History of Ashland County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 35

Author: Hill, George William, b. 1823; Williams Bros
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: [Cleveland] Williams
Number of Pages: 896

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"Mr. Beall remained with the army until some time in the year 1703, when he resigned and returned to his friends in Pennsylvania to consummate a matrimonial engagement of long standing. Soon after his return, he

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HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.

married his late wife, then Miss Rebecca Johnston, and with whom he continued to live in the enjoyment of the greatest connubial happiness, until her death, which hap- pened in the latter part of ISto. To the many excel- lent qualities and Christian virtues of that estimable lady he was, no doubt, much indebted for those Christian im- pressions which softened the death-bed pillow, and served as an effectual solace to his mind when looking to an eternal separation from all things here below.

"Like many enterprising men of his age, Mr. Beall fell in with the current of emigration which has con- stantly set to the west, and, consequently, several times changed his place of residence. In 1801 he removed with his family from Pennsylvania and settled for a short time in Steubenville, from which place he removed, in the fall of 1803, to New Lisbon, where he remained until 1815, in which year he removed to his late residence near Wooster.

"On his settlement at New Lisbon he received the ap- pointment of clerk of the supreme and common pleas courts, which offices he held nearly the whole time he re- mained in the county. Although Mr. Beall had served but a few years in the regular army, it was sufficient to give his mind a military bias, and, previous to the late war, he took much pains to infuse into the militia of his county a military spirit, confidently anticipating that the difficulties then existing between this country and En- gland would ultimately end in war. Soon after his set- tlement at New Lisbon he was chosen colonel of a regi- ment (being at that time the entire militia of the county), and, in a few years thereafter, a brigadier general. The war of 1812 found him in that capacity. On the surren- der of General Hull at Detroit, a general panic seized upon the people of the sparsely settled counties to the west of Columbiana, and many were inclined to abandon their homes and seek places of greater safety. In this state of things all eyes were turned to General Beall for relief, and. to his great honor be it said, they were not in the least disappointed. Immediately on the receipt of the unwelcome news, which was communicated to him by express from Canton, he set about the organization of a detachment, and, in a very few days put himself at the head of several hundred men, and marched to the sup- port of the frontier inhabitants of Wayne and Kichland counties, and, ultimately, continued his route to Camp Huron, where he joined the troops from the Western Reserve, under General Wadsworth and General Per- kins. At that place they were visited by General Harri- son, the commander-in chief, who attended in person to the reorganization of the corps, and, as the whole was not more than sufficient for a brigade, the command devolved on General Perkins as the senior officer. After this General Beall returned home, with the consolation of having done a good service by the promptitude of his march, which was a means of inspiring confidence among the people almost ready to surrender all hope of pro- tection. Those who have never witnessed scenes like these can form a very imperfect idea of the difficulties which surround those who undertake to ward off such evils as were then impending. A frontier of more than

a hundred miles was perfectly defenceless, abounding with all the facilities for an attack by a savage toe. Not a single company of government troops in the State; and no means either in money, provisions, or munitions of war within the reach or control of any officer who was called to the field.

In the spring of 1813, President Madison issued his proclamation for a special session of Congress, and the seat for the northern district being vacant by the death of Mr. Edwards, the member elect, General Beall was, at a special election, chosen to fill the vacancy. He served in Congress during that and the succeeding session, assisting to the full extent of his abilities, in providing ways and means for a vigorous prosecution of the war, then rendered extremely difficult by the prevalence of a reckless party spirit in various portions of the country.

But & congressional life did not suit his taste. He was naturally of a domestic turn of mind, and he longed to rid himself of a trust which compelled him to a sepa- ration, for so large a portion of his time, from his family.

The office of register of land office for the Wooster land district becoming vacant in 1814, General Reall was appointed, and resigned his seat in Congress, and in the following year removed to his late residence in the vicinity of Wooster. The office of register he resigned in 1824, when he retired from all public employment. But he was not permitted so to remain. At the great Whig mass convention at Columbus on the twenty-sec- ond of February, 1840, he was chosen to preside over its deliberations, and was afterwards chosen one of the electors of President and Vice-President, and had the honor as well as the pleasure of casting his vote in that capacity, for his old friend and military associate, Gon- cral Harrison. No incident of his life seemed to give him so much pleasure as this; and with an ardent hope that in the performance of this last trust, confided to him by his fellow citizens, a foundation was laid for the lasting prosperity of his country, he considered his ac- count closed with the public forever. flow illusory are all earthly prospects and how vain are all human hopes."

ALEXANDER FINLEY.

