History of Licking County, Ohio: Its Past and Present, Part 73

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 73

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

"A tall, slender, erect, long-visaged, grave old man, with elongated hair, that had passed into the last stage of silver-grey hue, occupied himself conspicuously as chief singer of the oc- casion-the venerable leader in the musical department of the devotional exercises. His name was Siglar, I understood, and he sung with spirit, energy and much power of voice. The great congregation joined him and they made the welkin ring sonorously while singing those fine old Metho- dist camp meeting hymns. The multitude gathered for worship from all the regions round about in these ancient groves, were greatly moved, yea! thrilled by the inspiring notes of the melodious minstrelsy. The reverberations of those sacred songs, as sung by a thousand voices in the spirited. natural, unartistic style of our primitive settlers, in those grand old woods, gave zest to the enjoyment of the interesting occi- sion, and the scenes and incidents thereof are numbered among the memories to be cherished in the hereafter.

"Rev. Zerah H. Coston was the only preacher present whose name I now remember. I had heard him preach a sermon a short time before, in front of the old jail, for the ben- efit of Peter Dimond, then under sentence of death. I think. however, that Judge Fidlar, whom I heard perform a similar service for Dimond, was also present, though I am not certain. This was my first appearance at a Methodist camp meeting, but not my last. I attended one held near Chatham, nearly fifty years ago, where I heard Rev. L. L. Hamlin preach his celebrated sermon from the text-"Ye are my witnesses saith the Lord !' I had heard him preach it once before, and it was worth repeating. Few men had a more attractive style of pul- pit oratory than he. I also attended one on the Flint ridge. more than forty-five years ago, conducted by our well known pioneer veteran, the Rev. C. Springer, and another a few years later, held near Elizabethtown, under the same management I have attended others later, and I confess to a partiality by way of variety, for the old style of camp meeting oratory-the pulpit in the wilderness, as we had it in the days of "Auld lang syne."

Digitized by Google

CHAPTER L.

GRANVILLE TOWNSHIP.

CHARACTER OF THE SETTLEMENT -- ORGANIZATION-TOPOGRAPHY-INDIANS-ANCIENT WORKS-THE FIRST SETTLEMENT -JONES, THE FORDS AND BENJAMIN-MEETING WITH . ISAAC STADDEN IN RAMP CHEEK VALLEY-A DISCREPANCY IN DATES-FIRST CABINS-WELSH HILLS SETTLERS-FIRST BIRTH AND DEATH-A SKETCH OF JONES' LIFE- CANE PRESENTATION-SETTLERS OF 1803 AND 1804-COMING OF THE GRANVILLE COLONY-ITS ORIGIN-ORGAN- IZATION IN GRANVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS-PURCHASE OF LAND IN OHIO-THE ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION AND SUBSCRIBERS THERETO-THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES-CHARACTER OF THE COLONISTS-GENERAL AUGUSTINE MUNSON; SOMETHING OF HIS LIFE AND MATTERS CONNECTED THEREWITH-ARRIVAL OF THE COLONY IN OHIO-THEIR FIRST RELIGIOUS SERVICE-AMOUNT, LOCATION AND SURVEY OF THE LAND-LOCATION OF THE VILLAGE-PUBLIC SALE OF THE LAND-FIRST CHURCH AND SCHOOL-HOUSE-THE CHURCH ORGANIZATION OF THE COLONISTS- OTHER CHURCHES IN THE TOWNSHIP.

THIS township is second in the county in popu- lation, wealth and influence. It was fortunate in being peopled from the start with first-class set- tlers-people of intelligence, thrift and energy. They were from New England and a province in Old England-Wales. The former were shrewd, pushing, enterprising, money-making; and both were honest, industrious, religious. Both came in oganized communities, determined to establish permanent, prosperous and happy homes in the far west. The combination of the various elements of which these communities were composed, was a most fortunate one, and probably a more desira- ble population could not be found in the State or United States than they furnished to Granville township. With this foundation to build upon, is it any wonder the superstructure is solid, beautiful, attractive, and destined to have a history of con- tinually increasing importance, and an influence for good that will extend its boundary continually as the years go by?

