History of Logan County and Ohio, Part 53

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Battle, J. H; O.L. Baskin & Co
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago, O.L. Baskin
Number of Pages: 798

USA > Ohio > Logan County > History of Logan County and Ohio > Part 53

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HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

getting here in December, of 1810. He first settled on the place now owned by George Kinsinger, and later, moved to the place where his son, now an old man, resides. There were two girls and four boys in his family, none of them grown up. In this year James Murphy came and settled on land just over the line, in Pleasant Township. He brought no family, but put up a cabin and made a deadening. This was a lonesome life, and he soon left, to return a few years later, however, with a family. On the other side of the river, John Means came about this time and erected his cabin. This was familiar territory to him, as he had carried chain for the surveyor who made the original surveys in this country. Tory and Neal were the names of some squat- ters who took up their residence on the west side of the Miami River, and gave their names to two of the smaller branches of that river. Means was the first settler west of the river, and a man of some property : a fact that car- ried considerable influence with it in the carly community.

The little community, thus planted in the wilderness, was principally made up of set- tlers of limited means, and not generally well provided with the requisite means to mitigate the serverities of frontier life. The purchases of land made by a large number of persons for speculative purposes, or held unoccupied for their children, caused the growth of the community to lag, and, thrown upon their own resources, it required the assembling of the settlers for miks around, to creet a sim- ple log cabin. This was no easy undertaking at that time, and under the disadvantages which they were forced to work, and it may not be inappropriate to copy a description of the I am ref there " raisings." from the pen of Judge Patrick, of Urbana, not, as he says, " tor the enlightenment of the present go- « ration, but Irom a desire to band down to patenty the post it's structures up to 1520,

believing that before 1920, this mode of building will have become obsolete and un- known." To this end, he says: "if a cabin was to be built from the forest, a leader was chosen, who was always a man of experience, and dubbed captain. As an initiatory step, he would classify the congregated settlers, and assign to each their respective duties, about in this order:

" 1. He would select four of the most expert ax-men as corner men, whose duty it was to first clear off the site, square it, and place a boulder at each corner to build upon, after be- ing duly leveled, then saddle and notch down the logs in good, workman-like order.

" 9. He would assign a sufficient mumber of suitable men to select, as near the site as pos- sible, the best large-growth, straight-grained white oak tree for clap-boards, whose further duty it was to fell it, and cross-out it into suit- able lengths, split the ents into square bolts, and with a fro rive them. Another branch of this classification was required in like man- ner to prepare puncheons for floors, doors, windows, and chimney-corner jambs, out of such timber as was best adapted for the pur- poses, such as oak, chestnut or ash, which, when properly selected, could be made of sufficient length and width to make a good solid floor, when spotted on the underside at the ends out of wind, and to rest upon sleep- ors placed at proper distances apart, with dressed, straight upper surfaces, and which, when top-dressed by a skillul ada-man, made a good substitute for plauk, which, at an early day, could not le proenred. for want of saw- mills.

"3. He would select and detail such a num- bor as seemed necessary to call out, as near the site as possible, straight, suitably sized standing trees, and fell them and chop them off at suitable lengths for the proposed strie- ture, with teamsters to haul them in as they were logged off. To this force were added

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HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

other teamsters, provided with rough wood sleds to haul in the clapboards, puncheons, and such other materials as would be neces- sary in the completion of the cabin. These preliminaries being all successfully arranged, and being carried into effect, the leader wouldl take his station and make proclamation to the balance of the forces, directing them to forth- with prepare smooth skids, the necessary num- ber of forks, with grape-vine or hickory withes around the prongs, and two or three cross- sticks inserted through holes bored in the lower ends to give hand-hold to push by; and also to provide a sufficient number of hand- spikes, of tough, small, round hickory, dog- wood or iron-wood, some four feet long, with en's shaved smooth, to be used by the men to bear up the logs while in transit to the corner men, or to the foot of the skids, as the case might be. Then the order would be pro- mulgated that no one but the captain should give any direction in the farther progress of the enterprise; and, as the logs would be hauled to the spot, he, with a glance of the eye, would make the necessary directions, and which would, by his order, be conveyed to the corner-men upon handspikes, with sturdy men at the ends, walking abreast on both sides of the log, bearing it up to its des- tination; then the second log was borne in like manner, each being placed, after being spotted flat on the under side, so as to rest level upon the corner-stones, as the end logs of the structure, equi-distant apart between the ends; then the ends would be prepared by the corner-men with what was familiarly known as the saddle, which consisted in this: The expert corner-men wouldl chamfer or bevel off at an angle of, say, forty-five degrees each side of the ends of the logs, the two chamfers meeting at a point on the top center of the log, presenting an end view of the upper half of the log. This preparation is to re- ceive the transverse logs, notched at cach end

so as to nicely fit over the saddles. The two end logs having been placed and fitted as above described, the leader would select the two largest logs being straight for the front and rear bottom logs; being sills, these two logs, when in the hands of the corner-men, would be notched deeper than the other logs of the building, so as not to throw the floor too high from the ground. The corner-men at each end of the log would cut their notches so exactly, at the same angle and at the same time, so as to exactly fit their respective sad- les, that when put to the proper place would make a solid fit and out of wind. This dex- terity in corner-men, no doubt, gave rise to the okl aphorism, 'Ile cuts his notches close.'

" The four foundation logs having all been properly notched and saddled, and in their places, and, upon the usual tests, being found square, the next thing to be done was to cut in the sill the slots, or gains, to receive the sleepers, which, if on the ground, and pre- pared as already intimated by being scotched straight on the upper sides, were eut to right lengths and fitted at the ends so as to rest solidly upon said slots, and put in their places, though this was frequently done after the building was raised.

