History of Knox County, Ohio, its past and present, Part 64

Author: Hill, N. N. (Norman Newell), comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A.A. & Co., Mt. Vernon, Ohio
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Mt. Vernon, Ohio : A. A. Graham & Co.
Number of Pages: 1096

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Received and recorded.

H. BOYLE, Recorder.

Soon after the town was laid out, it was visited by a tornado, the effects of which are thus described in Norton's history :

The most extraordinary event of those early times was a ter- rible tornado in the summer of 1808, which played havoc with the early settlers. It came up suddenly, and was very violent. It tore off the roofs of all the houses, killed most of the stock running about, and tore down all the large white-oak trees that were on Butler's thirty-six acre tract, as also many trees on Walker's land. In its course it took in Andy Craig's old stand on Centre run. Butler had nine head of horses; as the storm came up they attempted to run out of its way. Two of them were killed; one of them ran all the way to Craig's and jumped into his garden patch; its skin was torn and its flesh scratched in many places by limbs of trees hurled against it by the storm as it ran to get out of its reach. Walker had some horses killed; also Patterson, and Kratzer, and a little fellow from Vir- ginia, who lived on the hill, named Zinn.

Norton gives the following account of Mt. Ver- non's first doctor :

A little doctor named Henderson was present when the town was laid out. He was from Baltimore, Maryland, proposed the name of the place, and they all sanctioned it.

Henderson was a clever young man; his father made a regu- lar doctor out of him, and started him out with a good horse and outfit; but he was too lazy to practice. The first time But- ler saw him, Patterson came out in the lot where Butler was plowing, and introduced him to Ben, who was out of temper at the beech-roots, which were in the way of the plow. When Patterson said he was a doctor, and Henderson mentioned the fact of inoculating a child with vaccine matter, and wanted to operate on Butler's children, Ben astonished the young doctor by cursing him in very strong back-woods vernacular. Ber said afterwards: "I didn't then know exactly what inoculating meant, but I was mad, and I threatened to put my knife into him, and scared him so that he would not attempt to 'noculate any more in that town. He stayed about for a time, until he ran away with a woman; and no other doctor dared to show his face there during my stay. We had no lawyers, either, in those days."

The first white child born in Mt. Vernon was Jo- seph, son of Benjamin Butler, October 23, 1806.

In another chapter mention is made of a prelim- inary report made to the judges of the court of common pleas, at the first session held in the. county, May 2, 1808, by the commissioners, to locate the county seat for the county of Knox. There were three contestants for the honor, Clin- ton, Mt. Vernon, and Fredericktown.

The following is the commissioners' report :

To the Hon. William Wilson, esq., President, and John Mills, William Gass, and William W. Farquhar, esqrs., associate judges of the court of common plea's in and for the county of Knox, in the State of Ohio:

May it please your honors: In conformity with an act of the legislature of the State of Ohio, passed the twenty-eighth of March, 1803, entitled "An act establishing seats of justice," we, the subscribers, were appointed by a resolution of both houses of the legislature, passed on the ninth of February, 1808, com- missioners for fixing the permanent seat of justice in and for said county of Knox. We do hereby make report to your hon- ors, that having met and attended to the duties of said appoint- ment in said county on the twenty-eighth of the present instant, and having paid due regard to the centre, extent of population, quality of soil, as well as the general convenience, we hereby declare that the town of Mt. Vernon is the most suitable place for the courts of said county to be held at, and we do hereby declare the said town of Mt. Vernon the permanent seat ef jus- tice in and for said county of Knox. Given under our hands and seals this twenty-ninth of March, 1808.

JAMES ARMSTRONG, JAMES DUNLAP, ISAAC COOK, Commissioners.

The citizens of the two rival towns were not sat- isfied with the action of the commissioners. Efforts were made to induce the legislature to order a new count, more especially by the Clintonians, who wanted the county seat badly. One thing men- tioned by the prayer of the petitioners was that the legislature enlarge the boundaries of Knox county, so as to take from Richland one tier of townships and attach them to the north part of Knox, thus throwing Mt. Vernon out of the centre of the county. If this move had succeeded Fred- ericktown would have been more eligible than Clinton, yet the people of Clinton would have been perfectly willing that her northern rival should have been made happy at her expense, so the good people of Mt. Vernon be made to chew tbe bitter cud of disappointment. The cry of fraud was raised and reported to the legislature for effect, but that body did not see fit to make any change.