The township was organized in 1807, out of the west half of Licking township, Fairfield county. The latter township then embraced all of what is now Licking county, except the Refugee lands. This being cut in two in the center, the west half was named Granville, and was, therefore, the sec- ond township organized in this territory.

The soil of the northern. half is not especially attractive, being composed of hills or table lands

and is clayey, but produces wheat and all the small " grains in abundance. It was all heavily timbered with the different varieties of oak and other hard · woods that flourish on the uplands. This part of the township seems to have been very attractive to the Welsh people, by whom it was mainly settled, probably from the fact that it was, at an early day, far more healthy than the miasmatic bottoms of Raccoon and Licking. Since the county has been cleared, cultivated and settled, these bottoms are as healthy as the "Welsh Hills," and far more pro- ductive. There is, however, a good deal of rich bottom land in the township along the Raccoon fork and its tributaries. The peculiar blending of hill and valley in this beautiful region attracted the New England pioneers, who also dreaded the ague and malaria of the broader and more swampy bot- toms of Licking, and yet desired bottom land for farming purposes. There is a gentle terraced in- cline down the Raccoon from Granville to Newark. This stream of clear, beautiful water passes across the township a little south of its center, tumbling over a rocky and gravelly bed, and is the only stream of consequence within the township limits.

An Indian trail branched from the main trail near Newark, and passed across the township up the Raccoon valley to the Wyandot village near Johnstown. Unfortunately no Indian history has been preserved in connection with this township- and this is the case, also, with most other town-

Digitized by Google

425

426

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

ships in the county-though there is no doubt that this territory, especially the valley of the Raccoon, was extensively used by them as a hunting ground. No permanent Indian camps appear to have had an existence here, unless prior to historic times.

The works of the Mound Builders in this town- ship are very numerous and interesting; indeed, in number and varied character are scarcely excelled by those of Newark township. The Raccoon val- ley and contiguous territory constitute, probably, the most interesting territory in the State, or even in the United States for the antiquarian. Mounds of different sizes and heights, earthworks of every kind known to the historian exist here in great numbers. Numbers yet to be seen and traced may almost be counted by the hundred, while many, very many, have disappeared entirely, by the ravages of time and the plow, and live only in the memory of the oldest inhabitants. No particular care seems to be taken to preserve these mounds and works. Wherever they are in the way of the tiller of the soil, they are ruthlessly plowed down or dug away. They are disappearing with com- parative rapidity, and very soon, with few excep- tions, will live only in history. Occasionally they are erected upon high peaks, or places inaccessible to the plow and cultivator, and in such places are, of course, in the best state of preservation. The traveler between Newark and Granville will observe many of these mounds, a few yet pretty well pre- served, even on the extensive and rich bottoms of the Raccoon; but the better preserved works, and those probably the most interesting, are located upon the hills that shut in the valley. Captain M. M. Munson, who occupies a beautiful farm in the midst of these mounds, and who has made them something of a study, is confident that around the great Aligator mound, located not far from his house, is a complete system of mounds and earth- works that point to it as a common center. How- ever this may be, there is certainly a large circle of works in this vicinity, extending several miles in every direction, and seemingly connected with each other and with the "Old Fort" near Newark and its contiguous works.

The Alligator mound is situated upon the sum- mit of a hill nearly two hundred feet high, about six miles west of Newark, near Granville. The

