was buried upon the hill, between the two water falls.

The late Rosella Rice had a headboard, painted and lettered, put up at the grave, but visitors shot at the board until it was riddled into slivers by bullets, and later the body was exhumed and the skeleton mounted by a physician. A slight depression in the ground is the only sign showing where the body had been interred.

Lyons' wife was not an intellectual woman and it is said that she was sent away and died in an asylum. It is also reported that the boy was taken to an eleemosynary institution after his father's death, and that when he grew to manhood he went west and prospered.

The most noted personage for the past twenty-five years in the region of the falls was Lewis M. Lusk, the fiddler who played for hundreds of dances. In past seasons there were dancing floors at the falls, and Lusk furnished the music with his "fiddle and his bow," while the dancers kept step to its enlivening strains.

Mr. Lusk is now dead, but tourists will long remember seeing him sitting in the door or in the yard of his cabin, playing his fiddle, while the ripples of the waters of the Mohican seemed to echo the refrain of the music as the current of the stream swept around its graceful bends in front of the humble dwelling, the rugged rocks forming a rustie background to the picture framed by the encircling hills, all combined to impress the passerby with the thoughts, how sweet is the music, how dear is home and how inspiring is all the handiwork of the Creator.

OLD TOM LYONS

Tom Lyons, an old Indian of an infamous character, who had taken a bloody part in the Wyoming massacre, (1778), was killed in the southern part of Ashland county in about 1820, by a young man named Joe Haynes to avenge the murder of a kinsman. The killing occurred on the outskirts of the Leedy swamp, in the southern part of Jefferson township, Richland county. He was an ugly looking savage, and was known to all the pioneers.

On a few occasions he related his achievements. He had been in many battles on the border, and had taken many scalps. He related some of his acts of extreme cruelty, and a few of his barbarities inflicted upon the wives and children of the border settlers. He was with the other Greentown and Jerometown Indians in the battle of the Fallen Timbers.

AN INDIAN HUNTER.

John McConnell was called an Indian hunter as well as a beast hunter, for the reason that his kindred had suffered more from the murderous assaults of Indians than from the wild beasts of the forests, had an encounter with a couple of Indians on the Wabash which is worthy of record. At an Indian camp he

SANDUSKY ST. ASHLAND.O.

SANDUSKY STREET, ASHLAND

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History of Ashland County, Ohio, Part 9

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