USA > Ohio > Guernsey County > History of Guernsey County, Ohio, Volume I > Part 3
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But the English did little toward improving their title or effecting set- tlement here in Ohio. George Washington made a journey down the Ohio in 1770 with several others interested. He camped at Duck creek, as is shown by his diary. Through his instrumentality, the western scheme was revived. A large colony was formed, which included the old Ohio Company and the Walpole scheme, as well as recognizing the bounty act of Virginia volunteers in the French and Indian war. Had it not been for Indian troubles coming on this would have been a wonderful success.
Col. Henry Bouquet had made the first English expedition into the Ohio country in 1764, for the purpose of punishing the Indians and re- covering from them the captives they had taken during the previous years on the Pennsylvania and Virginia borders. No blood was shed, the Indians assenting to the terms offered them. The expedition was directed against the Delawares upon the Tuscarawas and Muskingum. Bouquet obtained two hundred captives at the hands of the savages, and returned to Fort Pitt (Pittsburg) with an army of fifteen hundred men. For a time this quieted the Indians of the Ohio country, and the next ten years passed peace- fully.
But to resume the history first spoken of. The Shawnees had become very hostile, on account of the prospect of their having to lose their lands and because of the murder of Logan, the famous Mingo chief, who had been dwelling with them at old Chillicothe. To quell the disturbance thus
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arising, Lord Dunmore, royal governor of Virginia, organized an army of invasion into the Indian country. He had command of one wing and en- trusted the other wing to Gen. Andrew Lewis.
The forces of Lewis were attacked by the Indians, south of the Ohio river, and the ensuing combat, known as the battle of Point Pleasant, was one of the bloodiest in Indian border warfare up to that date. Dunmore did not get into a real engagement with his wing of the army. A treaty was held at Camp Charlotte, in which all agreed but old Logan, the Mingo chieftain, who there made the speech which all school boys used to delight in reading and "speaking." being the most eloquent one ever coming from the lips of an Indian, and equal, so Thomas Jefferson said, to any made by classic scholars the world round.
The Revolution came on, and the West was no longer the scene of military action. But a soldier who served under Dunmore,-George Rogers Clark,-of whom the late lamented James A. Garfield remarked, "The cession of that great territory, under the treaty of 1783, was due mainly to his foresight and courage, and who has never received the adequate recogni- tion due him for so great a service"-at the close of the Revolution was instru- mental in making the Northwest territory a portion of the United States, instead of leaving it to be possessed by the English, in the terms of peace that were made. Had it not been for this, the Colonies would have been owners only of the country east of the Alleghanies, unless the West should be later conquered by them from the British. He sought out Governor Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia, who allowed him (Clark) to raise seven companies of soldiers and to seize the British posts in the North- west and this brought the territory rightfully into the territory agreed upon when the treaty was finally effected between the Colonists and England. He also made two other expeditions -- both against Indians upon the Miamis-in 1780 and 1782.
Thus Ohio-a part of the Northwest territory-became a part of the United States and not held as a province of Great Britain.
INDIAN HISTORY.
In August, 1831, the first treaty for the removal of the Indians from Ohio was made, and in September. 1832. the first removals were made by David Robb and H. A. Workman. The tribes removed were Shawnees and Senecas. David Robb had been a former prominent citizen and official of Guernsey county, was sheriff and senator and representative in the Legisla-
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ture and publisher and editor of The Washington Republican, the first Demo- cratic paper of Guernsey county, published at Washington. He was appointed Indian agent by President Jackson.
David Robb published a very interesting history of his connection with the Indians as agent in The Belle Fountain Republican, and of his several overland journeys with them to their new "hunting grounds" west of the Mississippi river.
The last Indian tribe to be removed from Ohio was the Wyandottes. Rev. James B. Finley, of the Methodist Episcopal church, was a missionary among the Wyandottes, and gives in his autobiography many interesting incidents of his connection with this tribe.
