USA > Ohio > Hancock County > History of Hancock County, Ohio : containing a history of the county, its townships, towns portraits of early settlers and prominent men, biographies, history of the Northwest Territory, history of Ohio, statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc > Part 23
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*Elliot's Algonquins.
12
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
from far and near to bring him material, out of which he formed wonderful devices that delighted the hearts of the Indian braves. The natural conclu- sion to be drawn from this circumstance is that he was at some period of his life a skilled artisan. Another account of Blanchard, given in one of the earlier histories of Ohio, states that he was a tailor, 'or one who sewed garments,' and from this fact the Shawnees gave to the river, now called after the old Frenchman, the name of Sha-po-qua-te-sepe, or Tailor's River.
"In 1774 Blanchard married a Shawnee woman, by whom he had seven children-five sons and two daughters. At the time the tribe went West the second son was a sub-chief .*. In 1857 there were several Indians in the tribe who claimed to be descendants of Blanchard. The stream now known as Blanchard's Fork of the Auglaize River, was named in his honor. Previous to 1812 the stream was simply known as Blanchard's River, but on the completion of certain government surveys the name of the river was changed to Blanchard's Fork of the Auglaize. About the year 1786 a part of the tribe with which Blanchard lived moved to a point near the head of the river. Here it was that they were visited by traders, and so skilled was the band in obtaining furs that the village soon became the resort of the agents of the Canadian Fur Company. It was they who gave the name to the river. There is no evidence that Blanchard ever resided permanently in Hancock County, and the only visits he ever made within its present boundaries were to the villages along the river. There was nothing striking in the personal appearance of the man. He was a little below the medium height, and his features were regular and expressive of some strength of character. He was quiet in his demeanor, and at times morose. He sel- dom talked of his early life, in fact he never spoke of it unless pressed to do so, or when he heard Indians or whites boasting of things they had heard or seen. Blanchard died about the year 1802. The place of his death is unknown, though it is said to be at or near the site of Findlay."
Fort Findlay was built in the summer of 1812, on the south bank of the Blanchard, immediately west of Main Street, Findlay, by a detachment of Gen. Hull's army under the command of Col. James Findlay, of Cincin- nati. A small force was kept on duty at this fort until the spring of 1815, when the presence of soldiers being no longer necessary in this portion of the State, it was evacuated.
Soon after the completion of Fort Findlay a man named Thorp came here from Dayton, Ohio, and with the assistance of the garrison erected a story and a half hewed-log house immediately east of the fort. He acted as baker and sutler for the garrison, and upon the close of the war removed to the Maumee. "In the spring of 1814," says Squire Carlin, "I accom- panied my father from Urbana to the Maumee. We stayed over night at Fort Findlay, and I well remember that a man named Thorp kept a small bakery and sutler shop in a hewed-log house which stood a little east of the fort. During the evening I visited Thorp's store, where he was living alone and selling goods to the soldiers. In the spring of 1815 we again passed Fort Findlay, but found both the fort and Thorp's house deserted. Thorp had removed to the Maumee, where I afterward knew him. He settled on an island in the bay about six miles northeast of Toledo, and I think he died there. Thorp was a man of considerable culture, but very eccentric, and seemed to avoid the associations of his fellowmen as much as possible."
*Narrative of Col. John Johnston.
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
Benjamin J. Cox was the first permanent white settler of Hancock County. In 1815 he left Logan County, Ohio, and traveling northward on the military road cut out by Gen. Hull three years before, located with his family in the hewed-log house erected by Thorp on the site of Findlay. One year afterward a daughter, Lydia, was born in this cabin, which stood on the south bank of the Blanchard, where the two-story brick erected by Wilson Vance now stands, and to her belongs whatever honor is attached to being the first white child born in the territory embraced in Hancock County. The Cox family were for about six years the only white inhabi- tants of this portion of the State. They cultivated a small patch of ground near their cabin, and also kept a sort of frontier tavern for the ac- commodation of traders, drovers and land prospectors who sometimes visited this region. But early in the spring of 1821 Robert Shirley, Will- iam Moreland and a Mr. Beaver, of Ross County, Ohio, who the previous fall had visited the country along the Blanchard, sent out their sons, in all a party of six men, with three teams, to make a settlement in the vicinity of Fort Findlay. On arriving they began the work of underbrushing, and soon had planted small crops of corn and potatoes above Fort Findlay. Three of the party then went back to Ross County, leaving the others to gather the crops and fatten and butcher some hogs they had brought out with them. When this was accomplished they left all in care of Mr. Cox and returned to their homes. Of these families, only one, that of Mr. Moreland, settled permanently; the latter, with his sons William and Jacob, locating on the Blanchard near the old fort, Jacob erecting his cabin in the spring of 1821 on the farm now owned by Aaron Baker, and his father on the site of North Findlay, in the fall of the same year.
