History of Ashland County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 36

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

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HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.

he remained until about the year 1806, when he settled in Jefferson county, Ohio. After remaining there a few years he finally emigrated to Richland county, then a part of Knox county, and settled near the present site of Perrysville, in Ashland county. The town of Perrys- ville was laid out by Thomas Coulter, June 10, 18:3, with the intention of naming it Coulterville ; but after Peny's victory on Lake Erie, he changed his intention, and called the village Perrysville, in honor of the naval achievement of Commodore Perry. When Richland county was organized, he was appointed one of the asso- ciate judges by the general assembly of Ohio. Mr. Coulter was a member of the Presbyterian church of Perrysville, and one of the first elders. He died as he lived --- a consistent Christian, and zealous for the growth and prosperity of the church of his choice. He died October 24, 1844, and was buried in Perrysville ceme- tery, aged nearly seventy-nine years. He was the father of seven children, viz .: John, Rachel, Abigail, David, Melzer, Nancy, and Thomas.

John Coulter was born September 13, 1790, in Wash- ington county, Pennsylvania, and was the oldest son of Judge Thomas Coulter. His education was obtained principally in the common schools of the time. He fre- quently spoke in the highest terms of one of his teach- ers, the Rev. Mr. McMillen, one of the pioneers of Presbyterianism in western Pennsylvania, and particu- larly in Washington county. Among the pupils of this good man was Rev. John Coulter, brother of Judge Coulter, who was pastor of the church of Concord, in the presbytery of Butler, more than forty years. Also, of Walter Lowrie, of blessed memory. John Coulter came to Richland, then a part of Knox county, in the fall of iSio, in company with Edward Haley, a young man employed by Judge Coulter to accompany him. They began their labors upon a farm a little southeast of the present site of Perrysville, in October, and continued their work undil they had made several thousand rails, built a cabin, cleared out ten acres of ground, set out fruit trees, etc . after which they returned to their homes in Jefferson county, Ohio. In the following spring, 181 !, John Coulter, and the rest of his father's family, re- moved to the cabin in the wilderness which Had been erected the fall before. This cabin afterwards became the Coulter block-house, and, while used as such, John Coulter acted as one of the scouts to watch the proceed- ings of the Indians. Early in the fall of :8re he went with a surveying party to open a road from Cleveland to Mansfield. This road is now known as the Harrisville and Cleveland road, and passes through the town of Ashland. On Saturday evening, after having com- menced the survey, they had reached Chippewa lake, in Medina county, and were encariped for the night. Mr. Mc Arthur, one of the commissioners to locate the road, was also captain of an independent company, and while there a messenger rode into camp with orders for Cap tain McArthur's company to return immediately to Cleveland, at the same thbe bringing the news of the sutreader of General Hull at Detroit, this being the first intimation they had of the event. although it oc-

curred on the sixteenth of August, 1812, some weeks prior to the survey. The surveying party was, therefore, disbanded, a part of which returned to Cleveland, and a part to the Black fork of the Mohican. Every one of the few settlements they passed on their way home was deserted, the cabins standing silent and tenantless. How their hearts must have sunk within them when they thought of the possible fate of their loved ones. But when they reached the block-house they found the sev- eral families of the settlers gathered there for safety, and learned that the Zimmer family had been murdered by the Greentown, or other Indians, the night before. While they were encamped at Chippewa lake, they heard the noise of chopping on the other side, and, as they afterward found -the Harris settlement deserted, from which they supposed the noise to proceed, Mr. Coulter was strongly of the opinion that the Indians who killed the Zimmers were encamped there. The details con- cerning the great flight to the block-houses at Clinton's, Lewis', Beam's, Oliver's, Coulter's, Jerome's, Priest's, Ea- gle's, and Metcalf's, are given in the sketch of the war of 1812, where Mir. Coulter's experiences are referred to.

In the fall of 1813 Mr. Coulter and Captain Ebenezer Rice took the job of continuing the survey and opening of the same road, from Trickle's cabin, the late location of the Markley brick residence, just east of Ashland, to the Black fork. While thus employed, Mr. Coulter killed a large black wolf. After the completion of the contract, early in the year 1814, Captain Rice walked to Chillicothe to receive the money, ninety dollars, which was due them, also, four dollars which the law of Ohio allowed for each wolf scalp.

