USA > Ohio > Darke County > History of Darke County, Ohio, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Volume I > Part 15
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$2,000 on the structure by bidding too low. It stood for nearly forty years and was the scene of many a stormy and picturesque legal combat between the early legal lights of Darke county. The site was given by the Devor heirs as it had been set aside by John Devor as a place for holding court. An attempt was made to remodel this structure for a city hall upon the erection of the present court house in 1873 or 1874 but it resulted in failure and the structure was demolished to allow the construction of the present city building.
Early Trails and Roads.
One of the big problems that confronted the first commis- sioners was the construction of public roads. Accordingly we are not surprised to note that they considered the matter at their first meeting and ordered a road to be viewed and sur- veyed from the county seat "across the bridge at Encs Terry's (East Water street ) and thence by the nearest and best route in a direction toward Fort Loramie until it strikes the county line.
John Beers was appointed surveyor and David Briggs, David Thompson and Moses Scott viewers with instructions to begin work on June 26, 1817. This was the veritable be- ginning of systematic road-building which has continued to this day and given Darke county first place among the eighty- eight shires of Ohio with about 1,700 miles of roads and pikes. At this time the only roads were the Indian trails, the army traces and the narrow winding driveways cut to the various scattered settlements and the cabins of the pioneers. We have noted that St. Clair came into a distinct Indian trail near "Matchett's Corner," which he followed to Fort Jefferson, thence to Greenville and on to Fort Recovery, and that a large trail came into this one near Lightsville, from the east. It is also a matter of tradition that a well-known trail led from Pickawillany to Greneville creek and along that stream to the site of Greenville and thence on to the headwaters of White- water river. Also that a trail led from Greenville in a west- erly direction to the neighborhood of Nashville and thence on to the Indian settlement of Delaware county, Indiana. Probably other minor trails centered here about the ancient fording place just below the junction of Mud and Greenville creeks. It is known that Wayne during his occupancy of the fort here, cut a road along the south side of Greenville creek
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to its mouth at Covington (Fort Rowdy) to assist in the transportation of supplies from the latter place which had been brought from Fort Washington by boat up the Miami and Stillwater. It seems that he also cut a trail to Fort Loramie approximating the direction of the present Versailles pike except that it probably kept east of the Stillwater to the crossing at Fort Briar, before mentioned. He also straight- ened and improved the trails cut by St. Clair. These trails were used by the pioneers and were later straightened, par- tially relocated, and improved, giving us the present pikes to Troy, Versailles and Fort Recovery, and showing that in a large measure the crafty savage selected the best and most direct routes and located our best thoroughfares.
In the pioneer days of Darke county all state roads were surveyed and established by special acts of the Legislature. The first road laid out in this way was the old Troy pike, which was cut through about 1811 from Hroy in Miami county. This road also became the first toll pike in 1853. This road ran south of Greenville creek to Gettysburg where it crossed and kept on the north side to Greenville, crossing at Boomershine fording-East Fifth street. A little later it was altered and crossed near the present Main street bridge. A road was located from Piqua to Greenville about 1817, which intersected the Troy road at the present site of Gettys- burg. A "Directory of Cincinnati." published in 1819, shows a road running from that place to Greenville by the way of Reading. Franklin and Dayton, a total distance of ninety-two miles. From Dayton to Greenville, the distance was forty miles, with the following stations : Razor's Mills, twelve miles ; William's Block House, eleven miles: Studdybaker's Block House, nine miles; Greenville, eight miles. The Milton, Shanesville (Ansonia), Fort Recovery and Fort Jefferson pikes were laid out shortly after the organization of the county, on routes approximately the same as at present. Sev- eral roads were laid out by the county commissioners at the request of the settlers in various neighborhoods to suit their convenience. Such roads usually followed the ridges and avoided the ponds and marshes, and went far afield to accom- modate isolated settlers. As the county became more thickly settled these roads were either vacated or straightened up as far as feasible. The policy has been to locate the new roads on section lines as far as possible. As a result of these early and later road building enterprises Darke county has a sys-
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tem of direct diagonal pikes leading from the county seats and principal cities of the surrounding counties to Greenville, sup- plemented by cross roads and pikes on most of the section lines. This makes almost an ideal road system and knits the various sections of the county to each other and all to the county seat in a very efficient manner.