Alexander Finley was born in Hartford county, Mary- land, in the year 1770, of Scotch Irish parents. His father was descended from one of seven brothers who emigrated to the north of Ireland during " King William's war." They subsequently emigrated to the State of New Jersey, from whence one of the brothers migrated to Hartford county, in the State of Maryland, about a century and a half ago. Here Alexander Finley was born. He attended the schools of his native county, and obtained a knowledge of the English branches. Upon reaching manhood, he located in Green county, Penn- sylvania, where he married Miss Mary Smith, a relative of the Hon. Resolve Smith, president of the first bank organized in Philadelphia. In the fall of (863, he en- grated, with his little family, to Fairfield county, Ohio. then including the counties of what are now Licking,

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HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.

Knox, Richland and Ashland, and stopped the winter of 1803-4 in the cabin of Thomas Bell Patterson, on the present site of Mount Vernon. In the spring of 1804, he erected a cabin, about half a mile northwest of Mr. Patterson, on what is now the Fredericktown road, and resided there until April, 1809. On the fifteenth of April, IScg, he landed on the west bank of the Lake fork of Mohican, on the present site of Tylertown, where he quartered a few months in a camp cabin.

In May, Benjamin Bunn and family, William and Thomas Eagle and family arrived. These were the set- tlers in what is now Mohican township, in ISog. When Mr. Finley arrived, he was soon visited by the Indians of what was then known as Jerometown, a village on the Jerome fork of the Mohican, some five miles northwest of his cabin. The inhabitants of the Indian village were generally friendly. Mr. James Finley, of Marquand, Madison county, Missouri, from whom was obtained these particulars, says :

"As near,as I can recollect, the Indian village con- tained perhaps about thirty bark and pole huts or wig- wams. The names of the heads of families were, Aweep- sah, Oppetete, Catotawa, Neshohawa, Buckanddohce, Shias, Ground-squirrel, Buckwheat, Philip Canonicut, and sometimes Thomas Lyons, Billy Montour, and Thomas Jelloway." The chief, Captain Pipe (Hoba- con), resided some distance from the village. "He was a tall, dark, scowling old Indian, and seemed hostile to the whites. I seldom saw him. Ile did not associate with the whites of the neighborhood, but did his trading abroad. I learned that he and Armstrong, of Green- town, often made expeditions to attach emigrants on the Ohio river, on their way to Kentucky." "John Jerry Bettis Jerome had a cabin on the present site of Jerome- ville, near the stream, when we moved to the country. He had been a trader among the Indians seventeen years in the northwest, and was a Frenchman; and, like most of the traders of that nation, married a squaw. He had "a daughter ten years old, named Aweepsali. He had cleared some twenty-five or thirty acres-had horses, cat- tle and hogs, and often entertained the pioneers. After the declaration of war, his wife and daughter accompa- nied the Jerometown Indians to Piqua, where they died. Jerome sold his land and married a German woman, and removed to the mouth of Huron, on the lake, where he died some years afterward."

In 1809 the region along the Lake and Jerome forks of Mohican, was an unbroken forest. Jerome, and Ben- jamin Mills, who resided on the present site of Wooster, as Mr. Finley supposes, were the only white people in that part of Wayne county. He became quite intimate with Jerome, and exchanged many articles of food with him, and was indebted to him for many acts of friend- ship. The Indian village was aboat one mile southwest of Jerome's cabin, and surrounded on three sides by almost impenetrable marshe , filled with alder and other swamp growths. The emigrants of isto 11, state, "that the wigwams or huts were scattered over a space of eight 'or ten acres, with the undergrowth cut away, and a smooth play-ground in the center, which was much used

as a bowling ground. Here the hunters and warriors amused themselves. The council house was located northwest of the village, and was some twenty-five fect wide and fifty feet long, covered with clapboards and bark. It was of poles and split timber." Years before the arrival of Mr. Finley, this village was conspicuous in the annals of the border wars. It was located near the ancient trail leading from Pittsburgh to Upper Sandusky, and many trembling captives ran the gauntlet in passing through it, on their way to the Indian towns in the north. west. This was the headquarters of those warriors of the Wolf tribe that still followed the fortunes of Captain Pipe. At that period, the Greentown Indiens seemed quite intimate with the Jerometown branch of the Dela- wares, and often associated with them in celebrating their fcasts.

In 1810, Mr. Finley was joined by Vachel and Wil- - liam Metcalf, Thomas and Joshua Oram, Benjamin and John Mackerel, James and Joseph Conelly, Elisha Chil- cote, John Shinnabarger, and their families.

