USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio > Part 27
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roof. The tree for this purpose might be straight grained and from three to four feet in diameter. The boards were split four feet long, with a large frow, and as wide as the timber would allow. They were used without planing or shaving. Another division was employed in getting punch- eons for the floor of the cabin; this was done by splitting trees about eighteen inches in diameter and hewing the faces of them with a broadaxe. They were half the length of the floor they were intended to make.
THE BUILDING OF THE CABIN.
"The materials for the cabin were most- ly prepared on the first day, and sometimes the foundation laid in the evening. The second day was allotted for the raising. The first thing to be done was the election of four corner men, whose business it was to notch and place the logs. The rest of the company furnished them with the timbers. In the meantime the boards and puncheons were collecting for the floor and roof, so that by the time the cabin was a few rounds high the sleepers and floor began to be laid. The door was made by sawing or cutting the logs in one side, so as to make an open- ing about three feet wide. This opening ' was secured by upright pieces of timber, about three inches thick, through which holes were bored into the ends of the logs. for the purpose of pinning them fast. A similar opening, but wider, was made at the end for the chimney. This was built of logs, and made large to admit of a back and jambs of stone. At the square, two end logs projected a foot or eighteen inches be- yond the wall, to receive the bunting poles. as they were called, against which the ends
of the first row of clapboards were sup- ported. The roof was formed by making the end logs shorter until a single log formed the comb of the roof; on these logs the clapboards were placed, the ranges of them lapping some distance over those next below them, and kept in their places by logs placed at proper distances upon them.
"The roof, and sometimes the floor, were finished on the same day of the raising. A third day was commonly spent by a few carpenters in leveling off the floor, making a clapboard door and a table. This last was made of a split slab and supported by four round logs set in auger holes. Some three legged stools were made in the same man- ner. Some pins stuck in the logs at the back of the house supported some clap- boards, which served for shelves for the table furniture. A single fork, placed with its lower end in a hole in the floor and the upper end fastened to a joist, served for a bedstead, by placing a pole in the fork with one end through a crack between the logs of the wall. This front pole was crossed by a shorter one within the fork, with its outer end through another crack. From the front pole, through a crack between the logs of the end of the house, the boards were put on which formed the bottom of the bed. Sometimes other poles were pinned to the fork a little distance above these, for the purpose of supporting the front and foot of the bed, while the walls were the supports of its back and head. A few pegs around the wall for the display of the coats of the women and hunting shirts of the men, and two small forks or buckhorns to a joist for the rifle and shotpouch, completed the "carpenter work.
"In the meantime masons were at work. With the hard pieces of timber of which
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the ciapboards were made, they made bil- lets for chunking up the cracks between the logs of the cabin and chimney-a large bed of mortar was made for daubing up those cracks: a few stones formed the back and jambs of the chimney.
"The cabin being finished, the ceremony of house-warming took place, before the young people were permitted to move into it. The house-warming was a dance of a whole night's continuance made up of the relations of the bride and groom, and their neighbors. On the day following the young couple tock possession of their new man- sion.
". At house raisings, log rollings and har- vest parties every one was expected to do his duty faithfully. A person who did not perform a share of labor on these occasions was designated by the epithet of Law- rence" or some other title still more op- probrious ; and when it came his turn to re- quire the like aid from his neighbors, the idler soon felt his punishment in their re- fusal to attend to his calls.
"Although there was no legal compul- sion to the performance of military duty, yet every man of full age and size was ex- pected to do his full share of public service. If he did not do so he was 'hated out as a coward.' Even the want of any article of war equipments, such as ammunition, a sharp flint, a priming wire, a scalping knife or a tomahawk, was thought highly dis- graceful. A man who without a reasonable cause failed to go on a scout or a campaign when it came to his turn, met with an ex- pression of indignation in the countenances of all his neighbors. and epithets of dis- honor were fastened upon him without mercy.
"Debts, which make such an uproar in
civilized life, were but little known among our forefathers at the early settlement of this country. After the depreciation of the continental paper they had no money of any kind: everything purchased was paid for in produce er labor. . A good cow and calf was often the price of a bushel of alum salt. If the contract was not punctually fulfilled the credit of the delinquent was at an end.
