History of Licking County, Ohio: Its Past and Present, Part 37

Author: N. N. Hill, Jr.
Publication date: 1881
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 826

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Two years afterward (1810) Billy Dragoo re- solved to abandon Indian life and its degradations, and spend the remainder of his days in the enjoy- ment of the blessings of civilization. Taking two of his children, aged two and ten, respectively, he returned to Monongahela county and spent five years with his father and brothers. These two children subsequently rejoined their mother.

Dragoo married again, in 1815, and raised an- other family of children. In 1823 he removed to Perry township, this county, where he resided until his death-about thirty years ago. Two of his daughters yet reside in Perry township.

He never wholly abandoned his half civilized habits and mode of life, but continued until his death to spend most of his time fishing and hunt- ing. He was a quiet, peaceable, inoffensive. man, and was greatly esteemed for his many excellent qualities.

The next white man to enter the limits of Licking county was Captain Samuel Brady, the noted scout and Indian fighter, with a party of hunters and scouts under his direction. The exact date of this expedition has not been ascertained, but it must have been about 1792, or possibly a year later.

The facts here given, pertaining to this scouting party, are upon the authority of four gentlemen of credibility, namely: Messrs. Hamilton, Simms and Darrah, who afterward settled in Muskingum county, and Mr. Jonathan Evans, who located near the Ohio river, below Marietta, all four having been members of the expedition.

In interviews with the above named scouts, by Rev. C. Springer, more than half a century ago, as well as during subsequent years (the three first named being his near neighbors and friends), the objects or purposes of the expedition were de- clared to be "to ascertain the condition of the more or less hostile Indians of the Muskingum and some of its tributaries, to learn the state of their feelings toward the border settlers, and inci-

dentally to chastise such small hunting or maraud- ing bands as might fall in their way."

The members of the expedition crossed the Ohio river at Wheeling, and directed their course to the forks of the Muskingum, at the junction of the Tuscarawas and 'Walhonding rivers (Coshocton). From there they moved up the Walhonding to the mouth of Kokosing or Owl creek, now called Ver- non river. This stream they followed until they came to a point north of and, near the headwaters of the Licking (probably the present site of Mt. Vernon), when they turned south and followed down the valley of the north fork of Licking to its junction with the south fork at Newark.

From here they continued down the Licking four or five miles, until they reached the level plat of natural prairie, extending a mile or more along the river. Captain Brady was greatly enamored of the beautiful lawn which here presented itself to his view. To him it resembled a well-remem- i bered spot in Virginia known as "Bowling Green." 1 He therefore called it Bowling Green, and by this name it is yet known. The contiguous locality, in early times known as "Montour's Point," is now -- seldom mentioned, but "Bowling Green" is a very familiar name.

The expedition, being composed of frontiers- men who expertly used the rifle, provisioned itself from day to day upon the game of the forest.

On reaching the falls of Licking, four miles from the Muskingum, it was found expedient to spend a day in hunting.

"Near evening" writes Rev. C. Springer, "all the men had returned to camp but Jonathan Evans. After waiting in suspense for some time, they gave their usual signal for lost persons-firing their guns-but no response came from Jonathan; and as they had that day discovered fresh Indian signs, they had little doubt that he was captured.

Apprehending danger to themselves, they, for greater security, passed around the hill immedi- ately southeast of Dillon's old furnace, where they lay concealed during the night. In the morning they resumed their march down stream, not deem- ing it safe to remain longer, although Evans had not rejoined them, and soon reached the present site of Zanesville. They continued down the river, but before reaching the mouth of Moxahala

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creek they, to their great joy, found Evans. He had strayed away, got lost, in fact, and remained all night upon an elevated point of land on the bank of the Moxahala, a few miles above its mouth.

This stream was therefore named by Brady "Jonathan's creek," and by that name it has gen- erally been known since, and appears under that name in maps, gazetteers and histories.

After the restoration of Jonathan Evans to the expedition, they constructed bark canoes, in which they descended the Muskingum to Marietta.

In passing over the rapids, nine or ten miles be- low the falls of the Muskingum, the canoe of am Irishman named Duncan was wrecked and him- self thrown into the stream, from which he was rescued with but little difficulty. Thereupon those rapids were called "Duncan's Falls," and have ever since borne that name.