Wilson Vance was the next settler, coming in November, 1821, and tak- ing possession of the house previously occupied by Mr. Cox. The latter re- moved to an old Indian cabin which stood a little southeast of his former residence. John Simpson and son, John, located on "Chamberlin's Hill" the same autumn. Other settlers soon came, and prior to 1830 the follow- ing pioneers, most of whom had families, located in what is now Findlay Township: Job Chamberlin, John P. and Bleuford Hamilton, Matthew Reighly, Thomas and Joseph Slight and John Gardner, Sr., in 1822; Joshua Hedges, in 1824; David Gitchel, in 1825; Squire Carlin and Joseph White, in 1826; Joseph DeWitt, Thomas Simpson, George W. Simpson, Reuben Hale, John Boyd, John C. Wickham, Minor T. Wickham, Isaac Johnson, Joseph Johnson, John Jones, Thomas Chester, John Taylor and Edwin S. Jones all came in 1827; Parlee Carlin, William Taylor, Joshua Powell, James Peltier, James B. Moore, David Foster and Jacob Foster in 1828; and William L. Henderson, Robert L. Strother, Thomas F. Johnston, Henry and Peter Shaw, John Bashore and John George Flenner, in 1829.
There were, perhaps, a few others who came in during this period, but if so their names are "lost 'mid the rubbish of forgotten things." Some of those given as pioneers of Findlay Township afterward removed into other parts of the county.
Delaware was the second township to receive the impress of civilization, Asa Lake and son, Asa M., locating near the site of Mount Blanchard late in the fall of 1821, or early the following year, as the family were living there in February, 1822, when Job Chamberlin, Sr., settled on the hill south of Findlay. Michael Burke was the second settler of Delaware, coming in
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1823, followed in 1824 by Daniel Hamlin, whose son, Don Alonzo, was the first sheriff of Hancock County. In 1825 the families of William J. Greer, Sr., Reuben W. Hamlin, Godfrey Wolford and Robert Elder joined the Blanchard settlement. Two of Mr. Elder's sons-Ephraim and John- were married before coming to the county, and other members of the Greer and Elder families had reached manhood and womanhood. The families of John Wolford, John Rose, Nathan Williams, Warren and Van R. Hancock and Harvey Smith came in 1828, and those of Michael Casner, Chauncy Fuller, William Davis and Ayers Stradley in 1829. None others are believed to have settled in that subdivision prior to 1830.
In the spring of 1822 Robert McKinnis and sons, Charles, Philip, James and John, all well remembered pioneers, settled on the Blanchard about six miles northwest of Findlay, in what is now Liberty Township. His son-in- law, Jacob Poe, came the following December, and John Gardner and Joseph White in 1823. Thomas and Ebenezer Wilson, John Gardner, Jr., and Robert Mccullough settled in Liberty in 1826; William Wade, Joshua Jones and John Travis in 1827; John Fishel and sons, John, Michael and Daniel, Jeremiah Pressor and Addison Hampton in 1828, and Alfred Hamp- ton and Johnson Bonham in 1829.
Blanchard Township comes next in the order of settlement, John Hunter and Benjamin Chandler building their cabins south of the river, on Section 15, in the spring of 1823. George Shaw, Lewis Dukes, Sr., and William Powell came into the township in 1827, followed in 1828 by Richard and John Dukes, Thomas Groves and Jeremiah Colclo and son, William; and in 1829 by George Epley and Joseph Bowen.
