USA > Ohio > Fayette County > History of Fayette County, Ohio : her people, industries and institutions > Part 8
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Jacob Jamison came to this county several years before its organization. He later purchased land two miles southwest of the village of Washington C. H. He was at one time severely stabbed by one of his neighbors, but finally recovered. He served as justice of the peace, collector, commissioner and associate judge.
Samuel Waddle was a Kentuckian, came to Ross county, this state, and in 1810 came to Fayette, locating on a piece of ground five miles south of Washington C. H. He served in the Indian wars of 1812. In 1814 he purchased seven lots in Washington C. H., for which he paid ten thousand dollars, but at his death the property did not bring one thousand dollars.
John Dewitt was another of the first settlers. He was born in Kentucky and in 1806, accompanied by his uncle and brothers, came to Ross county,
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Ohio. The party traveled the entire distance on foot. Dewitt remained in Ross county two years and then came to Fayette.
Jesse Rowe left his Virginia home when he was forty years of age and came to Ross county and in 1808 to this county, settling on Wabash creek, seven miles south of Washington C. H., where he purchased about fifteen hundred acres of land.
Thomas Green was born in Hampshire county, Virginia, in the year 1784. In 1808 he came to Ohio with his bride, traveling in a four-horse wagon. They settled in Highland county first and in 1810 removed to Fayette, locating four miles southeast of Washington C. H. on Buckskin. He served as a teamster in the war of 1812.
Col. James Stewart, with his father, came from Maryland in 1807 and bought land in Ross county. In 1810 he came to this county, and located on land adjoining Bloomingburg. In 1812 he was made a colonel of a regiment made up of Fayette county men.
Hugh Steward was born in 1805 and came to Fayette county for per- manent settlement in 1828.
Philip Moor was a Kentuckian by birth and came to this county in 1811, with his wife and nine children, traveling by teams. They crossed the Ohio on rafts at Maysville. Adam Funk, who was a neighbor of Moor's before the latter left Kentucky, purchased for him three hundred acres in Paint township, paying nine hundred dollars for the land. The family took pos- session on the Ist of April, 1811, about one year after the first court had been held in the same cabin they now occupied, then owned by a Mr. Devault.
James Kirkpatrick and his family left Virginia in 1810 and came over- land to the cabin of Solomon Soward, in Jefferson township, where they spent the winter. Upon arriving in this county they stopped at the cabin of Capt. Joseph Parrett and inquired for Soward's cabin. They were informed that it was located about two miles farther, on Paint creek. No road but a bridle path led to the place and they were compelled to leave their wagons behind. The next morning they returned for their goods and found them intact, although the neighborhood was filled with bands of Indians. The redskins were peaceable, but did not like the visits of the white men and soon left the neighborhood.
James Hays was a native of Virginia and came to Kentucky in a very early day. At the beginning of the nineteenth century he came to Pickaway county, Ohio, and in about 1805 to Fayette county. They settled on a two- hundred-acre tract in Paint township.
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George Creamer came to Fayette county in 1810 from Berkeley county, Virginia.
Philip Fent came to this county from Greene county, Tennessee, in 1814, accompanied by his family. He held a military grant of land from the government, but was deprived of it by poor management of his uncle, who had it in charge prior to his arrival. He procured another tract, how- ever, in Jefferson township. He took fifty acres and gave his wagon in exchange.
William Robinson, Sr., a North Carolinian, moved from Virginia in 1801 to Greene county, Ohio. They remained here several years and then came to Fayette county.
Adam Allen was a native of Pennsylvania, but ran away from home at the age of sixteen and enlisted in the Revolutionary War. At the close he went to Kentucky and engaged in running the Upper and Lower Blue Lick Salt Works. He was married in Kentucky to Miss Kyger and came to Clark county, Ohio. During the war of 1812 he started to Fort Wayne to enlist, but hostilities were over before he got there. He next came to Fayette county and "squatted" on the site of Allentown. He died in 1851. aged ninety-four.
James Sanderson, a Kentuckian, came to Ohio in 1812 and settled on the Hite survey. No. 1223, consisting of one thousand acres in this county. The family followed an old Indian trace when coming from the Blue Grass state.
Jacob A. Rankin was born in Ross county, Ohio, in 1800, and at the age of twelve left his home because of the dissipation of his father and came to Bloomingburg, Fayette county, and was employed by Judge Gilles- pie as a farm hand.