"Any petty theft was punished with all the infamy that could be heaped on the offender. A man on a campaign stole from his comrade a cake out of the ashes, in which it was baking; he was immediately named 'The bread rounds.' This epithet of reproach was bandied about in this way: When he came in sight of a group of men. one of them would call 'Who comes there ?' Another would answer, The bread rounds.' If any one meant to be more seri- ous about the matter he would call out. 'Who stole the cake out of the ashes?' An- other replied, by giving the name of the man in full; to this a third would give con- firmation by exclaiming, 'That is true and no lie.' This kind of 'tongue-lashing' he was doomed to bear for the rest of the cam- paign, as well as for years after his return home.
"If a theft was detected in any of the frontier settlements a summary mode of punishment was always resorted to. The first settlers, as far as I knew of them, had a kind of innate or hereditary detestation of the crime of theft. in any shape or de- gree, and their maxim was that 'a thief must be whipped.' Hi the theft was some- thing of value, a kind of jury of the neigh- le rhood, after hearing the testimony, would condemn the culprit to Moses' Law, that is, to forty stripes, save 'one. If the theft
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was of some small article, the offender was doomed to carry on his back the flag of the United States, which then consisted of thirteen stripes. In either case, some able hands were selected to execute the sentence, so that the stripes were sure to be well laid on. This punishment was followed by a sentence of exile. He was then informed that he must decamp in so many days, and be seen no more on penalty of having the number of his stripes doubled.
"If a woman was given to tattling and slandering her neighbors, she was furnished by common consent with a kind of patent right to say whatever she pleased without being believed. Her tongue was then said to be harmless or to be no scandal.
"With all their rudeness these people were given to hospitality, and freely divid- ed their rough fare with a neighbor or stranger, and would have been offended at the offer of pay. In their settlements and forts they lived, they worked, they fought and feasted, or suffered together in cordial harmony. They were warm and constant in their friendships. On the other hand they were revengeful in their resentments: the point of honor sometimes led to personal combats. If one man called another a liar. he was considered as having given a chal- lenge which the person who received it must accept or be deemed a coward: the charge was generally answered on the spot with a blow. If the injured person was decidedly unable to fight the aggressor. he must get a friend to do it for him. The same thing took place on a charge of cow- ardice, or any other dishonorable action, a battle must follow, and the person who made the charge must fight either the per- son against whom he made the charge, or any champion who chose to espouse his
cause. Thus circumstanced, our people in early times were much more cautious of speaking evil of their neighbors than they are at present.
"Sometimes pitched battles occurred, in which time, place and seconds were appoint- ed beforehand. I remember having seen one of those pitched battles in my father's fort, when a boy. One of the young men knew very well beforehand that he should get the worst of the battle, and no doubt repented the engagement to fight, but there was no getting over it. The point of honor demanded the risk of battle. He got his whipping ; then they shook hands and were good friends afterward. The mode of single combats in those days was danger- ous in the extreme: although no weapons were used, fists, teeth and feet were em- ployed at will ; but above all, the detestable practice of gouging, by which eyes were sometimes put out, rendered this mode of fighting frightful, indeed; it was not, how- ever, so destructive as the stiletto of an Italian, the knife of a Spaniard, the small sword of a Frenchman, or the pistol of an American or English duelist.
THE KEY TO CIVILIZATION.
"The ministry of the gospel has con- tributed, no doubt, immensely to the happy change which has been effected in the state of our western society. At an early period Di our settlements, three Presbyterian cler- gymen commenced their clerical labors in our infant settlements. They were pious. patient, laborious men, who collected their peuple into regular congregations, and did all for them that their circumstances would allow. It was no disparagement to them that their first churches were the shady
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groves, and their first pulpits a kind of tent. constructed of a few rough slabs, covered with clapboards. 'Ile who dwelleth not ex- clusively in temples made with hands,' was propitious to their devotions. From the outt-et they prudently resolved to create a ministry in the country, and accordingly established little grammar schools at their own houses or in their immediate neighbor- hoods. The course of education which they gave their pupils was, indeed, not ex- tensive but the piety of those who entered into the ministry more than made up the deficiency."