The Indians who lived in and fished in what are now the bounds of Guernsey county were the Delawares, Shawnees, Senecas and Mingos. These tribes had towns at the forks of the Muskingum. It is mistaken his- tory when it is said that there were no Indian towns in Guernsey county. There were at least five, Old Town, above Byesville, one at the Fish Basket, north of Cambridge, one on Salt Fork creek, one on Indian Camp run, and one on Bird's run. Many of the tribes referred to resorted to Guernsey waters because of the fish they contained and of the riffles where they could securely set their "fish baskets."
All of the Indians did not take kindly to the wish of General Jackson, the then "Great Father," that they give up their hunting grounds in Ohio in exchange for hunting grounds west of the Mississippi river, and roving bands of the peaceful but dissatisfied red men moved about through the state. In September, 1834, one of these bands visited Cambridge. The Guernsey Times, then published by Hersh and McPherson, gives us a local note, "that a band of Indians are in camp near this town." It is left for an eye-witness, although then young, to complete that local of 1834.
The Indian camp was located south of Gaston avenue, on the site now known as "Silver Cliff." At that time the ridge was covered with oak and beech trees. The water for the use of the camp was gotten from a spring in the old Asher-Williams lot. There were perhaps a hundred men, women and children. They remained in camp there for ten days or more. They wore, when they wore anything ( for it was warm and pleasant weather), the usual Indian dress of blankets and breech-clouts. The men were peaceful and quiet, except when they had been presented too freely with "whisk."
They had no arms except bows and arrows and tomahawks. The women had Indians' trinkets, which they peddled about the town. The men put in the daytime mostly shooting with their bows and arrows at (3)
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"fips and levies," set up in split sticks driven in the ground. Their prin- cipal shooting place was in the street west of the Hutchison tavern. The distance was sixty feet. The "fips and levies" stuck in the splits were the prizes to the shooters who hit the mark. The squaws, with their pappooses tied to boards and hung on their backs, or set up against the houses, stood around and enjoyed the sport and cheered the lucky Indian who took the prize.
Those who took the most interest in the shooting contests and mingled most with them were Edward Rogers and G. W. Mulholland. Rogers was a silversmith, having a shop in the east room of the Ogier house. Mulhol- land was a tailor, and had a shop in the Seneca Needham house, located on the now Orme Hardware Company corner. They were strong Jacksonians, and would try to make the Indian chiefs understand that the "Great Father," at Washington City, would deal justly with the Indians. But these Indians were on a strike against the "Great Father," and they only "ughed" at the praise given by these Democratic followers of the "Great Father." These Indians were a mixture of tribes, Delawares, Shawnees, Wyandottes and Senecas. They came to Cambridge from the south, crossing Wills creek below the old Gomber-Moore mill. They had a few old wagons and carts. The tent poles and many of the trappings were tied around the necks of the ponies and horses and dragged upon the ground. The squaws had charge of the train, and, according to Indian custom, did most of the work, while the big, lazy "bucks" rode horses and the children who were big enough to ride rode the ponies. The older men and women and the small children rode in the wagons and carts. Some of the women rode on ponies, two to each, and some rode sidewise and some astride. It may have been that these rovers were visiting their old hunting and fishing grounds on Wills creek.
When they broke camp, they moved towards the north. To the writer then, and in a backward view now, it was a better "wild west" parade than "Buffalo Bill" ever made at Cambridge. It was a parade of the pure, una- culterated "Ingen," without spangles, feathers or paint. With the tribe were two white women, who had been captured in infancy, who had lost all trace of their white ancestry, and were the apparently happy wives of two big, lazy "bucks."
There were in 1805 five Indian families residing in this vicinity. Two brothers, named Jim and Bill Lyons, who had their huts up the bottom where William Tedrick's house now stands; Joseph Sky, who lived at the mouth of Brushy fork, near where Lynn's mill now is; one Doughty, who
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had a hut between Mrs. Culbertson's and Newman Lake's, who had two sqnaws; and one named Hunter, who didn't have any squaw.
Doughty's extra squaw was an incumbrance, however, being one of Simon Girty's, which he and the Lyons brothers were under obligations to support for some service Girty had rendered their fathers. She was ex- ceedingly ill-favored and very intemperate.