Rafe Durham, a Virginian, came to Ohio in 1816 and to this county twenty years later.
Thomas Fullerton, a native of Pennsylvania and a graduate of Vale University, came to Fayette county in 1814.
Henry Strope left Pennsylvania on July 7, 1812, in a covered wagon and came to Chillicothe and in 1814 came to Fayette. He settled on a farm in Marion township.
Gen. Batteal Harrison was a Virginian by birth. He started with his parents for Kentucky while yet a child, but stopped with his aunt at Wheel- ing owing to the danger from Indians, while his parents went on into Ken tucky to find a home. They returned for him in two years, but he refused to leave his aunt and remained with her until he was a man. He recruited a
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company of men for the War of 1812 and after the war, in 1815, removed to the north fork of Paint creek and settled on a tract of land located by John A. Fulton on a warrant obtained by the services of his father in the Revolutionary War. This tract was in Madison township and consisted of one thousand and forty acres. General Harrison became one of the most prominent men in the county of Fayette. He was an associate judge and served several terms in the Legislature.
The Allens, Ananias and his sons, came from Pennsylvania about 1810 and settled near Bloomingburg, on what was then called the New Purchase, so called because it was the first purchase on the east fork of Paint creek. The Allens all took part in the War of 1812.
Enoch Harvey, with his father, Samuel, and his brother, James, came from Virginia and settled on Deer creek, near Yankeetown, about 1810. The Coons also came from Virginia and, in about [&co, located near the site of the Harveys. They put up four or five small cabins for their accom- modation. Albert Ogden was a Virginian; came to this county near 1804 and settled north of Yankeetown. Isaac Dickinson came from Virginia and located near Yankeetown. John Page was a settler of 1804 and a Virginian ; he was one of the first justices of the peace of the county. He settled near the Dickinsons.
James McCafferty and his brothers were Virginians and came here about 1804 and settled northwest of Yankeetown. William Morgan came also from the Old Dominion in about 1808 and settled first in Ross county : then located adjoining Samuel Myers', on Duff's fork of Deer creek. Charles White came from Maryland about 1809 or 1810, and settled west of Myers', on Long branch of Deer creek. Thomas Barton, son of Stephen, came from Virginia in 1805 and settled just across Deer creek from Yankeetown. Jesse Stretch came from Pennsylvania in 1804 and located south of Yankee- town. William Sawyer came from Island in 1810 and put up a cabin near that of Stretch. James Rozzell, from Pennsylvania, and Amos Hawkins, from Virginia, came in 1810 and stopped near Yankeetown. Amstead Car- der, from Virginia, settled on the Springfield road south of Bloomingburg. He was a son of Sanford Carder. an old Revolutionary soldier, who drew a pension. John McGowen was cook in the War of 1812 in S. Myers' com- pany.
Two bachelors by the name of George Kyle and Alexander Riley lived together in a cabin near Bloomingburg, but finally quarreled and parted. because one accused the other of being intolerably filthy. Riley subsequently moved to Compton's creek, but cut hay and fed cattle 'on his farm. He
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would go in the evening to feed his cattle, crawl into the haystack and remain until morning, feed again and return home. These old bachelors came to the county some time previous to 1810.
Daniel Hinkle, a tall, swarthy Virginian, was a powerful man and noted for his fighting ability. John and Samuel Herrod were sons-in-law of Sanford Carder: both came from Virginia, and, about 1808, settled on the west side of Madison township. Thomas Cook came from Maryland in 1808. James Thompson, son-in-law of James Hays, came from Kentucky and settled on a fork of the north fork of Paint creek, which afterwards took his name. George Busic, in 1806, settled on Deer creek, hailing from Virginia. Sol Parker, also a Virginian, settled on the Springfield road in 1808. George Jamison, from Kentucky, settled on Deer creek near the old Indian trace leading to Chillicothe. James Kerr, from Virginia, settled also on the Springfield road. John McIntire, a very early settler, located south of Yankeetown. Gideon Veezey settled early on Paint creek. Mr. Salmon settled on a part of the old Vevay farm. He came from Delaware about 1806.