On the seventh of April, 1814, John Coulter was mir- ried by Rev. James Scott, a Presbyterian minister of Mount Vernon, to Betsey Rice, eldest daughter of Cap- tain Ebenezer Rice. In September, 1814, the young couple moved to their own home, a cabin on a quarter of land which joined Captain Rice's. In the summer of 1S15, Mrs. Coulter taught the first school in Green. township, and, we believe, in what is now Ashland county, and took spinning and weaving as her pay for tuition. She said it was a great accommodation to her, as she did not understand spinning and weaving as well as teaching. Mis. Coulter (Betsey Rice) was born Janu- ary 27, 1797, in New Salem, Worcester township, Hamp- shire county, Massachusetts. She came with her father's family, Captain Ebenezer Rice, to Newark, Licking county, Ohio, in 1810, and, ia February, IScr, he set- tled near the present site of Perrysville, in Ashland county, then part of Knox county. Mrs. Coulter is now (18;8) a resident of Congress, Wayne county, and al- though far advanced in years, possesses perfectly all her mental faculties and a fair degree of physical force.

In June, 1814, John Coulter ansi his brother-in-law, James Moore, descended the Flack fork, Walhonding. and Muskingum, in a canoe, to Zanesville, on a shopping expedition; and from the bill of goods we learn that sie small dinner plates cost one dollar and fifty cents; si eups and saucers, one dollar and seventy five cents; an earthen teapot, one dollar and twenty-five cents; a little

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HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.

blue creamer (still in existence), sixty-two and one-half cents, etc., etc. In the spring of 1815 he and David Hill went in a canoe to the mouth of Owl creek, to one of Jolinny Appleseed's nurseries, and brought up five hundred apple trees, which produced excellent fruit.

Mr. Coulter was a man of sterling intergity, sound judgment, warm and true in his friendships; and in con- sequence of these qualities the people often honored him with office. When the project of erecting the new county of Vermillion was agitated, Mr. Coulter was sent to Co- lumbus some two or three sessions of the legislature, to work up the claims of the new county. He afterwards served on the State board of equalization for real estate, and was the first assessor of personal property of the eastern half of Richland county, and was the first coro. ner. He was twice elected justice of the peace in Green township, Ashland county, and twice in Washington township, Richland county, besides to many minor offi- ces, all the duties of which be discharged with fidelity and honor,

In November, 1817, he and his wife united with the Methodist Episcopal church, under the ministry of Rev. John Sommerville, and Mrs. Coulter and their eldest child, Rumina, were baptized the same day. A few years after- ward they united with the Presbyterian church, in com- munion and fellowship of which they walked together until the death of Mr. Coulter, which occurred in Perrys- ville, October 2, 1873. He had reached the ripe old age of eighty-two years and seventeen days, and had lived with the wife of his youth nearly sixty years. The purity of his acts certified to the sincerity of his profes- sions, and his long and busy life closed calmly and peace- fully. His grave is made in Perrysville, where he spent the strength of his early manhood.

Mr. Coulter was the father of ten children., only four of whom survive, viz .: C. C. Coulter, of Perrysville, Cap- tain J. N. Coulter, of Gliddea, Carroll county, Iowa, Elizabeth R., wife of A. D. Zimmerman, of Shreve, Wayne county, Ohio, and Nancy L., wife of Rev. Frank- tin Eddy, of Congress, Wayne county, Ohio. The names of the deceased are: Cyrenius M., Rumina, wife of Dr. J. H. Register, Sebastian C., and Martha R., all buried at Perrysville, and Lucina, wife of David Ewing, of Hayesville, Martin Van Buren, who died at Miliken's Bend, Louisiana, in the One Hundred and Twentieth Ohio volunteer infantry, in 1863. *

JOSEPH CHANDLER

was born near Black Rock, Baltimore county, Maryland, May 20, 1798, and came with his parents to Jefferson county, Ohio, in 18cg, where he resided a short time, and removed to Tuscarawas county, and settled near the village of New Philadelphia, and having parchased a piece of wild land at the office in Canton, he came to

* Nors. - We are indebted to Mr. R ... Eddy, of Congress, Wayne county for most of the items of this personal sketch. It is quite valu- able as a family reminiscence, and for the light it sheds upon the piu- neer transactions of 1812.

