USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 19
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THE PIONEER'S FOOD.
Food was plentiful. Game of all kinds was to be had for the shooting and every settler had a long rifle and knew how to use it. Corn was easily grown and there was always an ample supply of it, even though it had to be eaten, at times, when it was half ground, for the handpower mill of Owen Davis did little more than crack the grains. "Pone" and "dodger" were the staple pastry products, and even though they would not have tickled the palate of an epicure, they very effectually stilled the hunger of the pioneer after a hard day's work in the clearing. Both of these homely products of the pioneer culinary art were about the same in make-up, for they were both made out of corn-meal, baked in a Dutch oven, or on a slab of wood or sometimes on a hot stone. The batter was composed of three ingredients, meal, salt and water, and as long as the salt could be obtained, the family was happy. Meal and water were always to be had, but there were times when it was difficult to obtain salt. When salt was scarce, it often required five bushels of wheat in trade to get one bushel of it. In order to effect a variety, some of the good pioneer women mixed pumpkin with the meal batter and thus concocted some kind of meal-pumpkin bread, the name of which seems to have been lost. Corn was also dried in season and was also converted into hominy, but those persons were indeed wretched who were reduced to "hog and hominy." Corn-meal was also molded into "Johnny" cakes, which were baked on a slanting board before the fire. Sometimes
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the batter was packed in cabbage leaves, the product then being called ash cake.
It was several years after the first settlement of the county before wheat was introduced; then some families had wheat bread once a week, usually in the form of biscuits, but most of the wheat was sold.
MEAT OBTAINED FOR THE SHOOTING.
Venison, bear meat, squirrel and other game were to be had at all sea- sons of the year. Deer meat was frequently dried, as was beef, it then being called "jerked" venison, but for many years there was such an abundance of game available that there was little necessity for laying in a quantity of meat. The friendly hard maple tree furnished the only sugar the settlers had, and it was also the means by which many families could barter for commodities which they could not make at home. It is remembered how Nimrod Haddox was engrossed in making sugar on a large scale when he was overtaken by the flood which carried away a great part of his product. Maple sugar always commanded a good price and many settlers derived a larger revenue from their sugar crop, as did Haddox, than from anything else on the farm. Molasses was plentiful and there are people yet who do not dislike corn cakes and genuine maple molasses. Wild honey was also abundant and the finding of a bee-tree was hailed with pleasure in the pioneer household. Robbing the rustic hive was a rather precarious under- taking, but such an operation generally resulted in gaining several buckets- ful of honey and more stings from the infuriated insects.
Of garden vegetables and berries there were but few for several years. There is no reference in the early pioneer writings to many of our com- monest garden vegetables being in use in the early days of the county. Beets, peas, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, cucumbers and several others were not to be found in the garden of the early settler. Even the potato was not as common as one might think, since it is a native of America, but the friendly pumpkin and a kind of bean, familiarly known as the "cornfield" bean, grew alongside the first cornstalks in the county.
It is not certain when the first stove came into use, but there were only a few in use in the county until the beginnings of the '50s. The first stoves were crude affairs, and from the pictures of the stoves for kitchen use which appear in the local newspapers in the '40s, they must have been hard to handle. Before the advent of the stove, the cooking was all done before the open fire. The three-legged Dutch oven with iron lid, spiders, skillets and the ever-present iron kettle comprised the chief utensils for boiling, roasting, baking and frying. A leg of venison, a wild turkey, or
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the ham of a pioneer porker was hung up before the fireplace by a strong cord, and one of the younger members of the household was delegated to turn the roast so that it would be nicely browned on all sides; however, the unlucky youngster was generally as well roasted as the joint of meat. The family washing was usually done in the yard around the cabin, the water being heated in a large kettle. The washing-machine was as unknown as the flying-machine. The same kettle that was used in the washing was used in the spring in making the family soap for the year. Every well-regulated pioneer household had its ash hopper and its barrel into which every frag- ment of fat found its way.
CLOTHING OF THE PIONEER.