Strange as it may seem no turnpikes were built before a railway was constructed in the county. The Greenville and Gettysburg pike was the first built, being completed about the same time as the G. & M. railway. The "Ithaca Free Turn- pike Road" was granted on petition in June, 1858. Ten other free pikes were ordered built between that date and 1868.
By the year 1870 such remarkable progress had been made in road building as to call forth the following article in the "Ohio Farmer:" "Who would have thought thirty-seven years ago, when the writer first saw "old Darke county," that it would ever stand foremost among the counties of its state for its road enterprise. Why the county should have sur- passed every other in the State in this regard, I am unable to explain. It may be accounted for on the theory of extremes -the roads were very bad, they are very good. Perhaps the people thrown upon their own resources pushed their way in this direction. It is certain that the pike business became in time a local epidemic. The many rival stations fostered a spirit of rivalry. A condition of things that favored the en- terprise of turnpike construction was the tendency of the people to invest in what promised to be a permanent im- provement. Whatever may be the explanation, the secretary's report for 1868 puts down 393 miles of turnpike roads for Darke county; Warren follows with 224; Clermont and Wood, 200 each; Hamilton, 195; Montgomery, 152; Cham- paign, 136; Greene, 117; Butler, 112, etc.
"Of course the burden of taxation is heavy and not every farmer is in condition to pay $4 an acre road tax. Some were obliged to sell off the land to enable them to meet assess- ments, but hard as it was, even such gained in the end by the rise in local values. It is quite a general feeling among the people that they have taken too much upon their hands at once. And as wheat is their staple product, the county rank- ing fifth in the state, the low price at which their surplus will probably have to be sold, may operate somewhat discourag- ingly ; but the resources of the county are abundant, and the people will no doubt come out all right, and all the better for
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their excellent system of roads. Parts of the county with which I was perfectly familiar ten years ago, I did not recog- nize when passing through them last summer." * * *
It is readily seen and is generally acknowledged that the opening and systematic improvement of roads is one of the most important projects in the development of any new com- munity, and Darke county has not proven an exception to this statement. Today we have some thirteen hundred miles of improved pikes and about seventeen hundred miles of roads of all descriptions-enough, if placed end to end in a continu- ous stretch, to reach from New York City almost to Den- ver, Colo.
Early Neighborhood Settlements.
We have noted previously that a large per cent. of the area of primitive Darke county was covered with swamps, making large sections unfit for habitation until properly drained and cleared. The settlers naturally selected the driest, healthiest and most promising sections, and from these points of vantage gradually worked out the problems of drainage, clearing and cultivation, etc. It seems appropriate here to note the pro- gress of settlement by 1825 and enumerate some of the first families as noted by Prof. McIntosh.
"Below Ithaca, in the southeast, lived Lucas and Robbins. At intervals along Miller's Fork, near Castine, were Ellis, Freeman, Park and Robert Phillips and J. F. Miller. On the east bank of the Whitewater stood the cabins of Brawley. Purviance, the McClures, Broderick and Jacob Miller, Zadoc Smith and the Wades. Near Fort Black, by the lake, were the Rushes, Henry Hardy, Tibbs, Falknor, and possibly the Kunkles. On the Middle Fork were the Tilsons, Harlans, Emerson, Helpenstein and Gert. Approaching the town, we find Spencer, the Edwards families, Wilsons and others. Fur- ther to the north we come to Cloyd, Pearson, Cassaday and Kettring. About Palestine dwelt Samuel Loring. In the northern part of German township lived Ludwig Clapp, re- puted credulous and superstitious, William Asher, of the same mind, Moores and Rush and John McNeil, Rarick, Snell and Miller, on Crout creek and its vicinity. East of the West Branch dwelt Martin Ruple, Archibald Bryson and John Whittaker, while lower down were the small clearings made by John Hiller and Daniel Potter. Mud creek passed by the cabin homes of Peter Weaver. Andrew Noffsinger. his
