History of Licking County, Ohio: Its Past and Present, Part 43

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

USA > Ohio > Licking County > History of Licking County, Ohio: Its Past and Present > Part 43

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A considerable quantity of level or slightly un- dulating land is found on most of the farms, which produces corn and the different varieties of grasses well. Soft water springs abound, and it may be considered one of the best watered sec- tions of the county, although the streams are small.

The settlement has always been regarded as one of rare salubriousness; healthfulness being the rule among the hardy, robust inhabitants, and sick- ness the exception.

The earliest settlers on the Welsh Hills endured great hardships and privations, both in reaching their wild western homes, and during the first few years after their arrival. They had to cut out roads to enable them to get to their land with wheeled vehicles; and the roads over which they traveled from the Ohio river, were of recent con- struction, and but little better than trails through the woods. They generally came in wagons, but a few are said to have brought their families in canoes to Zanesville.

Indians often visited the Welsh settlers in early times, but they were not hostile. A sort of a chief named "Big Joe," and a few of his followers were frequently visitors at the house of David Lewis, and are still distinctly remembered by one of the mem- bers of his family, Mrs. Ann Cunningham, wife and John Cunningham, and who was often present during their visitations. They did no particular harm, but frightened the women and children, and were not, therefore, welcome visitors.

Wolves were very troublesome to the Welsh pio- neers, as well as all other pioneers of this county.

It is related of the son of Theophilus Rees,

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that on one occasion, when some distance from the house in the night, a pack of wolves sur- rounded and treed him, and then proceeded to gnaw at the trunk of the small tree, and make other menacing demonstrations as he sat on the lower limb. Fortunately their progress was ar- rested by some of the settlers, who were drawn thither by the unusually fierce howlings of the hungry beasts. On frequent occasions in the night, the wolves would gather in force around persons passing from one cabin to another, who had to be relieved by their friends armed with guns and torches.

Mrs. Cunningham, above mentioned, states that one night while her brothers, sons of David Lewis, and herself, were engaged in boiling sugar water, near their father's house, a pack of wolves sur- rounded them, and made such threatening dem- onstrations as to render it necessary for their parents to disperse them, which they did by the aid of fire-brands and perhaps powder and lead. They were held at bay by the children, by the free use of fire-brands, but the almost entire exhaustion of these brands before the arrival of assistance, rendered their position extremely perilous. Bears were numerous, and there were a few panthers, both very formidable foes.

Most of these Welsh emigrants, had a limited knowledge of the English language; they also tena- ciously maintained the necessity and importance of perpetuating their own language. In this, however, they did not differ from the Germans and other foreigners. Settled together, on contiguous tracts of land, and forming a community by themselves, they were enabled for many years to carry out their wishes in this regard, and the Welsh language, and no other, continued to be spoken in many of these families for a long series of years. The views these people entertained; their inability to converse in English, and the utter ignorance of the Welsh lan- guage on the part of those composing contiguous neighborhoods, made their condition, of necessity, one of isolation and apparent exclusiveness, or, as it appeared, clanishness. But if this was a fault, it grew out of the necessities of their condition.

Free intercourse with their American fellow-set- tlers was at first, and for many years, almost impos- sible, and this condition of things continued until

that world-wide renowned institution, the American common school-that entering wedge for civiliza- tion-was established in and around this settle- ment. Many of the older persons of this settle- ment never acquired a knowledge of the English language, but their children and grandchildren did, and gradually that language worked its way through the entire settlement. All their descen- dants of the present generation both understand and speak it with facility, and receive most of their education and training in it. Religious instruction is still continued in their own language, in three churches in Granville township and two in the city of Newark.

The Welsh pioneers and their descendants, as well as the present Welsh population of Licking county, may be characterized as pre-eminently re- ligious, adhering, generally, either to the Baptist, Methodist or Congregational churches. They are, with rare exceptions, Calvinistic in their views, holding those peculiar tenets, probably, in their milder forms. They are Calvinists, at all events, whether Baptists, Methodists or Congregationalists. Probably a larger proportion of them are church- goers and church-members, than is to be found among any other nationalities, native or foreign.

