USA > Ohio > Fairfield County > History of Fairfield County, Ohio, and representative citizens > Part 9
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"The poor child of Nature knew not the God of Revelation, but the God of the uni- verse he acknowledged in everything around. He beheld him in the star that sank in beauty behind his lonely dwelling: in the sacred orb that flamed on him from his mid-day throne : in the flower that snapped in the morning breeze ; in the lofty pine that had defied a thousand whirlwinds; in the timid warbler that never left his native grove; in the fearless eagle whose untired pinion was wet in clouds : · in the worm that crawled at his feet; and in
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his own matchless form, glowing with a spark of that light to whose mysterious source he bent in humble though blind adoration.
"And all this has passed away. Across the ocean came a pilgrim bark, bearing the seeds of life and death. The former were sown for
tion have been too powerful for the tribes of the ignorant. Here and there a stricken few reinain; but how unlike their bold, untamed, untamable progenitors! The Indian of falcon glance, and lion bearing, the theme of the touching ballad, the hero of the pathetic tale,
REV. SHERMAN COOLIDGE-(DES-CHE-WAH) [Fine Specimen of an Educated American Indian]
you; the latter sprang up in the path of the simple native. Two hundred years have changed the character of a great continent, and blotted forever from its face a whole peculiar people. Art has unsurped the. bowers of Nature, and the annointed children of educa-
is gone ! and his degraded offspring crawl upon the soil where he walked in majesty, to remind us how miserable is man when the foot of the conquerer is on his neck.
" As a race they have withered from the land. Their arrows are broken. Their off-
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spring are dried up, their cabins are in the dust. Their council-fire has long since gone out on the shore, and their war cry is fast dying away to the untrodden West. Slowly and sadly they climb the distant mountains and read their doom in the setting sun. They are shrinking before the mighty tide that is press- ing them away; they must soon hear the roar of the last wave which will settle over them
forever. Ages hence, the inquisitive white man, as he stands by some growing city, will ponder on the structure of their disturbed re- mains, and wonder to what manner or persons they belonged. They will live only in songs and chronicles of their exterminators. Let these be faithful to their rude virtues as men, and pay due tribute to their unhappy fate as a people.
CHAPTER IV
DAWN OF CIVILIZATION IN THE COUNTY
Organisation of the County-Its Sise when Organised-Number and Names of Townships- Why Called "Fairfield"-Population-Principal Cities-Counties in the State and Their Rate of Increase-Character of the Inhabitants of Fairfield County-Ebeneser Zane, the Pioneer and His Work-His Reward-His Highway-Capt. Joseph Hunter, Founder of the County-First White Child Born in the County-First White Woman Settler-Mrs. Ruhamah Green (Mrs. Chas. Builderback) and Her Adventures-Charles Builderback-Historical Paper by General George Sanderson-The Log Cabin-First Funeral-Fourth of July Celebration in 1800-"Johnny Appleseed"-Roster of County Officials-Senators and Representatives.
FAIRFIELD
Organized 1800.
Area, 470 square miles. Population in 1810, 11,361.
Population, census of 1910, 39,201.
Taxable valuation of property, $22,895,900. County seat, Lancaster ; 1910 population, 13,093.
Boys' . State Industrial School located near Lancaster.
This grand old county of Fairfield was organized in 1800 by proclamation of Gov. . Arthur St. Clair. At the time of its organ- ization this county was very much larger than at present (1912). It then included all or nearly all of Knox and Licking and parts of Perry, Hocking and Pickaway counties. Other counties were formed as the population in- creased, and this lessened the size of Fairfield to nearly its present area, 470 square miles. There are 13 townships as planned about 1840 -Amanda, Berne, Bloom, Clear Creek, Green-
field, Hocking, Liberty, Madison, Pleasant, Richland, Rush Creek, Violet and Walnut.
The history of each of these townships will be given under Chapter VI. The name of the county was suggested by the fertility of the soil, the beauty of the landscape, and the fair- ness of the fields-Fairfield-these champaign fields being especially attractive to the settlers in the northern part of the county. The pop- ulation of the county has kept pace with that of the state, except in more recent years.
TOTAL POPULATION OF OHIO, INCREASE, AND DISTRIBUTION
[Thirteenth Census of the United States. ]
Population of the state .- The population of Ohio is 4,767,121. Compared with a popula- tion of 4,157,545 in 1900, this represents an increase during the last decale of 609,576, or 14.7 per cent. During the same period the total population of continental United States increased 21 per cent. The population of the state has grown at about the same rate during
82
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each of the last three decades. The following table shows the population of Ohio at each census from 1800 to 1910, inclusive, together with the increase and per cent of increase dur- ing each decade, in comparison with the per cent of increase for continental United States as a whole.
that during the first 40 years the population of the state increased very much faster than did that of continental United States. Since 1840, however, the rate of increase for the state dur- ing cach decade has been lower than that of continental United States.
