History of Delaware County and Ohio, Part 86

Author: O. L. Baskin & Co; Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago, O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 818

USA > Ohio > Delaware County > History of Delaware County and Ohio > Part 86

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The war history of Concord Township is similar to that of other townships, and of every other por- tion of the county. Some of the first settlers were Revolutionary soldiers, others served in the war of 1812, and the Indian wars of the period. In the Mexican war, the township was pretty well repre- sented. Among those who engaged in the con- test were Nathan Daily, James Cutler, Joseph Borgan, J. Riddile, Jacob Hay, Alvin Rose and George Taylor. Daily was killed at the battle of Buena Vista, Borgan was wounded, but recovered from it. The others all lived, we believe, and returned to their homes. In the late war, Concord, with the same zeal which characterized her people in these earlier wars, sent large numbers of her best sons into the army of the Union. Their achievements receive full justice in another chapter.

Concord, since its settlement, in 1811, has been Democratic in' politics. In 1840, in the great Harrison campaign, when " log cabins and hard cider " was the battle cry, the Whigs carried the township by ONE vote, but such a departure from Democratic principles has never occurred since. From the organization of the Republican party, Con- cord has been as hopelessly in the minority, as in the

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.

days of the old Whig party, and the township is still known as a Democratic stronghold.

The village of Bellepoint is pleasantly situated, in an angle formed by the junction of Mill Creek and the Scioto River. It was laid out by James Kooken in 1835, and was the result of a wild speculation. A few wealthy capitalists were going to slack the Scioto River, and thus subject it to steamboat navigation. These capitalists and spec- ulators were going to buy large tracts of land, and sell it out at immense profits, and so become mill- ionaires. Kooken, dazzled by these visionary schemes, was easily persuaded to come to this section and buy a large tract of land, upon which he laid out the town of Bellepoint, as above noted. It was in the form of a square, and consisted originally of 160 lots, which, for a time, went off rapidly at $50, and some as high as $75. Sud- denly came the news that the fall of the river, between the new town and Columbus, was so great as to render slack-water navigation wholly imprac- ticable. Land, which a few days previous had

been held at $14 per acre, dropped to $1.25, and the " corner lots " of Bellepoint could not be given away. Kooken and a few others, however, not in the least discouraged, continued to push matters at the " Point," and by every means endeavored to build up their town, but their enterprise availed nothing.

A post office was established at Bellepoint in 1836-37, with Walter Borgan as Postmaster. Francis Marley kept a blacksmith-shop very early. His shop stood, not " under the spreading chest- nuttree," but on the east side of the river. The first tavern was kept by Josiah Reece. The first church and schoolhouse, of which mention has already been made, were located at this point, and the first school was taught by John C. Cannon in 1835. He died in an unused cabin in the neighborhood, of exposure, resulting from pro- tracted dissipation. The first sermon preached in the township, we are informed, was at the house of James Kooken, by Rev. Mr. Van Demem.

CHAPTER XX .*

RADNOR TOWNSHIP -SETTLEMENT- AN INCIDENT -THE WELSH LANGUAGE-SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES - VILLAGES.

"Yr hen Gymraeg iaith fy Mam."

A FTER the war of the Revolution and the passage of the ordinance of 1787, securing for freedom and free soil the vast domain northwest of the Ohio River, many emigrants from the principal- ity of Wales, in the kingdom of Great Britain, reached our shores. Large settlements were made in Oneida County, N. Y., and Cambria County, Penn. When peace was secured with the Indians on the frontiers, adventurous Welshmen found their way into the great Miami Valley, and com- menced a settlement in 1797. In the year 1801, a young Welshman naned David Pugh, from Faesyfed (Radnorshire), South Wales, after a peril- ous voyage of three months, landed at Baltimore, Md. Here he found employment, and acquired a knowledge of the English language. In 1802, he went to Philadelphia, where large numbers of his country-people resided. Here Mr. Pugh became acquainted with Dr. Samuel Jones, who held a

land warrant for 4,000 acres of United States mil- itary land, located in Township 6 and Range 20, of the United States Survey. Dr. Jones, recog- nizing the fitness of the young Welshman as a trusty, energetic and adventurous man, employed him to visit the new country, find the land he owned, and make a report. Early in 1802, David Pugh left Philadelphia on horseback, and in two months reached Franklinton, Franklin County, the nearest settlement to the land for which he was seeking. Guided by an old experienced backwoodsman, he left Franklinton, traveling northward through an unbroken wilderness, and in two days found the land called for in the warrants held by Dr. Jones. After ascertaining its bound- aries and carefully examining the quality of the soil, the timber and the water privileges, he left the wilderness, and in the early winter, returned to Philadelphia and reported the result of his mis- sion.

