History of Crawford County and Ohio, Part 63

Author: Perrin, William Henry, [from old catalog] comp; Battle, J. H., [from old catalog] comp; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852- [from old catalog] comp; Baskin & Battey, Chicago, pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1034

USA > Ohio > Crawford County > History of Crawford County and Ohio > Part 63

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).

Thus far we have given the date of arrival

and the order of their coming of all that are known. There were others taking up land and settling throughout the township, but those above named formed the nucleus around which clustered the new settlement.

The first grist-mill in Polk Township was erected by Mr. Hibner, on the banks of the Olentangy, near the railroad bridge, on the farm now owned by Mr. Burgener. A. saw- mill was built north of Galion; Hosford's and Park's grist-mills and Sharrock's grist and saw mill were all within a few miles of each other, and run by the waters of the Olentangy, which is not now a romantic-looking stream. The lands which it drained have been cleared, and many of the springs which fed it have become dry. Immense ditches, with the modern system of draining, with its miles of tiling, have all tended toward the destruction of the stream, and its banks are full only aft- er the heavy rains or melting of accumulated snow; but a small rivulet carries the water from pool to pool; the waters are dark, filthy and putrid. The wash from the city of Galion, with the washes of gas-making and dyeing. together with slaughter-houses, have contrib- uted to the general nastiness.

In some portions of the township, there is an approach to the formation of plains, but not extensively so; the soil is generally a gravelly loam; at a slight depth there is found a clean-washed gravel, and under the gravel a dense hard-pan. This gravel is saturated with healthy water, and is the cause of the numerous springs where this gravel crops out to the surface.

Among the topographical features of the township, there is one thing that deserves es- pecial notice. About sixty years ago, a terri- bly severe wind-storm swept over the north- west portion; the storm entered the western portion of the township on what is now known as the Belts farm, passing in a northeast di-

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rection, and out of the township near the farm of Hon. James Robinson. Its track was about one mile in width; every tree, almost without exception, was uprooted or twisted off, and prostrated in the most unimaginable con- fusion. The trees went down like grass before the sickle. Peter Snyder, now of Crestline, was at the time a boy, plowing in the field. Hearing the roar of the approaching storm, he made haste to find security; he entered an old-fashioned Pennsylvania log barn, set on a cobble-stone foundation; he repaired to the mow for safety, but hardly had he arrived there when the whole structure was raised three or four feet from the foundation. While suspended in the air, the roof gave way and flew across the field, and the barn settled back to its foundation. Debris of all kinds was scattered over the ground, and among them were found numerous boughs and twigs of pine, which must have been brought from great distances. Deer and wild turkeys were killed and crushed and fearfully mangled, as were also many cattle belonging to the set- tlers. Disberry Johnson had five head of cat- tle in the woods that were penned in by the fallen timber, but, strange to say, uninjured. It required five days of chopping and clear- ing to release them from their strange captiv- ity. The year following this storm, fire broke out among the dried leaves and twigs in this windfall, and swept the whole length of it. The crops and buildings within close prox- imity were destroyed; for days the smoke was so dense that one could not see ten feet before him. Many times people would be obliged to prostrate themselves upon the ground to prevent suffocation. The settlers despaired of retrieving anything from the general wreck; many of them became despondent, and had they possessed the means, or any facili- ties, would have moved away from the black- ened and charred ruins. The track of this

windfall can at this day be traced in its course; where the trees were allowed to grow again, they are generally smaller; the trees going down and burning in the manner they did saved much logging and clearing; but on some farms it took every acre of timber from them.

The soil of Polk Township is eminently adapted to the raising of corn, although excellent wheat crops are harvested. The farther west in the township the more it is adapted to grazing and crops of grasses; stock can be kept better nowhere than on the plains and prairies which commence in Polk Township and extend for miles westward.

In the year 1822, William Murray, Maj. Jeffrey and James Dunlap rigged up a one- horse wagon with a pole in it for two horses. This was in what was called Ohio County, and is now in Western Virginia. They had rifles, ammunition, cross-cut saw, axes and several old quilts. They covered the wagon with a linen cover and started for the West. They crossed the Ohio at the mouth of Short Creek, above Wheeling, passed through New Phila- delphia, in Tuscarawas County, through Wooster, on to Mansfield, a town then having three stores, two taverns and a blacksmith- shop. On, west, they continued to a place they heard of as "Spangtown," "Moccasin," or "Goshen." There were five families be- tween Galion and Mansfield, as follows: Judge Patterson, Alfred Atwood's mother, a widow lady, old John Edgington, John Marshall and John Hibner. Just as they came to where the Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati Railroad crosses Main street, Mr. Dunlap told his com- panions that he thought they were coming to a settlement, as he discovered sheep tracks. They laughed at him and said they were deer tracks, which they proved to be. They came on through the woods up to the square where there were two log cabins, in one of which