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son Joseph, James and Henry Rush, Sumption, McGinnis, burns and Wertz. East of the prairie, Zadoc Reagan had located, and traveling the stream brought in sight the homes of Abraham Studabaker and Abraham Miller. James Hay dwelt at Jefferson, and below were Ryerson and Wine gardner. On Greenville creek, above town, stood three cab. ins occupied by Ullery, Dean and David Williamson, and below on the creek were those of Squire Briggs, Westfall, Major Adams, Bryan, Cunningham and Studabaker. On the south bank of the creek, at intervals, the enumeration finds Popejoy, Esq., Hayes, James Gregory and Carnahan. Chris- topher Martin, Alexander Fleming, James Roff, David Riffle and his sons and son-in-law, Hathaway, on Stillwater, near Beamsville. Conlock was at Webster, and McDonald, Mote and Ludwig Christie below. Ward Atchison was on the verge of the Black swamp, and Lewis Baker on Indian creek. From Bridge creek on to the dividing branch, were scattered Arnold, Townsend, the Thompsons and Clay. These men had settled here under many difficult circumstances, but they had effected a lodgment and formed a center by which others could be guided and assisted. Persistent in labor, patient under afflictions of disease were these plain men with un- affected manner and kindly greetings. As the country be- gan to be settled, families were moving on to different loca- tions in the central part of the county. There was a large portion of the county that seemed so much of a swamp as to make a final occupation problematical. Along Greenville creek, as above named, one found at varying distances the log cabins of a few families, and there were others on the West Branch. There were cabins on the branch known as Crout creek, and yet others upon Mud creek. These scattered clear- ings were the oldest in the county, and northward there were few, if any. And from there, so far as means would permit, the newcomers received their supplies and assistance." *
"In 1818, there was the commencement of a settlement on the east fork of Whitewater, and on Twin creek, near Ithaca, and several families had settled near Fort Black, now known as New Madison. During this year, Minatown and Fort Jefferson were laid out, and, in the year following, Versailles was platted, making in all five villages, the germs of future business towns, and the only ones for full a dozen years- practical proof, in so large a county, of sparse and tardy oc- cupation:
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"During the year when Fort Jefferson was platted, a tav- ern stand was occupied there, and, while the conveniences were far from equal to the Turpen or Wagner houses of to- day, yet there was an abundance of plain, palatable food and little ceremony. During 1818, A. Studabaker left his former entry, near Gettysburg, and removed to the farm more re- cently the property of his son George. William Arnold and others were residing on Bridge creek. The settlements now became known by various names to distinguish them, such as 'Yankee Town;' one called Ireland, located north of Greenville, and a third is mentioned here as suggestive of the section, known as the Black Swamp Settlement. These nu- clei of the clearings in Darke each formed a distinct neighbor- hood and had their leading men, respected for honesty, good faith, and frugality in public as well as private affairs." *
At this time but little progress had been made in clearing off the dense forest and rank growth of underbrush. The only openings were the garden patches and small clearings of a few acres each around the settlers' cabins. These rude habitations were "hand made" from foundation to the stick chimney top, and in their construction typified the homely virtues of the pioneers-simplicity, strength, sacrifice, hard- ness, industry, hospitality and love of home and neighbors. When a cabin was to be "raised" the settler first selected a favorable site, probably on a knoll or ridge, then felled the timber growing upon it, picked out the choicest logs and cut them in proper lengths. When all was ready he notified his scattered neighbors and at the appointed time all assem- bled for a "raising bee." Some help to carry the logs where they will be handy for the builders, while the others watch them at the ends and raise and place them into position until the proper height is attained. The heavy work being finished the helpers return to their homes leaving the proprietor to cut and place the clapboards on the roof, to split and place the puncheons for a floor, to cut and face the openings for the door and fireplace, to fill the chinks with chips and mor- tar and to build the huge chimney of sticks and mud. After this he hewed out a door and table and a few three legged stools and made a bed of clapboards and poles supported at the outer corner by a forked stick and resting at the inner ends on the walls of the cabin at the cracks between the logs. The door was hung on wooden hinges and a wooden latch stuck on the inside, with a hook pin driven into the door cas-
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ing for a fastening. A strong leather string was then at- tached to the latch on the inside with one end run through a hole made in the door for the purpose, so as to hang down on the outside. When the latch string hung out the door could be opened by pulling on it. To secure the door the string was pulled back through the hole. Some clapboard shelves supported on pins at the back of the cabin, a few pegs at convenient places for supporting garments, and two small forks of wood or deer horn placed over the fireplace to support the shot pouch and rifle put a finishing touch on the job ready for the housewife and family.
