History of Licking County, Ohio: Its Past and Present, Part 38

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

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In the war of 1812, notwithstanding his age, being about sixty years old, he volunteered for the defence of Fort Meigs. On the formation of a company in Newark, he was selected to conduct the men to headquarters, at Worthington, for or- ganization. At the election of company officers he was made lieutenant, while the late General John Spencer was elected captain. Three of his sons were also engaged in the war;of 1812, one of whom contracted a disease from which he died.

Mr. Hughes lived many years on the North fork, a few miles above Newark, and also several years at Clinton, in Knox county, from whence he removed to Monroe township, near Johnstown.

In 1827 his wife died, and most of his children having married and moved from the county, he became an inmate of the house of his son Jona- than, who is yet living in the county at the age of eighty-four. Jonathan was born in Virginia in 1796, and was a mere infant when his father reached the mouth of Licking (1797). When, in 1798, the family removed to Bowling Green, he was put into one end of a salt-sack, with an opening for his head, and his brother, David, two years older, in the other end. The sack was, on their daily march, slung across a pack-saddle, and in this manner the only survivor of the twenty-one made his advent at the Bowling Green.

For many years Elias Hughes was a pensioner,

regularly receiving from a benificent government an amount of money that enabled him to spend his declining years in the full enjoyment of all the necessaries of life, kindly ministered unto by his son and family, with whom he spent the last sev- enteen years of his life in the quiet village of Utica.

His life was filled with experiences more diver- sified than usually falls to the lot of man. He always met adversity, and the stern realities of life uncomplainingly and like a man. Enduring, as he did, for the last sixteen years of his life, the terri- ble affliction of total blindness, he was deprived of much enjoyment, but he was resigned and patient, thus exhibiting his courage and manhood to the last. His mind turned upon religious matters in these latter years, and he cherished hopes of a happy future.

He died in December, 1844, and was buried with military honors and other demonstrations of respect. 1

His age is not certainly known, but it is sup- posed that he was more than ninety years old.

Such was the life, briefly sketched, of one of the most remarkable of the pioneers of this county. It was a life full of privation, adventure, hardship, toil, exposure and excitement, preserved through all to an unusual length.

The two families of Hughes and Ratliff, and that of a man named John Carpenter, of which little or nothing is known, were the sole occupants of the territory now constituting this county, at the close of the last century. Early in the spring of the opening year (1800) of the present century, three more families, Greens, Pitzers and Van Bus- kirks were added to the number. In August, Isaac Stadden and family came, making the seventh; and in September, Captain Samuel Elliott and family arrived, constituting the eighth. The marriage of Colonel John Stadden and Betsey, daughter of the aforesaid Green, which took place on Christmas day, 1800, made the ninth family, which was the whole number in this territory when the year closed.

In the spring of 1799, Benjamin Green, a revo- lutionary soldier, and his son-in-law, Richard Pit- zer, left Alleghany county, Maryland, to settle in the Northwest Territory. On reaching the neigh-

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borhood of Marietta, they decided to remain there a year and raise a crop, thus postponing, for a brief period, their removal further westward.

Early in the spring of 1800 they removed their families to Shawnee run, locating about two miles east of the junction of the North and South forks of the Licking, on the farm once owned by Hon. Wm. O'Bannon. Here they remained two years, when they purchased land upon Hog run, within the present limits of Licking township, and re- moved to this land. (A full account of these two pioneers will be found in a history of that town- ship, as their lives, and that of their families, were mostly spent there. Mr. Pitzer died there in 1819.)

The Greens had a family of fourteen children, eleven of whom were born before their arrival at Shawnee run. John Green, one of the sons, was an extensive contractor on the Ohio canal, and re- moved to Ottawa, Illinois. He led an active, in- dustrious life, and acquired a large fortune. Isaac, another son, was a man of much intelligence and worth, who represented Licking county several terms in the legislature-being elected in 1841 and 1842. Richard died in 1872, aged eighty-seven, having been seventy-two years a resident of this county. He was the canoe-boy of the Muskingum in 1800, and lived here a longer time than any other person, except Colonel Jonathan Hughes, the salt-sack boy of 1798.

In the spring of 1800, probably not a week after the advent of Green and Pitzer at Shawnee run, John Van Buskirk arrived and entered upon a tract of land of thirty-one hundred acres, on the South fork, in what is now Union township. He had previously purchased it, and at once began erecting buildings, clearing land and raising crops. Mr. Van Buskirk was born in New Jersey, and came with his father's family in 1780 to Brooke county, Virginia, where he grew to manhood, and where, also, he married and lived until his removal to the South fork, as above stated. He was a man of liberal means, being pecuniarily in more indepen- dent circumstances than most of the pioneers.