They spend very much more time in their churches for the purpose of receiving and impart- ing religious instruction, and for devotional exer- cises, than is usual with other churches and with other classes of citizens: neither are they surpassed by other churches, or systems of moral training, in their efforts at, and success in, developing a high 'order of consistent Christian character. They sus- tain five churches in this county exclusively, be- sides forming an integral portion of a number of others, in which they receive religious instruction in the English language. Prominent among these is the Welsh Hills Baptist church, organized with Welsh members in a great part, and since, mostly sustained by them.

The Welsh are, also, generally friends of tem- perance. When the Maine law was in issue in 1853, they were its unflinching friends, and have always been opposed to free drinking. They were especially zealous during the Washingtonian move- ment in 1841, and for several subsequent years.

During all the weary years in which the fierce

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battle between slavery and freedom was raging, this Welsh population stood with great unanimity on the side of freedom.

When protection and free trade were contending for supremacy in the governmental policy, the Welsh voters generally rallied under the protection flag.

When the Federal Union was imperiled by trai- tors, they were almost universally loyal to the government that had given them freedom and pro- tection, and many of them went forth to deadly con- flict on the battle-field. But few of them, if any, to their honor be it spoken, gave manifestations of sympathy with treason during the devastating war made by traitors in the interest of slavery, and against the government. The Welshmen of Lick- ing were patriots, and many of them offered up their lives as a sacrifice upon the altar of their country.

They have always given encouragement to schools and other agencies for mental and moral improvement. They are accustomed to read, re- flect, reason and mature their opinions, and when formed, they adhere to them with great tenacity- indeed they are proverbial for firmness, unyielding

determination and decision of character. They hold their opinions because they believe them to be correct, and they never give them up for the sake of accommodation. They are positive men-men of strong convictions, that cannot be surrendered to please anybody. They have always been up to the average standard of intelligence and general information. Sustaining, as they do, churches, schools, and the press, they could not fail to reach a good degree of enlightenment.

They place a full estimate on the value of money, but are, nevertheless, scrupulously honest and conscientiously upright; generally manifesting a high degree of integrity in their business re- lations.

The present occupants of the Welsh Hills, de- cendants of the pioneer settlers, have become considerably Americanized, readily adapting them- selves to American institutions, language, customs, habits and modes of thought. They are distin- guished for all the qualities of good citizenship, and justly claim a good degree of exemption from debasing habits, indulgence in groveling propensi- ties, drunkenness, and the debauchery, vice and crime which degrade humanity.

CHAPTER XXX.

HISTORICAL "SCRAPS."

DIMENSIONS OF THE COUNTY-MILITARY AND REFUGEE LANDS-PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT-EARLY SETTLERS AND SET- TLEMENTS-EARLY PREACHERS-TABLE OF CHURCHES-NUMBER OF MILES OF RAILROAD, TURNPIKE AND CANAL- THE LOG-CABIN-HARD-CIDER-COON-SKIN CAMPAIGN OF 1840-EARLY MAIL MATTERS-PROMINENT MEN OF THE COUNTY.

"Breathes there a man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land!"

T THE extreme width of Licking county is twenty- two and a half miles, from north to south, thirty miles from east to west. These dimensions would give the county six hundred and seventy-five square miles of territory; but as the original surveyors of 1796 failed to give a straight line on the northern boundary, a strip of sixteen miles in length, and

about three-fourths of a mile in breadth, was lost, which reduces the figures to six hundred and sixty- three miles. A tract of nearly two miles by two and a half in extent is also lost at the southeast corner of the county, which still further reduces the territory almost five square miles, leaving a sum total of only six hundred and fifty-eight square miles.

The eastern half of the county is gener- ally characterized as hilly, and only moderately

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productive, yet nearly all cultivable; while the western half is level or rather undulating, and with a very small proportion too uneven or steep for the plow. It is beautifully diversified by hill and dale -by high, irregular ridges and level plains-by sterile hills and fertile, alluvial bottoms-by the rough "hill country" of the eastern half of the county, and by the level and undulating lands of the western half. The eastern half is varied here and there by beautiful landscapes, high peaks, dark glens, inaccessible bluffs, cavernous dells, abrupt acclivities, rugged hillsides, craggy cliffs, such as are found on the "Flint Ridge," at the "Licking Narrows," along the Rocky fork, and in some other localities.