When the war of 1812 came, and the Indians com. menced hostile demonstrations, Mr. Finley, and some of his neighbors, forted in Wooster. In 1813, he joined families and forted with his neighbor, John Shinna- barger, who had a strong cabin with port holes, one mile northwest of the present site of Tylertown. Save the affair at Colyer's, elsewhere alluded to, the settlement re- mained undisturbed. James Finley relates a number of amusing incidents connected with the flight of the pio- neers to Wooster, and other places of safety. After pro- ceeding some distance along a circuitous path, with his family, his father remembered that he had left some young calves in pens, and, fearing they would starve. re- turned to let them to the cows, and then attempted to pass straight through the forest to Wooster, eleven miles away, but soon became confused, and was out three days before he got to the fort, his family, in the meantinie, arriving safely. At the same time, a neighbor, Mir. Jacob Lybaiger, rolled his infant daughter in a small bed and took it on his back, proceeding rapidly on his way, followed by his wife, through the forests by narrow Indian trails. From the speed made by her husband, Mrs. Lybarger supposed de danger very imminen !. Calling to her husband, who was some distance in ad- vance, she said: "Jake - Jake, are you afraid?" He promptly responded, "No," and they hurried forward in the narrow path. In his fight, he dropped the infant, and his wife, coming up in haste, stumbled over it, ev- claiming: "Jake. Jake, you need not tell me you are not afraid, for you have lost Maria out of the bed, and you didn't know it." The little daughter was speedily replaced, survived the war, and, npon arriving at woman. hood, became the wife of the late Justus S. Weatherher.

After the close of the war, Mr. Finley continued to reside on bis farm until December, 18:5, when he de. conser, aged about fifty nine years. During the early part of his residence on the Lake fork, it was navigable for small craft to the present site of Tylertown, Known as Fint y's bridge, where a structure of that sort spans the stream. Here the pioneer landed, making their was by

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HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.

forest paths to Orange, Montgomery, Perry, Vermillion and Mobican townships.

His family consisted of James, Benjamin, John, Han- nah, Sarah, Abner, Rachel, Elizabeth, and Mary. James resides in Madison county, Missouri; Benjamin and John are deceased; Hannah (widow Glenn,) resides in Urbana, Illinois; Sarah, wife of Daniel Pocock, resides near Hayesville; Abner lives near Plympton, Holmes county, Ohio; Rachel, wife of Sparks Bird, near Mohi- canville, Ashiand county, Ohio; Elizabeth, wife of James Pocock, in Hayesville, Ohio; Mary, wife of Elijah Po- cock, died neat Hayesville.

Mrs. Mary Finley, wife of Alexander Finley, deceased March 23, 1856, aged about seventy-nine years.

MINE LA-MOTTE, Apri! 10, 1876.

George W. Hill, Esq .:

I was absent when your ietter arrived, which accounts for not being answered sooner. Jerome settled on Mohican. When we came to the country, he was living at Jerometown; in a small cabin, a short distance from the Indian houses. He cultivated some six or eight acres of land, kept a few horses, cattle, ard swine. Heand the Indians did not get along well., They wished him to divide the products of his farm with them. This he refused to do, and the consequence was, when they got bad whiskey they whipped him. He built a cabin near the trail, on the east side of the stream, at the foot of Main street, in the present village of Jeromeville, having bought the land where Jeromeville now stands, where he kept a house of entertainment. In 1812, when the Indians were removed, he said he gave his squaw the privilege of going or staying with him. She chose to go with the Indians. He afterwards married a white woman. He sold his farm to Mr. Deardorff, and settled at Huron, in Huron county, and shortly after died. He commenced trading with the Indians when seventeen years old; but how long be continued a trader, I do not know. He was with the Indians in Wayne's campaign, but whether he was with them in Harmar's and St. Cinir's, I do not know. The Indians did not have much cleared iand. I never saw their field, but it was situated out of sight of the village. I think they had only a few small patches. The cleared land around the village was a lawn, well set with blue grass, and contained an occasional tree and a few shrubs - perl.aps amounting to eight or ten acres. I was in the village during the resi- dence of the Indians, some three or four times. It consisted of some fine cabins, about sixteen by eighteen feet, one story high, and a num- ber of smaller huts or wigwams. The council borse, I think, was a temporary building, built lodge fashion. I do not recollect of having seen it. I saw the wigwam of Captain Pipe. It was within the cleared space of the village. I have no recollection of wife of children. He appeared to be upwards of fifty years old. Was a tall, dark, and straight Indian. I never talked with him, perhaps father did, but I think not much, as Pipe was a surly, unrelenting enemy of the whites, and had little intercourse with them. I think he left early in the sum- mer of 18:2. 1 have no knowledge of Captain Pipe, jr. The Captain Pipe, Jr., of Greentown, of whom you speak, must have been some other Pipe-perhaps a son. I know that the Captain Pipe I describe resided in Jerometown in the years 1809-10.11. I believe there were more Captain Pipes than one. I think Jerome said the Indians bad been on Mohican abont ten or twelve years previous to the white settlement; bat of this I am not positive."