The dress of the pioneer was very plain and generally made of the fabric spun by the female members of the family. This was done altogether in the county until Jacob Smith started the first woolen-mill near where the first grain-mill was erected by Owen Davis. Each farmer had his small flock of sheep and his patch of flax. The wool was carded and the flax was prepared, and both were spun into the family linsey of the day. The men generally sowed the flax, gathered and broke it, and left the women the succeeding steps in its transformation into material to be made into wearing apparel, namely, pulling, spreading to water, rolling, taking up, swingling, hackling, spinning, weaving and making into garments. It surely followed that the pioneer housewife was very economical in cutting out a garment so as to save as much goods as possible. It was seldom that the stoutest of our pioneer grandmothers ever required more than six yards for making a dress for themselves, and they generally had a remnant left for repairs.
In fact, everything that the early settlers wore was made in the home: shoes to head gear, socks to mittens, pants to shirt. In addition to wool and flax, clothing was made of hemp and cotton and a mixture of flax and wool or linsey-woolsey. Many a pioneer had breeches (or pants, the word trousers never being used) made of leather, sometimes tanned and sometimes not. And instances are on record where the Spanish-needle was treated as flax and a very substantial cloth made from its fiber. Nearly all classes of people of both sexes wore moccasins of buckskin in winter, while the summer season saw the entire population barefooted. Footwear was ac- counted such a burden (or it might have been an economical measure), the pioneer lasses would carry their shoes to church, stop just before arriving at their destination at some convenient place along the road and put on their shoes and stockings. After church they would take them off again and carry them home.
Everyone of the period prior to the Civil War can recall three kinds
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of cloth-linsey-woolsey, jean and flannel-made on the old home loom. Jean was given its beautiful brown color by the juice of the walnut hull and the famous "butter-nut" shirt was known throughout the Mississippi valley. The "pepper-and-salt" woolen cloth was made by using white wool for the warp and black wool for the woof. Every family had its spinning- wheel, reels, looms, warping-bars, winding-blades and all the necessary par- aphernalia for carding, spinning and weaving. For at least a quarter of a century after Greene county was settled, every family commonly carded the wool for the family clothing on little cards ten inches long and four inches wide. The children picked the wool and helped to card it, but it was left to the mother and her daughters to do the weaving.
AMUSEMENTS OF THE PIONEERS.
Pioneer life in Greene county was far from being grave and leaden, for the early settlers seasoned their toil with the wholesome pleasures of their day. Harvestings, husking-bees, quiltings, house-raisings, apple-peel- ings, and, in any prolonged task, the neighbors came in to help, and this was always the signal for a frolic. They did not forget the unfortunate, for if any neighbor was sick or in need, all hands came out and garnered his grain. The amusements of the early settlers were simple. There were no moving picture shows to attend; no shows of any kind, and the many games which we have today were then unknown. Then there were singing-schools, spell- ing-matches and "ciphering" contests which were mental diversions that were a source of more or less amusement to the young folk. Some danced at their homes and others thought the dance was to be utterly tabooed. But many of the best people danced to the music of the fiddle-never the violin. The Virginia reel, the schottische, the minuet and the waltz were the favorite dance measures. There was a distinctive "hoe-down" and a number of jigs and shuffles, which were always called for at every gathering. Jumping, running, foot races, wrestling and throwing weights were indulged in when- ever young men congregated at log-rollings, house-raisings, and the like. It was a great honor to be known as the best wrestler (always called "rastler") in the community, and every young man thus honored prided himself on his ability to throw his adversary with "overholds" in what was called the "side rastle." Fist fights were common, as occurred between Aaron Beall and Benjamin Kizer at Oldtown after drill in 1806. Scientific boxing was unknown and boxing gloves would have been laughed at throughout the entire county. As it used to be expressed, "they went at it hammer and tongs."
