History of Columbiana County, Ohio and representative citizens, Part 9

Author: McCord, William B., b. 1844
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 912

USA > Ohio > Columbiana County > History of Columbiana County, Ohio and representative citizens > Part 9

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).

captivated or, scalped by those of his nation. "Among the captives a woman was brought into camp at Muskingum with a babe about three months old at her breast. One of the Virginia volunteers soon knew her to be his wife, who had been taken by the Indians about six months before. She was immediately de- livered to her overjoyed husband. He flew with her to his tent, and clothed her and his child in proper apparel. But their joy after the first transports was soon dampened by the reflection that another dear child of about two years old captivated with the mother, and separated from her, was still missing, although many children had been brought in.

"A few days afterward a number of other prisoners were brought to the camp, among whom were several more children. The woman was sent for, and one supposed to be hers was produced. At first she was uncertain; but viewing the child with great earnestness, she soon recollected its features, and was so over- come with joy, that literally forgetting her other babe she dropped it from her arms, and catching up the new-found child in an ecstasy, pressed it to her breast, and bursting into tears carried it off, unable to speak for joy. The father, seizing up the babe she had let fall, followed her in no less transport and affection.

"Among the children who had been carried off young, and had long lived with the Indians, it is not to be expected that any marks of joy would appear on being restored to their parents or relatives. Having been accustomed to look upon the Indians as the only connections they had, having been tenderly treated by them, and speaking their language, it is no wonder they considered their new state in the light of a captivity, and parted from the savages with tears.

"But it must not be denied that there were even some grown persons who showed an un- willingness to return. The Shawnees were obliged to bind several of their prisoners and force them along to the camp ; and some women who had been delivered up, afterwards finding means to.escape, ran back to the Indian town. Some who could not make their escape, clung to their savage acquaintances at parting and

HISTORY OF COLUMBIANA COUNTY

continued many days in bitter lamentations, even refusing sustenance.

"For the honor of humanity we would sup- pose those persons to have been of the lowest rank, either bred in ignorance and distressing penury, or, who had lived so long with the In- dians as to forget all their former connections. For, easy and unconstrained as the savage life is, certainly it could never be put in competition with the blessings of civilized life and the light of religion by any persons who have had the happiness of enjoying, and the capacity of dis- cerning them.

"By the 9th of November, 206 prisoners had been delivered, including women and chil- dren; of whom 32 men and 58 women and chil- dren were from Virginia, and 49 males and 67 females from Pennsylvania."

OLD NATIONAL AND STATE HIGHWAYS.

In the first half of the last century the State and county road,-the "turnpike" and the or- dinary wagon road-and the well nigh obsolete canal were to the people of that time what the railroad and the trolley line are to us to-day. Horace Bushnell has well said: "If you wish to know whether society is stagnant, learning scholastic, religion a dead formality, you may learn something by going into universities and E'braries ; something also by the work that is doing on cathedrals and churches, or in them; but quite as much by looking at the roads. For if there is any motion in society, the Road, which is a symbol of motion, will indicate the fact. When there is activity, or enlargement, or a liberalizing spirit of any kind, then there is intercourse and travel, and these require roads. So if there is any kind of advancement going on, if new ideas are abroad, and new hopes ris- ing, then you will see it by the roads that are building. Nothing makes an inroad without making a road. All creative action, whether in government, industry, thought or religion, creates roads."

BUFFALO TRAILS.

Archer Butler Hulbert, in the introduction of his "Historical Highways of America,"

says: "It was for the great animals to mark out what became known as the first thorough- fares of America. The plunging buffalo, keen of instinct, and nothing if not utilitarian, broke great roads across the continent on the sum- mits of the watersheds, besides which the first Indian trails were but traces through the for- ests. Heavy, fleet of foot, capable of covering scores of miles in a day, the buffalo tore his roads from one feeding ground to another, and from north to south, on high ground. Here his roads were swept clear of the debris in sum- mer, and of snow in winter. They mounted the heights and descended from them on the long- est slopes, and crossed each stream on the bars at the mouth of its lesser tributaries. * *

"But the greatest marvel is that these early pathfinders chose routes, even in the roughest districts, which the tripod of the white man cannot improve upon. A rare instance of this is the course of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad between Grafton and Parkersburg, West Vir- ginia. That this is one of the roughest rides our palatial trains of to-day make is well known to all who have passed that way, and that so fine a road could be put through such a rough country is one of the marvels of engineering science. But leave the train, say at the little hamlet of Petroleum, West Virginia, and find on the hill the famous old thoroughfare of the buffalo, Indian and pioneer, and follow that narrow thread of soil westward to the Ohio River. You will find that the railroad has followed it steadily throughout its course, and when it came to a more difficult point than usual, where the railroad is compelled to tunnel at the strategic point of least elevation, in two instances the trail runs exactly over the tunnel. This occurs at both 'Eaton's tunnel' and 'Gor- ham's tunnel.' "

THE DAY OF THE STAGE COACH.