Very respectfully, yours, JAMES FINLEY

WILLIAM AND THOMAS EAGLE.

The following sketch was written by Dr. Thomas A. Eagle, jr., of Macon City, Missouri, in reply to a letter making certain inquiries concerning the first settlers of Mohican. It differs, in some degree, from the recollec- tion of others, but, from his standpoint is, no doubt, reli- able. He places the location of the Eagles in ISIO. They were, undoubtedly, in Mohican in May, 1809. The forts alluded to were, probably, the Buren or Metcalf, and Shinabarger block-houses, and stockade.

"The whites commenced their first settlement in Mo- hican township in the spring of 1810. In that spring four families emigrated and settled in the rich and fertile valley of the Mohican. The first settlement was made on the west side of the stream, generally from one- half to one mile from it. Alexander Finley and family were the first emigrants. They arrived about two weeks before the families of Thomas Eagle and my father, William Eagle, who were met and cordially welcomed by Mr. Finley. Mr. Finley and family brought with them, for the use of father and family, a bucket of butter-milk and a fine corn-pone, which was quite a treat, and thankfully received. This was their first meeting and acquaintance. It was very pleasant and cordial, and ripened into an attachment that grew stronger from day to day, and was never chilled by jealousies or bioils. Their limited means, dangers, and dependence upon eac !! other, had the effect to coment the friendship. Their families imbibed the same feeling, and, to-day, the de- scendants of these pioneers look back to their childhood days, on the banks of the Mohican, with feelings of de- light. Surrounded by dangers and enured to hardships, they learned to think for themselves, and acquired courage to accomplish the task they had undertaken. It was no place for faint hearts or irresolution. They were forty miles from the settlerients and in the midst of red men, who generally treated them kindly until the war of 1812. The first settlers were, religiously, of the Methodists and Presbyterians. The Finleys and Eagles were exemplary members, and their children became members of one or the other of these churches. My father, William Eagle, remained in Mohican township, on the farm ou which he settled, until the spring of 1855, when he removed to Iowa, and from thence to Missouri, and died in Kirksville, aged seventy-six years.

"In the winter of 1862 my mother died in her ninety- second year. They were natives of Virginia. They had seven children four are dead. and three living: one, Elizabeth Culbertson, resides in Iowa -She was the first white child born in Mohican, February 20, 1811 -- Mary Montgomery, wife of Jonathan Montgomery, of Macon, Missouri, and myself.

"The Delintoare Indians inhabited Mohican at the time of the opening of the war of iste, and were re- garded as hostile and treacherous. At that time the white settlers had become pretty numerous, and well much annoyed at the presence of the indians. The alarms were frequent, sometimes well founded, and at others false. When the murders on the Black fork took place, by the Indians, the inhabitants of the Jerome

* The above is a letter from james Finley, in answer to one a ktressed bin by the author, on the subject of the indian settlement at jerome- town, asking him to be more definite concerning Jerome and Captain Piper It seems that Jerome had at first a cabin in or near the Indian village, but in consequence of bad whisky, failed to agree with his red Leatheren. Mi. Finley remembers the wigwam of old Captain Pipe, tutt fails to recollect his wife of children. It is probable that Pipe lived done Captain Pipe, jr., of Greentowe, was undoubtedly has son.

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HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.

fork erected two block-houses, one a few hundred yards north of my father's house (William Eagle), and one two miles north. The one north: was known as the Hellar block-house. When it looked threatening, the settlers sought safety in the block-houses and stockades. The Indians were tampered by a Frenchman by the name of Jerome, who was manied to a squaw. He had been trading with them several years, and had a post at what is now Jeromeville. The place was named after him. During the Indian troubles it was agreed that there should be no shooting at the block-houses unless in case of alarm, for the benefit of those at work on their im- provements. Late one afternoon the citzens heard shoot- ing at Hellar's block-house. . They hastened to depart to General Beall's army at Wooster, as it was thought impracticable to reach the fort. Father, with his family, started. Mother Eagle was sick in bed, unable to travel on foot. Sometimes she was held on a horse, and at others carried on the route. My oldest sister (Mary) was then a small child, and also had to be carried. When they arrived at the Mohican, the canoe was on the oppo- site side. Mr. Finley had arrived and crossed, and con- cealed his family on the opposite side of the stream, sup- posing that the fleeing families were Indians in pursuit of him. Finding it impossible to cross, father went down the stream and the family secreted south of what is now Finley's bridge, for the night. I have often heard father relate this adventure while my childish fears were aroused. The family were not molested, and reached their destina- tion in safety.