Perry township, then in Wayne, but now in Ashland county. He came with his father, Joseph Chandler, sr., and his brothers, Thomas and Robert F., to improve it, in the spring of 1812. The farm was situated about two miles north of the Indian village, then known as Mohican Johnstown. The village contained a council house and about sixty or eighty pole lodges or wigwams, and was located near the old Wyandot trail, and about one mile southwest of the present site of Jeromeville, and on the west side of the stream. At the same time he found a Frenchman named John Baptiste Jerome living with a squaw, a sister of the chief, George Hamil- ton, in a neat log cabin near the site of the present grist- mill, at the west end ot Main street. Mr. Chandler, in the summer of 1812, worked occasionally for Jerome, and considered him an impulsive, clever Frenchman. He had taught his wife to cook and keep house like the white women, and Mr. Chandler regarded her as a good housekeeper, considering her opportunities. Jerome seemed much attached to his Indian wife. He former- ly lived as a trader in the village, but stated that the warriors got fire-water, and frequently abused him, hence, he cleared a small farm and raised horses and other stock, and cultivated a cornfield on the bottom. He entered one hundred and sixty acres of land, where Jeromeville now stands. He had great numbers of swinc, horses and cows running in the forests. In fact, his stock ranged in the woods in great numbers. Jerome had a daughter. aged about fifteen years, named Mary or Mollie, who had received her name from a Catholic priest at her bap- tism, near Detroit, Michigan. Jeronie repeatedly rehearsed his military exploits in the campaigns against Harmar, St. Clair and Wayne, in the presence of the whites, and stated that Captain Pipe and his D./- owares had been in all those battles and glutted their vengeance against the white invaders.

Mr. Chandler thinks there is no doubt of the return of Captain Pipe to Jerome's village, one mile west of the stream, and of his having a wigwam at that point, where it was pointed out in 1812. Pipe, he thinks, went to the British in the spring of 1812, as he was not seen after the war began. His son resided at Greentown, until removed by Captain Douglass. After the assassi- nation of the Zimmer. Kuffner, and Copus families on. the Black fork, Jerome's wife and daughter were sent with the Greentown Indians to Urbana, where, during the winter of 1812-13, she and her daughter died nom exposure, and Jerome was imprisoned for a short time in the block- house at Wooster. Jerome soll the village site, and married another wife, and removed to the mouth of the Huron river, where he died shortly after- wards.

In the fall of the year 1S12, Joseph Chandler, sr., and sons returned to Tuscarawas county, where they re- mpaired until the close of the war, and then re-ocenpied their cabin in Peny, where his father deceased, Mav, 1815, aged sixty years, leaving a widow and sis sons. Thomas, Robert F., Joseph, Shadrac, Jacob, and John; and fout daughters: Rebecca, Eleanor, Henrietta, and Alice. Joseph Chandler resided, at the time of his

DAVID CARTER,

son of Daniel Carter, sr., was born in Montgomery township, on the old homestead in section twenty-eight, March 18, 1815. He was the first white child born in the township. It has been heretofore stated, on what should have been good authority, that the first white child born in Montgomery township was Lorin Andrews, but this is a mistake, as he was not born until 1819, four years later than David Carter. Sarah Carter was born in 1816, and William Sheets in the early part of 1819, so that Loin Andrews was the fourth instead of the first child born in the township.

Daniel Carter, sr., was born in Baltimore county, Maryland, December 25, 1776, and was married in Bed- ford county, Pennsylvania, to Ann Snyder. They came to Ohio in 1So6, and she died in the block-house at Jeromeville in 1813, leaving eight children: John, Will- iam, Daniel, Rachel, Elizabeth, James, George, and Anna. Mr. Carter subsequently married Ruth Warner, March 9, 1814. She came with her parents to Mohican township in 1810 or 18r !. Seven more children were the result of this marriage --- David, Sarah, Mary, Samuel, Miranda, Milton, and Charles.

David Carter attended the subscription schools of the time, a few terms at the district schools, and one term

at the Norwalk seminary, after which he became a teacher for one term. On December 26, 1837, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Griffith, of Fayette county, Pennsylvania, by whom he has had three children, all of whom died in infancy.

Mr. Carter was first lieutenant in a volunteer infantry company in 1841, and held that office some seven years. He was afterwards sergeant-major of the regiment, and finally became quartermaster. He was for some three years aide-de-camp to General Meredith, who com- manded the First brigade of the Eleventh division of Ohio militia, of Richland county, in which capacity he served until the brigade, was divided. In 186t he vo !- unicered as a private soldier in company I, of the Sixty- fourth Ohio volunteer infantry, in which he served until March, 1So2, when he was ordered home on a discharge furlough, and was never ordered back to his regiment, nor was he Jischarged.

Mr. Carter and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. In politics he abides by the doctrines of Andrew Jackson. He now lives on the old bome- stead, within a few rods of the place where stood the old log cabin in which he was born. He has never known " any home other than this.