Thus the men of Captain Brady's expedition gave names to two important places on their line of march, and its commander very happily named another interesting locality in the vicinity of Newark, which names continue to be recognized by authors and historians.

So far as known, the last man to visit the pres- ent territory of Licking county, before the first settlement was made, was a gentleman afterward known as "Judge Elliott."

The Indian village on the Bowling Green, sev- eral times referred to in this chapter, was the scene of Judge Elliott's operations. He was a bold, adventurous, enterprising young Pennsyl- vanian, who brought with him a stock of goods and became an "Indian trader."

He was the father of the late Benjamin Elliott, who lived three miles north of Newark, in Newton township. The point of high land that juts out into the first bottom of the Licking valley, and upon which stands the mansion of Charles Mont- gomery, close by the Bowling Green run, was in early times known as "Montour's Point," named in honor of the half-breed, Andrew Montour, before mentioned. Upon this spot Elliott estab- lished himself in a hut, or wigwam, for money- making purposes, as a dealer in such goods as he might be able to trade to the Indians for fur and peltry. He might be called the first white settler

within the limits of Licking county, although he was not allowed to remain, as will be seen.

Just what date Elliott became a resident of this Indian village is not known, but it must have been before Wayne's treaty of 1795, as will be manifest by the following account of the manner in which his mercantile venture terminated. After that treaty, Indian traders were not molested in their occupation.

One day a friendly squaw, in whose veracity Elliott had the utmost confidence, informed him of a plot concocted by the Indians, to take his scalp and appropriate to themselves his effects. Realizing the situation at a glance, he hastily gathered up his most valuable goods, and secretly mounting his horse, made all possible speed on the most direct trail to the settlements beyond the Ohio river.

He had been gone but a short time when the discovery was made by the savages, who at once started in pursuit, and did not abandon it until they arrived at the Ohio river, reaching it just in time to see Elliott on the opposite bank, under the protec- tion of the white settlers.

The Indians confiscated the goods he was com- pelled to leave behind at the "Point," but failed to get his scalp; albeit he was never afterwards very familiar with them, and never resumed his trading operations this side of the river. He was, prob- ably, the first merchant within the county limits.

When in subsequent years the trader of Mon- tour's Point was known, he was a citizen of Hun- tingdon county, Pennsylvania, and a member of the county court. At least as early as 1805, Judge Elliott was a large land holder in what is now Newton township. Although a frequent visitor to the county, he never became a permanent settler here.

He laid out the second village in the county in 1805. It was located upon his land, where the Mt. Vernon road crosses the Brushy fork, three miles north of Newark, and on the south bank of that stream. He gave it the name of "Fairfield," but it ultimately became known as "Canonsburgh," in honor of Thomas Canon, the tavern-keeper of the village. It contained a few houses at one time, but they were primitive in style. After a time, there being no prospect that it would become a

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town, it was vacated and the lots annexed to the contiguous cornfields.

Judge Elliott's village had its birth in Licking township, Fairfield county; its death took place in Newton township, Licking county.

He spent many of the years of his early life in the west, and in his business operations displayed much daring and enterprise. He owned lands convenient to the "Big Spring," sometimes called the "Spencer Spring;" and upon the stream that rises from the spring, and near its entrance into the North fork, he built a saw-mill in 1814.

Judge Elliott was one of a numerous family con- nection, composed of men of energy and more than ordinary ability. His brother, Colonel Robert Elliott, was a contractor in the army, was ambuscad- ed and killed by Indians near Cincinnati in 1794. Commodore Elliott, who participated, as second in command, in Perry's victory on Lake Erie, and was conspicuously identified with the American navy until 1845, was his nephew. In the war of the Rebellion, some of his descendants were con- spicuous in the navy, acting an honorable part, and rendering the name famous.

The following incident is given on the authority of B. C. Woodward, esq., to whom it was related by Mr. Jennings Crawford, of Iowa, a son of the Crawford below mentioned:

Shortly after the treaty of Greenville, rumors of peace reached Wheeling, and to ascertain the truth, the commandant of the post at that place dispatched six men, belonging to Samuel Brady's company of scouts, in the direction of Sandusky. This party was made up of skilled backwoodsmen,

among whom were Crawford and one of the Wet- zels. They crossed the Muskingum at Dresden, came across to the Licking river, up which they travelled to the present site of Newark. Here they turned north along the North fork, and after going a short distance beyond the site of Mt. Vernon, they became satisfied that Indians were watching them with hostile intent, and turned back. Following the route they came, they en- camped for the night about fourteen miles west of the present site of Dresden, in the eastern part of what is now Licking county, and not far from the line of Muskingum county-probably on the farm owned by the late Jocob Frees. In this camp they were fired upon by Indians, in the night; one of the party killed and one wounded. They scattered and made their way separately, the best they could, to Wheeling. Mr. Crawford afterward returned, with a companion, and buried the dead man.