The old National Road, which runs through Ohio from east to west, is said to have been first conceived by Albert Gallatin. In 1806 commissioners were appointed by Presi- dent Jefferson to take the matter of building such a highway into consideration, and report

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.

upon it. As a result the contract for the first 10 miles west of Cumberland, Maryland,-the Eastern terminus-was let in 1811, and the road was completed to the Ohio River at Wheeling in 1818. Across Ohio, by the way of Columbus, to Indianapolis, Indiana, the great highway was completed before 1830. In- dian and buffalo trails, as has already been re- lated, were mainly followed, which afforded the best grades and shortest routes. Bluff hills were cut down, while knolls were surmounted or semi-circled, and old Indian fords of streams were spanned with bridges. Primitive towns, which had been struggling for a name for some years, now displayed new life under the stimu- lus of added population and awakening com- mercial activity, while new towns sprang up here and there, later to become the homes of prosperous communities. The business done over the old National Road was tremendous. Great wagons, often in trains of a score or more, each carrying burdens of freight of vari- ous kinds, 6,000 to 8,000 pounds to the load, were the precursors of the mammoth freight trains of today of 100 cars, each car carrying almost as much as a wagon train of the pioneer days. Stage coaches, drawn by four or six horses each, carried statesmen, tradesmen and pioneer farmer, where now the palace car, down to the day coach and emigrant car, trans- port the immensely increased human traffic of to-day. The first half of the last century was the era of the great National and Inter-State roads ; but horse power and the slow-moving coaches of a century ago have been largely sup- erseded by steam cars-by electric and a-mile- a-minute travel of to-day.

TIIE ROADS OF THE COUNTY.

Early in the last century the laying out and grading of State roads were undertaken, and in localities corduroy and plank roads were built to a limited extent. One of the earliest roads to be built in this section of the State, over which there was a large amount of traffic to the interior and northern sections for many years prior to the days of railroads, was that running from the Ohio River at Wellsville, to

New Lisbon, Canton and Cleveland. This thoroughfare is to-day, as it always has been, a dirt or "mud" road; and four score years ago, when it bore the heaviest travel, it was no un- common occurrence for the heavy wagons to sink into mother earth to the hubs of the wheels. It was too early for even the agitation of the subject of road improvement. In later years there has been some agitation and a small amount of legislation, but as yet, at least in Columbiana county, to little practical purpose. Outside the corporate limits of cities and towns, there are, up to the beginning of 1905, not quite 25 miles of improved roads in the county. The most notable example of improved road in the county, and of the improved conditions which such improvement brings with it, is the piece of road between East Liverpool and Cal- cutta, four, miles in extent, two miles of which is brick and two miles, pounded stone. Then there are two miles of improved road from Wellsville corporate limits on the hill road run- ning towards Lisbon. Other sections of im- proved road in the county are: Between Ken- sington and Hanover, I mile; near Summit- ville, I mile; 11/2 miles on the Salineville and Hanover roads, near Lisbon; between Leetonia and Columbiana, I mile, between Lee- tonia and Columbiana, 21/2 miles ; between Lee- tonia and Washingtonville, 2 miles; near East Palestine, 1 mile; between Salem and Mill- ville, I mile; besides smaller pieces elsewhere in Salem, Perry, Knox, Butler, Madison, and Liverpool townships. Besides perhaps 4 or 5 miles of brick paving, these improved roads are made chiefly of slag and gravel, and in a few cases of pounded stone. But in the main the public roads of the county are very bad, es- pecially in the southern or hill sections, and all are susceptible of improvement. A beginning, however, has been made in the betterment of these conditions, and it is hoped that ere many years good roads over the county will be the rule rather than the exception.