shape and form of this reptilian monster are dis- tinctly presented, so that all admit, at the first glance, that it was undoubtedly intended to repre- sent the alligator or American crocodile. His en- tire length is two hundred feet. The greatest breadth of his body is twenty feet, and his length between the fore legs and hind legs is fifty feet. The limbs are each twenty-five feet long. The head, fore shoulders and back have an eleva- tion varying from three to six feet, while the remainder of the body averages considerably less The head, limbs and tail gradually taper off to their termination. The scholarly author of "Pre- Historic Man" visited this effigy in 1876, just before the issue of the third edition of his work. and he expresses the belief that it "symbolizes some object of special awe and veneration, thus reared on one of the chief 'high places' of the nation, with its accompanying altar, upon which these ancient people could witness the celebration of the rites of their worship, its site having been obviously selected as the most prominent feature in a populous district abounding in military, civic and religious structures." It is probable this effigy was an object of worship, as the Mound Builders were certainly a superstitious and idolatrous race. It probably belongs to the same class of mounds as the "Eagle mound" in the "old fort." The hill upon which the Alligator mound is situated, is a "spur" jutting into the level bottom, and not far from the foot of the hill, and to the east of it perhaps one-fourth of a mile, on the level bottom. is the curiously shaped mound called the "Cres- cent." It is an "immense pile of dirt," which seems to lie upon top of the ground as if it had been transported from a distance, thrown down there and fashioned into the shape of a half-moon or crescent. It is composed largely of gravel and in its composition differs largely from the dark, loamy earth around it. This mysterious crescent-shaped pile has been plowed over for fifty years or more, and of course is much reduced in height, but is yet probably six or seven feet high. It is large and thick in the center, and tapers in either direction to a point. It is located on lot number eight of the Granville purchase, now owned by D. M. Knapp.

Another very extensive earthwork once occupied

Digitized by Google

427

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

the bottom land near the Crescent, and to the south of it. When the first settlers entered this valley, and for several years afterward, this im- mense circular wall was plainly visible and was two or three feet in height in places. It enclosed seventy-five or eighty acres of beautiful bottom land, and, like the Crescent, the embankment seemed to have been made without digging the earth from either side of it, no ditch appearing. This work covered portions of lots seven, eight, nine and ten of the Granville purchase, and the larger part of it was between Centerville street and the bluffs on the north of the valley, though it extended, probably, slightly south of Centerville street. The "savage plowshare" has long since done its work, and this work of antiquity has probably entirely disappeared. It is said that the embankment was without a break or gateway, and no mound or other work appeared within the cir- cular enclosure.

North of this, half a mile or more, east of the Crescent about the same distance, and upon a "spur " of the bluffs, on the "Fort Hill" or Mc- Cune farm is one of the most wonderful of all the ancient works in this section-wonderful from its size, peculiar shape and internal arrangement. It is situated upon lots five and six of the Granville purchase, extends a little into the Welsh Hills pur- chase, and was evidently intended, from its out- side ditch and high embankment, as a military work. Even to this day the embankment is in places, measuring from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the embankment, ten feet in height, though generally it is much lower than this; but when first erected it must have been a work of considerable magnitude. It incloses about fifty acres of ground. The embankment, evidently a breast-work, is a perfect piece of engineering skill, following closely the sinuosities of the brow of the hill, and wherever there is a ditch or depression in the hill, the embankment is higher than in other places. Conforming as it does to the form of the surface of the hill it is irregular in shape.

Upon the hill, inside of this inclosure, two small circular works appear, inclosing about half an acre each. These have been plowed over many years and are much worn away, though the walls are probably yet three or four feet in height.

These smaller works are in the form of circles, without any break in the walls, and are both located upon the highest part of the hill, and near to its southern extremity, or, at least, a little south of the center of the greater work. They are very near each other and lie on an east and west line. From the manner in which some of the forts of to-day are built, it would seem that these two smaller works were erected as places of last resort, or, in other words, as works in which to rally and fight after being driven from the outer defences.

In the most easterly of these two circular forts, are two small mounds, or lookout-stations, also an east and west line very near each other, and now not over two or three feet high. The whole surface of the hill is under cultivation, and this great work of antiquity is slowly disappearing in consequence.

Still further to the east of this work, and upon the bluffs, is situated what is known as the "reser- ' voir," evidently once an artificial lake or reservoir for water. It is situated on lots two and three of the Granville purchase, now owned by M. M. Munson, and is probably twenty rods across the top. It is probably half a mile from the fort above mentioned, is located in a natural depres- sion in the hills, and has evidently been scooped out with great labor. Near this, and a little east of north, on lot two, is a "sugar loaf" or conical mound of considerable size-probably fifteen feet in height and forty or fifty feet in diameter at the base. This mound is in a good state of preserva- tion.

Still traveling eastward upon the bluffs, two con- ical hills are reached in half a mile or more, upon which are two small mounds, apparently scraped up to increase the height of these points as look- out stations. One is located upon the eastern and the other upon the western line of the farm of L. E. Bancroft, and not far from the eastern line of the township.