These Indians hunted in that neighborhood during the summer, and when winter came would pack up and move off to Big Stillwater, where they had a sort of Indian town. They were, however, very friendly and not troublesome.
Jim Lyons had a white wife, a girl that his father had taken prisoner when a child; having adopted and raised her, his son married her. In her dress, appearance and manner she was as much an Indian as any of them, and could not have been distinguished had it not been for her hair, which was fairer than that of the Indians and inclined to be wavy. She was very reserved in her manner towards the whites; seemed to avoid their society. and was never known to speak to a white person, or in their presence. In one respect the Lyons brothers were an exception among Indians-they didn't like whisky; and as Girty's old squaw wouldn't do without it, she lived most of her time at Doughty's hut, and would get drunk, whenever she could get liquor enough, and swear and tear around, and quarrel, and "take on" equal to any of the "white trash."
ANECDOTE OF COL. JOHN M'DONALD.
(From "Howe's History of Ohio.) 1
In the year 1791 or '92. the Indians having made frequent incursions into the settlements along the Ohio river, between Wheeling and Mingo bot- tom, sometimes killing or capturing whole families, at other times steal- ing all the horses belonging to a station or fort, a company consisting of seven men rendezvoused at a place called the Beech bottom, on the Ohio river, a few miles below where Wellsburg has been erected. This company were John Whetzel. William McCollough, John Hough, Thomas Biggs. Joseph Hedges. Kinzie Dickerson and a Mr. Linn. Their avowed object was to go to the Indian towns to steal horses. This was then considered a legal, honorable business, as we were then at open war with the Indians. It would only be retaliating upon them in their own way.
These seven men were all trained to Indian warfare and a life in the
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woods from their youth. Perhaps the western frontier at no time could furnish seven men whose souls were better fitted, and whose nerves and sinews were better strung to perform any enterprise which required reso- lution and firmness.
They crossed the Ohio, and proceeded, with cautious steps and vigilant glances, on their way through the cheerless, dark and almost impervious for- est, in the Indian country, till they came to an Indian town, near where the headwaters of the Sandusky and Muskingum rivers interlock. Here they made a fine haul, and set off homeward with fifteen horses. They traveled rapidly, only making short halts to let their horses graze and breathe a short time to recruit their energy and activity. In the evening of the second day of their rapid retreat they arrived at Wills creek, not far from where the town of Cambridge has since been erected.
Here Mr. Linn was taken violently sick, and they must stop their march or leave him alone to perish in the dark and lonely woods. Our frontiers- men, notwithstanding their rough and mupolished manners, had too much of my Uncle Toby's "sympathy for suffering humanity," to forsake a com- rade in distress. They halted, and placed sentinels on their back trail, who remained there until late in the night, without seeing any signs of being pursued. The sentinels on the back trail returned to the camp, Mr. Linn still lying in excruciating pain. All the simple remedies in their power were administered to the sick man, without producing any effect.
Being late in the night, they all lay down to rest, except one who was placed as guard. Their camp was on the bank of a small branch. Just be- fore daybreak the guard took a small bucket and dipped some water out of the stream: on carrying it to the fire he discovered the water to be muddy. The muddy water waked his suspicion that the enemy might be approaching them. and were walking down in the stream, as their footsteps would be noise- less in the water. He waked his companions and communicated his suspicion. They arose, examined the branch a little distance, and listened attentively for some time; but neither saw nor heard anything, and then concluded it must have been raccoons, or some other animals, puddling in the stream.
After this conclusion, the company all lay down to rest, except the sen- tinel, who was stationed just outside of the light. Happily for them the fire was burned down, and only a few coals afforded a dim light to point out where they lay.
The enemy had come silently down the creek, as the sentinel suspected, to within ten or twelve feet of the place where they lay, and fired several guns over the bank.
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Mr. Linn, the sick man, was lying with his side towards the bank, and received nearly all the balls which were at first fired. The Indians then, with tremendous yells, mounted the bank with loaded rifles, war-clubs and toma- hawks, rushed upon our men, who fled barefooted and without arms. Mr. Linn, Thomas Biggs and Joseph Hedges were killed in and near the camp. William McCullough had run but a short distance when he was fired at by the enemy. At the instant the fire was given, he jumped into a quagmire and fell; the Indians, supposing that they killed him, ran past in pursuit of others. He soon extricated himself out of the mire, and so made his escape. He fell in with John Hough, and came into Wheeling.