The construction of roads and bridges is. an essential part of the industrial system, and is carried on under authority derived from the State. By a law passed by the Legislature in 1904, the State purposes to cooperate in the

HISTORY OF COLUMBIANA. COUNTY

maintenance of roads. This law creates a new department in charge of a State highway com- missioner. This officer will investigate road- making, publish bulletins thereon, pass on ap- plications from county commissioners for road improvements, and. when approved, furnish plans, and let the contracts. The cost will be borne, one-fourth by the State, and the remain- ing three-fourths by the county-the county proper, the township and the owner of the land abutting dividing the three-fourths apportioned to the county. One of the advantages attend- ant upon rural free delivery-which has been introduced in the county with many beneficent results during the opening years of the new century, and which will be referred to more at length in another chapter-is the stimulus which it has given to road improvement.

Under the provisions of the new road law, which has been referred to, Governor Herrick in February, 1905, appointed Samuel Huston, of Steubenville, State highway commissioner; and a few days thereafter Commissioner Hus- ton opened his new department in Columbus. He announced at once that there would be no. road building under State supervision during the first year of the department's existence. The Legislature had placed but $10,000 at the dis- posal of the department for the first year, and

this, the commissioner said, would not much more than cover the expense of getting it prop- erly in operation. Divided among the 88 coun- ties of the State, it would be an insignificant sum for road building. Commissioner Huston believed it was the intention of the Legislature that the first year should be devoted to the pre- liminary work, and he decided that he should spend much time traveling over the State, in order, to get acquainted with conditions, and to "confer, with counties interested in better roads." If he does that, he may hold a con- ference or conferences in every county in the State. He will issue bulletins explaining. the objects of the department, which he purposes sending to the daily papers for publication. "I expect to carry on a campaign of education through the medium of the press, which is the most powerful factor in bringing things to a successful issue," said Mr. Huston. As a mat- ter of fact, a campaign of education has been progressing during the past 100 years-years which have been full of experience, demonstrat- ing the need of improved roads, with every now and then the promulgation of a lot of theories as to how better conditions might obtain; but the one thing needful is the application of some practical, common-sense ideas in the advance- ment of the much needed work.

CHAPTER VII.

FROM STAGE COACH TO TROLLEY.

Days of Horseback Mails-Stage Lines-The River the Great Highway-Steamboating on the Ohio-River Floods and Disasters-Sandy aud Beaver Canal; the Story of Great Expectations-Pioneer Railroad Projects-Fight for the Erie & Ohio Route-Railroad and Caual Men Clash-Collapse of the East Liverpool & Ashtabula Railroad Scheinc -Work of Wellsville Meu for the Cleveland & Pittsburg Road-Telephone and Trol- ley -- Rural Free Delivery.

Then the stage crawled over the mountains. But for years after the Alleghanies had been crossed. the great routes of travel ended with Pittsburg, and the river was depended on for transportation, while the mails were carried on horseback. Mails reached the struggling set- tlements in Columbiana County only at irregu- lar intervals until about 1809, when the coun- ty seat at New Lisbon received a regular weekly service by horseback from Pittsburg. John Depue, and later Horace Daniels, carried the mails during that early period. Depue is said to have used two horses. One he rode, the other he drove in front of him, two mail bags strapped across the beast's back. Reaching the long lane east of New Lisbon (his arrival was the event of the week), he would commence sounding his horn, and all vehicles and travel- ers must give way to the government and the mails on his trip into town. The weekly mail ran by way of Smith's Ferry, Little Beaver Bridge, Calcutta (then Foulkstown), East Fairfield, New Lisbon, and thence via Deer- field and Ravenna to Cleveland. Another horse- back mail was established about the same time from New Lisbon via Wellsville to Steuben- ville, and a third to Canton via Osnaburg. The first post office at New Lisbon had been estab- lished in 1809; that at Salem in 1807, while

Wellsville did not have a postmaster until 1816. The first post office at Fawcettstown, as East Liverpool was then known, was estab- lished in 1810. but after two years it was abol- ished. No mail route passed through the place, and the people there sent to Wellsville, Little Beaver Bridge or, Calcutta for their mail.

The great thoroughfare from Western Pennsylvania into this part of Ohio passed through Georgetown, Pennsylvania, just east of the Pennsylvania State line on the southern side of the river, making Smith's Ferry a cele- brated river crossing. Georgetown was a trading point before New Lisbon came into existence, and controlled the trade of the south- ern parts of Beaver and Columbiana counties for a number of years. Smith's Ferry stood just at the junction of two of the great paths of emigration to the Northwest territory, one leading west through Pittsburg and Beaver. the other through Brownsville and Little Wash- ington. On to the west, the mail went north of Fawcettstown and Wellsville; while to the south of the river were Hookstown, Frankfort and Pughtown, all ambitious settlements.