Nine-tenths or more of the county is situated within the old United States Military District, and is, therefore, to that extent composed of United States Military lands-that is, lands set apart by Congress in June, 1796, for the payment of certain claims of the officers and soldiers for services rendered during the Revolutionary war. The nar- row strip of two and a half miles wide, along the southern border of the county belongs to the Re- fugee tract-a tract of land dedicated by Congress in April, 1798, to the payment of the claims of those refugees whose possessions in Canada and Nova Scotia had been confiscated by the British government, upon the alleged ground that their owners had abandoned them, and had joined the colonists in their struggle for independence.

The United States Military lands amounted to two million six hundred and fifty thousand acres. The tract was bounded on the east by the west line of the seven ranges; on the south by Congress lands and by the Refugee tract; on the west by the Scioto river, and on the north by the Greenville treaty boundary line.

The Refugee tract was four and a half miles wide, and forty-eight miles long, extending eastward from the Scioto river, and contained one hundred thou- sand acres. The villages of Gratiot, Linnville, Amsterdam, Jacksontown, Hebron, Brownsville, Luray and Kirkersville are near to or upon the north line of the Refugee tract. Etna and Bow- ling Green townships are wholly within it; and the southern portions of Harrison, Union and Licking townships are also in the Refugee tract.

The territory which now constitutes Licking coun ty, was within the limits of Washington county (the first county organized in the Northwest Territory), from 1788 until 1798, when, by the organization of Ross county, it became a portion of it, and so re- mained until the year 1800, when Fairfield county being established, it was thrown into it and contin- ued to be a portion of said county until 1808, when the organization of Licking county was effected.

The first Territorial legislature of the Northwest Territory met at Cincinnati, September 16, 1799; and Ross county's representatives in that body were Edward Tiffin, Thomas Worthington, Samuel Findlay, and Elias Langham; and their only con- stituents living within the present limits of Licking county, were the families of Elias Hughes, and John Ratliff, consisting of twenty-two persons. The second session, with the same representatives, was held at Chillicothe, in November, 1800. The third session, with the same representatives, ex- cept Samuel Findlay, met at Chillicothe, November 23, 1801.

The Territorial delegates in Congress were Gen- eral William H. Harrison, who served from 1799 until 1800. William McMillen succeeded him, but served only until 1801, when Paul Fearing took his seat as such and served until 1803.

In November, 1802, a constitutional convention was held at Chillicothe, and formed the first con- stitution for the State of Ohio. At that time we were part and parcel of Fairfield county, and that county was represented in said convention by Henry Abrams and Emanuel Carpenter.

The first permanent white settlement made with- in the present limits of the county was effected in 1798, by Elias Hughes and John Ratliff. They came to the Bowling Green (now in Madison township), on the Licking, from western Virginia and were the only settlers until early in the year 1800. The two families spent the preceding year at the mouth of the Licking, and in the spring of 1798 they ascended said stream some twenty miles, and there squatted, both families numbering, upon their arrival, twenty-one persons; During the year 1799 a son was born to Elias Hughes, thus increas- ing the colony to twenty-two. The first death was

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that of an infant child of John Stadden, whose birth and death occurred in the latter part of the year 1801. The first marriage within the limits of Licking county, was that of the parents of the aforesaid child-John Stadden and Elizabeth Green-which took place on Christmas day in the year 1800. John Ratliff died on the south side of the Licking, near the mouth of the Brushy fork, about or in the year 1811. A few of the descend- ants of Hughes and Ratliff still reside in the county.

In the year 1800, Benjamin Green and Richard Pitzer settled on the Shawnee run, two miles below the junction of the North and South forks, having come from Alleghany county, Maryland. In the same year Captain Samuel Elliott, from the same county, settled half a mile above them. And in the same year Isaac Stadden, an emigrant from Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, settled half a mile above Captain Elliott. His brother John, an unmarried brother, accompanied him. He re- mained unmarried, however, only until the Christ- mas of this year. And it was during this year also that John Van Buskirk left Brooke county, Virginia, and settled upon a thirty-one hundred acre tract of land he had purchased, situated in the valley of the South fork (now in Union town- ship), some eight miles or more above the mouth of the South fork. His death occurred December 31, 1840.