The event in the fall harvest was the husking-bee, which was an occa- sion of jollity and festivity, in which young and old, little and big, took part. Before the appointed date for the affair, the boys had gone through
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the corn field and had snapped off the ears in the husk. They had brought the spoil in from the field and had heaped it high in the barn yard. The pile was from four to five feet high and was built symmetrically from end to end so that it could be equally divided by the rail which was laid across the middle. In the evening the husking party assembled in the moonlight. Two captains, already chosen, selected their adherents alternately from the crowd until every one was chosen, and then some trusted person from each party inspected the pile for any inequalities in its symmetry. The middle of the pile was then determined and then it was cut at that point. When all was ready each party fell to husking, throwing the ears over the pile in front and the husks behind. Each side worked feverishly, some members pausing perhaps to take a nip from a passing jug. Throughout the contest the captains urged on his helpers by voice and example, and the side which finished first raised their leader to their shoulders with shouts of triumph. The triumphant shouts were the signal to the mothers, sisters and sweet- hearts who were preparing the feast for the exhausted huskers that the pioneer banquet had soon to be ready. Soon they appeared and sat down before the bountiful repast which melted before their sharp appetites. The tables were soon cleared and some thoughtful swain who had brought his fiddle along drew the bow across the strings and struck up a merry tune. Feet began to move to the music and then the dance began. Some fortunate young husker who had saved the red ears which he had husked, now claimed his right of kissing the blushing young pioneer damsel of his choice amid the banterings and teasing of his companions. It was not until a late or, more properly, an early hour was reached, that the party wended its way homeward, exhausted but happy after the night of pleasure.
WROUGHT BETTER THAN THEY KNEW.
Thus the early settlers of Greene county lived their lives which were ever full of dreary toil, but withal replete with their pursuit of the whole- some pleasures which added sufficient color to their simple lives. They were not worried by the fluctuations of the market, nor were the good wives perplexed by the radical changes in the style of their garments. Their lives when compared to the hustle and bustle of today seem drab, but they were working with a definite and wonderful objective in view, the making of the wilderness a habitable place in which their children could live in peace and plenty. However, it can be truthfully said that few of those sturdy old pioneers worked with this as a conscious objective. They wrought well- perhaps better than they knew. The heritage of prosperity and plenty which they left the present generation should be preserved and defended by the present citizens of the county and handed down to posterity as unsullied as it was bequeathed to them.
CHAPTER IX
TOWNSHIPS OF GREENE COUNTY.
Greene county now has twelve townships, although during its career of one hundred fifteen years there have been fourteen erected within its borders. The setting off of Champaign county in 1805 bereft Greene county of one of its townships, its largest, Mad River, and the erection of Clark county in 1817 caused another, Vance, to become a memory.
The large expanse of territory which composed this county in 1803 was divided by the associate judges at their first meeting on May 10, 1803, into four townships; namely, Sugarcreek, Caesarscreek, Mad River and Beavercreek townships. At that time Sugarcreek township embraced all of what is now included in that township, nearly all of Spring Valley town- ship and the southwest part of Xenia township. Caesarscreek township included all the southeastern part of the county and also the site of the city Xenia. Mad River township was the largest one of all, for it began at the southern boundary of the ninth range in what is now Clark county, about two miles north of Osborn, and extended to the northern limits of the state the full width of the county of Greene. Beavercreek township was the second largest one, including all that part of the county north of Sugar- creek and Caesarscreek and south of the southern boundary of the ninth range in Clark county. It then contained the greater part of the site of Springfield.
As the days passed, and the increase in the population demanded the erection of administrative divisions of the county, other townships were es- tablished. Xenia township was established in 1805, Bath township in 1807, Miami township in 1808, Silvercreek and Ross townships in 1811, Vance township in 1812, Cedarville township in 1850, New Jasper township in 1853, Spring Valley township in 1856 and Jefferson township in 1858.
TOWNSHIP OFFICIALS.
Ohio rejoices in a multiplicity of township officials and the list seems to be increasing instead of decreasing. At the head of the official family of each township is a group of five officials-three trustees, a clerk and a treasurer -- while below this group is a corps of justices of the peace, a posse of constables, a set of assessors-and, lastly, a group of highway superin- tendents. In addition to this lengthy list of officials, there are various and
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sundry other positions which come under and are subsidiary to the highway superintendent.
The duties performed by the three trustees, the clerk and the treasurer, are all in the hands of one man in the townships of Indiana. Besides, the Indiana trustee has charge of all the schools, selects all the teachers and performs most of the duties of the township highway superintendent in Ohio, for which the Indiana trustee receives two dollars a day for each working day in the year. This by way of comparison.