Coming down into the valley several beautiful mounds are found further east in Newark township.

On the southern end of lot eight, of the Granville purchase, belonging to Messrs. T. M. and T. Rose, very near and just south of Centerville street is a curious heap of sand, for which it is hard to ac- count, unless it be that the Mound Builders placed it there. It is in the center of a fine alluvial

Digitized by Google

428

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

bottom, and is irregular in form, appearing to have been brought from a distance and thrown off there for some purpose, although where it could have been brought from is something of a mystery, as the creek bottom in the vicinity does not appear . prolific in the kind of sand of which it is com- posed. Immediately south of this sand pile and a few rods from it, yet exists the walls of a large circular work, enclosing, probably, twenty-five acres. The whole of this land has been under cultivation since the first settlement of the country, and the embankment is nearly plowed away in places, though still visible, and generally two or three feet above the surface of the ground. This appears to have been a perfect circle, without ditch on either side, and without any opening or gateway. Its location is near where the old Granville feeder joins the Raccoon. It is very close to, and evi- dently connected with, the very large circular work before mentioned as covering seventy-five or eighty acres, and which has entirely disappeared. Directly south of this work, on the same lot, in the vicinity of the spot where the old canal feeder joins the Raccoon, and very near where the old Munson forge stood, is, or rather was, an ancient well. It was long since filled up, and now exists only in the memory of the older settlers. The probability is it was filled in the construction of the canal, as it was very near the southern edge of the embank- ment. When first discovered it was sixty or sev- enty feet in depth, and had evidently been bored through the soft shale that here underlies the sur- face. It was three or four feet in diameter; no water appeared in it, and the supposition is, that the operators, whether Mound Builders, Indians, or white men, had bored for salt, as a salt well was subsequently sunk in this vicinity, and operated for a time with partial success. Further up the creek a few rods, on the lot of E. Haskell is a conical mound, in a good state of preservation, probably ten feet in height, and thirty or forty feet in diam- eter.

Directly south of these works in the valley, on the bluffs south of the creek, are many beautiful mounds. One of them on the farm of H. J. Little is about the size of the above described mound, has not been mutilated, and is yet in a good state of preservation. To the west of this

on the bluffs, are several others similar in construc- tion to those described, and the same may be said of the country north and northwest of Granville. To locate and describe all these works would oc- cupy more space than can be allowed in this work. Suffice it to say they are very numerous, but not perhaps, different from those already described. A conical mound once existed in Main street, in Granville, between the four churches of that place. It was graded down to make way for the street. It was probably fifteen feet in height at the date of the first settlement. Jeremiah R. Munson deliv- ered a fourth of July oration from its summit in 1806.

Late in November, 1800, on the banks of Ramp creek, was lighted a camp-fire, around which sat four men who have played no small part in the history of this county. These men were John Jones, Phineas Ford, Frederick Ford, and Benoni Benjamin. Jones and the two Fords were married to the three sisters of Benjamin. Jones was of Welsh extraction, but was born in New Jersey and partly reared in Pennsylvania; the Fords were originally Yankees, from Connecticut, and Benja- min was born in Northampton county, Pennsylva- nia. His father, Jonathan Benjamin, who followed him to this county about two years later, was born in the same decade with Washington, and was thirty-eight years old at the Declaration of Indepen- ence. During the Revolution, in order to protect his family from Indians, he moved to the vicinity of Baltimore, Maryland. At the close of the war he returned to Pennsylvania, where he remained until the spring of 1793, when he removed to the Virginia side of the Ohio, nearly opposite Mari- etta. Here Jones and the Fords married his three daughters.

In the spring of 1799 these men, with their brother-in-law, Benoni Benjamin, went out to the Scioto, where they planted and raised a crop, and returning in the fall, moved their families there. In November, 1800, at the instance of Jones, they traveled up the Scioto to where Circleville now stands, and from there followed an Indian trail through Fairfield county in the direction of Lick- ing.