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HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.

death, on the old homestead. He often alluded to the wonderful change that had occurred in Perry township since his arrival in 1812, now sixty-eight years ago. First, he states that the first grist-mill was erected by John Raver, in Rowsbingh ; second, the first school- house of round logs was in the west part of Perry; third, the first teacher was John G. Mosier, who died near Ashland in 1856; fourth, the first dry goods store, Michael Row, in Rowsburgh ; fifth, the first blacksmith, Adam Tener; sixth, the first carpenters, Isaac Smalley and James Scott; seventh, the first earding machine, at Rowsburgh, by Mr. McConayha; eighth, the first tanner, George Mcfadden ; ninth, the first wagon-maker, Andrew Casebeer, at Buchanan's corners ; Tenth, the first church at Mt. Hope on Mud- dy fork; eleventh, the first Presbyterian preacher, Rev. Mr. Brown.

Mr. Chandler has always been a practical farmer, and resided on his father's old homestead. He was an ex- emplary member of the Methodist church for a period of over forty years, was a good citizen, and noted for his frugality and integrity. His family have all grown, and are much scattered. He saw the country when a wilder- ness, and has noted its wonderful changes, its wealth and prosperity, and trusted that the descendants of the pio- neers would remember the hardships of their parents, and live frugal, moral and useful lives, and preserve the institutions of their fathers, untarnished by corruption and tyranny.

He was three times married. In 1825 to Amelia Jones, of Jefferson county, Ohio; she died in 1825. In 1827 he married Elizabeth Farnham, of Knox county. Sbe died in 1850, and was the mother of Lafayette, John, Marion, Joseph, Farnham and Elizabeth. In :852 he married Margaret Beattie, of Vermillion township. The children were Orin, Mitchell, and Franklin. His last wife still survives to mourn his ioss.

Mr. Chandler suffered but a short time. He had grown greatly in flesh, and would weigh nearly three hundred pounds. He had been afflicted for several years with a chronic trouble, that finally cut short his days. He became a member of the Ashland County Historical Society in 1875, and took especial interest in rehearsing the early times and occurrences in the county. It will be difficul: to fill his place in the society, as well as in the comma- nity, where he resided. He was a good man, and will be moch Jamented. Peace to his ashes and rest to his soul.

DANIEL CARTER, SK.,

was born in Baltimore county, Maryland, and moved, when young, with his mother to Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, in the year 1774. He emigrated to near Canton, Stark county, Ohio, in 1866, and then to what is now Montgomery township, Ashland county, in Janu- ary, 1812, stopping a for days with John Carr, who had a cabin adjoining the farm of Baptiste Jerome, until the erection of his cabin, and entered it with his tamuly in February, 1312. The circumstances attending the eree-

tion of bis cabin, and its first and second abandonment ; bis flight to New Philadelphia; bis return, and his seck- ing safety, for several months, for himself and family, at the block-house at Jerome's place, now Jeromeville, have been described in former chapters. The death of his wife and son James, has also been spoken of in con- nection with his resilence at the block-house. About the time he left the block-house he sold the tract of land northeast of the present site of Ashland, to Conrad Kline and John Heller, and purchased four quarters, some two miles south of his original purchase, upon one of which he located, having, in the meantime, mar- ried Miss Ruth Warner. Mr. Carter continued to re- side on the new purchase until February 7, 1854. when, after a brief illness, he died at the advanced age of eighty years. Mrs. Carter, his second wife, survived him eight or nine years. Mr. Carter was an industrious, frugal and upright man. He had been a very faithful member of the Methodist church for over sixty years. Ilis children, by his first wife, were -- John, William, Daniel, Rachel. Elizabeth, James, George, and Anna ; by his second- David, Sarah, Mary, Samuel, Miranda, Milton, and Charles. Daniel, David, and Samuel, are residents of Montgomery township, and three daughters reside within the county. All the rest have moved else- where.

Daniel Carter, jr., is a citizen of Ashland. His pio- neer experiences are as exciting and interesting as those of any settler of that period. When about eleven years of age, he states his father dispatched him with a sack of shelled corn, on horseback, through the forest, to Odell's mill, in the south part of what is now Lake town- ship, to have it ground into meal. This was early in the spring of 1812. Pipe and his Delawares had not yet left Mohican Johnstown. On his return in the evening ... being belated by the difficulty of winding his way along the Indian paths, he reached the Indian village a little after dark, and seeing a number of Indians collected for a sort of council at the council house, he stopped to wit- ness the performances. It was at this "pow-wow" thet the "red-stick," of Tecumseh was rejected by " Old Cap- tain Pipe." He returned to his father's cabin, however, without molestation by the Indians, who, at that time, were on friendly terios with their white neighbors. Mi. Carter relates many adventures, amid the forest, in his youthful days, of a thilling character. He married Miss Eliza Slocum, daughter of another leading pioneer of a. later period.