"In houses thus built, and unplastered within and entirely devoid of adornment, our ancestors lived with a comfort 1:1- known to the opulent occupant of many a palatial residence of today. Coal stoves or wood stoves were unknown, but in the wide fireplace were found hooks and trammel, and and- irons. Nearby were the bake-pan and the kettle; and as homes varied there were to be seen in many a log house the plain deal table, the flag bottom chair, and the easy, straight, high-backed rocker. Carpets there were none. The beds contained no mattress, springs, or even bed-cord, the couch was often spread upon the floor, and sleeping apartments were separated by hanging blankets. Not infrequently, the emi- grant neighbor, and occasionally Indian visitor, lay upon blankets or robes before the huge open fireplace, with stock- inged or moccasined feet before the constant fire. Wooden vessels, either turned or coopered, were commonly used for the table. A tin cup was an article of luxury almost as rare as an iron fork. Gourds were used at the water bucket, and there were not always knives enough to go around the family. The immigrant brought with him, packed upon the horse, or later on the wagon, some articles of better sort. Upon the kitchen drawers were set forth a shiny row of pewter plates, buck-handled knives, iron or pewter spoons, or there were seen a row of blue-edged earthenware, with corresponding cups and saucers, with teapot-articles then to grace the table at the quilting, social afternoon visit, or preacher's call; but advancing civilization has sent the plates and spoons to the melting pot. while knives and forks have taken less substance but more shapely form. * *
"The subject of food was all important with the settler, and hard labor in the open air created a keen appetite which made of much account the feasts of merrymakings, parties
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and public meetings. Quality was not so much regarded as quantity. Fish from the creek, venison and bear incat, bacon and even the raccoon's carcass were made available for food. Enormous potpies were baked containing fowls, squirrels and due proportions of other meats. The food was generally most wholesome and nutritive. There was a boun- teous supply of the richest milk, the finest butter and most palatable meat that could be imagined, and meals were eaten with all the relish which healthful vigor, backed by labor, could bestow.
"The clothing worn in early days was generally the same in all seasons. The settler, standing upon the prostrate trunk of a huge tree, stroke following stroke of his keen axe, and chip after chip whirring out upon the snow, little regarded the winter temperature, and coatless and barefooted, the sum- mer heat was not oppressive. The garments worn were mainly the product of home manufacture, where necessity in- ยท sured effort and practice gave skill. * *
Social and industrial conditions in early days are vividly described by Jesse Arnold in "Recollections of the Arnold Family," published in 1889.
"Nor would we forget the old spinning-wheel-the larger one for wool, and the smaller one for flax and tow. For months and months have we seen the girls busy with their rude articles of domestic economy, keeping up a continuous whirl from sun up till dark, perhaps omitting fifteen minutes for each meal; and then, after the spinning is done, the web is transferred to an old loom, in some lonely and desolate out- house, to be made up in cloth of some kind, where a continu- ous batting was kept up the live long day.
"For this laborious work these girls would receive from fifty to seventy-five cents per week, and, if at the end of the month she had received enough money to buy a calico dress, she was very fortunate and became the subject of neighbor- hood talk for being able to sport a new calico dress in place of the linsey-woolsey usually worn."
"Many a day have we seen the sturdy toiler go into the harvest field at sun up and with sickle or cradle work the live long day till sun down for fifty cents per day, with only an hour for nooning. Thirty-five and thirty-seven cents per day was the usual price for eleven and twelve hours' work, with goods of all kinds twice their present prices-calicoes
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twenty-five cents, muslin twenty-five cents, and all else in proportion."
The pioneers generally wore home-made clothing of linen or wool as these could be made from raw material produced at home or secured nearby. With coarse wool at fifty cents a pound, calico at forty to fifty cents per yard and cowhide boots selling at seven dollars per pair, while farm produce brought very low prices, and girls ran the spinning wheel for seventy-five cents a week, it is readily seen why the dames of these days dressed much more plainly and modestly than they do today. Neither do we think of their dress as being less becoming or the conditions of their life less conducive of happiness than are the prevailing fashions and conditions of today. Labor and pleasure were often combined in the corn huskings, quiltings, wood-choppings, loggings and house raisings, and as much real enjoyment found by the lads and lassies at the special celebrations and big militia musters as is now provided by the county fair. It is needless to contrast further the conditions of life today with those of a century ago. On the foundations laid by these pioneers we have built a superstructure called civilization.