We may here add the following topographical and physical features as presumably embodied

* By Rev. B. W. Chidlaw.

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.

in the report to his employer: A region, for farm- ing purposes, unsurpassed in the State; rich and fertile land, well watered and timbered. The sur- face gently rolling or undulating, but not broken by rough and jagged hills or bluffs. Fine timber, such as oak, hickory, ash, walnut, hackberry, elni, sugar maple, etc., abounding in the greatest pro- fusion. Without large water-courses, except the Scioto River, which forms the western boundary line of the township, but with numerous small brooks originating in its own territory and flowing into the Scioto River, affording excellent drainage to the land, and an abundance of stock water.

On the 2d day of March, 1803, in the city of Philadelphia, Dr. Samuel Jones sold this quarter of a township (4,000 acres), which was the south- east quarter of Township 6, in Range 20, to David Pugh, for $2,650, reserving 50 acres given to David Lodwig (a Welshman then living in Phila- delphia), and 50 acres donated as a glebe for a Baptist or Presbyterian minister of the Gospel who would settle there. (See records Franklin County, book A, page 32.) On his return from the West, David Pugh met Henry Perry, of Anglesey, South Wales, and arranged with him to commence a settlement on the land which he had visited. Mr. Perry left his wife and several small children near Baltimore, and, with his sons Eben- ezer and Levi, aged fifteen and thirteen years, made the journey on foot, enduring many hard- ships. Late in the fall of 1803, Henry Perry and his sons squatted on this land, built a cabin, and, during the winter, cleared a few acres, which, in the spring, they planted in corn, potatoes, pump- kins, beans, etc. Their food, except venison, wild turkeys and fish, and the seed used in planting the clearing, they had packed on foot from Franklin- ton, a distance, through the unbroken forests, of over thirty miles. In the early summer of 1804, Mr. Perry left the boys in charge of the improve- ment, and, on foot, returned to the vicinity of Baltimore, and with his wife Margaret and the children, after a long and toilsome journey in a cart, arrived back at his new home in the wilds of Central Ohio. The heroic and noble boys were found all right, with a fine crop and a cheery cabin to greet the re-united family.

In 1804, David Pugh again visited the West and surveyed his land into 100-acre lots; laid out a town near its center which he named New Balt- imore. Mr. Pugh, in honor of his native county in Wales, called the township " Radnor." It is, however, of English and not of Welsh origin.

After the conquest of Wales by Edward I, in 1282, the name was given to one of the twelve counties of the principality. The Welsh name of the county was " Maesyfed," signfying "the field of drinking." " Maes," a field, "yfed," to drink. Tradition and the songs of the ancient bards say that part of the country was so called because in a great battle the earth was saturated with the blood of the slain.

In July, 1804, Mr. Pugh sold, for $150, 100 acres of his estate to Henry Perry. This was the first land sold to an actual settler in the township. The same year, Mr. Pugh sold, in lots of 100 acres each, at the same price, to Richard Tibbott, John Watkins, John Jones (emigrants from Wales), Hugh Kyle and David Marks (from Pennsyl- vania). In 1805, the following families from Wales, Evan Jenkins, David Davids, Richard Hoskins and David Davies; and John Minter, from Pennsylvania, bought land and settled in Radnor.

David Pugh visited his native land in 1806, and, in 1807, returned to Radnor, accompanied by his sisters Mary and Hannah, with their husbands, David Penry and John Philips, welcome addi- tions to the new settlement. The same year, Eleanor Lodwig with her children, Thomas, John and Letitia (her husband David had died in Frank- linton), made Radnor their home. The following year, Benjamin Kepler, Elijah Adams, Thomas, Warren, John Foos and their families were added to the settlement. These original settlers, encoun- tered many difficulties and endured great hard- ships, but they struggled manfully and successfully, and are worthy of especial honor and grateful remembrance.