In Ohio each of the three trustees receive one dollar and a half a day for each day employed in township work, and fifteen minutes is a day in the eyes of the law. Each township treasurer is allowed two per cent. on all the orders issued by him and this averages from one hundred to one hundred and fifty dollars per annum. Beginning on January 1, 1918, the trustees will receive two dollars and a half a day. The clerks are paid about one hundred and fifty dollars a year on the average. The justices of the peace and constables are purely fee officers and their remuneration frequently approaches the point of the irreducible minimum. In fact, it is difficult to secure competent justices of the peace and they are constantly resigning so that it is difficult to keep the legal number in office. There is one township in Greene where it has been found to be impossible to find any one to serve in this capacity. Calls for the services of the township constable are very few. The township assessors are allowed four dollars a day and in the spring of 1917 in Greene county they were allowed thirty days to complete their work, but many of them performed all their duties in less than a week.
Under the Cass act of 1915 each township was divided into a definite number of road districts, each of which was under the supervision of a township highway superintendent, but the White-Mulcahy act of 1917 revised the former act to some extent bringing about a reorganization of the town- ship administration of roads. Until lately the administration of roads was in rather an uncertain state in Greene county, but the advent of the newly elected township officials into office on January 1, 1918, has operated to put into force the provisions of the last named act.
TOWNSHIP OFFICIALS IN 1918.
The appended statement gives the trustees, clerks, treasurers, assessors, justices of the peace and constables of each township, all of whom took office on January 1, 1918:
Bath-Trustees, C. A. Wilson, C. L. Hoagland, John S. Hower; clerk, R. O. Routzong; treasurer, Harry E. Frahn; justice of the peace. A. L. Shuey ; constables, Charles B. Snyder, M. W. Lasure, W. A. Schneider ; as- sessor, William Sipe.
Beavercreek-Trustees, A. D. Kendig, S. W. Hartman, David Archer ;
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clerk, Lewis E. Stewart; treasurer, J. E. Munger ; justice of the peace, C. C. Coy ; constables, Jacob Stewart, G. E. Greene ; assessor, G. E. Greene.
Caesarscreck-Trustees, C. N. Bales, A. A. Conklin, L. R. Jones ; clerk, C. W. Mussetter; treasurer, G. M. Fawley; justice of the peace, Charles I. McPherson ; constables, W. L. Copsey ; assessor, W. E. Mussetter.
Cedarville-Trustees, M. W. Collins, R. S. Townsley, H. A. Turn- bull; clerk, Andrew Jackson; treasurer, W. H. Barber; justice of the peace, Andrew Jackson, W. P. Townsley ; constable, H. A. McLean ; assessor, C. E. Cooley.
Jefferson-Trustees, R. W. Oglesbee, C. E. Hargrave, S. H. Vanni- man; clerk, W. L. Cline : treasurer, H. C. Fisher ; justices of the peace. L. S. O'Day, E. A. Story ; constable, F. L. Huffman; assessor, Charles Cline.
Miami-Trustees, F. W. Johnson, Edward Meredith, M. W. Ault; clerk, Towne Carlisle; treasurer, S. W. Cox; justices of the peace, C. R. Baldwin, William Heffner; constables, Charles Coffman, A. J. Holland; as- sessor, J. A. Tibbs.
New Jasper-Trustees, Ezra Brown, W. J. Fudge, E. L. Hagler ; clerk, O. M. Spahr; treasurer, Charles N. Fudge; justices of the peace, W. C. St. John, John Shirk; constables, none elected in 1917; assessor, Marshall Brown.
Ross-Trustees, John Shane, Theodore Hughes, S. K. Turnbull; clerk, L. R. Rogers : treasurer, J. S. Lackey; justices of the peace, S. J. Tarr; M. B. Swaney ; constable, Henry Cox; assessor, Edwin Klontz.
Silvercreek-Trustees, C. D. Lackey, Seymour Wade, Frank Johnson; clerk, Frank Shigley; treasurer, Roy J. Moorman; justice of the peace, none elected in 1917; constable, A. Zerner ; assessor, John Q. Ross.
Spring Valley-Trustees, John Walton, John W. Soward, Leander Spahr; clerk, Arch Copsey; treasurer, Ray Eagle; justices of the peace, W. E. Guffy, J. W. Fulkerson; constable, William Copsey; assessor, Joseph Mason.
Sugarcreek-Trustees, M. B. Spahr, Frank Wardlow, George Penewit; clerk, W. W. Tate; treasurer, H. M. Turner; justice of the peace, Oliver Watson; constable, R. H. Hopkins ; assessor, Walton Spahr.