Principal cities .- Ohio has 82 cities. Cleve-
INCREASE OVER PRECEDING CENSUS
PER CENT. OF INCREASE FOR CONTINENTAL
UNITED
1910
4,767,121
609,576
14.7
21.0
1900
4,157,545
485,216
13.2
20.7
1890
3,672,329
474,267
14.8
25.5
1880
3,198,062
532,802
20.0
30. 1
1870
2,665,260
325,749
13.9
22.6
1860
.2,339,51I
359,182
18.1
35.6
1850
1,980,329
460,862
30.3
35.9
1840
1,519,467
581,564
62.0
32.7
1830
937,903
356,469
61.3
33.5
1820
581,434
350,674
152.0
33.1
ISIO
230,760
185.395
408.7
36.4
1800
45,365
Ohio was admitted as a state in 1803. The population of the territory now constituting the state was first enumerated at the Federal census of 1800. It will be observed from the above table that the early censuses show a very rapid rate of growth in the state. During the 20 years from 1800 to 1820 the population multiplied more than twelve times, and during the next 20 years, from 1820 to 1840, it con- siderably more than doubled. Since 1840 the the growth of the state has been very much slower, the population not doubling again until 40 years later, in 1880. During the 30 years since 1880 the population of the state has in- creased 49,1 per cent.
A comparison of the rates of increase for the state with those for continental United States, as given in the preceding table, shows
land, the largest city, has a population of 560,- 663, and Cincinnati, the next largest city, a population of 363,591. Columbus, Toledo, and Dayton, with 181,511, 168,497, and 116,- 577 inhabitants, respectively, are the only other cities with more than 100,000 population. Of the remaining cities, 3 have from 50,000 to 100,000, 6 from 25,000 to 50,000, 23 from 10,000 to 25,000, and 45 from 5.000 to 10,000 inhabitants, respectively. The aggregate pop- ulation of the 82 cities is 2,467,054, or 51.8 per cent of the total population of the state.
COUNTIES
Ohio has 88 counties. The population of these counties ranges from 13.096 in Vinton county to 637,425 in Cuyahoga. There have
CENSUS YEAR
POPULATION
NUMBER
PER CENT.
STATES
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY
been no changes in the territorial boundaries of the counties since 1900.
Forty-nine counties have increased in popu- lation during the last decale, the rates of in- crease ranging from one-tenth per cent in Fay- ette county to 65.6 per cent in Mahoning county, and the absolute increases from 19 in Fayette county to 198,305 in Cuyahoga county. Eighteen counties show a larger rate of increase than is shown for the state as a whole, which, as before stated, was 14.7 per cent. Thirty-nine counties have decreased in population during the last decade, the rates of decrease ranging from one-tenth of I per cent in Lawrence county to 17.4 per cent in Pauld- ing county, and the absolute decreases from 46 in Lawrence county to 5,225 in Wood county. The aggregate increase of population from 1900 to 1910 in the 49 counties that show an increase is 677,170; the aggregate decrease of population in the 39 counties that show a de- crease is 67,594. The difference, 609,576, is, of course, the total increase of population in the state.
Fairfield's census was not taken in 1800, but she must have had about 800 or perhaps 1,000 population, 500 of whom were Wyandotts. By the "Thirteenth census" we find the pop- ulation of the county as follows : 1810, 11,361 ; 1820, 16,633; 1830, 24,786; 1840, 31,924; 1850, 30,264; 1860, 30,538; 1870, 31,138; 1880, 34,284; 1890, 33,939; 1900, 34,259; 1910, 39,201.
This population is now largely Ohio-born, though you will find in the county large num- bers of foreign birth-Germany, Ireland, Eng- land, Italy, Greece, Virginia, New York, Indiana and many other states being repre- sented in the population of today. The native inhabitants have been noted for their thrift, earnestness and honesty. The county has long been the home of great men and women-as will be fully shown before we close.