In the spring of 1811 Joel Wood. Adam Harper and Michael Kerr settled on a tract of land embracing one thousand and thirty-five acres, survey Nos. 5780. 7043 and 6879, lying partly in Paint and partly in Jeffer- son townships, with Paint creek running through the center. Mr. Wood moved from Pendleton county, Virginia, and, being a man of intelligence, was created one of the first justices of the peace. Mr. Harper came from Ross county, Ohio, and remained about a year, when he returned and his son. Benjamin, took charge of the farm. Mr. Kerr came from Virginia and first settled in Jefferson township. He was a farmer and the father of Col. S. F. Kerr, of Washington C. H.
Thomas McDonald came from Kentucky to Ross county in 1794. with Nathaniel Massie, the early surveyor, and in 1811 removed to Fayette and settled.
In 1810 or 1811 there was a large family of Allens left Pennsylvania and settled in this county. Many of their descendants are still living: Elijah lived near the old Myers place, on the Bloomingburg and Danville pike, about four miles from the former; James and John lived nearer Bloomingburg. There were also George, Davis and Ananias.
Jesse Milliken came from North Carolina and settled in Washington C. H. in 1810. He had little to do with politics and religion, but was a prominent citizen. He was a good surveyor and performed a greater part of the first surveying done in the county. He was a builder of some of the
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first houses erected in Washington C. H. He was the first postmaster and the first clerk of both the supreme and common pleas courts of Fayette county and held these offices until his death, in August, 1835.
Wade Loofborrow was one of the first citizens and lawyers in the county. He came to Fayette in 1810 from Pennsylvania and beginning his practice continued for a quarter of a century. He was a Democrat.
Thomas McDonald was one of the first settlers in this part of Ohio, built the first cabin in Scioto county, was associated with General Massie and others in laying off the county in surveys. He rendered valuable services as a scout in Wayne's campaign, was a soldier in the War of 1812, the first representative of Fayette county in the Legislature and secured the passage of a bill authorizing the construction of a toll bridge over the creek west of the county. seat in 1816.
Dr. Thomas McGara and family emigrated from Pennsylvania in 1812 to the new town of Washington C. H., in which he was the first physician and where he practiced his profession for many years. He served as an associate judge and represented the county in the Legislature.
Hamilton Rogers, Sr., and Benjamin Rogers were pioneers from Ken- tucky in 1810. They entered the woods of Wayne township and set to work making improvements. They continued their labors for years and were leading farmers.
William Harper and family were emigrants from Kentucky to Fay- ette county in 1808. His daughter was the first lady married in Wayne township. The marriage was in 1810 to Mr. Ellis. Michael Carr, from Virginia, settled in Jefferson township at a nearly date and served in the War of 1812. Peter Eyeman, of Virginia, became a resident of Fayette in the early days of organization.
Henry Snider, father of William, moved into the county in 1809 and. setting stake about four miles south of Washington C. H., on Sugar creek, erected for himself and family a habitation and set about the building of a water mill, which was among the first in the county. He served as associate judge. Peter Snider, a brother, came in 1810.
Judge Jacob Jamieson was a settler from Kentucky upon Deer creek in 1808. He found only a waste of wet lands and timber, but remained. In 18II he came to within one mile of Washington C. H. and bought land. He was an associate judge, justice of the peace and collector.
William Rankin settled on the west fork of Paint creek and put up the cabin usual to the pioneer settlement.
FAYETTE COUNTY, OHIO.
PIONEER LIFE.
The following narrative is from the pen of an old pioneer and illustrates well the life of the times :
"Immigrants poured in from different parts, cabins were put up in every direction and women, children and goods tumbled into them. The tide of immigration flowed like water through a breach in the mill dam. Every- thing was bustle and confusion and all at work that could work. In the midst of all this the mumps and perhaps one or two other diseases prevailed and gave us a seasoning. Our cabin had been raised, covered, part of the cracks chinked and part of the floor laid when we moved in on Christmas day. There had not been a stick cut except in building the cabin. We had intended an inside chinmey, for we thought the chimney ought to be in the house. We had a log put across the whole width of the cabin for a mantle. But when the floor was in we found it so low as not to answer and so we removed it.