John Whetzel and Kinzie Dickerson met in their retreat, and returned together. Those who made their escape were without arms, without cloth- ing or provisions. Their sufferings were great, but this they bore with stoical indifference, as it was the fortune of war.
Whether the Indians who defeated our heroes followed in pursuit from their towns, or were a party of warriors who accidentally happened to fall in with them, has never been ascertained. From the place they had stolen the horses they had traveled two nights and almost two entire days, without halt- ing, except just a few minutes at a time, to let the horses graze. From the circumstances of their rapid retreat with the horses it was supposed that no pursuit could possibly have overtaken them, but fate had decreed that this party of Indians should meet and defeat them.
As soon as the stragglers arrived at Wheeling, Capt. John McCullough collected a party of men, and went to Wills creek and buried the unfortunate men who fell in and near the camp. The Indians had mangled. the dead bodies at a most barbarous rate. Thus was closed the horse-stealing tragedy.
Of the four who survived this tragedy none are now living to tell the story of their suffering. They continued to hunt and to fight as long as the war lasted. John Whetzel and Dickerson died in the county near Wheeling. John Hough died a few years since, near Columbia, Hamilton county, Ohio. The brave Capt. William McCullough fell in 1812, in the battle of Browns- town, in the campaign with General Hull.
CHAPTER III.
ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY.
From the beginning Guernsey county territory had belonged to Wash- ington county up to 1788, when it was included in what was organized as Muskingum county, in 1804. Prior to the adoption of the state constitution in 1851, there was much agitation about a new county, to be formed out of parts of Guernsey, Tuscarawas and Coshocton, with New Comerstown as the county seat. But when the new constitution was adopted the issue was for- ever removed from the minds of the projectors of that scheme.
A word concerning the term "Military Land District" may not be out of place in this connection. The origin of this term is from the fact that in 1798 Congress appropriated certain lands to satisfy claims of the officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary war. These lands were surveyed into town- ships five miles square, and these again into quarter-townships, containing four thousand acres, and some later into forty lots of one hundred acres each. for the accommodation of soldiers and others holding warrants for that num- ber of acres. What land was not required for the satisfaction of military warrants was subsequently sold by act of Congress, and the designation of "Congress Land" given to it. In 1903 Congress granted to the state one- sixth of all the lands in the United States Military District for the use of schools in the same. As the population of the townships warranted, they were named, having previously been designated by numbers. In 1812 the legislature provided for a road from Cambridge to Coshocton. The Marietta and Cleveland road was completed at a later date.
The land district of which Guernsey county is a part was surveyed west of the seventh range, into townships of five miles square, and a quarter town- ship of two and a half miles square, between 1798 and 1804. Zaccheus Biggs, as deputy surveyor, made a part of the survey, and George Metcalf, then a young man, formed one of the surveying party. He was charmed with the locality and enthused many at his home with the idea of effecting set- tlement here, and he really prevailed upon Jacob Gomber, his father-in-law, and Zaccheus A. Beatty, brother-in-law of Gomber, to purchase a quarter of a township ( four thousand acres), upon which the city of Cambridge is now situated.
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The survey of the land district was completed in 1804 and the land sub- ject to entry, from the land office at Zanesville, at two dollars per acre. Set- tlements were soon made in different parts of the county, as will be seen in the chapter on "Early Settlement," following this chapter.