RECOLLECTIONS OF SYLVESTER STRONG.
In the year 180; I was two years old and came to Jamestown with my grandfather. We lived on the old Maysville and Urbana road. one-half mile from the present site of Jamestown. On the south side of us. at Bowersville, lived a gentleman by the name of Hussey. His descendants are now living in that neighborhood. Harkness Turner settled one mile from the town on General Posey's survey. Martin Menden- hall was proprietor of Jamestown; he owned the south side of the town. having one hundred and fifty acres of land. The north side of the town was owned by Thom- as Browder, who came from old James- town, Virginia, which was the first white settlement in the United States. James . town, Ohio, was named after this town. John Campbell came in the same year, and settled where Ted Sheley n a resides. Two miles north of Jamestown, the same fall. Isaiah Sutton settled. North of him settled "Granddaddy" Paullin. All of the Paullins of Ross township are descendants and live on the land he settled. These men were our
neighbors, and when a house was raised people would come for miles around to help. John Sheley and family were neighbors and friends of Washington ; they came here from Virginia in ISo7 and settled on land one-half mile below town. The Sheley family living here now are his descendants. Mr. Sheley and wife lived to be near one hundred years old. Noah Strong. my grandfather, hauled the logs to build the first house that was built in Xenia. Some of the logs were buckeye wood, and were hauled by old Buck and Brandy, the yoke of oxen brought from Vermont. The house was afterward used as a tavern and kept by Major William A. Beatty. The first person buried here was my little brother, Bushrod, who lies in the present James- town cemetery. The second person buried1 was a colored woman brought from Vir- ginia by Thomas Browder. In 1814, on the 14th and 15th days of March, my grand- father and grandmother died of the "cold plague." which was then prevailing in the neighborhood. Within ten days, Uriah Paullin, Harkness Turner, Mr. Hussey and the Baptist minister's wife all died of the same dread disease. Reuben Strong was the first justice in Caesarscreek town- ship. I think Peter Price was the first in this township. The town of Jamestown was surveyed in 1815, by Thomas P. Moor- man and Mr. Thomas. the Clinton county surveyor. The first house raised was the present Parker Hotel property, which was used as a tavern by Thomas Watson. The next house was built by Dr. Matthias Winans, who used it as a store. He was the first physician of the town, and was the father of the late Judge James .A. Winans, of Xenia. The next tavern keeper was Zina . Adams, the father of the Adams boys
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now living here. The first Fourth of July celebration was hekl at this tavern in 1830. Seven old soldiers of the Revolutionary war were present. Among them was a man named Allen, a relative of Ethan Allen of Revolutionary fame. His descendants now live at Allentown, Fayette county. Others present were Robert Snodgrass, Asa Reeves and Samuel Webb ; the last named was pres- ent at the surrender of Cornwallis and saw that general hand his sword to General Washington. The names of the other three I do not recollect. We got two mails a week; they were brought by a post boy, who carried the mails from Xenia to Wash- ington. When he got within a mile of town he would blow his horn, which brought the people together. . \ tan yard was start- ed by John Miller and William Sterritt in 1810. In 1812, on the 8th of January, the battle of Lunday's Lane was fought in Can- ada over two hundred miles away. When the battle was fought old Martin Menden- hall, who was lying on the ground, heard the cannon roar of the battle. He was a great hunter and killed more deer and found mere wild honey than any other man. In 1812-1813 and 1814 the Shawnees, a friend- ly tribe of Indians, camped around here. I often visited their camp and traded corn dodgers for venison ham. We baked our bread in an oven on the coals. An old chief named Chieske, who was too old to be a warrior, lived with us and from him I learned to talk Indian. The first meeting house was built at the forks of the road, two and one-half miles south of town. It was a Baptist church. The first pastor was William Sutton. The first hatter in town was Culies. The first tailor was Ephram Munthaw, a German.
JAMES SNODGRASS, A SOLDIER OF 1812.