The late Benjamin Butler, in his life time, gave

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Mr. Norton his version of the causes which led to the selection of Mt. Vernon as the county seat, as follows :

When I moved my family to the thirty-six acres of land which I had bought, I had no thought of ever laying out any portion of it in town lots, or of any town ever being laid out here, nor at that time had Walker or Patterson. The idea when suggested was pleasing, and we at once took up with it. Clinton had been laid out by Samuel Smith, and had never been paid out, I believe. It was started chiefly on the dona- tion principle. Those who would put up buildings had their own time to pay for the lots.

When we got word that the commissioners were coming on to locate the county seat, we were greatly stirred up about how we should manage. Kratzer, Patterson and Walker came to see me about it, and we had a general consultation. I thought we had no chance of getting it, for I told them that they had at Clinton Bill Douglass' mill, a lot of good houses, Samuel Smith's big brick house, and plenty of smart Yankees to manage; also they had at Frederick Johnny Kerr's mill and a lot of rich Quakers around it, and both those places looked better then our little scrubby place. Samuel Kratzer asked me what I would do about it? I said to them that I had studied out a pretty bad trick that I could manage if they would only go into it; if they wouldn't there wasn't a bit of chance for us; they said "let's hear it." I told them I would give ten dollars myself and each of them must give ten dollars to make a purse and get liquor for some hard cases we had about town and en- gage them to go up Clinton and Frederick, get drunk, fight, and raise Cain generally when the commissioners were up there on their tour of observation. As for us we would get two good yoke of oxen to work on the streets, and the rest of the men must take hold and spade, and shovel, and pick, and roll logs, and dig up stumps, and be fixing up the streets right, while the women and girls must get out into their gardens hoeing, and weeding, and working; I would have the best victuals cooked and the best cheer the little old tavern could afford, so as to please the commissioners, and we might then come out first for the county seat selection.

My plan struck their fancy. Samuel Kratzer, although he was a great Methodist, didn't say a word about its being a sin to cheat them in that game, but at it we went. All fell into the plan. We had a clever fellow named Munson, from Granville, and a big fellow named Bixbee, from over about Bigbelly, who agreed to go along and each to captain a gang of the rowdies and see that it was played out right.

It was Thursday afternoon when the commissioners first came to our town. They rode up and asked me if they could stay all night ; I told them it was hard fare we had, but if they would put up with it they could, and they stopped. I guessed who they were at once and passed the word around. Everything went on as we had planned it. The next morning about day- light the busiest set of bees ever collected about a hive were at

work, hammering, pounding, digging, hoeing, scraping, and working on the streets and in the lots. Leah (Mrs. Butler) had breakfast bright and early. I had their horses all cleaned up and well fed, and ready, after they had eaten, to start. They wondered at the work they saw going on, and if it was kept up always as they had seen it in town. I told them we were all poor and hard-working, and we never lost any time in our little town. They said they were going up to Clinton and Frederick to see

those places, and were going to fix the county seat, and wanted me to go along; but I tried to beg off-that I was poor and must work, and couldn't lose the time, as it would take them two or three days to determine it. They said no, it wouldn't take them that long, and I knew well if the trick was played out well by the rowdies that they would soon he back, so I hesitated as though I would not go. Finally I told Kratzer if he would go I would, as I would like to see them fix the county seat up there, and then Jim Dunlap, who was a jovial fellow about thirty-five, spoke up and said to come ahead; the other two were sort of gruff, it seemed to me, and didn't say much, but looked solemn. They asked if we didn't expect to get the . county seat at Mount Vernon, and I told them no, that we were too poor to try for it; that I felt too poor really to go up with them, for some fellow might come along and stop with me, who would want me to go with him and look at land, and every fel- low that I showed land to, gave me two dollars, which helped right smart. There were three sorts of poor-God's poor, the devil's poor, and poor devils, and that we were all poor devils; but Sam Smith was long headed, and Johnny Kerr had lots of rich Quakers to back him, so us poor devils were left out of the question.