He came to his new home in the wilderness by way of "Zane's trail," as far as Brush creek, in Fair- field county; bringing with him a full supply of wagons and domestic animals, and made the sixth settler within the present limits of the county.

Mr. Van Buskirk was a stout, active, resolute man, a woodsman of the first order, frequently ac- companying such chieftains as Captain Samuel Brady and John McCulloch in their expeditions against the Indians. He acted well his part as a faithful, ever ready, efficient pioneer on the fron- tier of Virginia, in giving protection to the settlers that were endeavoring to establish themselves in permanent homes on both sides of the Ohio, dur- ing the twenty years of Indian warfare ; his resi- dence being at, or near, the mouth of Buffalo creek, in Brooke county, Virginia. Those were years of fierce conflict, murderous warfare, barbar- ity, blood and carnage.

He remained on his farm at the South fork until 1804, when he removed to Newark and rebuilt the Petticord and Belt mills, which he run persistently, much more to the benefit of the public than him- self, until near his death.

He died on the last day of December, 1840, at the age of almost eighty-five years. He was, in the early part of his eventful life, a man of great enterprise and force of character, and while living on the frontier, in common with his fellow fron- tiersmen, endured many hardships, and had many hair-breadth escapes from marauding Indians in his conflicts with them. As a spy, he was invaluable, and scouted extensively between the Ohio and Tuscarawas rivers. Courage and patriotism were his distinguishing characteristics. His family were the first to enter the territory of this county from the southeast in a wagon. He left the "Zane trail," east of Lancaster, cutting a road from there to his land on the South fork, in the spring of 1800.

Isaac Stadden and Colonel John Stadden were also pioneer settlers in the Licking valley this year (1800). They came from Northumberland county, Pennsylvania. John was a widower, and had been in the service of some surveying party, this, proba- bly, being the means of bringing to his notice the beautiful valley of the Licking. It was, probably, the same party to which he was attached as axe- man, or chain-carrier, that Captain Elias Hughes served as hunter. Isaac Stadden had a wife and two children.

In the spring of 1800, these veteran pioneers came up the Licking valley, entered some bottom

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land, partially cleared, a mile below Newark, now on the Jones farm, built a cabin, prepared some ground and put in a crop.

At the same time the Elliotts were raising corn below them, on the Davis farm, and Green and Pitzer doing the' same thing on Shawnee run, on the O'Bannon farm, while near the mouth of Bow- ling Green run, Hughes and Ratliff were similarly employed. That was all the farming that was be- ing done on the Licking in 1800, between the junction of the North and South forks and the line of Muskingum county.

The pioneers in the sparsely settled Northwest Territory were not then favored with mail facilities, and no communication passed between Mr. Stad- den and his wife, during all those weary months that he was engaged in erecting a cabin, clearing land and raising corn, from early spring until late in the summer. A mail was occasionally brought to Zanesville, then the nearest post-office to the settlers on the Licking, but little reliance was placed on it. If letters came through at all from the old settlements, the pioneers were lucky, even if they were a long time on the way. They were subject to high postage-about eight times the pre- sent rate.

In September, 1800, Isaac Stadden removed his family from Pennsylvania into the cabin he had erected for them. His was the second wagon that came up the Licking valley. Meanwhile John Stadden, having made the acquaintance of Betsey Green, daughter of Benjamin, became enamored of the fair maid of Shawnee run, and after an honest courtship, of reasonable length for pioneer times, they were married; this being the first mar- riage within the territory now embraced in Licking county.

This pioneer marriage was to take place on December 10, 1800, but was not consummated until Christmas of that year. There was not a preacher or squire nearer than Zanesville, and when the late Judge Henry Smith, who was then acting magistrate of the Northwest Territory, living at the mouth of Licking, was invited to perform the marriage ceremony in this case, on the tenth of December, he informed Mr. Stadden that the territorial laws required that written notice of the intention of the parties be posted up at three con-

spicuous places for fifteen days before the wedding, and if that had been done, he would be there. Mr. Stadden's ignorance of territorial law suddenly brought him to anchor. He came home, put up the notices as quickly as possible, and submitted with some disappointment and despondency to the inexorable law of the land-hence the marriage occurred on Christmas instead of December 10th.