EBENEZER ZANE
The early history-the very beginning of history in Fairfield county-is intimately con- nected with the name of Ebenezer Zane. This intrepid pioneer, in the service of the Govern- ment, constructed in 1797 a noted roadway, an account of which appears in Chapter five of this volume. For this service Zane was granted by the Government three tracts of land, one mile square each-one located on the present site of Zanesville, another on the Hocking, embracing the present site of Lan- caster and the third embracing the present site of Chillicothe. This famous old roadway was known for fifty years or more as "Zane's Trace." It led from Wheeling, W. Va. to Maysville, Ky.,-being 226 miles in length and passing through Zanesville, Lancaster, and Chillicothe. This highway brought many set- tlers into the Hocking Valley, and in April of 1798 a bold and restless pioneer from Ken- tucky, Capt. Joseph Hunter, came with his family to this beautiful and fertile valley and settled on "Zane's Trace," on ground 110W occupied by Lancaster. Here he built his cabin and his home. He is even regarded as the founder of the county, and his son, the noted attorney, Hocking H. Hunter, was the first white male child born in the county. The mother of Hocking H. Hunter was the first white woman to settle within the limits of the county. These claims are somewhat in doubt, as the noted historian, Henry Howe (Vol. I, ' page 589) claims that the first white male child was a son of Mrs. Ruhamah Green ( Builder- back), whose tragic history is here given as it appears in Howe's "Ohio," written by Col. John McDonald, of Ross County. ( Page 589- 590, Howe.)
MRS. RUHAMAH GREEN (BUILDERBACK)
"Mrs. Ruhamah Green was born and raised in Jefferson county, Va. In 1785 she was
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married to Charles Builderback, and with him crossed the mountains and settled at the mouth of Short Creek, on the east bank of the Ohio River, a few miles above Wheeling. Her hus- band, a brave man, had on many occasions dis- tinguished himself in repelling the Indians, who had often suffered from the sure aim of his unerring rifle. They determined at all hazards to kill him.
"On a beautiful summer's morning in June, 1789, at a time when it was thought that the enemy had abandoned the western shores of the Ohio, Capt. Charles Builderback and his wife, and brother Jacob Builderback. crossed the Ohio to look after some cattle. On reach- ing the shore a party of some 15 or 20 Indians rushed out from ambush and fired upon them, wounding Jacob in the shoulder. Charles was taken while running to escape, but Jacob re- turned to the canoe and got away. In the meanwhile Mrs. Builderback secreted herself in some drift wood near the bank of the river. As soon as the Indians had secured and tied her husband, and not being able to discover her hiding-place, they compelled him, by threats of immediate death, to call her to him. With a. hope of appeasing their fury, he did so. She heard him but made no answer. 'Here,' to use her own words, 'a struggle took place in my own breast which I cannot describe. Shall I go to him and become a prisoner, or shall I re- main, return to our cabin and provide for and take care of our two children.' He shouted to her a second time to come to him, saying that if she did it might be the means of saving his life. She no longer hesitated, but left her place of concealment and surrendered herself to his savage captors. All this took place in full view of their cabin on the opposite shore of the river, where they had left their two children, one a boy about three years of age
and an infant daughter. The Indians, know- ing that they would be pursued as soon as the news of their visit reached the stockade at Wheeling, commenced their retreat. Mrs. Builderback and her husband traveled together that day and the following night. The next morning the Indians separated into two bands, one taking Builderback and the other his wife and continued a western course by different routes.
"In a few days the band having Mrs. Builderback in charge reached the Tuscarawas river, where they encamped, and were soon re- joined by the band that had taken her husband. Here the murderers exhibited his scalp on the top of a pole, and to convince her that they had killed him, pulled it down and threw it into her lap. She recognized it at once by the red- ness of his hair. She said nothing. and ut- tered no complaint. It was evening and her ears were pained by the terrific yells of the savages, and wearied with constant traveling, she fell into a profound sleep and forgot all her sufferings until morning. When she awoke the scalp of her murdered husband was gone and she never learned what became of it.
"As soon as the capture of Builderback was known at Wheeling, a party of scouts set off in pursuit, and taking the trail of one of the bands, followed it until they found the body. He had been tomahawked and scalped and had apparently suffered a lingering death.
"The Indians, on reaching their towns on the Big Miami, adopted Mrs. Builderback into a family, with whom she lived until released from captivity. She remained a prisoner about nine months, performing the labor and drudg- ery of squaws, such as carrying in meat from the hunting grounds, preparing and drying it, making moccasins, leggings and other cloth- ing for the family in which she lived. After
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY
her adoption she suffered much from the rough and filthy manner of Indian living, but was not ill treated otherwise.