Xenia-Trustees, Coleman Heaton, John W. Hedges, Fred Toews; clerk, Harvey Elan; treasurer, Levi Rader; justices of the peace, J. H. Mc- Pherson, J. E. Jones ; constables, J. C. Andrews, Lester Arnold; assessor, J. E. Watts.
RECORDS OF THE VARIOUS TOWNSHIPS.
The following chapters devoted to historical sketches of the present twelve townships of the county are given in chronological order. The. records are complete in some townships, but only partially so in others. Where the original petition is missing the record book of the commissioners
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gives the exact date of the erection of the township and its original bounds. There were four townships, however, that were not erected as the result of petitions, the four original ones, Mad River, Sugarcreek, Beavercreek and Cæsarscreek township, being arbitrarily set off by the associate justices on May 10, 1803. One chapter is devoted to the two townships of the county which now no longer exist, Mad River and Vance townships.
In these sketches of the townships the churches, lodges, schools, banks newspapers and larger towns are not to be discussed, being included in special chapters.
CHAPTER X
MAD RIVER AND VANCE TOWNSHIPS.
When Greene county was organized in 1803, the General Assembly extended its northern limits to the northern boundary of the state. The county then was a narrow strip of territory about twenty-five miles wide which extended from the northern boundary of Warren county to the north- ern limit of the state. Of course, it was not the intention of the General Assembly that Greene county should henceforth retain this great extent, for in the act creating Greene, Montgomery, Warren and Butler counties, section 7 enacted that all the inhabitants in the newly erected counties of Montgomery and Greene living north of the south boundary of the ninth range of townships should be exempt from any tax for the purpose of erect- ing court houses and jails in those counties. Obviously then it was the intention of the Legislature that the natural northern limits of Greene county would be the southern boundary of the ninth range. On the other hand the Legislature had a definite purpose in seeing to it that the county should ex- tend to the north boundary of the state, because that vast northern part of the territory of the Commonwealth was unorganized and not under any civil jurisdiction. This act then placed a semblance of civil authority over this section. Such an arrangement courted the organization of new counties out of the northern part of what was then Greene county, and this county was destined to maintain its extensive limits for only two years, for in 1805 Champaign county was erected, which caused Greene county to recede within the limits which the General Assembly intended for it, the southern boundary of the ninth range.
The foregoing arrangement compelled the court of common pleas of Greene county to organize this territory north of the southern boundary of the ninth range and thus it was that this county erected the township of Mad River, only to lose it by the organization of new counties in the north.
ONE OF THE FOUR ORIGINAL TOWNSHIPS.
Mad River township was the largest of the four original townships organized by the court of common pleas on May 10, 1803, when the associate judges, William Maxwell, Benjamin Whiteman and James Bar- rett, met at the house of Owen Davis on Beaver creek in order to organize the county in accordance with the act creating the county. In fact these
(13)
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four townships were the only ones erected by the associate judges, for on the following year they were relieved from this duty by the commissioners, which office was established by an act of the General Assembly on February 14, 1804. After the judges had been duly installed in their official positions they then set about the laying off of the county into townships. When they had described the limits of Sugarcreek and Cæsarscreek townships, they erected Mad River township in accordance with the following order :
All that part of the County lying North of the South boundary of the Ninth Range of Townships shall compose a third Township, called and known by the name of Mad River. Elections in said Township shall be held at the house of Griffith Foos, in the Town of Springfield.
This south boundary of Mad River township, the southern boundary of the ninth range of townships, extended east and west coincident with the National road, through the city of Springfield. It is needless to say that it was the largest township in the county, its width being that of the county , from east to west and its length extending from its southern boundary to the northern limits of the state.
THE FIRST ELECTION IN MAD RIVER TOWNSHIP.
In accordance with the order of the associate judges the election was held in Mad River township at the house of Griffith Foos in Springfield on June 25, 1803, for the purpose of selecting three justices of the peace, over- seers of the poor, constables, a road master, house appraisers, listers of taxable property, a township clerk, fence viewers, township managers and the electors at this time also voted for a congressman. The judges of this election were James Woods, John Clark and Thomas Redman, and the clerks were John Dougherty and Robert Lowry. The poll-book of that election shows the following to be the qualified electors of the township at that time:
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