USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County : together with historic notes on the Northwest, and the state of Ohio, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and all other authentic sources > Part 85
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HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
ersville. He was married November 7, 1841, to Elizabeth Bruce, who bore him three children, all girls: Mary K., Catherine J., and Ann E. Mary and Ann married two brothers, S. P., and S. U. Elis, and Catherine married Joseph Wilson ; all farmers.
Christopher Middleton, farmer, is a native of this county ; born August 4, 1834, and was reared and educated here. Was married to Margaret Devoe, of the same county, a native of Virginia, De- cember, 1868; eight children were the result of this union : Emma J., John H., Susan, Mary F., Ella B., Lorratta, Thomas L., and Lizzie, all of whom are living save Susan, who died at the early age of ten months. Mr. Middleton has a farm of one hundred and twenty- acres, well improved, on which he lives. His farm is a very desir- able one, and worth about one hundred dollars per acre. He is what we might properly call a " self-made man," as he inherited but little of his wealth, the remainder being the result of his industry and good management. Mr. and Mrs. Middleton are members of the Methodist Church. Mr. Middleton's parents, John and Susan (Mussetter) Middleton, were natives of Virginia. Mr. Middleton, sr., was one of the pioneers of this county, coming here in 1826, and died September 7, 1864. Mrs. Middleton died August 5, 1852. They were parents of ten children.
Abel Peterson, farmer, is a son of Jacob and Hannah (Stookey) Peterson, and was born October 18, 1811, in Hardy County, Vir- ginia, the native place of his parents. They died in Ohio; Mr. Peterson, January 3, 1867, aged about eighty-two years, and Mrs. Peterson, December 13, 1857, aged seventy-one years. They were parents of ten children, eight of whom are living. Abel, our sub- ject, is the second child, and was married, September 26, 1844, to Alivia E. Weaver, of this county. Four children is the result of this union : Mary E., Martha J., Hannah C., and Clarissa A., three of whom are married. Hannah C. and her husband, Charles E. Harrison, are living in the house with her parents. Mary and Martha reside in Hill County, Nebraska. Clarissa is yet single, and at home. Mr. and Mrs. Peterson are members of the Reformed Church, he uniting about the year 1833, and his wife about 1854. He has a farm of one hundred and thirty-five acres, and farms chiefly to grain. He came to Ohio in the fall of 1817, and has been a resident of the state ever since.
Abel F. Peterson, farmer, is a native of this county, and was born July 27, 1841, and was also reared and educated in this county. He was married to Eliza J. St. John, of this county, October 13,
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CÆSAR'S CREEK TOWNSHIP.
1868, and five children is the result of the union : Mary E., Cla- rissa A., Orie I., Carrie B., and Cyrus, all of whom are at home with their parents. Mr. and Mrs. Peterson are members of the Reformed Church, he uniting at the age of sixteen years. His wife was formerly a member of the Methodist Church, she having united with the Reformed Church after marriage. Mr. Peterson was a member of Company D, One Hundred and Tenth Ohio Volunteers, enlisting August 22, 1862, and discharged October 2, 1862. He was in several heavy battles, among which were the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, and Spottsylvania, and came home without a wound.
Alfred Rodgers, blacksmith, is a native of Kentucky, where he was reared and lived until the close of the rebellion, at which time his master (Abram Colwell) was compelled to release him from bondage, together with thirty-nine others. He was born in March, 1829. In December, 1860, was married to Lottie Evans. Henry Grant, their only child, was born September 22, 1869. Mr. Rodgers served in the army two years; came to Ohio in 1864, and has since that date been a resident of the state. He has a home, consisting of two acres of land, on which is located a house and blacksmith shop. As a workman he has few superiors, as his increasing busi- ness will fully attest. He was taught his trade in Kentucky. His in parents, Robert, who died in 1860, and Kittie (Coldwell), who died 1870, were blessed with twenty-one children, Alfred being the third.