At Hosford

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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

lived Mr. Leveredge. At the foot of the hill, where Mrs. J. Gill now lives, was a cabin, where J. Dickerson then lived. Farther west, where J. R. Clymer's brick house now is, there was a double log cabin, owned by Will- iam Hosford, Asa Hosford's father; Horace Hosford had a blacksmith-shop on the Reis- inger Corners, where he lived; Grandfather Kitteridge lived on the other corner. They went southwest to Benjamin Sharrock's house. They were twelve days making the trip of 150 miles; sometimes the mud was up to the wagon-bed. The next day, Mrs. Sharrock baked them some bread, and they went to their land to erect a cabin. On the land were twelve or fourteen Indians, who had been on a big drunk the day before; one of them had been stabbed through the left side with a scalp- ing-knife. The Indian bragged over it and said, "Me berry stout Injun-stick big knife through-no kill-wooh!" The cmigrants were much annoyed through the night by the howling of wolves. In a few days, they finished their cabin and returned for their fam- ilies. This Mr. Dunlap afterward entered the ministry, and, within ten years, has written a number of papers entitled, "Recollections of Crawford County."

The settlers would espy a covered wagon coming, and cry out, "There comes another settler;" and start to meet him, and give him a hearty welcome, take axes and help to cut out a trail to his land and help him to select a good site for his cabin; all being agreed upon, they would chop and roll two logs together, kindle a fire between for the good woman to cook and provide something to eat, while they went to work clearing off a spot on which to erect a cabin. In two or three days, sufficient logs would be cut, and the cabin erected, and a hole cut in one side for a door. Then the household furniture would be unloaded, con- sisting, generally, of two beds and bedding, a

table, bureau, some chairs and kitchen furni- ture, piling them with the family, in the cabin, on the ground floor. A young married couple generally started in the same way, being as- sisted by their parents. A necessary piece of furniture in the pioneer's cabin was a hominy- block, which was made by taking a log twenty inches thick and three feet long, chopping it in from each end and shaping it like a goblet; then setting it on end, kindle a fire under it and burn it out like a druggist's mortar; then they take a small pole, with an iron ring on one end, put an iron wedge into it to pound the corn, put the corn in, pour on hot water to loosen the hulls, and pound with the wedge until cracked into hominy. While the hus- band is pounding his hominy at night, the wife is spinning flax-tow or wool for clothing for the family. The following pioneer remin- iscence is pertinent to the subject:

" I have seen a whole family,-consisting of father, mother, children, pet pigs, young ducks and chickens, all occupying the same room at the same time, truly equal to Barnum's happy family. Although some endured hardships almost beyond endurance-having large fam- ilies to support and no money-meat could be obtained from the woods. The writer of these lines has seen the times when he has brought home a sack of meal and did not know where the next was to come from; yet, trusting in God, and working day and night, has at length obtained a competency for himself and family, as many others have done. When I look back fifty years and see this country a howl- ing wilderness, thronged with wild beasts of various kinds, hardly a white inhabitant from here to the Rocky Mountains, I am struck with wonder and surprise at the progress of our nation. In 1825, we had a manufactur- ing establishment in Galion, Polk Township, erected, I think, by old Nathan or Bishop Merriman, of Bucyrus, to make whisky of our

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spare corn and rye. About the same time, there was a horse-mill put up by old Mr. Sny- der (I think his given name was Christopher), at Middletown, north of Galion two or three miles, where we could get grinding done. The farmers for miles around would put a bag of corn or wheat on a horse with harness on, take another, if he had it, and go to mill. If his turn came before night, all right; if not, he would hitch up in the night and keep himself awake by traveling around after his horse. If it was wheat, he could turn a crank attached to a bolting cloth, and get his flour bolted by hand, and when his flour was ground would come home whistling and singing as happy as a lark. Perhaps his wife would tell him they were out of meat; taking his gun and dog, he would go out and shoot down a fat deer, as a farmer now goes out to his field to kill a fat sheep."