During the war of 1812, Radnor was a frontier settlement. A block-house of heavy logs, 18x20 feet, was built, and several times the settlers found protection within its walls. At one time, the dan- ger of attack from hostile Indians was so alarming that the people abandoned their homes and fled for safety to a fort near Franklinton. After the war was over and peace was restored to the coun- try, the flow of immigration brought many settlers to Radnor, among them Mrs. Wasson and sons, Joseph Dunlap, Samuel Cooper, Robert and John Mckinney, Obed Taylor, James and Matthew Fleming, from Pennsylvania and Maryland. John Jones (Penlan), Walter Penry, Sr., with his sons Walter, William, Edward and Roger; Thomas Jones, with his sons John A. and Thomas ; Ellis Jones, David E. Jones, Edward Evans (Ned Bach), John Oweus, Roger Watkins, Watkin Watkins,

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.

William Watkins, John and Humphrey Hump- hreys, Benjamin Herbert, Morgan D. Morgans, blacksmith ; J. R. Jones, weaver ; J. Jones, mason ; John Cadwalader, Rev. David Cadwalader, David Lloyd, John Davies, cooper ; Mrs. Mary Chidlaw, Robert and Stephen Thomas and others from Wales. From 1821 to 1831, a large number of families from Wales and different parts of our own coun- try found homes in Radnor Township, and during this period, nearly all the land within its limits was purchased by actual settlers.

The unsettled life of the pioneers, and the dan- gers to which they were often exposed, are aptly illustrated by the following incident, which actually occurred in Radnor. In the early history of the township, the Wyandot and Shawanee Indians from the Sandusky reservation would frequently visit the settlement, and trade venison, moccasins and fur for corn or other produce which the in- habitants had to barter. The Indians were always well disposed and friendly ; but, on one occasion, a number of the "redskins," in passing through the settlement, entered a cabin and stole a ban- danna silk handkerchief. When the theft was discovered, two or three of the settlers went in pursuit of the Indians. They were mounted, using deerskins or hlaukets for saddles, and on a little stream, afterward called " Battle Run," they found the Indian camp. The squaws were there, but the men were out hunting. The stolen prop- erty was found, and the owner claimed and took it, the women remonstrating and yelling at the top of their voices. The captors mounted their steeds and beat 'a hasty retreat. Soon, as they were dashing through the woods, they heard the crack of the rifle. This note of warning increased their speed, and, as they were passing the cabin of Hugh Kyle, he saw Evan Jenkins in the lead and his blanket dragging the ground, as he excitedly spurred on his flying charger. Kyle called out to Jenkins to hold on to his blanket, but the fugitive returned the answer, " Let her go and be hanged; better lose the blanket than get cold lead." The next day, the Indians came to the settlement and invited the inhabitants to a council. They met at the cabin of David Marks, smoked the pipe of peace with assurances of mutual friendship, and that henceforth the rights of property would be sacred, and Evan Jenkins avowed that he would never again take a bandanna from the grip of a squaw.

When the county was organized in 1808, it was divided into three townships or districts, for the

purpose of holding its first election. One of these townships was called Radnor, and comprised nearly one-third of the county. On the 15th of June, 1808, the County Commissioners, at their first meeting, created the township of Marlborough out of the original territory of Radnor, as was Thomp- son and Troy, some years later. Thus Radnor was cut and slashed, in the making of new town- ships, until brought down to its present dimen- sion, which, in extent, is about ten miles from north to south, and from three to five miles in width from east to west. It is bounded on the north by Marion County ; on the east by Marlbor- ough, Troy and Delaware Township; on the south by Scioto Township, and on the west, the Scioto River forms the boundary line between it and Scioto and Thompson Townships. Radnor is one of the finest farming districts in Delaware County. Grain is very extensively cultivated, especially wheat, which is the main crop, though, corn and oats receive due attention. Considerable stock is also raised, and a large. number of fat hogs are annually shipped from the township.

For several years, amid privations and hard- ships, toils and dangers, the families of the early pioneers were wonderfully preserved from serious sickness and from death. The first death in the settlement was the mother of Hugh Kyle. By the aid of the "broad-ax" and the "drawing -. knife," a coffin was made, and her remains were laid in the first grave dug for a white person in Radnor Township. As the first funeral in the settlement, it called out the genuine sympathy of all the inhahitants. They met at the house of their esteemed neighbor, and, with solemn tread, followed the humble bier through the forest to the sacred spot, where, with loving and sorrowful hearts, they deposited her remains in the grave, to rest in hope till the day of immortal awakening, when "they that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." This was the first fruit of the harvest of death gathered into the old cemetery in Rad- nor. The oldest marked grave in this burying- ground is that of " David Davids, aged 48 years, who died September 10," 1810. During the war of. 1812-14, a company of soldiers were encamped in Radnor, and several of them died and were buried in the cemetery, and their graves are still recognized, but unmarked.