Joseph Saville, farmer, Xenia, is a native of Rockbridge County, Virginia, where he lived until ten years of age, and then came to this county, where he has since lived. Was born February 15, 1817, and came to Ohio in 1827. Was married August 6, 1840, to Hannah Ketterman, of this county; she is also a native of Vir- ginia. Ten children were the result of this union : Andrew C., John L., Milton G., Emiline, Mary J., Martha A., Sarah E., Ellen C., Florence, and one died in her infancy. All of them are living, save Andrew C., and John L., and are all married, save Ellen, who is at home with her parents. Mr. Saville has a farm of one hundred and seventy-five acres, well iniproved; farms to both grain and stock. Mr. and Mrs. Saville are members of the Reformed Church, having united with the same in the year 1838. The children were all members of the church until Martha A. and Sarah E. were married, when they connected themselves to the Methodist Church with their husbands. Mr. Saville has been an elder in the church about twenty-five years. The family will some time join the Church Eternal, where they will reap the reward of their earthly labors.
OHIO.
AS AN INSTRUCTIVE SUPPLEMENT TO THIS WORK WE INSERT THE CENTENNIAL AD- DRESS ON OHIO, DELIVERED BY THAT EMINENT STATISTICIAN, E. D. MANSFIELD.
One hundred years ago, the whole territory from the Allegheny to the Rocky Mountains was a wilderness, inhabited only by wild beasts and Indians. The Jesuit and Moravian missionaries were the only white men who had penetrated the wilderness, or beheld its mighty lakes and rivers. While the thirteen old colonies were declaring their independence, the thirteen new states which now lie in the western interior had no existence, and gave no sign of the future. The solitude of nature was unbroken by the steps of civilization. The wisest statesman had not contemplated the proba- bility of the coming states, and the boldest patriot did not dream that this interior wilderness should soon contain a greater popula- tion than the thirteen old states, with all the added growth of one hundred years.
Ten years after that the old states had ceded their western lands to the general government, and the congress of the United States had passed the ordinance of 1785 for the survey of the public ter- ritory, and in 1787 the celebrated ordinance which organized the Northwestern Territory, and dedicated it to freedom and intelli- gence.
Fifteen years after that, and more than a quarter of a century after the Declaration of Independence, the State of Ohio was ad- mitted into the union, being the seventeenth which accepted the Constitution of the United States. It has since grown up to be great, populous, and prosperous under the influence of those of- dinances. At her admission, in 1803, the tide of migration had begun to flow over the Alleghenies into the Valley of the Missis- sippi; and although no steamboat, no railroad, then existed, nor
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HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
even a stage coach helped the immigrant, yet the wooden "ark" on the Ohio, and the heavy wagon slowly winding over the moun- tains, bore these tens of thousands to the wilds of Kentucky and the plains of Ohio. In the spring of 1788-the first year of set- tlement-4,500 persons passed the month of the Muskingum in three months, and the tide continned to pour on for half a century in a widening stream, mingled with all the races of Europe and America, until now, in the hundredth year of America's indepen- dence, the five states of the Northwestern Territory, in the wilder- ness of 1776, contain ten millions of people, enjoying all the blessings which peace and prosperity, freedom and Christianity, can confer upon any people. Of these five states, born under the ordinance of 1787, Ohio is the first, oldest, and in many things the greatest state in the American Union. In some things it is the greatest state in the union. Let us then attempt, in the briefest terms, to draw an outline portrait of this great and remarkable commonwealth.
Let us observe its physical aspects. Ohio is just one-sixth part of the Northwestern Territory-40,000 square miles. It lies be- tween Lake Erie and the Ohio River-having two hundred miles of navigable waters-on one side flowing into the Atlantic Ocean, and on the other into the Gulf of Mexico. Through the lakes its vessels touch on six thousand miles of interior coast, and through the Mississippi, on thirty-six thousand miles of river coast; so that a citizen of Ohio may pursue his navigation through forty-two thousand miles, all in his own country, and all within navigable reach of his own state. He who has circumnavigated the globe, has gone but little more than half the distance which the citizen of Ohio finds within his natural reach in this vast interior.
Looking upon the surface of this state, we find no mountains, no barren sands, no marshy wastes, no lava-covered plains, but one broad, compact body of arable land, intersected with rivers, and streams, and running waters, while the beautiful Ohio flows tran- quilly by its side. More than three times the surface of Belgium, and one-third of the whole of Italy, it has more natural resources in proportion than either, and is capable of ultimately supporting a larger population than any equal surface in Europe. Looking from this great arable surface, where upon the very hills the grass and the forest trees now grow exuberant and abundant, we find that underneath this surface, and easily accessible, lie ten thousand
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square miles of coal, and four thousand square miles of iron-coal and iron enough to supply the basis of manufacture for a world ! All this vast deposit of metal and of fuel does not interrupt or take from that arable surface at all. There you may find in one place the same machine bringing up coal and salt water from below, while the wheat and the corn grow upon the surface above. The immense masses of coal, iron, salt, and freestone, deposited below, have not in any way diminished the fertility and production of the soil.