By order of the Ohio State Legislature in 1809, a new county from por- tions of Belmont and Muskingum counties was formed and by its provisions it was called Guernsey in honor of the first emigrants from the isle of Guern- sey. Prior to that time-March 10, 1810, the actual dating of the bill-all territory which is now included in this county west of the eastern boundary of what is now Wills township, Madison township and Washington township, was a part of Muskingum county. East of the present townships of London- derry, Oxford and Millwood formed a part of Belmont county. April 23d. following, there was held a meeting at the house of George Beymer, at Cam- bridge, and there and then the first county commissioners were sworn into office for Guernsey county. They were James Dillon, William Dement and Absalom Martin. Elijah Beall was appointed clerk and John Beatty, treas- urer. Elijah Dyson was appointed lister of the residents of the newly made county, as being subject to taxation. Thomas Knowles was the first sheriff, George Metcalf, first surveyor, Peter Wirick, first auctioneer, and Joseph Smith, first coroner.
It was ordered that the new county be divided off into five civil town- ships to be called Oxford, Seneca, Wills, Cambridge and Westland. Much difficulty was experienced by reason of there being no map of the territory within the county just formed.
Tavern licenses were fixed at from four to ten dollars.
At the meeting of June 10, 1810, a township, to be known as Buffalo, was ordered to be set off, and a meeting held at Jacob Jordon's on June 23d, that year, when township officers were duly elected.
Wheatland township was organized June 9, 1810. The same date An- drew Marshall was awarded the contract to construct a county gaol or jail.
On July 28, 1810, a meeting was called to elect officers for a township to be called Richland and was held at the house of Samuel Leath : also one the same day for election of officers for Madison township at the house of Absalom Martin.
On September 15, 1810, Wheeling township was organized and two justices of the peace and other officers elected at a meeting at the home of William Gibson.
On September 4th of that year, there had been held a meeting of the board, at which the bounty for every wolf-scalp of wolves over six months
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that had been killed within the county, was fixed at two and one-half dollars and one dollar for those under six months.
On December 25, 1810, Robert Johnston became clerk. The Steuben- ville road was completed from Cadiz to Cambridge in 1811 and in June that year Lloyd Talbott was awarded the contract to build, or rather superintend, the construction of a county court house, while Z. A. Beatty and Jacob Gom- ber were chosen as contractors to construct the same. The jail was com- pleted September 3, 1811.
In March, 1815, Valley township was incorporated, at a meeting held at the house of William Thompson.
On June 3, 1816, it was ordered that a new township be made and named Jefferson; this was taken from the west of Madison township. It was also, at that date, ordered that Londonderry township be formed from parts of Madison and Oxford; that Beaver township should be formed from parts of Seneca and Oxford townships; also that Olive township should be set off from Buffalo township.
Monroe township was incorporated from the north end of Jefferson township, and township officials were elected at the house of Lawrence Tet- rick in April, 1818.
Knox township was formed from the northern end of Westland and the west end of Wheeling township.
On April 8, 1819, it was ordered that the south row of sections in Wheel- ing township be added to Cambridge township.
Spencer township was set off from the west end of Buffalo township in March, 1819.
Liberty township was created in 1820; Centre township in 1822 and Washington in 1823.
In June, 1824. Jackson township was organized, and in 1827 Adams was taken off of Knox and Westland townships and named in honor of John Quincy Adams, then President of the United States.
In 1851, Buffalo, Beaver, Olive and Seneca townships were detached from Guernsey county, and since then have been included in Noble county.
As soon as the townships were organized the county-seat question was agitated. Both Washington and Cambridge wanted the seat of justice. Messrs. Beatty and Gomber made a proposition to donate the public grounds and furnish a suitable set of public buildings ready to roof if the county seat should be located at Cambridge, and their offer was accepted. Several at- tempts have been made since the location of the county seat, to remove it to Washington, but of late years this talk has all ceased and with the present
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city of Cambridge and the court house and jail so substantial, the question will probably never be before the people again.
After the above preliminary steps had been taken, it remained for the board of county commissioners to provide highways, bridges, and suitable buildings for the county, as its settlement increased. The chapter on "County, State and National Representation-Political" will inform the reader as to who the men were at the helm during all of the formative period of the county's development, and other chapters will show how well they laid the foundations. The government of this county is treated in the next chapter and there will be seen much of the county's building, its taxes and expend- itures to the present time. As the platting of towns and villages comes with the settlement of every new county organized, its surveyors and recorders have to execute these records, this topic naturally comes under the head of organ- ization and will here follow the list of such town plattings :
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