Left off all through routes of travel by road. Wellsville and Fawcettstown sought means to secure a road to the north for several years. In 1821 Cleveland's commercial inter-

HISTORY OF COLUMBIANA COUNTY

ests demanded a first-class highway between the lake and the river. It was determined to raise funds by subscription for a free clay pike from Cleveland to New Lisbon and thence to some point on the river to be selected by the commissioners named by the projectors. The commissioners viewed and roughly surveyed three routes south from New Lisbon-one by the Georgetown road to a point near Smith's Ferry, at the State line; a second to Fawcetts- town, and a third to Wellsville. It was given out that the route that could show the great- est amount of subscriptions to aid the project would be awarded the new road. Solicitors were appointed for, each route, and a day was set for turning over the subscription papers at New Lisbon. The commissioners demanded that 15 freeholders on each route furnish a bond guaranteeing the payment of the sub- scriptions. John Bough, of near West Point, had charge of the bond for the Fawcettstown, or Liverpool, route, and it is related that on the night before the papers were to have been turned over at New Lisbon, he received a visit from one of liis neighbors, who had signed the bond but who rued his action in doing so. Bough handed his visitor the paper containing the 15 signatures, and the latter calmy walked across the room to the grate and tossed it into the flames. Bough reported his loss the follow- ing day, when the representatives of all three routes assembled at Lisbon, but George Wells and Henry Aten, representing the Wellsville route, were on hand with their papers, and the (leal for the new pike was closed with them. The road was completed in 1823, and thence- forth became the stage and mail highway be- tween the river and New Lisbon.

THE COMING OF THE STAGE-COACH.

The next few years following 1820, saw the introduction of regular stage lines into Columbiana County, which carried mail, pas- sengers and light baggage. The arrival of the pioneer coaches into New Lisbon on the route out of Pittsburg created a sensation at the coun- ty seat. They were drawn first by four, then by six horses. According to a paper presented

by H. H. Gregg, of New Lisbon, before the Columbiana County Pioneer and Historical Association at that place in 1876, regular lines first began running three times a week in 1829 -though they had run irregularly for several years before that date. In the Ohio Patriot, at New Lisbon, on May 23, 1829, the follow- ing advertisement appeared :

PITTSBURG, BEAVER, NEW LISBON, CANTON AND WOOSTER LINE OF STAGES.

The public are informed that a regular line of stages is now running from and to the above places, three times a week, leaving Pittsburg on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, at 3 o'clock a. m., and arriving in New Lisbon on the same days at 7 o'clock p. m .- Leaving New Lisbon on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, at 3 o'clock a. m. and arriving at Wooster at 7 o'clock p. m. on the same day.

Offices for the above line :

Griffiths', Wood street, Pittsburg; McClure's, Beaver ; Watson's, New Lisbon; Dewalt's, Canton ; Hempherly's, Wooster.

To facilitate the transportation of passengers arriv- ing in New Lisbon or Wellsville on any other than the regular stage days, the subscribers have procured

GOOD CARRIAGES, HORSES AND STEADY DRIVERS.

To ply daily between Lisbon and Wellsville, 14 miles from the former, at which place a STEAMBOAT

Can ordinarily be procured, to proceed to PITTSBURG, STEUBENVILLE Of WHEELING, in addition to which A HACK will be kept constantly at the

STAGE OFFICE.

Of JOHN FEEHAN, of Wellsville, to accommodate those preferring the latter mode of conveyance to any of the above places.

The proprietors of the accommodation line just established pledge thenrselves to spare no pains to render the situation of those who may favor them with their patronage both comfortable and agreeable. Fare reason- able, and every attention paid to BAGGAGE, but in all cases it must be at the risk of the owner.

JOHN FEEHAN, DAVID WATSON.

N. B .-- Arrangements have been made to meet the Middleburg and Warren stages at New Lisbon on Tuesdays and Saturdays, which stages will leave town regularly every Wednesday and Sunday morning.

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.