It has been said by some writer that the character of a people is shaped or modified by the character of the country in which they live. If the people of Switzerland have acquired a certain air of liberty and independence from the rugged mountains around which they live; if the people of southern Italy or beautiful France have acquired a tone of ease and politeness from their mild and genial clime; so the people of Ohio, placed amidst such a wealth of na- ture in the temperate zone, should show the best fruits of peaceful industry and the best culture of Christian civilization. Have they done so? Have their own labor and arts and culture come up to the advantages of their natural situation? Let us examine this growth and their product.
The first settlement of Ohio was made by a colony from New England at the mouth of the Muskingum. It was literally a rem- nant of the officers of the revolution. Of this colony no praise of the historian can be as competent or as strong as the language of Washington. He says, in answer to inquiries addressed to him : " No colony in America was ever settled under such favorable aus- pices as that which has first commenced at the Muskingum. In- formation, property, and strength will be its characteristics. I know many of the settlers personally, and there never were men better calculated to promote the welfare of such a community; " and he adds, that if he were a young man, he knows no country in which he would sooner settle than in this western region. This colony, left alone for a time, made its own government, and nailed its laws to a tree in the village, an early indication of the law-abid- ing and peaceful spirit which has since made Ohio a just and well ordered community. The subsequent settlements on the Mimai and Scioto were made by citizens of New Jersey and Virginia, and it is certainly remarkable that among all the early immigration there were no ignorant people. In the language of Washington,
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HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
they came with "information"-qualified to promote the welfare of the community.
Soon after the settlements on the Muskingum and Miami, the great wave of migration flowed on to the plains and valleys of Ohio and Kentucky. Kentucky had been settled earlier, but the main body of immigrants in subsequent years went into Ohio, influenced partly by the great ordinance of 1787, securing freedom and schools forever, and partly by the greater security of titles under the sur- vey and guarantee of the United States Government. Soon the new state grew up, with the rapidity which, until then, was un- known in the history of civilization. On the banks of the Mus- kingum, where the buffalo had roamed; on the Scioto, where the Shawnees had built their towns; on the Miami, where the great chiefs of the Miamis had reigned; on the plains of Sandusky, yet red with the blood of the white man; on the Maumee, where Wayne, by the victory of the "Fallen Timbers," had broken the power of the Indian confederacy, the immigrants from the old states and from Europe came to cultivate the fields, to build up towns, and to rear the institutions of Christian civilization, until the single state of Ohio is greater in numbers, wealth, and educa- tion, than was the whole American Union when the Declaration of Independence was made.
Let us now look at the statistics of this growth and magnitude, as they are exhibited in the census of the United States. Taking intervals of twenty years, Ohio had
In 1810
45,365
In 1830
937,903
In 1850
1,980,329
In 1870
2,665,260
Adding to the increase of population in the last six years, and Ohio has, in round numbers, three millions (3,000,000) of people- half a million more than the thirteen states in 1776; and her cities and towns have to-day six times the population of all the cities of America, one hundred years ago. This state is now the third in numbers and wealth, and the first in some of those institutions which mark the progress of mankind. That a ,small part of the wilderness of 1776 should be more populous than the whole union was then, and that it should have made a social and moral advance
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greater than that of any nation in the same time, must be regarded as one of the most startling and instructive facts which attend this year of commemoration. If such has been the social growth of Ohio, let us look at its physical development. This is best express- ed by the aggregate productions of the labor and arts of a people applied to the earth. In the census statistics of the United States these are expressed in the aggregate results of agriculture, mining, manufactures and commerce. Let us simplify these statistics by comparing the aggregates and ratios as between several states, and between Ohio and some countries of Europe.