Isaac Stadden was the first civil officer elected within the limits of the county. At an election held in January, 1802, at the cabin of Captain Hughes, he was chosen a justice of the peace of Licking township, then Fairfield county, and Elias Hughes, was elected captain of militia, at the same time and place. John Stadden became the first sheriff of Licking county, in 1808, and served as such, and as collector of taxes until 1810. Cap- tain Elliott was elected coroner of the county in 1808 and served as such for a score of years or more. He had been a soldier in the Revolution- ary war. His death took place in May, 1831, in his eightieth year. Benjamin Green lived until 1835, dying at the age of seventy-six years.

The year 1801 brought with it quite a number of settlers. John Larabee ascended the Licking river in a canoe to the mouth of the Bowling Green run, where he landed, and near that point on

the south side of the Licking, he occupied a hol- low sycamore tree, while he cleared some land, and raised a few acres of corn. He served throughout the whole Revolutionary war, and probably also in the Indian wars afterwards. Mr. Larabee died February 6, 1846, aged four score and six years. James Maxwell came up the Licking with Mr. Larabee, John Weedman and a Mr. Carpenter. Maxwell was the first school teacher, and made that his life-long profession. He was also the first constable, having been elected to said office, January 1, 1802, at the same time and place of the election of Captain Hughes and Isaac Stad- den, esq., Samuel Parr this year settled on the Licking bottoms, just below the junction of the North and South forks. James Macauley and James Danner located themselves near the mouth of Ramp creek, where the first named built a "tub- mill," or "corn-cracker," the first water power con- cern within the present limits of the county. Phil- lip Barrick settled near the "Licking Narrows." John Jones built his cabin in the Raccoon valley, five miles from the mouth of Raccoon creek, and Phineas and Frederick Ford and Benoni Benjamin theirs in the Ramp or Auter Creek valley, some miles from the mouth of Ramp or Auter creek. Phillip Sutton, Job Rathbone, and John and George Gillespie settled in the Hog Run valley. In September of this year, John Edwards came to the South Fork valley, from Brooke county, Virginia. He was distinguished as a hunter and an expert with the rifle, having been engaged as a spy for some years on the frontiers of Virginia, as well as the Northwest Territory. In coming he blazed the trees and killed the game for their subsistence, while others cut out the road, where necessary, and still others followed with the wagon, which con- tained his family and household effects.

The year 1802 brought many immigrants. Alex- ander Holmes and James Hendricks came from Brooke county, Virginia, and settled in the South Fork valley near the residence of their brother-in- law, John Van Buskirk. Theophilus Rees, David Lewis, David Thomas, James Johnson, and Simon James came this year, most of them settling on the Welsh Hills. Jacob Nelson settled in the Licking valley, and not long thereafter built a mill, a mile or more below the junction of the North and South

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forks. Newark was laid out this year by General W. C. Schenck; and Abraham Miller, John War- den and Henry Claybaugh came from the South branch of the Potomac, and settled in its imme- diate vicinity. Michael Thorn, Frederick Myer, and Henry Neff located at or near the Little Bowl- ing Green, on the southern borders of the county, during this year. They were from the Mononga- hela country, in West Virginia. Adam Hatfield, James Black, Richard Parr, Samuel Elliott, Henry Claybaugh, Samuel Parr, and Samuel Elliott, jr., built and occupied cabins in Newatk this year, except the younger Elliott, who probably had a tenant in his. The senior Elliott built the first hewed log house with shingled roof. Black kept a tavern on the lot now occupied by the Park House. Beall Babbs, James Jeffries and Mrs. Catharine Pegg, settled in or near Newark during this year. Jonathan Benjamin, father-in-law of John Jones and the Ford brothers, located on Ramp or Auter creek, in the spring of 1802. He had passed through the French and Indian wars, and through the Revolutionary war, also, and had been a frontiersman from his youth up. Mr. Ben- jamin died in 1841, at the great age of one hun- dred and three years. Patrick Cunningham, Abra- ham Johnson, Abraham Wright, James Petticord, Edward Nash, Carlton, Benedict, Aquilla, and two John Belts settled about and in Newark, except Cunningham, who first lived neighbor to John Jones, having built the second cabin within the present limits of Granville township. He was from Tyrone county, province of Ulster, Ireland; the others were from Washington county, Pennsyl- vania. A considerable colony from Brooke coun- ty, Virginia, also settled in the South Fork valley.