The following week another line of stages was advertised to run three times a week, from New Lisbon through Wellsville to Steuben- ville, carrying the mails. The stage left the house of M. Seydel, "Sign of the Union Hall," New Lisbon, every Sunday, Wednesday and Friday at 6 A. M .; arrived at the stage office of John M. Jenkins, Wellsville, at 9 A. M., and left Wellsville at 10 A. M., to arrive at Dohr- man's hotel, Steubenville, at 6 P. M., the same day. The next year Feehan & Watson extend- ed their stage route from Wooster to Mans- field, and started daily stages from Pittsburg as far west as Beaver. For several years, how- ever, the mails were carried from New Lisbon north on horseback or on foot. We are told by a local historian that in the later '20's and in the early '30's, "James Vaughn carried the mail on foot from New Lisbon, through Salem to Deerfield and Palmyra, making connection with the stage line running from Big Beaver Point to Cleveland. Afterwards mails were carried on horseback, and where, by the increase of newspapers, greater quantities of mail were forwarded, a pack-horse was loaded, and trav- eled with the mail carrier."

In 1833 Zadock Street, of Salem, George Wells, of Wellsville and Orion Brossom, of Painesville, with several others, established a route from Wellsville to Fairport, on Lake Erie, running through New Lisbon, Salem, Newton Falls, Chardon and Painesville. In 1835 still another route was established by Pittsburg parties, running from Wellsville to Cleveland via New Lisbon, Salem, Ravenna and Hudson. By 1836 nearly all of these were daily routes, and despite the bad roads bore a commendable reputation for promptness.

One of these old routes still remains up to the present (1905), proving the claim of Lis- bon and Wellsville to the oldest daily mail and passenger route in the county. The old daily stage line established by Street, Wells and others, between Wellsville and the lake in 1833, still runs out over the hills from Wellsville to Lisbon, the "daily hack," carrying the mails and an occasional passenger, leaving Lisbon early in the morning and Wellsville soon after noon for its three hours' trip hither and thither.

The line has missed scarcely a day traversing the same route in over, 70 years.

According to Mack's "History of Colum- biana County," the following great lines of stages were in operation in 1835 :

Ashtabula to Wheeling-Through Jeffer- son, Austinburg, Morgan, Orwell, Bloomfield, Bristolville, Warren, Canfield, Columbiana, New Lisbon, Wellsville, Knoxville, Steuben- ville, Wellsburg, to Wheeling-143 miles.

Beaver to Lower Sandusky-Through Ohioville, Foulkstown, New Lisbon, New Garden, Paris, Osnaburg, Canton, Massillon, Dalton, Wooster, Jeromesville, Mifflin, Mans- field, Truxville, New Haven, Lafayette, Nor- W , Monroeville, Lyme, York, to Lower San- du -199 miles.

eaver to Cleveland-Through Griersburg, Petersburg, Poland, Boardman, Canfield, Ells- worth, Milton, Palmyra, Edinburg, Ravenna, Stow, Hudson, Twinsburg, Bedford, New- burgh, to Cleveland-105 miles.

In 1830 another great highway was pro- jected from New Lisbon though to Pittsburg, vit Liverpool, there to cross the river, running through the "Panhandle" of Virginia into Pennsylvania, and thence to Pittsburg by way of Little Washington. This would have short- ened the then existing mail routes to Pittsburg by several miles. The road was built from New Lisbon to the river, and Samuel E. Marks, then a prominent citizen on the Virginia side, pushed the project through to the Pennsylvania State line. Further than that it was never realized. Liverpool, as the original settlement of Fawcettstown had been renamed, was still without a post office up to that time. The town ship was a part of St. Clair, and the voters of Liverpool village were yet compelled to go to Calcutta to vote. In 1830 two or three citizens agreed to bear the expense of carrying the mail between the town and Wellsville, and in the same year the post office was reestablished, John Collins being appointed postmaster. The second postmaster, William G. Smith, finding that mail frequently found its way to Liverpool, Medina County, wrote the department at Washington and had the prefix "East" placed on the name of the office. Subsequently

HISTORY OF COLUMBIANA COUNTY

when the village was incorporated, it took the name East Liverpool.

The postal rates prior to 1845 are given as follows: Less than 30 miles, 6 cents; more than 30 and less than 100, 10 cents; 100 to 150, 1212 cents; 150 to 400, 1834 cents ; over 400, 25 cents.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Columbiana County, Ohio and representative citizens, Part 9

Author: McCord, William B., b. 1844 Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 912

Author: McCord, William B., b. 1844
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 912