"In a few months after her capture some friendly Indians informed the commandant at Fort Washington that there was a white woman in captivity at the Miami towns. She was ransomed and brought into the fort, and was sent up the river to her lonely cabin and the embrace of her two children. She then re- crossed the mountains and settled in her native county.
"In 1796 Mrs. Builderback married John Green, and in 1798 they settled about three miles west of Lancaster, where shie continued to reside until the time of her death in 1842. She survived her last husband about ten years."
Charles Builderback, the first husband of Mrs. Green, had commanded a company at Crawford's defeat in the Sandusky country. He was a large, noble-looking man, and a bold and intrepid warrior. He was in the bloody Moravian campaign and took his share in the tragedy by shedding the first blood on that oc- casion, when he shot, tomahawked and scalped Shebosh, a Moravian chief. But retributive justice was meeted out to him. After being taken prisoner, the Indians asked his name. "Charles Builderback," he replied, after some little pause. At this revelation the Indians stared at each other with malignant triumph. "Ha," said they, "you kill many big Indian ; you big captain; you kill Moravians." From that moment, perhaps, his fate was sealed.
HISTORICAL PAPER BY GEN. GEORGE SANDERSON
The history of Fairfield county cannot be written without ample reference to the Sander- son family. The following quotations are from the now noted address before the. Lancaster Library Society-given by General George Sanderson in 1844, and published in pamphlet
form in 1851 by Thomas Wetzler. The title of the address is "A Brief History of the Early Settlement of Fairfield County."
Gen. George Sanderson knew the history of the county from the beginning and he was identified with its growth and advancement until his death, which occurred in 1871. He filled many places of trust and responsibility, . and was endowed with a wonderful memory and keen observation. His account is there- fore extremely valuable and cannot for any reason be omitted here. We quote direct from Dr. Scott's History.
"In 1797, Zanes' Trace having opened a communication between the Eastern States and Kentucky, many individuals in both directions wishing to better their conditions in life by emigrating and settling in the ‘back woods,' so called, visited the Hocking Valley for that purpose and finding the country sur- passingly fertile,-abounding in fine spring of pure water, they determined to make it their new home.
"In April 1798, Capt. Joseph Hunter, a bold and enterprising man, with his family, emi- grated from Kentucky and settled on 'Zanes' Trace,' upon the bank of the prairie west of the crossings, and about two hundred yards north of the present turnpike road, and which place was called 'Hunter's settlement.'-Here he cleared off the under-brush, felled the forest trees, and erected a cabin, at a time when he had not a neighbor nearer than the Muskin- gum and Scioto rivers. This was the com- mencement of the settlement in the upper Hocking Valley, and Capt. Hunter is regarded as the founder of the flourishing and populous county of Fairfield. He lived to see the country densely settled and in a high state of improvement, and died about the year 1829. His wife was the first white woman that set- tled in the Valley, and shared with her husband
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the toils, sufferings, hardships and privations incident to the formation of new settlements in the wilderness. During the spring of the same year (1798). Nathaniel Wilson, the elder, Hohn and Allen Green, and Joseph McMullen, Robert Cooper, Isaac Shaeffer, and a few others, reached the valley, erected cabins and put in crops.
"In 1799 the tide of emigration set in with great force. In the spring of this year, two settlements were begun in the present township of Greenfield ; each settlement contained twenty or thirty families. One was the falls of Hocking, and the other was Yankeytown. Settlements were also made along the river be- low Hunters, on Rush Creek, Fetters Run, Raccoon. Pleasant Run, Toby Town, Mudy Prairie, and on Clear Creek. In the fall of 1799. Joseph Loveland and Hezekiah Smith erected a log grist mill at the upper falls of Hocking, now called the Rock Mill. This was the first mill built on the Hockhocking.
"In April 1799, Samuel Coates, Sen., and Samuel Coates, Jun., from England, built a cabin in the prairie, at the 'Crossing of Hock- ing :' kept bachelors hall, and raised a crop of corn. In the latter part of the year a mail route was established along 'Zanes' Trace' from Wheeling to Limestone. The mail was carried through on horseback, and at first only once a week. Samuel Coates, Sen., was the postmaster, and kept his office at the Crossing. This was the first established mail route through the interior of the territory, and Samuel Coates was the first postmaster at the new settlement.
"The settlers subsisted principally on corn bread, potatoes, milk and butter, and wild meats, flour, tea and coffee were scarcely to be had, and when brought to the country, such prices were asked as to put it out of the power of many to purchase. Salt was an indispens-
able article, and cost, at the Scioto salt works, $5.00 for fifty pounds ; flour cost $16.00 per barrel; tea $2.50 per pound ; coffee $1.50; spice and pepper $1.00 per pound."