If the account of this affair be correct, this was probably the first death of a white man that oc- curred within the limits of Licking county.

The expedition ended the invasion of Licking county by white men until 1796-7, when the sur- veyors, in the employ of the government, came into Licking valley to "spy out the land." They were accompanied by Elias Hughes, in the capacity of hunter and guide, and it was at this time that he made the discovery of the beauty and desira- bility of the valley of the Licking. Two years after, in the year 1798, he returned to this valley with his family, and became the first settler of the county.

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CHAPTER XXIV.

THE FIRST PIONEERS.

ELIAS HUGHES 'AND JOHN RATLIFF-HUGHES AS SCOUT AND INDIAN FIGHTER-THE SHOOTING OF A SQUAW BY MC- LANE-ARRIVAL OF HUGHES AND RATLIFF ON THE BOWLING GREEN-THEIR SUBSISTENCE-THE SHOOTING OF THE INDIAN HORSE THIEVES-ERECTION OF A BLOCK-HOUSE-MR. BLAND-GREEN AND PITZER-JOHN VAN BUSKIRK -ISAAC AND JOHN STADDEN-FIRST MARRIAGE IN THE COUNTY-ISAAC STADDEN'S DISCOVERY OF THE OLD FORT -STADDEN'S MEETING WITH THE FORDS AND BENJAMIN-FIRST ELECTION IN THE COUNTY-CAPTAIN SAMUEL ELLIOTT.

"Ask who of all our race have shown The largest heart, the kindliest hand; Ask who with lavish hands have strown, Rich blessings over all the land; Ask who has sown that we might reap, The harvest, rich with seventy years;

And every heart and every voice Make answer: Licking's Pioneers." -A. B. Clark.

TN the preceding chapter, a history of the white occupation of the territory embraced within the limits of Licking county, has been brought down to the year 1798, at which date the first permanent settlers, Hughes and Ratliff, arrived. It is neces- sary and proper here to give brief biographical sketches of a few of the most prominent of the early pioneers, whose lives are necessarily a part of the early history of this county.

The acts, achievements and exploits of individual character are history. This is pre-eminently true of the first settlers of a country-the pioneers. Especially is it true in such a country as this was, where the subjugation of the hostile tribes was the condition precedent to its permanent settlement. The pioneers of Licking county made its early history. Elias Hughes and John Ratliff remained here until their death, hence their names are as much interwoven in the history of Licking county, as is the name of George Washington with the history of the United States, or as are the names of General Grant and Abraham Lincoln with the history of the late Rebellion.

Elias Hughes was born near the south branch of the Potomac, a section of country which furnished Licking county with many of its first settlers and

most useful citizens. His birth occurred some- time before Braddock's defeat in 1755.

Of his early life little is known until 1774, when he is found in the army of General Lewis, engaged in the battle of Point Pleasant.

General Lewis commanded the left wing of the army of Lord Dunmore, then governor of Virginia, and successfully fought the distinguished Shawnees chief, Cornstalk, who had a large force of Indians under his command. One-fifth of Lewis' com- mand was killed or wounded, but Elias Hughes escaped unhurt in this hard-fought battle, which lasted an entire day. At the time of his death, which occurred more than seventy years after the battle, he was, and had been for years, the sole survivor of that sanguinary conflict.

Hughes is next found a resident of Harrison county, Virginia, where his chief employment dur- ing the twenty-one years that intervened between the battle of Point Pleasant, and the treaty of Greenville in 1795, was that of a scout or spy on the frontier settlements near to and bordering on the Ohio river. This service which, with him, was a labor of love, he rendered at the instance of his State, and of the border settlers who had been, for a long time, greatly harrassed by Indians. Hughes' father, and others of his kindred, and also a young woman to whom he was betrothed, were massacred by them. These acts of barbarity made him ever after an unrelenting and merciless enemy of the Indians, and in retaliation for their numerous butcheries, his deadly rifle was brought to bear fatally upon many of them.