Here was a great change for our mother and sister as well as the rest. But particularly my mother : she was reared in a most delicate manner, in and near London, and lived most of her time in comfort. She was now in the wilderness, surrounded by wild beasts, in a cabin with half a floor, no doors, no ceiling overhead, not even a tolerable sign for a fireplace. The light of day and the chilling winds of night passing between every two logs in the building; the cabin so high from the ground that a bear, wolf, panther or any other animal less in size than a cow. could enter without even a squeeze. Such was our situation on Thursday and Thursday night. Decem- ber 25, 1800, and which was bettered but by very slow degrees. We got the rest of the floor laid in a very few days : the chinking of the cracks went on slowly, but the daubing could not proceed until weather became more suitable. which happened every few days. Doorways were sawed out and steps made of the logs and the chimney was raised up to the middle, but the funnel of sticks and clay was delayed until spring. Our family consisted of my mother. a sister of twenty-two, my brother, near twenty-one and very weakly, and myself, in my eleventh year. Two years afterward Black Jenny followed us, in company with my half-brother, Richard, and his family. She lived two years with us in Ohio and died in the winter of 1803-4.
"In building our cabin it was set to front the north and south, my brother using my father's pocket compass on the occasion. We had no idea of living in a house that did not stand square with the earth itself. This
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argued our ignorance of the comforts and conveniences of pioneer life. The position of the house end to the hill necessarily elevated the lower end and the determination of having a north and south door added much to the airi- ness of the domicile, particularly after the green ash puncheons shrunk so as to have cracks in the floors and doors from one to two inches wide. At both the doors we had high, unsteady and sometimes icy steps, made by piling up the logs cut out of the wall. We had a window which was the largest spot in the top, bottom or side of the cabin at which the wind could not enter. It was made by sawing out a log, placing sticks across and then by pasting an old newspaper over the hole and applying some hog's lard, we had a kind of glazing which shed a most beautiful and mellow light across the cabin when the sun shone upon it. All other light entered at the door cracks and chimney. Our cabin was twenty-four by eighteen. The west end was occupied by two beds, the center of each side by a door, and here our symmetry had to stop, for on the opposite side of the window. made of clapboards, supported on pins driven in the logs, were our shelves. Upon these shelves my sister displayed in ample order a host of pewter plates. basins, dishes and spoons, scoured and bright. It was none of the new- fangled pewter made of lead, but the best London pewter, on which you could hold your meat so as to cut it without slipping and without dilling your knife. But, alas, the days of pewter plates and sharp dinner knives have passed.
"To return to our internal arrangements, a ladder of five rounds occu- pied the corner near the window. By this, when we got a floor above. we could ascend. Our chimney occupied most of the east end; pots and kettles opposite the window under the shelves ; a gun on hooks over the north door, five split bottom chairs, three-legged stools and a small eight-by-ten looking glass, sloped from the wall over a large towel, and a pair of tongs made in Frederick with one shank straight, as the best manufacture of pinchers and blood-blisters, completed our furniture, except a spinning-wheel and such things as were necessary to work. It was absolutely necessary to have three- legged stools, as four legs of anything could not all touch the floor at the same time.
"The completion of our cabin went on slowly. The season was inclem- ent : we were weak-handed and weak-pocketed; in fact, laborers were not to be had. We got our chimney up breast high. Our house never was daubed on the inside, for my sister, who was very nice, would not consent to live right next to the mud. My impression now is, that the windows were not constructed till spring, for until the sticks and clay were put on the
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chimney we could possibly have no need for a window, for the flood of light which always poured into the cabin from the fireplace would have extin- guished our paper window and rendered it as useless as the moon at noonday. We got a floor laid overhead as soon as possible, perhaps in a month ; but when it was laid the reader will readily conceive of its imperviousness to wind or weather, when we mention that it was laid of loose clapboards, split from a red oak, the stump of which may be seen beyond the cabin. That tree grew in the night, and so twisting, that should each board be laid on two diagonally opposite corners, a cat might have shook every board on our ceiling.
"It may be well to inform the unlearned reader that clapboards are such lumber as pioneers split with a frow, and resemble barrel staves before they are shaved, but are split longer, wider and thinner; of such our roof and ceiling were made. Puncheons were plank made by splitting logs to about two and a half or three inches in thickness, and hewing them on one or both sides with the broad-ax; of such our Hoors, tables and stools were manufactured. The eave-bearers are those end logs which project over to receive the butting-poles, against which the lower tier of clap-boards rest in forming the roof. The trapping is the roof timbers, composing the gable end and the ribs, being those logs upon which the clap-boards rest. The trap- logs are those of equal length above the eave bearers, which form the gable ends, and upon which the ribs rest. The weight poles are those small logs laid on the roof. The knees are pieces of heart timber, placed above the butting poles successively, to prevent the weight poles from rolling off.