Soon after the war of 1812 James Nail, Esq., was in Richland County; his father's was the seventh family in the county. Mr. Nail was born in Somerset County, Penn., Novem- ber 9, 1797; he left his father in 1819 and came to Sandusky Township, and bought 160 acres of land (called Congress land), two miles north of Galion. In 1821, he married and set- tled on his land. When he first came, he knew of no neighbors but the Leveredges and his brother-in-law, Lewis Leiberger, with whom he lived till married. The next year, Leiber- ger moved away. Bee-trees were plenty at this time, and Mr. Nail and his brother-in-law started one morning on a bee hunt, taking a southwest course. They camped the first night on Sandusky Plains, half-way between Galion and Bucyrus, at a small stream; the next day they hunted till evening, and camped on Sandusky River, two miles west of Bucy- rus; they saw many deer and turkeys, many bee-trees, but not a human being or a settle- ment. By the year 1821, John Brown, Benja-

min Sharrock, Nathaniel Story and Mr. Hos- ford had moved into the neighborhood. For a long time, the Indians had been in the habit of taking large quantities of cranberries to Richland County; they would sometimes be seen with eight or ten horses loaded down with bark boxes filled with cranberries; these boxes were slung over the backs of the horses, and each one led by an Indian, single file. They traded the cranberries for meal, etc .; the Indians kept secret the place of their growth, but Mr. Nail, his father-in-law, Samuel Brown, Michael Brown and Jacob Miller, determined to find the place where they were procured. They went southwest till they struck the Penn- sylvania army road, and followed it for several miles, which was easily distinguished; after going some distance, they thought they had better go farther north; this they did till they struck the Sandusky River, east of Bucyrus. As they came to the stream, they heard a man chopping a little above; Mr. Nail told his companions that Indians were around, or else some white man had got in; they rode up and found Mr. Daniel McMichael, a man they had never seen before; he seemed much alarmed, but was re-assured when Mr. Nail rode up close to him. This man gave them directions, and went with them a distance, showing them the Indian trail that led to the cranberry marsh. They camped out that night, and saw the camp-fires of several parties of Indians, but were not molested. The next morning, they gathered as many cranberries as their horses could carry. They reached home that evening; in passing over the military road, the weeds were as high as their horses' heads. They saw but one man during the trip. Mr. Nail states that their food, when he was young, consisted of bear's meat, venison, turkey, corn-meal, pota- toes and hominy. Their clothing was gener- ally buckskin and linsey-woolsey; the chil- dren mostly went bareheaded and barefooted

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nearly all the year. They made some kind of linen from the nettles. Some time after Mr Nail and his brother-in-law had hunted and marked their bee-trees, they went after the honey. After it was all collected, they lacked a little of two barrels; Mr. Christian Snyder had moved to the neighborhood a little while before, and was about going back for his goods; he offered to take the honey to Jeffer- son County for nothing, saying it would there sell for $1 a gallon.

In 1822, Mr. Nail sold his land and bought eighty acres on a branch of the Whetstone, or Olentangy, southwest of Galion. Michael Brown, John Dunmeier and James Lever- edge assisted him in putting up his cabin; about this time, he had occasion to go to Mansfield on foot, which was twenty-two miles the way he was obliged to go; he got back at 10 at night; but as he reached the house his dog barked violently. The wife drew the blanket that covered the door to one side, when the dog ran in the cabin followed by a wolf, who, seeing a large fire, ran back. Mr. Nail found his wife prepared for emergencies, sitting near the fire, the dog at her feet and the ax in her hand. About this time, Mr. Alexander McGrew came to Mr. Nail's, from Tuscarawas County, and solicited the contract for erecting a mill which Mr. Nail contem- plated erecting. A dam was made, and in six weeks' time, the frame and running gear were in order. The farm and mill were sold that fall to Mr. John Hauck, who was looking for a site for a carding-machine and fulling-mill. The settlers were too sparse, and the project was given up. Mr. Nail reserved the right to live in the cabin and use the mill for one year, which he did, furnishing lumber to the settlers. In 1822, he moved one-half mile be- low his saw-mill and in 1824 erected a grist- mill. The mill-stones were made of "nigger- heads" by Mr. Buckland, of Bucyrus. The

market prices at this time were as follows: Coffee, 50 cents a pound; salt, 6 cents a pound; powder $2 a pound; lead, 50 cents a pound; chewing tobacco, 50 cents a pound; whisky 50 cents a gallon; and the two latter articles, Mr. Nail says, no family could get along without.