Squire Smith came up to Mr. Green's, and made John and Betsey one. A child born to them in the latter half of 1801, was the second birth in what is now Licking county, and its decease, before the close of that year, was the second death.

Mrs. Isaac Stadden related to Hon. Isaac Smucker that late in October, 1800, her husband went into Cherry valley to hunt deer, that being better hunting ground than the Licking valley; and that he came home in the evening greatly excited, having discovered the "Old Fort," of which he had not before heard. The next morning they mounted their horses, and took a good look at this great curiosity, riding all around it on the top of the embankment. So far as known, they were the first white persons who saw this great work of antiquity.

During the early years of Mr. Stadden's resid- ence here, Indians were more or less numerous, but were pacifically disposed. Mrs. Stadden once gave a humorous account of the attempt of one of them, who came along frequently, to buy her of her husband, by the offer of a considerable number of skins of wild animals. The offer was made in good faith, and somewhat pressed, but Mr. Stadden was not much in a trafficking mood on that occasion.

In November, or early in December, 1800, Mr. Stadden went out to hunt deer above the "Old Fort," on Ramp creek. There, toward evening, in a dense forest, he met John Jones, Phineas Ford, Frederick Ford, Benoni Benjamin and a Mr. Den- ner. Jones and the Fords were married to the sisters of Benjamin. Jones was of Welsh extrac- tion, born in New Jersey, but had lived in the same neighborhood with Mr. Stadden in Pennsylvania, where they had been schoolmates. Neither knew that the other was in the Northwest Territory. Neither had seen the other for many years, and had known nothing of their intervening histories, or

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whereabouts. The romantic interest of such a meeting under such circumstances may be imagined. The Fords were Yankees, and Benjamin, a Penn- sylvanian, and all became prominent pioneer settlers.

When met at their camp-fire by Stadden, they were exploring with a view to settlement, and did settle a few months afterward-Mr. Jones on the Munson farm, and the Fords and Benjamin on Ramp creek. Denner became a day laborer for McCauly, who located near the mouth of Ramp creek early in 1801. The company accepted Mr. Stadden's invitation to visit him at his cabin, and did so shortly after. Jones raised a crop of corn in the Licking bottoms, near Stadden's cabin in the summer of 1801.

John Stadden moved to Hog run in 1802, and in 1808 was elected the first sheriff of Licking county, in which office he served two years. He was also, for some years, collector of taxes, and held various positions of honor and trust in civil and military life. His son Richard was sheriff of the county from 1834 to 1838, and was, in the last named year, elected a member of the Ohio senate.

Colonel John Stadden was a man of integrity, uprightness, and a fair degree of intelligence. Late in life he removed with his wife to Illinois, where they died. They were honored and highly esteemed while living, and died leaving a reputation untarnished. He and his wife were among the original members of the first Methodist society formed in the county, by Rev. Asa Shinn, in 1804.

Mr. Isaac Stadden was a carpenter by trade, and brought his tools when he came to the county, which he used to the great convenience of the neighborhood. Especially was he useful in making all the coffins needed by the early settlers, for a number of years. The coffin for Mrs. Ratliff, who died in 1802, was made by him, and so were many others. They were at first made out of puncheons split out, then hewed and planed.

Isaac Stadden built a "hand-mill" during the winter after he came, for the purpose of grind- ing the corn grists of a few neighbors, as well as for his own accommodation. This was the first effort at mill building, with the possible exception of one, a "make shift," previously erected by Elias Hughes. He raised a crop in 1801, and in the spring of

1802 moved upon land he had purchased further down the valley, upon which he lived until his death, which occurred in 1841. His wife contin- ued to reside upon the same place until she died, July, 1870, at the ripe age of ninety years.

The township of Licking, including the whole of what is now Licking county, except the Refugee lands, and a portion of Knox, was organized in 1801; and in January, 1802, at an election held at the cabin of Elias Hughes, Isaac Stadden was elected justice of the peace-the first in the terri- tory now comprising Licking county. Probably Mr. James Maxwell was elected constable at this same election. In a year or two John Warden was elected the successor of Mr. Stadden. He resigned in a short time and William Wright, of Newark, succeeded to the office.