In 1803, John Evans settled in the North Fork valley, seven miles north of Newark, and in the spring of the same year Evan Payne and Jacob Wilson located in the same valley about a mile above the mouth of the North fork. They, as well Evans, were Virginians. John Simpson, Robert Church, William Schamahorn, Richard Jewell, Ed- ward Crouch, William and John Moore, Thomas Seymour, and William O'Bannon settled within the present limits of Madison township, during this year also.

In 1804, Thomas Cramer, Simon James and

Peter Cramer settled on the Welsh Hills; Evan Humphrey and Chiswold May settled near the Big Spring in Newton township. These were all Virginians. Daniel Thompson, his son-in-law, Daniel Enyart, and Matthias and Hathaway Den- man also came this year and settled in Hanover township; and Moses Meeks, William Harris, Charles Howard and John and Adam Myers set- tled in Bowling Green township; Maurice Newman settled in Newark; John and Jacob Myers, Daniel Smith and James Taylor settled in Union town- ship; John Channel, Thomas Deweese and Henry Smith settled in Madison township. Mr. Smith had officiated for some time as Territorial magis- trate, under a commission from Governor St. Clair. He became one of the early time magistrates of Madison and associate judge in the county.

In 1805, Rev. Joseph Thrap settled in the east- ern borders of the county ; George Ernst and John Feasel came from Shenandoah county, Virginia, and settled in Clay Lick valley; Elias and John Farmer came from Bedford county, Pennsylvania, and settled a few miles southwest of Newark; John and Jacob Switzer came to the Clay Lick from "the glades" of Pennsylvania; John Siglar settled in Hog Run valley; John Price, W. H. Mead and perhaps David Beaver located in the South Fork valley, as did David Herron and David Hatfield. in Newark; General John Spencer settled on Spen- cer run, in Newton township; Archibald Wilson, jr., settled in Newark. The most valuable addi- tion to the inhabitants of this year was the Gran- ville colony, an account of which appears else- where. Several emigrants also came to the Welsh Hills during this and the succeeding year, among whom were John Price, Benjamin Jones, John H. Phillips and Thomas Powell.

In 1806, the upper valley of Raccoon creek, now Monroe township, was settled by George W. Evans, and soon thereafter by Charles and George Green. Henry Drake also located in the upper valley of the South fork, now Harrison township, during this year. Chester and Elisha Wells and John Hollister settled near the mouth of the Rocky fork. Samuel Hand, James Holmes, and David Benjamin settled in the South Fork valley. Evan Pugh and Archibald Wilson settled north of Newark, in North Fork valley. The upper valley of

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the North fork, now Burlington township, was set- tled by James Dunlap, Nathan Conard and others. William Hull and Isaac Farmer located this year in the vicinity of the Flint ridge.

In 1807 John Cook Herron built and occupied a cabin in the Raccoon valley, now St. Albans township. Granville township, Fairfield county, was organized this year. It embraced the western half of the present county of Licking, except the Refugee lands, Licking township, embracing the eastern half, with the same exception.

In 1808, Joseph Conard settled in the North Fork valley, near the present village of Utica. He came from Loudoun county, Virginia, and was the first settler within the present township of Wash- ington. In this year (1808), the county of Lick- ing was organized.

In 1809, Henry Iles settled within the present limits of Bennington township. In 1810, the Wakatomika valley was first settled by Samuel Hickerson, followed next year by James 'Thrap. Daniel Poppleton rendered a similar service within the present limits of Hartford township, in the year 1812. Joseph and Peter Headly started a settlement on the head-waters of the South fork (now in Jersey township), in 1815. Etna town- ship, too, was settled in 1815, if not a little earlier, by John Williams, the Housers and others. Isaac Essex settled there in 1816. In the year 1818 David Bright located in the northeastern part of this county, and was the first settler of Fallsbury township, while in 1821, Rena Knight built a cabin and opened a clearing near the head of Brushy fork, at a point now in Liberty township. Thus one locality after another became settled, and finally fully occupied in every section of the county.

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History of Licking County, Ohio: Its Past and Present, Part 43

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