"The evenings of the first winter did not pass off as pleasantly as , evenings afterward. We had raised no tobacco to stem and twist, no corn to shell, no turnips to scrape ; we had no tow to spin into rope yarn, nor straw to plait for hats, and we had come so late we could get but few walnuts to crack. We had, however, the Bible, George Fox's Journal, Berkeley's Apology and a number of books, all better than much of the fashionable reading of today, from which, after perusing, the reader finds he has gained nothing. To our stock of books was soon afterward added a borrowed copy of the Pilgrim's Progress, which we read twice through without stopping. The first winter our living was truly scanty and hard; but even this winter had its felicities. We had part of a barrel of flour which we had brought from Fredericktown. Besides this, we had part of a jar of hog's lard brought from old Carolina; not the tasteless stuff which now goes by that name, but pure leaf lard, taken from hogs raised on pine roots and fattened on sweet potatoes and into which, while rendering, were immersed the boughs of the
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fragrant bay tree, which gave to the lard a rich flavor. Of that flour, short ened with this lard, my sister, every Sunday morning, and at no other time, made short biscuit for breakfast.
"In the ordering of a good Providence the winter was open, but windy. While the wind was of great use in driving the smoke and ashes out of our cabin, it shook terribly the timbers standing almost over us. We had never seen a dangerous looking tree near a dwelling, but here we were surrounded by the tall giants of the forest, waving their boughs and uniting their brows over us, as if in defiance of our disturbing their repose and usurping their long and uncontended pre-emption rights. The beech on the left often shook his bushy head over us as if in absolute disapprobation of our settling there. threatening to crush us if we did not pack up and start. The walnut over the spring branch stood high and straight; no one could tell which way it inclined, but all concluded that if it had a preference it was in favor of quartering on our cabin. We got assistance to cut it down. The axeman doubted his ability to control its direction, by reason that he must cut it almost off before it would fall. He thought by felling the tree in the direc- tion of the reader, along near the chimney, and thus favor the little lean it seemed to have, would be the means of saving the cabin. He was successful. These, and all other dangerous trees, were got down without other damage than many frights and frequent desertions of the premises by the family while the trees were being cut. The ash beyond the house crossed the scorf and fell upon the cabin, but without damage.
"The monotony of the time for several of the first years was broken and enlivened by the howl of the wild beasts. The wolves howling around us seemed to mourn their inability to drive us out. The bears, panther and deer seemingly got miffed at our approach, or the partiality of the hunters, and but seldom troubled us. One bag of meal would make a whole family rejoicingly happy and thankful then, when a loaded East Indiaman would not do it now. When spring was fully come, and our little patch of corn. three acres, put in among the beech roots, which at every step contended with the shovel-plow for the right of soil, and held it, too, we enlarged our stock of conveniences. As soon as bark would run ( peel off ) we could make ropes and bark boxes. These we stood in great need of, as such things as bureaus. stands, wardrobes, or even barrels, were not to be had. The manner of making rope of linn bark was to cut the bark into strips of convenient length. and water-rot it in the same manner as rotting flax or hemp. When this was done the inside bark would peel off and split up so fine as to make a con- siderably rough and good-for-but-little rope. Of this, however, we were very
FAYETTE COUNTY, OHIO.
glad. We made two kinds of boxes for furniture. One kind was of hickory bark with the outside shaved off. This we would take off all around the tree, the size of which would determine the calibre of our box. Into one end we would place a flat piece or puncheon, cut round to fit into the bark, which stood on end the same as when on the tree. There was little need of hooping, as the strength of the bark would keep that all right. Its shrinkage would make it unsightly in a parlor nowadays, but then they were considered quite an addition to the furniture. A much finer article was of slippery elm bark. shaved smooth, and with the inside out, bent around and sewed together where the ends of the hoop or main bark lapped over. The length of the bark was around the box and inside out. A bottom was made of a piece of the same bark, dried flat, and a lid like that of a common band box, made in the same way. This was the finest furniture in the ladies' dressing room and then, as now, with the finest furniture, the lapped or sewed side was turned to the wall and the prettiest part to the specator. They were usually made oval and while he bark was green were easily ornamented with drawing of birds, trees, etc .. agreeable to the taste and skill of the fair manufacturer. . I.s we belonged to the Society of Friends it may be presumed that our band boxes were not thus ornamented.
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