A short time after Isaac Stadden moved upon his own land he formed a partnership with a Mr. John Goldthwaite for the purpose of starting a nursery of fruit trees. This project was a success; and from this nursery came many of the orchards in this section of the State. Johnny Appleseed had a nursery on what was known as the "Scotland farm," about three miles northeast of Newark, but it did not amount to much, as it was not enclosed, and the young trees were eaten off by cattle. When she left her home in Pennsylvania, in 1800, Mrs. Stadden took up and placed in her "chist" three small apple trees, which she planted with her own hands here. One of these trees is yet living and bearing. Three sons of Isaac Stadden are yet living in this county.

A few days after the Staddens located in Licking valley, Captain Samuel Elliott came, locating one and a half miles below the junction of the North and South forks, in September, 1800. In the spring of this year he and his two sons left his mountain home in Allegheny county, Maryland, and came to this valley, where they erected a cabin, planted corn and potatoes, then returned for the family. This cabin was built near the large spring, on the farm now owned by T. J. Davis. He was probably drawn to this point to be near Messrs. Green and Pitzer, who were from his neighborhood in Mary- land. In autumn Captain Elliott returned with his wife and twelve children, took possession of their cabin, and harvested the crop.

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Elliott's family constituted the eighth then within the limits of the county, and the colony was not further increased during the year 1800. The marriage of Colonel Stadden and Betsey Green, however, created another family, so that nine fam- ilies occupied the territory now embraced within the limits of Licking county at the closing of the first year of this century.

While Captain Elliott lived here he entertained, several days, Rev. McDonald, a missionary of the Presbyterian church, who preached the first ser- mon ever delivered in the territory of Licking county. It was late in 1801, or early in 1802.

The manufacture of a web of twenty yards of nettle-cloth by the wife and daughters of Captain Elliott, while they resided here, was one of the events of the day. In the absence of flax it was the best they could do. Such were the expedients necessity compelled the pioneers to resort to.

Captain Elliott was born near Ballymena, county Antrim, province of Ulster, Ireland, in 1751. On his arrival in America, in 1771, he settled in the colony of Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. Here he lived during the dawning era of the Revolution, and, when the contest commenced, took sides with the struggling colonists. Toward the close of the war he married in Northampton county, Pennsyl- vania, from where he emigrated to western Mary- land, remaining there until his removal to the Licking valley.

In 1802 Captain Elliott erected the first hewed- log house in Newark. It stood on East Main street, on Mrs. Fullerton's lot. He moved into it during the same year, and was one of Newark's earliest inhabitants. He soon purchased of General Schenck, one of the proprietors of Newark, some lands lying about a mile west of the village, upon which he settled in 1804, and where he remained until his death, which occurred May 24, 1831.

The death of Mrs. Elliott took place on the same farm, May 19, 1822. Her age was sixty-four years. She was a woman of rare excellence of character, and ruled her household wisely and well, her children becoming useful members of society. She died in communion with the Presbyterian church, and her pastor, Rev. S. S. Miles, commem- orated her virtues in an appreciative obituary sketch, published in the Newark Advocate, May 23,

1822, then conducted by Mr. Benjamin Briggs.

Upon the organization of Licking county, in 1808, Captain Elliott became coroner, serving many years in that office, and was succeeded by his son, Alexander, who served many years.

In religion the Elliotts were Presbyterians; and in character, were upright, industrious and highly esteemed in all the relations of life. Three of the boys were engaged in the war of 1812; two of the grandsons, David Taylor and. Alexander Elliott, served with honor in the Mexican war, and two, William and Jonathan Taylor, served long and faithfully in the Union army during the late war. William encountered a fatal rebel bullet at Arkan- sas Post; Jonathan survived the "march to the sea" with Sherman's army. Reuben Lunceford, and a number of other great grandsons, also fought the rebels, including two young Elliotts, who lost their lives in the service. Lieutenant Reuben Harris, a grandson, was long a gallant officer in the navy, and died in the service.

One of the daughters married Dr. Noah Harris, who came to Newark to practice his profession about the year 1808, and had a successful profes- sional career of twenty-five years. He left a num- ber of children who were educated by their mother, who lived to the age of seventy-three, dying at Newark August 16, 1863.

The late Hon. Horatio J. Harris, was a son of Doctor Harris, and a grandson of the pioneer, Captain Elliott. He attained to high position in public life, and may be regarded as a successful politician, who was not without a good share of ability. He was a native of Newark, but removed in early life to Indiana, where he served respec- tively in the offices of clerk of the senate, State senator, and auditor of State. During General Taylor's presidential term he was appointed district attorney of Mississippi, having previously moved to that State. Ill health compelled him to resign his position; he came to Newark on a visit to his relatives, where he died, having scarcely reached middle life. He was a young man of much prom- ise.