Amanda and Big Lick each received its first settler in 1823, Thomas Thompson locating on Section 3 of the former sub-division, and Henry Mc- Whorter on Section 34 of the latter township, some time that year. Abra- ham Huff came into Amanda in 1825; John Huff, John Shoemaker, Will- iam Hackney, James Beard, John J. Hendricks and Thomas Huff in 1826; Henry George and several sons, John Beard and six sons, and Jesse and John Hewitt in 1827; and in 1828 and 1829, Aquilla Gilbert, Thomas Cole, David Hagerman, Joseph Whiteman, Andrew Robb, William Ebright, Henry Keel, Samuel Gordon, David Egbert, Justin Smith and James Gib- son, all settled in the township. Samuel Sargent was the second settler of Big Lick. locating on Limestone Ridge in 1827, though John Long and son, Robert, came in from Amanda the same year, having settled in the latter subdivision in 1826. Levi Poulson came into the township in 1828; John Huff moved in from Amanda in 1828, and John Shoemaker in 1829. Thus some of the first settlers of Amanda Township were also pioneers of Big Lick.
The lands lying on Eagle Creek, in Madison Township, were among the earliest settled in the county. Here Simeon Ransbottom built his cabin in 1825, Abel Tanner in the spring of 1826, and Abner Hill and John Tullis in 1826-27. In 1828 Thomas Ransbottom and John Diller settled on the same stream, and the following year Aaron Kinion, Nathaniel Hill and James West joined the settlement.
East of Findlay, in Marion Township, we find settlements made by Joseph A. Sargent and Asher Wickham in 1827, Othniel Wells in 1828, and Joshua Powell and Willis Ward in 1829.
Mordecai Hammond, who settled on the Blanchard, in the southeast
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
corner of Jackson Township, in the fall of 1827, was the only settler of the territory now constituting that subdivision prior to 1830. Several others located on the Blanchard, north of Mr. Hammond, before 1830, but the lands on which they built their cabins, although formerly in Jackson, have been attached to Amanda Township.
The territory embraced in Allen Township received four families prior to 1830, viz .: Nathan Frakes in 1827, Isaac Miller in 1828, and Elias L. Bryan and John Trout in 1829.
Eagle is the only remaining township in which a settlement was made before 1830, John Woodruff and sons, Adam, Elijah and William Y., locating on Eagle Creek in the summer of 1829.
All of the foregoing pioneers, as well as those who came into the county for several years afterward, receive generous mention in the chapters spe- cially devoted to the respective townships in which they settled, and it is therefore unnecessary to repeat what is here related. Most of the early settlers came with all their worldly possessions packed in a two or four- horse wagon, in which only the very aged or very young were allowed to ride; the others trudged uncomplainingly behind or went in advance to clear the path. Some came with ox teams, some on horse-back, while others performed the journey afoot. Streams had to be forded frequently, roads had often to be cut through the forest as the newer settled country was reached, and occasionally a team would give out or the wagon mire in one of the many intervening marshes or "swales" which then abounded in Northwestern Ohio. Many days, and oftentimes a month or more, were consumed in completing the tedious journey, and it was with deep sighs of relief or exclamations of joy that the weary settlers at last reached their destination, though their labors had then only begun.
The first settlers of Hancock County came not to enjoy a life of lotus- eating and ease. They could, doubtless, admire the pristine beauty of the scenes that unveiled before them, the vernal green of the forest, and the loveliness of all the works of nature; they could look forward with happy anticipation to the lives they were to lead in the midst of all this beauty, and to the rich reward that would be theirs from the cultivation of the mel- low, fertile soil; but they had first to work. The dangers they were exposed to were serious ones. The Indians could not be fully trusted, and the many stories of their depredations in the earlier Eastern settlements made the pioneers of Ohio apprehensive of trouble. The larger wild beasts were a cause of much dread, and the smaller ones a source of great annoyance. Added to this was the liability to sickness which always exists in a new country. In the midst of the loveliness of the surroundings, there was a sense of loneliness that could not be dispelled, and this was a far greater trial to the men and women who first dwelt in the Western country than is generally imagined. The deep-seated, constantly recurring feeling of isola- tion made many stout hearts turn back to the older settlements and the abodes of comfort, the companionship and sociability they had abandoned in their early homes to take up a new life in the wilderness.