We then rode together up to Clinton, and there the rowdies were cutting up, the fiddle going, and shouting and cursing be- ing done of the tallest kind. When we went to go into the tavern there was a rush to the doorway, as two men were scuffling and fighting, and before the commissioners could get in they were jammed and scuffed about, and in the din and con- fusion, and yells of "pull them off," "part them," "don't do it," "fair play," "hit him again," "let 'em fight it out," etc., the commissioners backed out from the tavein, and proposed to go and look at Fredericktown. About that time old Sam Smith came up, and when he found out they were the commiss- ioners, and going, he tried the hardest kind to get them to stop, but it was no go; they had seen enough of that place then, but promised him to call again tomorrow. On the way to Fredericktown I talked much with them, and apologized for the way our people up there had acted. They asked me if they cut up like Indians all the time, and I told them that about Clinton and Frederick there were a great many rich men's sons, who had no trades, and would frolic a little just to put in their time, but they were a mighty clever set of people. I pointed out to them the pretty scenery, and bragged on the land around, but sa'd not a word for Mount Vernon. When we got to Frederick, they stopped at Ayres' tavern and found a good deal such quarreling going on as at Clinton. I got afraid then that they might see through it, and suspect that we had a hand in getting it up, so I got down about the mill, and sat on the logs awhile with Kratzer and Patterson, and left the commissioners up at the tavern to see the fighting in the yard. Just before going in to dinner I called one of the rowdies to me and told him it was all working well, gave him more money, and told him to swear the others not to divulge the secret, and we would make it all right with 'em. After dinner the commissioners sauntered around, and I proposed going back and leaving them, as they would want to stay all night there. I had some work to do and chores to attend to at home before night; but they would have me wait a little while longer for them, and I did it. While there sitting on a log, we bet two gallons of wine with Johnny Kerr, as to which place would get the county seat. When they were ready they started, and we rode back to Mount Vernon, where Mrs. Butler had the best kind of a supper cooked up, and it put the

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commissioners in right good humor. She knew how to fix up things right on such an occasion.

The men about Mt. Vernon were all quiet, and kept so, and when Dunlap asked Coyle's two boys to take a dram with him, they hung back and hesitated, until I told them to come up and take a dram with the gentleman-that there was no harm in it. They poured out the least bit of drams they ever took in their lives. The next morning the commissioners got ready to start, and I had got Knuck Harris (who came here from Zanesville), the only nigger in the country then, to sleck their horses off, and they came out looking first rate. Dunlap was a funny fel- low, who thought he could hop, and bantered some of the boys to hop, but they were afraid they would be beat by him, and said it wern't no use to try as they knew he could beat them. I told him to make his hop, and he went out in the road and gave a sample; 1 went over it just a little, and we hopped several times, until I concluded to show him what Ben could do. I hopped so far over his furthest mark, they all laughed him right out, and he gave it up, saying I could hop some. In those days I never found the man that could beat me. When they were about starting I asked them if they were not going back to Clinton and give it another look. They said "no," and the Clintonites never saw them any more. They wanted to go to Delaware, and asked me to pilot them a part of the way, which I did, and when I got out with them back of George Lewis' place, I tried to get something out of them as what they had determined on, but they evaded my questions and gave me little satisfaction. On bidding them good by, I hoped they were not put out with our place on account of the hard fare I had given them-that I had nothing nice to give them, as I kept only a little log tavern, and supplied my table by hunting and butchering, One of them remarked that if they ever came this way again, they were well enough suited to call on me. I then said that I was poor, and felt discouraged, and thought that I would quit and go somewhere else and make a better living for myself and family. Dunlap then said I was doing well enough, and must not get out of heart. And so we parted. When I got back to town all the men gathered around me to find out what was our chance. I told them what had passed between us, and that I was satisfied it would be found that our side was ahead, and I called them all up to take a good drink at my expense on Mt. Vernon being the county seat. That little trick of ours, I am sure, made the scales turn in our favor, and when we knew it was established at Mt. Vernon, you can im- agine we had rejoicing over it.

For some time after the settlement of the county seat question, the burden of the song of the Clintonians and of the Fradericktowners was the refrain of Maud Muller:

Of all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, "It might have been."