Sarah, the youngest daughter of Captain Elliott, died in Newark May 13, 1872, aged seventy-four years. She married in 1821, the late General Jon- athan Taylor. Mr. Taylor represented this county

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in the general assembly, and was elected to Con- gress in 1838. He led a very active life and was a commanding character in the community. At the time of his death, his oldest son, David, was a soldier in Mexico, and died shortly after his return. Another son lost his life in the great rebellion. Mrs. Taylor had a fine intellect and excellent judg- ment. She was a model pioneer woman, who practiced all the matronly virtues, led an industri- ous, useful life, and died regretted by her many friends.

This closes a sketch of the early pioneers of Licking county, up to the beginning of the year . 1801. Of the family of Carpenter, who probably came to the Licking valley in 1800, or before,

nothing whatever is known, as before stated; and it is even doubted whether he brought his family with him. Without including this, the number of families within this territory at the beginning of 1801, was eight, all settlers in Licking valley, and all, except Van Buskirk, within the present limits of Madison township. The Fords, Jones and Benjamin, the party mentioned as having been found by Stadden in Raccoon valley late in the fall of 1800, were not settlers of that year; they were here to "prospect" and enter land, and were settlers early in the spring of 1801, when they came with their families. Biographical sketches of them, and other early pioneers will be found in the history of the township in which each settled.

CHAPTER XXV.

PIONEER WOMEN OF THE COUNTY.

SARAH TAYLOR-CATHARINE STADDEN-SARAH DAVIS-MRS. HARRIS-MARY KEMPER-MRS. HENRY SMITH-JEMIMA THRAP-MRS. BENNETT-NANCY SUTTON-MRS. PERKINS-SARAH JEFFRIES-NAOMI TEDRICK-ALMENA ROSE BAN- CROFT-MRS. MOTHERSPAW-SABRA EVERETT-SARAH DUKE-SUSAN E. DORSEY-REBECCA WALCOTT-ELIZABETH SEYMOUR-MRS. MUNSON -- MARY MYERS-MARGARET WILSON-HANNAH HORN-LOVINA HUGHES-MINA ADELIA HOWE-MRS. HOSKINSON-ELEANOR DONIVAN-MARY CULLY-HANNAH HARRIS-ELIZABETH SHAFFER-ELIZA- BETH MOORE-SARAH HARRIS-RACHEL YOUNG-MRS. JACOB SPERRY-SARAH ROBERTSON-MRS. COLEMAN- ELIZABETH SMOOTZ-MRS. HENRY-SARAH TAYLOR-MARGARET WINEGARNER-MARY SWIGART-SARAH MILLER- ELIZABETH ENGLISH -- MATILDA COULTER-CATHARINE WILKIN-ABIGAIL ROWE-SARAH CONINE-MARGARET WEAVER-SUSAN FRY-MRS. COLVILLE-MRS. ASHBROOK-MRS. BRAKEBILL .- MRS. PRIEST-MRS. STANBERY - MRS. MAHOLM-ELIZABETH PYLE-RACHEL ABBOTT-MRS. MCMULLEN-MRS. HENTHORN-SARAH KINDLE-MRS. SPELLMAN-HANNAH SARGENT ROWELL-HANNAH REEVES.

" Look where we may, the wide earth o'er, Those lighted faces smile no more.

We tread the paths their feet have worn,

We sit beneath their orchard trees, We hear, like them, the hum of bees

And rustle of the bladed corn; We turn the pages that they read, Their written words we linger o'er, But in the sun they cast no shade, No voice is heard, no sign is made, No step is on the conscious floor."-Whittier.

THE history of any territory would be incom- T

plete without some notice of the pioneer women, who, by reason of sex and their limited sphere of action, could not become conspicuous in the great drama of pioneer life, but whose busy hands and feet, and conscientious regard of duty

made them great factors in the establishment of the solid foundation upon which the society of to-day rests. The people of to-day hardly realize or appreciate what they owe to the large-hearted pioneer mothers, who braved with their husbands and children the perils of the wilderness; who reared their families in the fear of God, and im- planted within them all the virtues necessary to the welfare of humanity, and passed away, leaving to them an inheritance that is invaluable and that should ever be cherished and kept in sacred re- membrance.

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History of Licking County, Ohio: Its Past and Present, Part 38

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