The pioneers, making the tedious journey from the East and South by the rude trails, arrived at their places of destination with but very little with which to begin the battle of life. They had brave hearts and strong arms, however, and they were possessed of invincible determination. Fre- quently they came on without their families to make a beginning, and this
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
having been accomplished, would return to their old homes for their wives and children. The first thing done, after a temporary shelter from the rain had been provided, was to prepare a little spot of ground for some crop, usually corn. This was done by girdling the trees, clearing away the underbrush, if there chanced to be any, and sweeping the surface with fire. Five, ten, or even fifteen acres of land might thus be prepared and planted the first season. In the autumn the crop would be carefully gathered and garnered with the least possible waste, for it was the food supply of the pioneer and his family, and life itself depended, in part, upon its safe pres- ervation. While the first crop was growing the pioneer had busied himself with the building of his cabin, which must answer as a shelter from the storms of the coming winter and a protection from the ravages of wild ani- mals.
If a pioneer was completely isolated from his fellow-men, his position was certainly a hard one; for without assistance he could construct only a poor habitation. In such cases the cabin was generally made of light logs or poles, and was laid up roughly, only to answer the temporary purpose of shelter, until other settlers had come into the vicinity, by whose help a more solid structure could be built. Usually a number of men came into the country together, and located within such distance of each other as en- abled them to perform many friendly and neighborly offices. Assistance was always readily given each pioneer by all the scattered residents of the forest within a radius of several miles. The commonly followed plan of erecting a log-cabin was through a union of labor. The site of the cabin home was generally selected with reference to a good water supply, often by a never-failing spring of pure water, or, if such could not be found, it was not uncommon to first dig a well. When the cabin was to be built the few neighbors gathered at the site, and first cut down, within as close proximity as possible, a number of trees as nearly of a size as could be found, but ranging from a foot to twenty inches in diameter. Logs were chopped from these and rolled to a common center. This work, and that of preparing the foundation, would consume the greater part of the day, in most cases, and the entire labor would most commonly occupy two or three days-sometimes four. The logs were raised to their places with hand- ยท spikes and "skid poles," and men standing at the corners with axes notched them as fast as they were laid in position. Soon the cabin would be built several logs high, and the work would become more difficult. The gables were formed by beveling the logs, and making them shorter and shorter, as each additional one was laid in place. These logs in the gables were held in place by poles, which extended across the cabin from end to end, and which served also as rafters upon which to lay the rived "clapboard" roof. The so-called "clapboards" were five or six feet in length, and were split from oak or ash logs, and made as smooth and flat as possible. They were laid side by side, and other pieces of split stuff laid over the cracks so as to effectually keep out the rain. Upon these logs were laid to hold them in place, and the logs were held by blocks of wood placed between them.
The chimney was an important part of the structure, and taxed the builders, with their poor tools, to their utmost. In rare cases it was made of stone, but most commonly of logs and sticks laid up in a manner similar to those which formed the cabin. It was, in nearly all cases, built outside of the cabin, and at its base a huge opening was cut through the wall to
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answer as a fire-place. The sticks in the chimney were kept in place and protected from fire by mortar, formed by kneading and working clay and straw. Flat stones were procured for back and jambs of the fire-place.
An opening was chopped or sawed in the logs on one side of the cabin for a doorway. Pieces of hewed timber, three or four inches thick, were fastened on each side by wooden pins to the end of the logs, and the door (if there was any) was fastened to one of these by wooden hinges. The door itself was a clumsy piece of wood-work. It was made of boards rived from an oak log, and held together by heavy cross-pieces. There was a wooden latch upon the inside, raised by a string which passed through a gim- let-hole, and hung upon the outside. From this mode of construction arose the old and well-known hospitable saying: "You will find the latch-string al- ways out." It was pulled in only at night, and the door was thus fastened. Very many of the cabins of the pioneers had no doors of the kind here described, and the entrance was protected only by a blanket or skin of some wild beast suspended above it.
The window was a small opening, often devoid of anything resembling a sash, and very seldom having glass. Greased paper was sometimes used in lieu of the latter, but more commonly some old garment constituted a curtain, which was the only protection from sun, rain or snow.
The floor of the cabin was made of puncheons-pieces of timber split from trees about eighteen inches in diameter, and hewed smooth with the broad-ax. They were half the length of the floor. Many of the cabins first erected in this part of the country had nothing but the earthen floor. Sometimes the cabins had cellars, which were simply small excavations in the ground for the storage of a few articles of food, or perhaps cooking utensils. Access to the cellar was readily gained by lifting a loose punch- eon. There was sometimes a loft used for various purposes, among others as the "guest chamber" of the house. It was reached by a ladder, the sides of which were split pieces of a sapling, put together, like everything else in the house, without nails.