David Carter was born March 18, 1815, on the home- stead in section twenty-eight, Montgomery township. He is believed to be the first male child born in Mont- : gomery township. He married Miss Elizabeth Griffith, of Fayette county, Pennsylvania, December 26, 1837. He resides or the old Carter homestead, and is a farmer by occupation. His children -- three- deceased Pr in. fancy. He is a man of good natural attainments, and possesses a fund of pioneer experiences.

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HISTORY OF ASHLAND COUNTY, OHIO.

JOHN GREENLEE,*

John Greenlee was born in Crawford county, Pennsyl- vania, near French creek, in 1804. William Greenice, his father, visited Ohio in the spring of ist, and loca- ted a farin near James L. Priest, in that part of Lake township subsequently annexed to Washington township, Holmes county. In making that trip on horseback, he passed down the banks of the Ohio river to Wellsburgh. Virginia, crossed at the ferry, and traveled west to Cadiz, thence to Cambridge, thence to Zanesville, thence up the banks of the Muskingum river to the village of Coshorton, thence up the bank of the White-woman to the Lake fork, and thence through an unbroken forest, by Indian paths, to the cabin of James L. Priest. Mr. Priest had been a neighbor in Crawford county, Penn- sylvania, and had located near what is now "Priest's Prairie," in the summer of' 1809. After a stay of ten or fifteen days, Mr. Greenlee became so pleased with the country that he resolved to select and locate upon a tract of land near Mr. Priest. He returned to Pennsyl- vania, and arranged for removing his family to Ohio. By the first of October, 1811, he had completed his arrange- ments, and commenced his journey through the forests with one two-horse and one four-horse covered wagon, loaded with household goods, provisions, grain, and his family, consisting of his wife and seven children --- six girls and one boy, John. He also brought a few head of cows. He crossed the Ohio river, and came by the trail through Canton, Massillon, and Wooster, all more villages, the trail being narrow and. but little traveled. There were but few cabins along the route, and he was compelled to camp by the way-side, pretty nearly the entire distance. When he arrived at the village of Woos- ter, be found no opened path to the Priest cabin, and hence preceded his teams with an ax, cutting the under- growth and prepared a wagon road. In this way his progress was slow, and it took the major part of one month to perform the entire journey. He finally arrived safely, and was assisted by his old friend, and eight or ten friendly Indians, among whom were Thomas Jelio- way, Tom Lyon, Billy Dowdee, Thick-necked John, Monos, and Billy Montour, and a few white men, in putting up a cabin.

The pioneer families within a circuit of six miles are believed to have been, at that time, Mr. Finley, Mr. Eagle, Samuel Marvin, William and John Hendrickson, Elijah Bolling, William Greenlee, and Jantes L. Priest. The cabins of Messrs. Priest and Greenlee were near the old Huron trail, and great numbers of Delawares, from Sandusky, Green and Jerometown, passed on their way to and from the old Indian settlement on the Tus- carawas during the fall of iSit and the spring of 1812, but all remained quiet and friendly until after Hull's surrender at Detroit, in August, 1812 This was fol- lowed by the removal of the Green and Jerometown DHlevares, and the assassination of Ruffrer, the Cim- mets, and James Copus, by the hostile Indians from

** This sketch was prepared by a committee appointed In the Histo- " real Society of Ashland county, consisting of Andrew Mess, George W. Unie, and George W. Ffill.

Sandusky. The pioneers, in the Priest neighborhood, converted Mr. Priest's double cabin into a bleck-house, and enclosed by pickets about one-fourth of an acre of ground around it. The fort was a few hundred yards west of the Lake fork, and near where the railroad crosses that stream. The settlers near Odell's lake joined those of the Priest settlement, in the erection of the stockade, and came there for safety. The families who entered the fort were those of James L. Priest, William Greenlee, William and John Hendrickson, Elijah Bolling, Samuel Marvin, Nathan Odell, Joshua and Thomas Oram, and Elijah Chilcoat. The settlers remained in the fort but a short time, and returned to their cabins. The fort, however, remained a sort of headquarters for the little colony during the contind- ance of the war, although the red mon of the northwest failed to put in an appearance. While the war pro- gressed, in 1813. Mr. John Greenlee relates that on the tenth of September he distinctly heard the roar of attil- lery in the naval engagement between Perry and the British commodore on Lake Erie: but, although the day was clear, supposed at first it was a heavy store or hurricane in the northwest. In a few days the news of Perry's triumph was heralded over the country.

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History of Ashland County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 36

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