Jones had before seen the Licking valley, hav- ing been connected with some surveying expedi-

Digitized by Google

429

HISTORY FO LICKING COUNTY.

tions, as well as Indian raids in this direction. Few, if any of the many enchanting basins in the Mississippi valley presented a more encouraging prospect to the pioneer than the Licking valley at that time, and it is not to be wondered at that Jones, a man of keen perceptions, sharpened and developed by extensive travel and adventure, should have led his little party of adventurers hither.

A little incident that occurred at the camp fire before mentioned, is worthy of record.

Mr. Isaac Stadden who had arrived at the Bowl- ing Green a short time previous, was out hunting, when he suddenly came upon this camp of pioneers. Each party was agreeably surprised at the unex- pected meeting. Stadden had supposed that those living in the Licking valley were the only set- lers in this section; while Jones and his party, entering the county from the Scioto, supposed they were the advanced pioneers, and that there was no setllement nearer than the mouth of the Lick- ing on the Muskingum.

The hospitality common among the early settlers made Stadden a welcome visitor for the night. Jones and Stadden soon recognized in each other old acquaintances, they having been school-fellows in Pennsylvania. Neither had seen the other for a quarter of a century, and knew nothing of each other's intervening history, of their adventures or whereabouts. Of the interest of such a meeting of such men, under such circumstances, none but pioneers can conceive.

There is a discrepancy in the statements regard- ing the time of this meeting, and also regarding the date of the arrival of Jones and his party. Captain M. M. Munson, from whose paper a part of the history of this township is taken, says this meeting took place in the spring of 1800, while Mrs. Stadden, wife of Isaac Stadden, says the meeting took place in the fall of 1800, and that the wives of these gentlemen (the Fords and Benjamin), were not with them at the time, but that they were prospecting in this valley with a view to settlement, and did settle here in the spring of 1801, as has been stated.

It is impossible at this late day to reconcile these conflicting statements, but a close study of all the circumstances and incidents connected with

the first setttement of the county, a comparison of dates and of matters connected with the early settlers would seem to place the weight of evidence in favor of Mrs. Stadden's statement. Mrs. Stad- den was a pioneer of 1800, was very careful in her statements regarding pioneer matters, and a woman of remarkable mind and memory.

Before coming here, Jones and his party had been offered what was termed donation lots by the agents of General Dayton, a large land-holder in the territory now composing Licking county. These lots were supposed to be located on Ramp creek, a stream which ran out in side-cuts or bayous, forming little swamps and ooze-grounds, with "cat-tails and leeks." These, to Jones, fore- boded agues and biliary diseases, and he at once refused to make the stipulated settlement, and de- termined to locate on Middle or Raccoon fork.

Jones led his party across the middle fork, searching out one of the many springs of living water that skirt the base of the hills that enclose the valley. On lot number two of the Granville purchase, some ten rods from the foot of the hill, and some twenty rods from the present Centerville street, he made the first settlement within the pres- ent limits of Granville township.

Some years before this, a hurricane had passed over this valley, taking down the primeval timber, and at the time of settlement the country was tim- bered with a second growth, in many places the blue ash predominating This was particularly the case at the base of the hills, made wet and loamy by the sinking of the waters of the numerous springs that burst from the hill sides. Of these trees Jones built his cabin. By the last days of April, or the first of May, the logs had been cut, and the men, assisted by their wives, raised the first white man's cabin in this township. . Jones moved into this cabin, and the entire party re- mained with him until cabins had been erected on each of the locations selected. The Fords built on Ramp creek, near Union station, and Benjamin further down that stream, within the present limits of Newark township, not far from where the stream passes under the Granville feeder.

Here begins the history of Granville township. Sometime in the same year, Patrick Cunning- ham, an Irishman (elsewhere mentioned in the

Digitized by Google -

43º

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

history of Newark township), built the second cab- in, and became the second settler of the township.

This house was about twenty or twenty-five rods northeast of the Jones' cabin, and near another spring. Cunningham planted some trees, and be- gan the cultivation of several kinds of plants and fruits. In a year or two he removed to, and be- came one of the first settlers of, Newark.

In the spring of 1802, some young men built some shanties, or cabins, a few rods east of "Pad- dy" Cunningham's, and that season raised a crop of corn.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Licking County, Ohio: Its Past and Present, Part 73

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