The furniture of the log-cabin was as simple and primitive as the struc- ture itself. A forked stick set in the floor and supporting two poles, the other ends of which were allowed to rest upon the logs at the end and side of the cabin, formed a bedstead. A common form of table was a split slab supported by four rustic legs set in anger holes. Three-legged stools were made in a similar simple manner. Pegs driven in auger holes into the logs of the wall supported shelves, and others displayed the limited wardrobe of the family not in use. A few other pegs, or perhaps a pair of deer horns, formed a rack where hung the rifle and powder horn, which no cabin was without. These, and perhaps a few other simple articles brought from the "old home" formed the furniture and furnishings of the pioneer cabin.
The utensils for cooking and the dishes for table use were few. The best were of pewter, which the careful housewife of the olden time kept shining as brightly as the most pretentious plate of our later-day fine houses. It was by no means uncommon that wooden vessels, either coop- ered or turned, were used upon the table. Knives and forks were few,
crockery very scarce, and tinware not abundant. Food was simply cooked and served, but it was of the best and most wholesome kind. The hunter kept the larder supplied with venison, bear meat, squirrels, fish, wild tur- keys, and the many varieties of smaller game. Plain corn bread baked in
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a kettle, in the ashes, or upon a board in front of the great open fireplace, answered the purpose of all kinds of pastry. The corn was, among the earlier pioneers, pounded or grated, there being no mills for grinding it for some time, and then only small ones at a considerable distance away. The wild fruits in their season were made use of, and afforded a pleasant variety. Sometimes especial effort was made to prepare a delicacy, as, for instance, when a woman experimented in mince pies by pounding wheat for the flour to make the crust, and used crab-apples for fruit. In the lofts of the cab- ins was usually to be found a collection of articles that made up the pio- neer's materia medica-the herb medicines and spices, catnip, sage, tansy, fennel, boneset, pennyroyal and wormwood, each gathered in its season; and there were also stores of nuts, and strings of dried pumpkin, with bags of berries and fruit.
The habits of the pioneers were of a simplicity and purity in conform- ance to their surroundings and belongings. The men were engaged in the herculean labor, day after day, of enlarging the little patch of sunshine about their homes, cutting away the forest, burning off the brush and de- bris, preparing the soil, planting, tending, harvesting, caring for the few animals which they brought with them or soon procured, and in hunting. While they were engaged in the heavy labor of the field and forest, follow- ing the deer or seeking other game, their helpmeets were busied with their household duties, providing for the day and for the winter coming on, cook- ing, making clothes, spinning and weaving. They were fitted by nature and experience to be the consorts of the brave men who first came into the Western wilderness. They were heroic in their endurance of hardship and
privation and loneliness. Their industry was well directed and unceasing. Woman's work then, like man's, was performed under disadvantages which
She had not only the common household have been removed in later years.
duties to perform, but many others. She not only made the clothing, but the fabric for it. That old, old occupation of spinning and of weaving, with which woman's name has been associated in all history, and of which the modern world knows nothing, except through the stories of those who are grandmothers now-that old occupation of spinning and of weaving, which seems surrounded with a glamour of romance as we look back to it through tradition and poetry, and which always conjures up thoughts of the graces and virtues of the dames and damsels of a generation that is gone- that old, old occupation of spinning and of weaving, was the chief industry of the pioneer woman. Every cabin sounded with the softly whirring wheel and the rythmic thud of the loom. The woman of pioneer times was like the woman described by Solomon: "She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands; she layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff."
Almost every article of clothing, all of the cloth in use in the old log- cabins, was the product of the patient woman-weaver's toil. She spun the flax and wove the cloth for shirts, pantaloons, frocks, sheets and blankets. The linen and wool, the "linsey-woolsey" woven by the housewife, formed all of the material for the clothing of both men and women, except such articles as were made of skins. The men commonly wore the hunting- shirt, a kind of loose frock reaching half way down the figure, open before, and so wide as to lap over a foot or more upon the chest. This generally had a cape, which was often fringed with a raveled piece of cloth of a dif-
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