Silvercreek lost an estimable old citizen in the death of James Snodgrass. He was aged eighty-seven years, seventy-nine of which were spent in Greene county. He served as a soldier in the war of 1812. He knew Springfield, Ohio, when three log houses comprised what is now one of the most flourishing cities in Ohio. Hle servel five years in the army in the war of 1812, was mustered out of the service at Green Bay, Wisconsin, from which place he walked to his home in this place in 1819. He served under Captain Taylor, as he was wont to call himn, who was the great soldier presi- dent, Zachary Taylor. He was in what is now known as the great city of Chicago when there was but one log tavern there and the garrison of the United States army, and was offered an acre of land anywhere he wished to select it for doing the work of erecting a house and for every house he would build. But he was anxious to get home, where he had not been for years. He died in May, 1882, and is buried at Jamestown, Ohio.
INTERVIEW WITH JOHN MILLS IN 1879.
By John Cisco.
John Mills was born in Mason, now Fleming county, Kentucky, in 1794. In April of the year 1796 his father, Jacob Mills, in company with John Wilson and his three sons, Daniel, George and Amos, emigrated to what was then the North- western Territory. settling in what is now the southwest corner of Greene, the north of Warren, and the southeast corner of Montgomery counties. Mr. John Wilson
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ROBINSON'S HISTORY OF GREENNE COUNTY.
having purchased a half section of land in Greene county, his sons, George, and Amos. a quarter section each in the same, while Daniel had a quarter section in Montgom- ery, and Mr. Mills had a quarter section in Warren county, all adjoining. Upon sur- veying Mr. Mills was given all the surplus land in his section making his purchase two hundred acres instead of one hundred and sixty. This party of sturdy pioneers came first to their purchase by themselves to set things in shape for living, leaving their families behind in old Kentucky. They did some little clearing, but not much, as the land was densely timbered and stub- Lern to yield to cultivation, planting some corn, beans, pumpkins, etc., built a small cabin on the lands of John Wilson, which was the first one built by civilized men in Greene county. They then returned for their families, crossing the Ohio river with them at Fort Washington, now Cincinnati, and moved ont over the road made by General Anthony Wayne the year before ( 1795). when he was in command of the soldiers of this section, engaged in the last Indian war that ever occurred here. Their families and effects were conveyed in one wagon drawn by, an ox team, and on arrival all five fam- ilies moved into one little cabin, while other houses were built by the joint labor of the men. The Wilsons were the first settlers of Greene county, and Jacob Mills the first this side of Lebanon, Warren county. . \t or near Lebanon, Ichabod Corwin, father of Tem Corwin, "The old man eloquent." had settled the year before. The part of the county where the Wilsons had settled was called the "Wilson settlement" for many years. And John Wilson was one of the sturdy men of sense who had framed Ohio's hrst constitution. The Wilsons and Jacob
Mills took hold of the difficulties that con- fronted them with strong hands and brave hearts. They were upon ground and near goud water, but in the heart of a dense for- est, where giant timber resisted their effort to an extent almost beyond endurance, and they must have failed to conquer had they been compelled to depend on the soil alone for subsistence, so long was it before they made clearings enough to sustain them, but the country thereabouts was full of game of all kinds, such as deer, wild turkeys, etc., that could be killed at their very doors. thus furnishing them their meat, and that of most nourishing character. . And so they were enabled to clear up and establish humble yet comfortable homes, where now are beautiful farms under perfect cultiva- tion. In the following spring John Vance, father of Joseph C. Vance, to whom Mr. Mills went to school, settled where Bell- brook now is, and shortly afterward Owen Davis, General Benjamin Whitman and Col- onel Maxwell and John Paul settled (11 Beaver creek, where Harbine's Station now is, and where Owen Davis built the first mill ever built in Greene county, near the site of the present one. Shortly after this another settlement was made a short dis -- tance above Owen Davis' mill, on Little Beaver creek, by John John. John Webb and John Kiser; John Webb being the grandfather of Mr. Mills. In 1805 Owen Davis sold his mill to Jacob Smith and moved to where Clifton now is and built the first mill there on the site east of the present one. In those days the mills only ran two or three days in the week, as there was not grain enough raised in the country to supply them, notwithstanding men came forty or fifty miles to the Clifton mills. Mr. Davis often started up and ground
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grists on the Sabbath day for those who came a long distance. At one time his re- ligious neighbors protested and threatened Mr. Davis with prosecution, at which he told them that if they took any steps in that direction or made any more such threats he would not grind another grain for them. This settled the question : there was nothing more said. The absence of meal or flour from their homes was a more potent influence than their compunctions of conscience.