The increase of population, the advance in education and invention and the changed condition under which we live and labor have enlarged our field of enjoyment, smoothed many of the rough places along the way of life and appar- ently made life the more worth living. However, it is doubt- ful whether the overfed, overdressed, overstrained and pam- pered youth of today are capable of extracting that true pleasure from life which came to the pioneers through rough labor, sacrifice and mutual burden bearing. We turn with loathing from the daily newspaper of today with its accounts of crimes, accidents and misdoings, its stories of high-life, infelicity, incompatibility and divorce to the simple. quiet. contented, industrious life of the pioneer in the rude log cabin, and long for a return to the pioneer and more rational living of early days.
These lines from Darke county's gifted poet, Barney Collins, are not inappropriate here :
Here fertile fields upon the prospect swell,
Whose forests once in primal grandeur rose,
And sounds of peace are heard where once the yell Of savage broke and chilled the blood of those
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Who came in early life or at its close To clear the wilderness and till the ground ; And though they were beset by cunning foes Whose stealthy tread of danger gave no sound, Still, yet they dar'd and gave the savage wound for wound.
Where with a single room the hut was rear'd, Which turned but ill the winter's cold and snow ; New structures-spacious temples-have appear'd,
With halls commodious that richly glow With all that art can bestow.
Alas! the hardships of the pioneer!
His wants and struggles we can never know; But whilst his fruits we are enjoying here If he be dead or living-him-let us revere.
Here roamed in herds the elk and timid deer,
. Here howl'd the wolf and wild the panther screamed ! And with them bloody conflicts happened here That even now are tales of fiction deemed ; By us too lightly is the truth esteemed, For with us yet are those who in the strife From wounds of deep infliction stream'd ;
They could not know the sweets of peaceful life
Where prowl'd the savage beast and gleamed the scalping knife.
Contrasted with the rapid development of certain choice sections of the far west today the early development of Darke county seemed painfully slow. The census of 1820 showed the population of the county as then constituted to be 3,717. Mercer county, which then embraced parts of Shel- by and Auglaize, was included in this enumeration, making the probable population of Darke county two thousand or less. Four years later the county seat had a population of one hundred or less, including thirteen families.
In 1830 the census of the county still in its original form, was 6,204, while the county seat contained 204 inhabitants. Several conditions retarded growth and development among which we note the large amount of swamp land, the preva- lence of malarial and kindred diseases, and the "farther west" movement which enticed many to the region of the Missis- sippi a few years later. In the strenuous work of clearing the (12)
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land much hard labor and exposure were undergone and but few escaped attacks of fevers and chills, ague, etc.
Doctors Stephen Perrine, John Briggs, J. M. P. Baskerville, I. N. Gard and Alfred Ayers were kept busy attending the sick and during the scourge of flux in 1829-1830 this force was found inadequate, it being found necessary to summon several physicians from Preble and Miami counties. Bilious complaints prevailed until about the middle of the century by which time the area of swamp lands had been greatly reduced and the environment of the settlers made more healthy generally. Vital statistics today show that Darke county is one of the healthiest communities in the state.
Early Business Enterprises.
Trade and commerce kept pace with the slow agricultural development. Greenville was naturally the center of trade and here the first merchants opened up their shops. Men- tion has been made of the pioneer French trader who was "cleaned out" by the Indians ; of Azor Scribner and Abraham Scribner; of Connor, who located on the southeast corner of Water and Sycamore, of the Hood brothers on the north side of Water between Elm and Vine streets, and of Bascom and Scott, the tavern keepers. Connor's place was later occupied by Nicholas Greenham of Piqua ; the Hoods were succeeded by Delorac and then later by Chas. Neave. L. R. Brownell, of Piqua, opened a store on the south side of Main street, be- tween Sycamore and Elm street, in 1826, later he moved to the east corner of public square, and continued in business until about 1833. He was succeeded by James M. Dorsey and 'Henry Arnold. Later Dorsey withdrew and Henry Arnold carried on the business alone for several years.
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