"The present generation can form no just conception of the wild and wilderness appear- ance of the country in which we now dwell, previous to its settlement by the white people ; it was, in short, a country
"Where nothing dwelt but beasts of prey, Or men as fierce and wild as they.'
"The lands watered by the sources of the Hockhocking river, and now comprehended within the present limits of the County of Fairfield, were, when discovered by some of the early settlers of Marietta, owned and oc- cupied by the Wyandott tribe of Indians, and were highly prized by the occupants as a valuable hunting-ground, being filled by almost all kinds of game and animals of fur. The principal town of the nation stood along the margin of the prairie, between the mouth of Broad street and Thomas Ewing's canal-basin, and extending back as far as the base of the hill south of the Methodist Church. It is said that the town contained in 1790 about one hundred wigwams, and five hundred souls. It was called Tarhe, or in English. Cranetown. and derived its name from that of the principal chief of the tribe. The Chief's wigwam in Tarhe stood upon the bank of the prairie, near where the fourth lock is built on the Hocking Canal, and near where a beautiful spring of water flows into the Hocking river. The wig- wams were built of the bark of trees set on poles, in the form of a sugar-camp, with one square open, fronting a fire. and about the height of a man. The Wyandotte tribe at that day numbered about five hundred warriors, and were a ferocious and savage people. They made frequent attacks on the white settlements
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY
along the Ohio river, killing, scalping and cap- turing the settlers without regard to age, sex or condition. War parties on various occa- sions attacked flat-boats descending the river, containing emigrants from the Middle States seeking new homes in Kentucky, by which, in many instances, whole families became victims to the tomahawk and scalping-knife. *
"The Crane Chief Tarhe had a white wife in his old age. She was Indian in every sense of the word, except her fair skin and red hair. Her history, as far as I have been able to learn it, is this: Tarhe, in one of his predatory excursions along the Ohio river, on the east side, near Wheeling, had taken her prisoner and brought her to his town on the Hocking river. She was then about eight years old ; and, never having been reclaimed by her rel- atives or friends, remained with the nation, and afterwards became the wife of her captor.
"On the 17th of May, 1796, Congress, with a view no doubt to the early settlement of their acquired possessions by the treaty of Green- ville in 1795, passed an act granting to Eben- ezer Zane three tracts of land, not exceeding one mile square each, in consideration that he would open a road on the most eligible route, between Wheeling, Virginia, and Limestone (now Maysville), Kentucky. Zane perfornied his part of the contract the same year, and selected one of his tracts on the Hocking, where Lancaster now stands. The road was opened by only blazing the trees and cutting out the underbrush, which gave it more the appearance of an Indian path, or trace, than a road, and from that circumstance it took the name of 'Zane's Trace'-a name it bore for many years after the settlement of the county. * It crossed the Hocking at a ripple, or ford, about three hundred yards below the turnpike-road, west of the present town of Lancaster, and was called the 'Crossing of
Hocking.' This was the first attempt to open a public highway through the interior of the North-western Territory.
"In 1797, Zane's trace having opened a communication between the Eastern States and Kentucky, many individuals from both directions wishing to better their conditions in life by emigrating and settling in the 'back woods,' then so-called, visited the Hockhock- ing for that purpose, and finding the country surpassingly fertile-abounding in springs of purest water, determined to make it their new home.
"In April, 1798, Captain Joseph Hunter, a bold and enterprising man, with his family, emigrated from Kentucky and settled on Zane's trace, upon the bank of the prairie west of the crossings, and about one hundred and fifty yards northwest of the present turnpike road, and was called 'Hunter's Settlement.' Capt. Hunter cleared off the underbrush, felled the forest trees, and erected a cabin, at a time when he had not a neighbor nearer than the Muskingum and Scioto rivers. This was the commencement of the first settlement in the upper Hockhocking Valley; and Captain Hunter is regarded as the founder of the flourishing and populous County of Fairfield. Ife lived to see the county densely settled and in a high state of improvement, and paid the clebt of nature about 20 years ago. His aged companion, Mrs. Dorotha Hunter, yet lives (1851), enjoying the kind and affectionate at- tentions of her family, and the respect and esteem of her acquaintances. She was the first white woman that settled in the valley, and shared with her late husband all the toils, suf- ferings, hardships and privations incident to the formation of the new settlement, without a murmur or word of complaint. During the spring of the same year, Nathaniel Wilson, the elder; John Green, Allen Green, John and
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