Jonathan Hunt gave this account of the volun- teer work done on the streets, the day after the commissioners' arrival at Mt. Vernon :

Gilman Bryant sort of bossed the work, and being a cripple, he tended on them and gave out the whiskey and water, cheer- ing them up as he came around, saying : "Work like men in harvest, but keep sober, boys." Mike Click, and John Click, his brother, drove the oxen. Mike was a bully hand with a

team, and made them tear up stumps, haul logs, plow and scrape, as necessary Men never worked better on a road than that force then did. They chopped down trees, cut off logs, grubbed, dug down rough places, filled up gulleys, burned log heaps, and made a wonderful change in the appearance of things. It was the first work ever done on the streets of Mt. Vernon.

Bryant opened a grocery store on the lot where the "Buckingham Emporium" was afterwards erected. It was a little story and a half sycamore cabin, where he kept, powder, shot, lead, whiskey, etc., for sale to the Indians and the few whites in 1807.

There were other stories regarding this matter according to Norton's history, as follows :

Clinton and Mt. Vernon were the principal competitors for the seat of justice. The former place at that time was the larger. It had more goods, more mechanics, more enterprises on foot, more houses, more people, and more hope for the fu- ture. It had more of New England families, more of Yankee spirit and shrewdness; and yet, with all their cunning and crafti- ness-all their money and management-all their efforts and inducements-Clinton lost the selection. Its generals were out- generalled-its managers out-manœuvred -- its wits out-witted- its Yankees out-Yankeed by the less showy and pretending men from the Potomac and the Youghiogheny, who had settled at Mt. Vernon. The choice of either one for the county seat in- volved the ultimate ruin of the other. Clinton made a bold effort to keep up against adverse winds. It could not sustain an appeal against the decision of the commissioners, but still it kept on for several years in its improvements, and until after the war it was ahead of Mt. Vernon in many respects. It had the first and only newspaper in the county for two years; it had the first and only church in the county for many years; it had stores, tanyards, shops of various kinds, and greater variety of business than Mt. Vernon; but after the war was over it began to decay, and its rival took the lead. The accredited account of the location of the county seat is as follows: The commis- sioners first entered Mt. Vernon, and were received with the best cheer at the log tavern of Mr. Butler. To impress them with an idea of the public spirit of the place, the people were very busy at the moment of their entrance and during their stay, at work, with all their coats off, grubbing the streets. As they left for Clinton, all quitted their labor, not "of love;" and some rowdies, who dwelt in cabins scattered round about in the woods, away from the town, left "the crowd," and stealing ahead of the commissioners, arrived at Clinton first. On the arrival of the others at that place, these fellows pretended to be in a state not conformable to temperance principles, ran against the commissioners, and by their rude and boisterous conduct so disgusted the worthy officials as to the apparent morals of the inhabitants of Clinton, that they returned and made known their determination that Mt. Vernon should be the favored spot. That night there were great rejoicings in town. Bonfires were kindled, stews made and drank, and live trees split with gun- powder.

Such is a plausible account of this matter, which we have often heard related by our old friend Gilman Bryant, who took great pride in rehearsing a fable calculated to give Mt. Vernon

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the manifest advantage in the estimation of moral and temper- ance men in these later times. But some of those who lived in the county at that early day, give an entirely different version of the subject, and even have gone so far as to aver that the com- missioners themselves delighted, as did the rest of mankind, in taking a "wee dhrap of the crathur," and could not have been " disgusted by rude and boisterous conduct" to which they were accustomed.

And again it is suggested that "the crowd " at that day was not so great in this locality that men who had sense and observa- tion sufficient to be selected for commissioners, would not have been able to observe and distinguish "the rowdies," and class them where they belonged.

Another old settler, whose partiality at that day was for Clinton, avers that the proprietor of Clinton, Mr. Smith, had been very illiberal in his dealings with those who wished to pur- chase lots in his town. He had adopted a plan of withholding from market the best lots on the plat, and keeping the corner lots to be enhanced in value by the improvements made by settlers on inside lots. At this course many of them became dissatisfied, and some of the number who had bought of him leagued with the Mount Vernonities against Clinton. We have been told by another old citizen, that two of the men living north of Mt. Vernon, and considered as in the Clinton interest, proposed to Kratzer and Patterson to help secure the location of the county seat at Mt. Vernon, in consideration of their receiv- ing two lots apiece in the town, and that their favor and influ- ence went accordingly.