The early settlers of Radnor, for many years, had neither a doctor nor a drug store. In their sickness, they relied on remedies found in the woods or fields, and good nursing by kind neigh-

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.

bors. The wild lobelia, the bark of the dogwood and wild cherry, and burdock root, were the remedies employed, and with encouraging suc- cess.

As we have seen, a large number of the early settlers of Radnor Township were natives of Wales. And from the time when the original pioneer, Henry Perry, and his heroic boys, Levi and Ebenezer, used their mother tongue in their first home there, the Welsh language, grand in structure, forcible in expression and euphonious in sound, has been extensively used in the township. In social life, in the marts of trade and in the religious life of the people, the old and honored vernacular was the language of the early settlers, and is still used in the family, around the domestic altar, and in the public worship of God. The Welsh language, the Welsh Bible and the Welsh preacher have left an impress on thought and life in Radnor more enduring than burnished brass or polished marble. Beneficent, elevating and pure, these influences have developed and nurtured the elements that produce true manliness and real suc- cess in life and destiny. The Welsh emigrants Americanized readily and thoroughly in all that pertains to good citizenship, yet they naturally cling, with justifiable tenacity, to the old vernacu- lar, "yr hen Gymraeg, iaith fy Mam" (the old Celtic, the sweet language of my mother). The history of the Welsh language is remarkable in its origin ; it dates to a very remote antiquity, and is, to-day, one of the oldest living languages. When Julius Caesar invaded Britain, the " Cymraeg" was the language of the heroic Britons that suc- cessfully resisted the Roman legions and compelled an ignoble retreat. After the conquest of Britain by the Romans, the Welsh retained their language in its purity. The Norman and Saxon, the Pict and the Dane, depriving the Welsh of the best . portion of their country, failed to destroy their language. Through successive ages, it has sur- vived, and is now the language of more than one and a half millions of people in the principality of Wales, in the United States and Australia. In regard to the antiquity of the Welsh language, it may be truly said that it was gray with age when the English was born, and is now richer in its lit- erature and more cultivated than ever before. Taliesin, a renowned bard of medieval time, has said :

" Ei Nef a folant, Ei iaith a gadivant, En grolad a gollant Ond, gwyllt Walia,"

a prediction that the Britons would serve and wor- ship God and preserve their language, but would lose their country, except the mountains in the West. The condition of the Welsh people to-day affords a verification of the prophecy of the old bard. The mountains of Wales, the land of their fathers, they fondly call their home. Their Welsh Bibles and their religious life are loved and cher- ished with absorbing fidelity, honoring their godly ancestry and the God of their fathers.

[The editor finds the following matter in the County Atlas, published in 1875, which he deems of historic value, and is unwilling to omit in the history of the township, although it has been overlooked by Mr. Chidlaw : David Pugh, who built a cabin, in 1804, upon the site of his pros- pective town of New Baltimore, cleared a piece of ground, some three acres in extent, near by, which he sowed in " Welsh clover." The seed of this clover he brought from Wales, and found that it grew well and afforded most excellent pasturage. Perry Jones and David Marks, upon their settle- ment in the township, planted some apple-seeds, and, in time, the trees matured and furnished a supply of fruit. This was the first effort at fruit- growing in this section of the county. Mr. Marks was a prominent man, and afterward became one of the Associate Judges of the court. Elijah Adams, mentioned in the list of early settlers, was the first Justice of the Peace in Radnor, and held the office for many years. Thomas Warren opened the first tavern in 1811. This " ancient hostelry" was kept in a log building 20x32 feet, and two stories high. The tanning, which was as common then as milling, was done mostly at Delaware, and the milling itself was done, for years, at Meeker's, on the Olentangy, south of the town of Delaware. There were no mills built in Radnor for a number of years, except hominy mills, which were in com- mon use. The first child born in the settlement was David Perry, Jr., and the second was Mary Jones ( Mrs. Mary Warren), in the spring of 1807. Among the early marriages may be chronicled those of the two sisters, Margaret and Sarah War- ren, to David Cryder and Montgomery Evans, respectively, in 1811. Mr. Chidlaw mentions, in a beautiful manner, the first death which occurred.]