Mr. Nathaniel Story was a native of Oxford County, Me., and came with his father's fam- ily to Ohio in 1818. They stopped a short time at the Williamson settlement, east of Galion; they intended to buy some of the Vir- ginia military school lands, but failed in their object, and passed the winter of 1818-19 in a cabin of John Leveredge, situated southeast of the public square of Galion. Mr. Lever- edge had been killed but a short time previous to this, by a log falling upon him at the rais- ing of John Williamson's new hewed-log cabin. When they came into the settlement, that hewed-log cabin stood up near the square without a roof, and exactly as it was left when Leveredge was killed. In the spring of 1819, they moved into the house of Mr. Sturges, sit- uated northwest of Galion, on the brow of the hill across from John G. Kraft's brewery. and where the residence of Jesse Purkey now stands. They lived there for four years. Mr. Story writes of the Indians as follows: "I was acquainted with most of the Wyandots and Delawares, among them the Walkers, Will- iams, Armstrongs, Dowdys, Johnny Cake, etc. Johnny Cake was a full-blooded Indian of much note. He was a well-developed man, of fine physical proportions, supple, athletic, and he possessed in an unusual degree the respect and confidence of all the white settlers of that day. His wife was three-fourths white, and an excellent woman for the opportunities that she had. There is a bit of romance connected with her history, which may be interesting to readers, as it has never been published except in the Bucyrus Forum. The mother of Jolmny Cake's wife had been captured from her white

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parents, somewhere in the eastern part of Ohio, by the Indians, probably during the war with Great Britain in 1812-15, and adopted into one of the Indian families on the Sandusky. Here she was courted and married in Indian fash- ion, by Abraham Williams, a half-breed In- dian. The fruit of the union between this half-breed and white girl, was a beautiful daughter, who was courted and married by Johnny Cake. Johnny went with an exploring expedition in 1823, or thereabout, to the Great West beyond the Mississippi. He was a marked man in council or courage, and so re- garded by all who came in contact with him. When his tribe removed from the Wyandot reservation in 1846, he and his wife went with them, and, when last heard from, in 1874, were living in wealth and good position among the Walkers, to whom he is related." The last time that Mr. Story saw Johnny Cake was in 1845 or 1846. His father, Nehemiah Story, and himself, were working on the frame of a house where the widow of James W. Gill, Esq., now lives, on Main street, west side of Galion. He stopped and talked with them a long time as he was passing through; he said that the Indians' hunting-grounds had been sadly interfered with by the white settlers, who killed or drove away the game, and for that reason he seldom came that way of late years. He seemed overjoyed to see and talk with them and revived many reminiscences of the past that had for years slumbered in their memories. At this time he weighed nearly two hundred pounds, and was a splendid specimen of a wild Indian of the woods, who was keenly alive to the great facts of "manifest destiny." Clearly foreseeing the future, he spoke in rapturous terms of the white man, who brought with him the all-conquering forces of a superior and higher civilization, but grievously mourned, in broken accents, the decay of his own Indian race, whose doom was "written in

the setting sun of the West." Says Mr. Story: "We shall never forget the appearance and expression of this man-this thoughtful but untutored child of the forest-as he affec- tionately and tearfully bade us good-bye. He wheeled the head of his pony toward the Sandusky Plains, and was soon lost to our gaze forever." Mr. Story remembers the exciting attempt of Tom Dowdy, a keen, small but sharp Indian, to murder a Canadian Indian. They were both in liquor, obtained at a tavern near where Galion now stands. A quarrel ensued over the whisky bottle (as it does now sometimes among white people), and Tom took out his scalping-knife and stabbed his Indian companion, with a terrible stroke, in the side. The two Indians were afterward seen at an encampment on Shaw's Creek, south of Iberia. The whisky was gone, and the two Indians sat on opposite sides of the fire, smok- ing in peace. Dowdy once brought informa- tion to the Storys, that there was a certain white-oak tree that had in it five raccoons and a porcupine. This was business for Story, and exactly in his line. They went with Dowdy and his squaw, who was an excellent chopper, and soon had the tree down and the game se- cured. Dowdy and his wife took three of the coons, and the Storys took two. The skins were purchased by James Nail. This Indian,

Dowdy, died at Pipetown some time afterward, in the severity of winter, and, in accordance with the custom of the Indians, his body, with his clothing and hunting implements, was laid upon a scaffold, at a safe height from the ground. Here it remained until the warm sun in the spring had softened the soil, when his remains were deposited in the earth.

The Indians had a burying-ground just north of where the Gill farm is, on the banks of the Olentangy. Here the dead from the Indian village were buried. The graves were generally quite shallow; they made some dis-

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tinction in the graves, according to the social status of the person; some of the graves had forks erected at each end, with a pole across; on this were laid strips of bark and twigs, but it soon gave way and was not renewed. How long this spot had been consecrated by the Indians, is not known, but they continued to use it up to their departure from this vicin- ity. In an early day, young men opened the graves, with the vain hope of obtaining treas- ures. Some of the early doctors secured fur- niture from this ground for their offices. The graveyard had little reverence shown it, and it was only when the field was cultivated, and the graves plowed level, that it became safe from molestation.