The aggregate amount of grain and potatoes-farinaceous food -produced in Ohio in 1870, was 134,938,413 bushels, and in 1874 they were 157,323,597 bushels, being the largest aggregate amount raised in any state but one, Illinois, and larger per square mile than Illinois, or any other state in the country. The promises of nature were thus vindicated by the labor of man; and the industry of Ohio has fulfilled its whole duty to the sustenance of the country and the world. She has raised more grain than ten of the old states together, and more than half raised by Great Britain or by France. I have not the recent statistics of Europe, but McGregor, in his Statistics of Nations for 1832-a period of profound peace- gives the following ratios for the leading countries of Europe :
Area-miles
Am't of grain- bushels.
Rate per sq. mile.
Great Britain,
120,324
262,500,000
2,190 to 1
Austria,
258,603
366,800,000
1,422 to 1
France,
215,858
233,847,300
1,080 to 1
The State of Ohio,
40,000
150,000,000
3,750 to 1
Combining the great countries of Great Britain, Austria, and France, we find that they had 594,785 square miles, and produced 863,147,300 bushels of grain, which was, at the time these statistics were taken, 1,450 bushels per square mile, and ten bushels to each one of the population. Ohio, on the other hand, had 3,750 bushels per square mile, and fifty bushels to each one of the population ; that is, there was five times as much grain raised in Ohio, in pro- portion to the people, as in these great countries of Europe. As letters make words, and words express ideas, so these dry figures of statistics express facts, and these facts make the whole history of civilization.
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HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
Let us now look at the statistics of domestic animals. These are always indicative of the state of society in regard to the physi- cal comforts. The horse must furnish domestic conveyances, the cattle must furnish the products of the dairy, as well as meat, and the sheep must furnish wool.
Let us see how Ohio compares with other states and with Europe. In 1870, had 8,818,000 domestic animals; Illinois, 6,925,000; New York, 5,283,000; Pennsylvania, 4,493,000, and other states less The proportion to population in these states was:
In Ohio, to each person
3.3
In Illinois, 2.7
In New York,
1.2
In Pennsylvania, "
1.2
Let us now see the proportion of domestic animals in Europe. The results given by McGregor's statistics are :
In Great Britain, to each person. 2.44
In Russia, 66 2.00
In France, 66 1.50
In Prussia,
1.02
In Austria,
1.00
It will be seen that the proportions in Great Britain is only two- thirds that of Ohio; in France only one-half; and in Austria and Prussia only one-third. It may be said that in the course of civil- ization, the number of animals diminish as the density of popula- tion increases ; and, therefore, this result might have been expected in the old countries in Europe. But this does not apply to Russia or Germany, still less to other states in this country. Russia in Europe has not more than half the density of population than in Ohio. Austria and Prussia have less than one hundred and fifty to the square mile. The whole of the north of Europe, has not so dense a population as the State of Ohio, still less have the states of Illinois and Missouri, west of Ohio. Then, therefore, Ohio showing a larger proportion of domestic animals than the north of Europe, or states west of her with a population not so dense, we see at once there must be other causes to produce such a phenomenon.
Looking to some of the incidental results of this vast agricultural
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SUPPLEMENT.
production, we see that the United States exports to Europe im- mense amounts of grain and provisions; and that there is manu- factured in this country an immense amount of woolen goods. Then, taking these statistics of the raw material, we find that Ohio produces one-fifth of all the wool, one-seventh of all the cheese, one-eight of all corn, and one-tenth of all the wheat; and yet Ohio has but a fourteenth part of the population, and one-eight part of the surface of this country.
Let us take another-a commercial view of this matter. We have seen that Ohio raises five times as much grain per square mile · as is raised per square mile in the empires of Great Britain, France, and Austria taken together. After making allowance for the dif- ferences of living in the working classes of this country, at least two-thirds of the food and grain of Ohio, are a surplus beyond the necessities of life, and therefore so much in the commercial bal- ance of exports. This corresponds with the fact that in the shape of grain, meat, liquors, and dairy products, this vast surplus is con- stantly moved to the Atlantic States and to Europe. The money value of this exported product is equal to $100,000,000 per annum, and to a solid capital of fifteen hundred millions of dollars, after all the sustenance of the people has been taken out of the annual crop.