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It is but an act of justice to the memory of this pioneer settler, who was well known as an Indian hater and an Indian slayer, that the provocation he had be clearly stated and properly understood. Born and reared on the frontier, among rude, un- lettered people; untaught and wholly uncultivated as he was, it is not surprising that under all these circumstances of horrid aggravation, he should have given rather full play to strong and malignant passions, and that he should have cherished even to old age, the more harsh and somewhat malign- ant feelings of his nature. This he did fully, so long as the Indian tribes sustained a hostile attitude toward the whites.

A word here in reference to a matter well re- membered by the old settlers. In 1820 an Indian squaw of the Stockbridge tribe was shot near the county line, between Utica and Martinsburgh. She was taken to Mt. Vernon where she died. One McLane shot her, and was sent to the peni- tentiary for it. He and four others named Mc- Daniel, Evans, Chadwick and Hughes (not Elias), were engaged in chopping, when this squaw and others of the tribe came along and camped near them. The diabolical proposition was made and accepted, that they should play cards, and that the loser should shoot her. McLane was the loser, and did the shooting. His confederates, or at least some of them, were tried and acquitted. In Norton's history of Knox county it is stated that "Hughes shot this squaw, simply to gratify his, hatred of the Indian race." How an intelligent man, writing history could justify himself for mak- ing such a gross mistake, regarding a matter on which he could easily get correct information from a thousand residents of this county and of Knox, it is hard to conceive. Elias Hughes had neither part nor lot in the matter, directly or remotely; but condemned the outrage in unmeasured terms. He was not guilty, and this emphatic denial is deemed an act of simple justice to Mr. Hughes.

Indian hostilities were terminated by the treaty of Greenville in 1795, and Hughes' services as a scout were no longer required; he therefore sur- rendered his commission as captain of scouts, and directed his thoughts to more pacific pursuits. He had been commissioned by that distinguished fron- tiersman, Colonel Ben Wilson, the father of Dan-

iel D. Wilson and Mrs. Dr. Brice, both of this county.

In 1796, Hughes entered, in the capacity of hunter, the service of a surveying party, who were about to engage in running the range lines of lands lying in what is now Licking county. This party was probably under the direction of John G. Jack- son, deputy surveyor under General Rufus Put- nam, surveyor general of the United States. The fine bottom lands on the Licking were thus brought to the notice of Hughes, and he resolved to leave his mountain home and "go west." Accordingly in the spring of 1797 he gathered together his effects, and with his wife and twelve children, made their way on foot and on pack-horses to the mouth of Licking. This point was made accessi- ble to horse-back travelers and footmen by the lo- cation and opening, the year before, by Zane and others, the road from Wheeling to Maysville; and also of a road previously cut from Marietta up the river.

John Ratliff, a nephew of Hughes, with a wife and four children, came with him, in the same manner, to the mouth of the Licking. Here they remained one year, and in the spring of 1798, both families, numbering twenty-one persons, came in the same manner up the Licking and settled on what is called the "Bowling Green," on the banks of the Licking, four miles east of Newark, a short distance above the mouth of Bowling Green run. This was the first permanent white settlement within the present limits of Licking county.

They found the "Bowling Green," a level untim- bered, green lawn or prairie, and they at once pro- ceeded to raise a crop of corn. Whether the Bowling Green was a natural prairie, or had been cleared by the Indians, remains an unsettled ques- tion. Their nearest neighbors for two years, lived near Nashport, a distance of ten miles. One of these was Philip Barrick, who in 1801 moved into this county.

This colony of twenty-one persons was subsisted mainly on the meat of wild animals, procured by the rifles of the settlers, although vegetables and a considerable corn crop were raised the first season. For many years bear, deer, wild turkeys, .and a great variety of smaller game were in such abun- dance as to supply the full demands of the settlers.

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Fruits, berries, and other spontaneous productions of the earth, also contributed many years, in no inconsiderable degree to the subsistance of the settlers, as did, also, the fish"in the streams.

Ratliff, in some particulars, was a different style of man from Hughes. He was much more in- clined to the peaceful avocations of life, and for one reared on the frontier, had not been largely engaged in border warfare; though he as well as Hughes, was considerably devoted to the chase, to fishing, trapping, bee-hunting, as well as to killing wild animals generally.