The pioneers of Radnor were the friends of ed- ucation, and when their children became of suit- able age, they united together, built a log-cabin schoolhouse, and employed a teacher. No record or tradition points out the spot on which the cabin schoolhouse was built, and by whom the first

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.

school was taught. Before the day of school laws in Ohio, the people of Radnor were a law unto themselves, and educational interests were cher- ished accordingly. In 1821, there were three log schoolhouses in the township-one on the farm of John Phillips in the southern part, another on the farm of Ralph Dildine, in the center, and another, in the northern part, near where the old block-house stood on the farm of Benjamin Kepler. The school term embraced three or four months during the inclement season. The teachers re- ceived from $9 to $12 a month, and boarded around. Their pay was largely in trade, produce, and goods manufactured with the help of the spin- ning-wheel, and the domestic loom in the skillful hands of the mothers and daughters that honored and blessed the early homes of Radnor.

One of the early teachers, who taught about 1818, was Roger Penry, a native of South Wales. He was a fair scholar, especially in arithmetic and grammar, and in general knowledge. He was in advance of the age, therefore his services among the youth of Radnor were not fully appreciated. Small scholars, both as it regards age and pro- ficiency in letters were not his delight. But his disciples in Pike's Arithmetic and Murray's Gram- mar were greatly benefited by his instruction. Another cotemporary was Christopher Moore, whose specialties in teaching were orthography and chirography, and in these branches of learning he was a genuine enthusiast. In Webster's Spelling- book he was at home, and in writing copies he was unexcelled. His spelling schools and matches were always great occasions, and attracted crowded houses. Gathered on a winter evening on the puncheon floor of the log schoolhouse, Master Moore with a radiant face, comfortably seated on his three-legged stool, and his scholars on split-log benches; in the blazing light of a capacious and well-filled fire-place, the work of the evening would commence. The master knew the text-book by heart; with closed eyes, smiling face, and quick ear he gave out the words. It required about four hours to spell from "ba-ker" through the hard words in the pictures and the solid columns of proper names at the end of the book. In a word, the earnest, interested teacher had scholars like-minded, spelling was a great business, and en- chained the attention of all coneerned.

One of these spelling-schools is well remembered by the writer. Master Moore was in his best trim. The first part of the evening was spent on words of three and four syllables. After a short intermis-

sion, brimful of fun and cheer, the contest on proper names began and continued until three trials were finished, and the winning side crowned with the laurels of triumph. The night was dark, our hickory-bark torches were lighted, and we left for our homes. A jovial youngster in his teens and bent on fun, carried our torch and led the way through the woods. We had to pass through a swamp, trees had been felled over the deepest water, and on these round logs we must walk. Our guide and torch-bearer, nearly safe on the other side, and the rest of us boys and girls strung along the log, commenced jumping on the log (the boy did), and produced such a motion that we lost our bal- ance and fell in the water waist-deep. Wading for the shore, some were frightened, others jubi- lant, some crying, others laughing, but we all reached dry land in safety. Our torch was out, and the night was dark, and no road. We were in the woods, and at our wits' end. We groped our way as best we could, and erelong reached a fence, then we found our way home, amused with the adventure in the swamp, and the trick of our guide.

The following statistics will show the advance- ment made in education in Radnor in the last fifty years : Number of school districts 8, with a com- fortable schoolhouse in each, seven of which are brick and one frame; estimated value approximat- ing $7,000. Number of pupils enrolled, 261; number of children enumerated in township, 323; number of teachers employed within the year, 12 ; amount paid teachers during the year, $1,946.

Nearly all the pioneers of Radnor were religious people, and the history of religion in the town- ship is coeval with its first settlement. For sev- eral years the people had neither a church nor a school, but any itinerant minister of the Gospel was kindly received into the cabins, and they gladly heard the Gospel from his lips.

The Baptist was the first religious society or- ganized in the township. It was constituted May 4, 1816, in a log schoolhouse, on land owned by William Lawrence, Esq. The council consisted of Elder Henry George, of Knox County; Elder William Brundage, and Brethren Cole, Dix, Bush and Wilcox, of Marlborough Church, and Elder Drake, and Brethren Monroe and Phelps, of Lib- erty Church. The constituting members were John Philips and Hannah, his wife, William David, Thomas Walling, David Penry and his wife, Mary; James Gallant, Eleanor Lodwig, Daniel Bell, Reuben Stephens and his wife, Eliz-

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History of Delaware County and Ohio, Part 86

Author: O. L. Baskin & Co; Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892? Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Chicago, O.L. Baskin & Co. Number of Pages: 818

Author: O. L. Baskin & Co; Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago, O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 818