We are speaking of agriculture alone. We are speaking of a state which began its career, more than a quarter of a century after the Declaration of Independence was made. And now it may be asked what is the real cause of this extraordinary result, which, without saying anything invidious of other states, we may safely say has never been surpassed in any other country. We have already stated two of the advantages possessed by Ohio. The first is, that it is a compact, unbroken body of arable land, sur- rounded and intersected by water-courses, equal to all the demands of commerce and navigation. Next, that it was secured forever to freedom and intelligence by the ordinance of 1787. The intelli- gence of its future people, was secured by immense grants of public lands for the purpose of education; but neither the blessings of nature, nor the wisdom of laws, could obtain such results without the continuous labor of an intelligent people. Such it had, and we have only to take the testimony of Washington, already quoted, and the statistical results [ have given, to prove that no people has exhibited more steady industry, nor has any people directed their labor with more intelligence.
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HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
After the agricultural capacity and production of a country, its most important physical feature is its mineral products-its cap- acity for the production of coal and iron, the two great elements of material civilization. If we were to take away from Great Britain her capacity to produce coal in such vast quantities, we should reduce her to a third-rate position, no longer numbered among the great nations of the earth. Coal has smelted her iron, run her steam engines, and is the basis of her manufacturers. But when we compare the coal fields of Great Britain with those of · this country they are insignificant. The coal fields of all Europe are small, compared with those of the central United States. The coal districts of Durham and Northumberland in England, are only eight hundred and eighty square miles. There are other districts of smaller extent, making in the whole, probably, one-half the ex- tent of that in Ohio. The English coal beds are represented as more important, in reference to extent, on account of their thick- ness. There is a small coal district in Lancashire, where the work- able coal beds are in all one hundred and fifty feet in thickness. But this involves, as is well known, the necessity of going to im- mense depths and incurring immense expense. On the other hand, the workable coal beds of Ohio are near the surface, and some of them require no excavating, except that of the horizontal lead from the mine to the river or the railroad. In one county of Ohio there are three beds of twelve, six, and four feet each, within fifty feet of the surface. At some of the mines having the best coal, the lead from the mine is nearly horizontal, and just high enough to dump the coal into the railroad cars. These coals are of all quali- ties, from that adapted to the domestic fire, to the very best qualities for smelting or manufacturing iron. Recollecting these facts, let us try to get an idea of the coal districts of Ohio. The bituminous coal region, descending the western slopes of the Alleghenies, oc- cupies large portions of western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. I suppose that this coal field is not less than fifty thousand square miles, exclusive of western Maryland, and the southern terminations of that field in Georgia and Ala- bama. Of this vast field of coal, exceeding anything found in Europe, about one-fifth part lies in Ohio. Professor Mather, in his report on the geology of the state (first Geological Report of the State), says:
"The coal measures within Ohio, occupy a space of about one
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hundred and eighty miles in length, by eighty in breadth at the widest part, with an area of about ten thousand square miles, ex- tending along the Ohio from Trumbull county in the north, to near the mouth of the Scioto in the south. The regularity in the dip, and the moderate inclination of the strata, afford facilities to the mines not known to those of most other countries, especially Great Britain, where the strata in which the coal is imbedded, have been - broken and thrown out of place since its deposit, occasioning many slips and faults, and causing much labor and expense in again re- covering the bed. In Ohio, there is very little difficulty of this kind, the faults being small and seldom found."
Now, taking into consideration these geological facts, let us look at the extent of the Ohio coal fields. It occupies, wholly or in part, thirty-six counties, including, geographically, fourteen thousand square miles; but leaving out fractions, and reducing the Ohio coal field within its narrowest limits, it is ten thousand square miles in extent, lies near the surface, and has on an average twenty feet thickness of workable coal beds. Let us compare this with the coal mines of Durham and Northumberland (England), the largest and best coal mines there. That coal district is estimated at eight hundred and fifty square miles, twelve feet thick, and is calculated to contain nine billions (that is, nine thousand millions) of tons of coal. The coal field of Ohio is twelve times larger and one-third thicker. Estimated by that standard, the coal field of Ohio con- tains one hundred and eighty billions (one hundred and eighty thousand millions) of tons of coal. Marked at only two dollars per ton, this coal is worth $360,000,000,000 (three hundred and sixty thousand millions of dollars), or, in other words, ten times as much as the whole valuation of the United States at the present time. But we need not undertake to estimate either its quantity or value. It is enough to say that it is a quantity which we can scarcely imagine, which is tenfold that of England, and which is enough to supply the entire continent for ages to come.
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