In 180g Mr. Mills moved his family from Warren to Greene county, again set- tling in the woods, near the present site of Clifton. John Mills was at that time about fifteen years of age. llere the father and his three sons, Jacob, Daniel and Thomas, again went to work and cleared a farm, en- during the hardships and exposure attend- ant on such a life with patience and cheer- fulness. They were often in company with the Indians who inhabited the county or came here on hunting excursions. Wolves, deer and other wild animals were plentiful in the vicinity, but neighbors scarce. Jacob Mills was elected major of a militia regi- ment while he lived in Warren county, it being the first ever organized in the state. Ile was elected justice of the peace in Mi- ami township, and served in that capacity for nine years, during which time he mar- ried more people than any justice in this part of the state. He lived to be eighty years of age and died in 1850. His wife. Mary Mills, survived him nine years, being eighty-nine years of age when she passed away. In the fall of 1809 young John Mills came for the first time to Xenia to attend singing school taught by David Wilson, Daniel Wilson's oldest son, held in the court house, then bright and new, replaced by one
which was torn down this year ( 1900). The young ladies in attendance were mostly at- tired in homespun dresses, but part of them wore calico, which cost more per yard than summer silks do now. There were at that time not more than twenty-five or thirty houses in Xenia, all log but one frame dwell- ing and the court house, which was brick. In front of where used to be the Second National Bank there was a pond, in which the geese and ducks were swimming and the 'hogs wallowing. Opposite the court house Major Beatty was keeping tavern in a hewed-log house. Up Main street, where Trinity church now stands, Mr. llenry Barnes, grandfather of the Barnes boys now living in Xenia, had built him a log house in the woods. At a later period of the year Mr. Mills was in Xenia and saw a man selling cider in front of the court house for twelve and one-half cents per quart. He had a fire built on one side of a stump then standing in the street. As the cider was so cold that no one could drink it, he would draw a quart and put a round, hot iron in it, which he kept heated for the purpose, so as to make the cider palatable.
The first court held in Greene county was in a log cabin occupied by Peter Borders for a tavern, situated near where Harbine's Station now is. The court was composed of Francis Dunlavey, president ; William Maxwell, Benjamin Whiteman and James Barrett, associate judges. . At the meeting of this court Peter Borders ob- tained license to keep tavern, as it was then called, but it meant to sell whiskey, which he did in the same room where the court was held. Thus the first court room was the first whiskey saloon in Greene county. His- tory says this term of court was in session three days, the records showing that about
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all the business transacted was the licensing of Peter Borders, Archibald Lowry and Griffith Foose to keep tavern. Peter Borders paying four dollars for the privilege. Mr. Mills remembers that the court and the whiskey get mixed up and that there was a general melee, in which all hands took part in the old fashioned way. This may explain why there were but three days' session, a point in which history is silent. There were but two sessions of the court held at Peter Borders'. Afterward Xenia was made the county seat, having to contend for it with a little town called Pinkney. that had sprung up near the present site of Trei- bine's Mills with the hope of being made the county seat. There is not one timber left upon another of this once pretentious little town. Mr. Mills saw it when there were some three or four buildings standing. though they were then roofless, windowless and of course tenantless, the lonely and de- caying monument of disappointed ambition.
Mr. Mills was not in Nenia from 1810 until 1812, at which time there were some soldiers stationed here. Ile describes the town as having grown wonderfully during that time; frame houses had gone up, and nice stores started, among which was the store of James and Samuel Gowdy and everywhere money was plenty. "It was such a time as we had during our late war ; but. Oh, look out for the hard times that followed," said Mr. Mills. Men talk about hard times now, but they don't know any- thing about it. Then the very highest price for labor was from fifty to seventy-five cents per day, and could not be obtained at that by a great many, while everything you bought was from ten to twenty times higher than now. The material of the shirt in which Mr. Mills was married cost one dol-
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