In Mt. Vernon at that time, Main street was full of stumps, log heaps and trees, and theroad up the street was a poor crooked path winding round amongst the stumps and logs. Richard Roberts says that it was very rough and broken, where Mt. Vernon was located, and was the last spot on earth a man would have picked to make a county seat.

Another gentleman residing north of Mt. Vernon, and very partial to Fredericktown, thinks that by a little management that place might have been made the permanent seat of justice, when the strife was so great between the other towns. They might have got a strip thrown off of Delaware county, which might have been attached, and then Frederick would have been alike central; but Kerr and his comrades had not their eyes open to the importance of getting that five mile range with Knox, and they were left out of doors when the location was made permanent.

In the county clerk's office appears the original of a petition to the court of common pleas, to cause the removal of certain obstructions, placed in the streets and alleys of two additions to the town of Mt. Vernon, laid out by Thomas Bell Patterson, in 1811, and by Samuel Kratzer in the same year. The petition was presented to the court at the February term in 1817. One or both of the addi- tions had in the meantime become the property of the late Anthony Banning. The town at that time being at a stand still, and no sale for the lots, Mr. Banning concluded "to fence up the town," and turn the vacant lots and adjacent streets into a

corn or wheat field, as the occasion might re- quire. This was done, hence the necessity of the petition, hereafter given, the spelling and punc- tuation being retained as in the original. The territory embraced in these additions commenced at Mulberry street, and embraced all of what was then known as Kratzer's (later as the Banning) addition. West of this addition a few of the citizens resided, and the fences placed across the streets and alleys were quite annoying, requiring the citizens to either climb over the obstructions or go around them; hence the following petition signed by fifty-six of the prominent business men of the village:

To the Honourable William Wilson, Esq., President of the Court of Common Pleas of Knox County, and his associate Judges of the said Court-February, 1817:

The Humble petition of the subscribers, Householders, resid- ing within the Town plat, of the Town of Mount Vernon and the adition Thareto; Containing in all fifty-six Householders; Situate in the first quarter of Town six and range Thirteen in the United States Military District; Laid out by Thomas Bel Paterson & recorded on the 26th of March 1811. Also the adi- tion of the Town of Mount Vernon, Laid out by Samuel Krat- zer on the 20th of March 1811, and entered on record about the same time; on the same page of the record, and agoining the above, all Intended for, and representing one Town, and your petitioners respectfully represent, That we have always Been Impress'd with a Belief that the Streets and alleys of the whole of the above recited Town Plats should be and remain for Ever open for the free use, and Benefit of the Inhabitance thareof, and under that Impression many of your Petitioners Became Purchasors of Lots in said Town; Tharefore in order that we may have all obstructions removed out of Each of the Streets and alleys, Contained in the two above recited Town Plats, and your petitioners be restored to their Just rights, we Pray, That the whole of the above Described Premises may be Incorperated according to Law, and your Petitioners shall as in duty Bound for Ever Pray.

Godlib Zimmerman,

Isaac Vore, jr.,

Wm. Vore,

John Frank,

Jno. Shaw,

Robert D. Moore,

John Hawn, jr.,

Samuel Mott,

Henry Davis,

John P. McArdle,

James Low,

John H. Mefford,

Abraham Emmitt,

Wm. Mefford,

Nathl. Herron,

Adam Coleman,

Thomas Irvine,

Saml. Martin,

N. C. Boalze,

Jacob Martin,

John Warden,

John Dwyer,

R. M. Brown,

Miriam Daniel,

Jonathan Miller,

Walter McFarland,

H. Curtis,

Wm. Y. Farquhar,

Wm. W. Alexander,

James McGibney,

William Pettigrew,

Ben. S. Martin, James Miller, .

Peter Zerby,

Gilman Bryant,

John Sawyer,

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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.

Daniel Moore,

John Lindsey,

David Reed,

John Gordon,

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History of Knox County, Ohio, its past and present, Part 64

Author: Hill, N. N. (Norman Newell), comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A.A. & Co., Mt. Vernon, Ohio Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Mt. Vernon, Ohio : A. A. Graham & Co. Number of Pages: 1096

Author: Hill, N. N. (Norman Newell), comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A.A. & Co., Mt. Vernon, Ohio
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Mt. Vernon, Ohio : A. A. Graham & Co.
Number of Pages: 1096