"After the close of the war, the settlers of Mohican . were compelled to undergo many privations. For sev- eral years they had to go thirty or forty miles to mall, ou pack-horses, following the Indian trails as best they could, or in canoes, down the Lake fork of Mohican and up Owl check to Shrimplin's mill, and by-paths to Apple creek, in Wayne county. Some may conclude that the first settlers would be gloomy and despondent. Such was not the fart. . Amidst toil and dangers they would have their sport. On one occasion, when there was an alarm, it was thought the Indians were approaching. The citi- zens convened at James Colyer's, about one mile east of the Mohican. In the night they heard a noise which they imagined to be the Indians. In great haste, each seized his gun and took position to be ready for the bloody contest; but one of then number, on attempting to place the guards, was found to be missing. The miss- ing youth had professed great anxiety to meet the savage foc. Search was made, and the brave (?) boy was found secreted beneath a bed, half frightened out of his wits; when asked what he was doing, he said he was in search of the short gun. The gun was noted for its extreme shortness, and the brave young man was afterwards known as the "short gun hero."

As for myself, I was born April 5. 1819, in Mohican township. Read medicine in Ashland. under George W. How, M. D. I practiced several years in Mohican, Iowa, one year in California, two years in Fairfield. and in 1857 moved to Macon county, Missouri. ! made, that year, the first "free soil" speech ever made

in the county, for which my life was threatened. In 1864 I was elected to the legislature for two years, and re-elected in 1866, and served four years. In 1868 I was elected sheriff and county collector for two years. Since that time I have been engaged in the practice of medicine. I was the youngest of the family of William Eagle."

THE COULTERS.

Thomas Coulter was born August 9, 1766, in the State of New York. His father, John Coulter, was a native of Ireland, and came to America when a youth, and married Abigail Parshall, a native of the State of New York. His paternai ancestors, therefore, were Scotch-Irish, and those on his mother's side were Hol- landers, and were among the early settlers of New Am- sterdam. The home of John Coulter and his wife, after leaving New York, was near Sunbury, Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, but in a short time they were driven thence by the Indians, at the time of the Wyom- ing massacre (1779), their house and grain being con- sumed by fire and their cattle driven away by the In- dians and tories. The father of Tom Jelloway, since a Greentown Indinn, was then living in the Wyoming val- ley, and, being friendly to the whites, warned them of their danger ; and among the number saved was the Coulter family. As soon as the perils of the times were over they turned their faces toward the West, and made a home near Ginger Hill, in Washington county. Penn- sylvania. In 1785, Thomas Coulter, and his father, John Coulter, took a cargo of flour, fruit, etc., down the Ohio river to Maysville, then Limestone, Kentucky, where they disposed of their load. While there, they were both attacked with small-pox, which proved fatal to the father. After Thomas was sufficiently recovered, he started for home, on foot, having previously sold the boat. One day, as he was pursuing " his solitary way," he was overtaken by the notorious renegade, Simon Girty, armed with all the weapons peculiar to the savage Senecas, with whom he then lived as an adopted member of the tribe. Mi. Coulter knew him, and not relishing or desiring his company, resolved to get rid of him by stratagem. Under some slight pretext he stepped be- hind Girty, cocked his rifle, and told him if he moved eithier to the right or left, or offered any resistance what- ever, he would be a dead man. Girty was taken by surprise, and obeyed orders ; and they marched all that day along the paths through an unbroken wilderness, until they reached a settlement, wlien Mr. Coulter gladly gave up his prisoner. Some time after his return he joined a volunteer company under Colonel Morgan, and went to White River, Indiana, to aid in subduing the Indians who were committing depredations upon the white inhabitants of the frontier settlements in Ken- tucky. After an absence of a few months he again re- turned home, and in a short time married Mi.s Nane: Tannahill, the mariage occurring August, 1780. In 1797 he moved to Butler county, Pennsylvania, where

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History of Ashland County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 35

Author: Hill, George William, b. 1823; Williams Bros Publication date: 1880 Publisher: [Cleveland] Williams Number of Pages: 896

Author: Hill, George William, b. 1823; Williams Bros
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: [Cleveland] Williams
Number of Pages: 896