In 1801 two Indians came to the Bowling Green and stole four horses belonging to Hughes, Ratliff, Weedman, a recent immigrant, and a Mr. Bland, living at the mouth of the Licking, but who was, at this time, visiting Hughes. In the morning, find- ing their horses missing, the owners determined to pursue and kill the thieves, strongly suspecting the Indians. Hughes, Ratliff, and Bland armed them- · selves and started in pursuit. Weedman, for some reason, was not of the party. They were enabled to follow the trail, readily tracking them through the grass and weeds, and, overtaking them on the waters of Owl creek, shot them. Bland's flint did not strike fire, but Hughes' and Ratliff's did, and the Indians stole no more horses. When the In- dians were overtaken, and it was evident the horses would be recovered, Bland and Ratliff re- lented, and suggested to Hughes to let the thieves escape with their lives, but the latter was not that kind of a man. He remonstrated in such em- phatic terms, using such forcible expletives as to bring his associates to his way of thinking. When Hughes said a thing must be done, and he could do it or cause it to be done, it was done. In this case he had his way, and the Indian horse-thieves paid the forfeit. Hughes knew them, and believed them to have been engaged in stealing horses, and returning them to their owners for a compensation in skins and furs.

This sanguinary transaction necessitated the erection of a block-house on the Bowling Green, as a protection against the friends of the horse- thieves, who were greatly incensed against the white settlers for killing them; but it never became necessary to defend it.

Bland removed from Pendleton county, Virginia,

in 1798, with a wife and four children, coming twc hundred miles over the mountains on pack. horses, to Marietta, following bridle paths and In- dian trails a portion of the way. On reaching the mouth of the Licking he took refuge with his family in a sugar camp. Before he had time to erect a cabin, he had born to him in this sugar camp, a son, whom they rocked in a sugar trough. the only cradle at hand. Mr. Silas Bland, one of the pioneers of Perry township, was this child of the sugar trough.

The elder Bland, no less than his fellow fron- tiersmen, Hughes and Ratliff, possessed all the constituent elements of a first class pioneer; and, after acting well his part, he died in Muskingum county.

In 1802 Elias Hughes was elected captain of the first company of militia raised within the pres- ent limits of the county. This company he com- manded a number of years. The drills of the battalion, to which this company belonged were held at Lancaster.

Hughes had four children born to him on the Bowling Green, making the whole number sixteen, only one of whom, Jonathan, yet remains in the county.

Ratliff's wife died in 1802, and, probably, was the second adult white person,* and the first white settler to die within the present limits of this county; the only probable exception being that of Mrs. Jones, who died about the same time on the farm afterward owned by General Munson, is Granville township, four miles west of Newark! Her husband, John Jones, had erected the first cabin in that township, being the one in which she died. Ratliff married again, his second wife being the daughter of a pioneer by the name d Stateler, who lived near the mouth of Rocky fork He also raised quite a family, but none of ther now live-if living at all-in this county. He ha a son in the war of 1812, who, after his retur from the army, removed to Louisiana. Rate finally moved to the south side of the Licking near the mouth of the Brushy fork, where he die about the year 1811. Neither he nor Hugh seem to have had much success in acquiring pro

*See chapter on "First White Men," for first death in cound

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erty-there is no evidence that either of them had much ambition in that direction.

Elias Hughes, on all other subjects except In- dian warfare, was regarded as of a silent, taciturn disposition, but he was fond of relating his exploits and successes as a scout, and would sometimes sit up whole nights to relate, to willing listeners, his hair-breadth escapes and adventures, the thrilling stories and heroic acts and deeds of renown, in which he had borne a part. He was unassuming, generally mild-mannered, unpretending, unambi- tious, but firm, determined, unyielding; and when he resolved on a certain line of conduct, he gen -. erally pursued it to success or failed only after vig- orous effort. Fond of adventure, he displayed in border warfare, in battle, in the pursuit of Indians, the energy, bravery, and self-sacrificing and heroic virtues that belonged so pre-eminently to the early pioneers of the great west.

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History of Licking County, Ohio: Its Past and Present, Part 37

Author: N. N. Hill, Jr. Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Number of Pages: 826

Author: N. N. Hill, Jr.
Publication date: 1881
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 826