In the year 1825, Mr. Nail added a distillery to his grist-mill and continued grinding and distilling till the year 1835. Before mills were built in Polk Township the settlers went long distances to get grinding done. In 1822, they were going to Spring Mill, southeast of Ontario; and, even after mills were built along the Olentangy, some were obliged to go below Belleville, by reason of the scarcity of water in Polk Township. Corn-meal was more plentiful than flour. It was generally cooked in four different ways: A very common way of using it was to make mush and eat it with milk; when it was baked in a Dutch oven, it was called pone: when baked on a board, it was called johnny-cake; and when made into round balls and baked in the oven, it was called corn-dodgers. Mr. Nail relates that a family lived three miles southeast of Galion, by the name of Jackson; a little fellow of this family would often come to mill with a bag of corn to be ground; after the corn was ground, he would lift the little fellow on top of the bag, of meal on the horse and start him for home. He generally had meal in one end of the bag, and a jug of whisky in the other end. Mr. Nail had no thought at that time that

little Abner M. Jackson would be the port'y man he afterward became, much less that he would become the Presiding Judge of our court. In 1835, Mr. Nail sold his grist-mill and distillery to Mr. Parks, who came from Beaver County, Penn.

Mr. Dunlap stated that after he returned from Virginia, where he had been for his fam- ily, the settlers had increased in numbers from twelve to twenty-five. About the time of his return, there was a double log cabin one mile southwest of Galion, in which lived two fam- ilies, one by the name of Erysman, and one by the name of Dun, or Doormise, who had a lit- tle daughter about four years of age. The mother was boiling sugar-water in the woods near by, and had the little girl by her. Think- ing it time the little one was in the house, she went with her to the fence, lifted her over the inclosure and told her to amuse herself until the mother arrived. Nothing was ever seen of the little girl after that day. A number of strange Indians (called Canadians, because they belonged near the lakes where the set- tlers were French), had been roving around the settlements, and but a few hours before the child was missed. A party of four or five had been to Mr. Hosford's to purchase some whisky. But a few days before a party of Indians, supposed to be the same, had been to the house of Benjamin Sharrock, and attempted to negotiate for a young girl which they wanted to raise in their tribe, and be adopted as one of them. When the poor mother came in from her work and found that the little daughter had not come in the house, she knew almost intuitively that the little one was lost. She was frenzied with horror, and a strange terror crept over her; in a frantic manner, she roved up and down through the woods, one moment calling in endearing accents the name of her little child, and the next the woods would ring with her piercing shrieks, her cries and

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appeals to heaven. Word had been sent to Mr. Asa Hosford, and ho came with men as promptly as possible: for three days and nights the woods were searched: parties of men were sent with information in every direction, but all of no use. The frantie mother suffered so much, that all the good-hearted old pioneers tried to think of some new expedient; finally, they ceased their search in the woods and began to drag the erecek. Men, women and children, with poles, rakes, grapnels, and every imple- ment that could possibly be of use, were brought out for the purpose. But hopes of the lost one died within them, and the search was gradually given up, and the bright little one was lost forever. The strange Indians were never seen in the vicinity thereafter. It was the theory of those most thoroughly versed in Indian affairs that some chief was desirous of bringing up in his tribe a white squaw that should in time be the wife of one of his favorite sons, or his legitimate successor. The only mitigation of this horrible destiny was the fact that nearly all remembrance of her parents and her innocent childhood joys would be obliterated from her memory. Near the same place, a family by the name of Bashford had taken a little girl to raise. She went out to find the cows, which, by the ringing of a bell, she soon discovered; but she was confused about the route to be taken for the house; she kept cool, and determined to stay with the cows, knowing that when they were found she would be all right. She followed them around until they lay down; she crawled up and laid as near the back of an old cow as she could, for the sake of the warmth. In the morning, she was found rambling around with the cat- tle and her feet somewhat frost-bitten. She was much alarmed by the howling of the wolves through the night. There were hardly any roads, except Indian trails, and women and children were often lost in passing from

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History of Crawford County and Ohio, Part 63

Author: Perrin, William Henry, [from old catalog] comp; Battle, J. H., [from old catalog] comp; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852- [from old catalog] comp; Baskin & Battey, Chicago, pub. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey Number of Pages: 1034

Author: Perrin, William Henry, [from old catalog] comp; Battle, J. H., [from old catalog] comp; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852- [from old catalog] comp; Baskin & Battey, Chicago, pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1034