"All things prepared for the superstructure, the leader, still at his post, with shrill, empha- tic voice, selects a log, and his forces bear it to the corner-men, as already intimated, rest- ing one end of the handspikes on the top log already placed, rolling it upon the two sad- dled logs; it was then fitted and prepared in proper manner, and placed plumb on the wall by the practiced eye, aided by the pendulous ax held loosely at tip of helve, between the thumb and forefingers of the experts. This routine being continued until the building was too high to reach and rest the handspikes, as heretofore described, npon the wall, then the skids, resting on the ground at the butt

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HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

ends, would be reared up to the corners on the front side, and one end of the building, nearest the collection of the hauled-in timber; the logs one by one, selected as aforesaid, would be carried as before to the foot of the appropriate skids, and placed on them, and rolled up as far as the men could conveniently reach, and being stanchioned and held, the necessary number of forks were placed under each end of the log inside the skids, with lower ends held firmly down to the ground, were, by the order of the leader, manned at the cross-handles already described, at each end of the log, which was, at a given word, slid up the skids to the top, where, by hand- spikes, it would be thrown on top of the logs prepared to receive it. In this manner the building progressed to the required heighth, all being done with exact uniformity and celerity, and with dispatch and neatness fitted to their respective places in the wall. When the structure had been carried up to the Square, the cave-bearers would be raised upon the two ends of the building. These pro- jected some twenty inches beyond the wall, and would be notched down and saddled back far enough to receive the timbers hereafter described. Then the butting pole for the back side of the cabin would be shoved up to the front corner-men, and rolled to the back cave and notched down upon the saddles, pro- je ting some fifteen inches beyond the outside plumb of the wall, then the first rib would be sent up in the same manner, and rolled back to a proper distance inside of the butting pole, and notched down so as to give the pitch of the roof from the center of butting pole to the top surface of said rib; then the corres- ponding timbers for the front of the cabin were placed: then the first two gable logs would be placed in notches ent into the ribs and chamfere bat the ou ls to suit the pitch of the roof. The remaining ribs ant gable logs being paid. the roof was then ready for the

clapboards, which are laid down upon the ribs with the lower ends resting against the but- ting poles, with small spaces between, which are top-covered so as to break joints. Knees out of the hearts of the clapboard bolts of proper length are prepared at each end, rest- ing endwise against the butting poles to hold the weight poles in place, which are laid upon the eave-courses as nearly over the ribs as possible. In like manner, another course of clapboards is laid down with the lower ond resting against the weight pole of the lower course. In this manner the roof is com- pleted." *

This minute account from an eye-witness is a graphie picture of an undertaking which the present generation is apt to look upon as a very simple matter. But it needs only a careful perusal of the foregoing description to learn that scarcely less skill was required un- der the disadvantages of that time-without tools save an ax, without nails and with no mills-to put up a substantial dwelling that would last for a score of years, and comfort- ably keep a family through the severest weather. And these structures were gener- ally completed in a day, with fire-place, chim- ney, doors and windows of the most primitive fashion, the whole being dedicated to the household gods by a frolic that lacked none of its relish because it had been earned by hard work. It is not difficult, however, to under- stand from this description, that in an under- taking which required only numbers in ad- dition to what nature and the ordinary pro- vidence of the pioneer provided, to success- fully accomplish, would prove anything but an easy task to the little community on the Mi- ami. Their first efforts at farming were car- ried on under equally disadvantageous circum- stances. They were pioneers in the strictest sense of the word. No settlements had gone further north, leaving a well-defined trail * Antrim's History.

HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

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behind them, but each family hewed his own way through the dense forest, and once settled, began to clear a space where the unobstructed sunshine could warm the earth into yielding a harvest. Dogs were the only thing that the community seemed to have in abundance. For some time a wagon belonging to Philip Mat- thews was the only vehicle of any sort for miles about, and that was practically useless on ac- count of the forbidding character of the trails. Each man had cut so much of a trail as was was necessary for his ingress, and had, since then, found no time for the working of any road. When Shaw came to Miami, he sold his wagon and most of movable property, and brought his family and household goods in a borrowed wagon, pulling it over such logs as would admit of such summary proceedings, and evading others of a more formidable size. This was true of this part of the county until about 1813, when Mr. Shaw went sixteen miles to " work on the road." He was obliged to start in the middle of the night, carrying the day's board with him. Thus almost en- tirely cut off from the outside world, their dependence for subsistence was almost wholly upon the soil. Indian corn grew readily with such cultivation as could be given with the erude implements of the time-right-hand plows with wooden moldboards, harrows with wooden teeth, or the top of a small tree for a substitute.

In the second or third year an attempt was made to raise wheat, sowing it broadcast among the standing corn. This proved for years an almost total failure. Clouds of blackbirds flocked to the field and picked the grain up before hardly a kernel could be eov- ered. Mr. John Shaw relates that, to defeat the birds, his father would sow between but two rows of corn at a time, while his boys would follow close after him, chopping the ground with hoes, to cover the wheat. In some places, even after this laborious effort

to secure wheat, it seemed to draw such rank growth from the soil that it proved unfit for food. When once grown, it had to be carried to Urbana, and later to Spring Hill, to be converted into flour. For some years, how- ever, all flour was obtained at Springfield. Wheat could not be raised under the various drawbacks, and flour was bought in Kentucky and brought to the principal town on the frontier, which was then the only market. Here, after a tedions journey by bridle-paths, through thickets and underbrush, the pioneers of Miami went to get salt and such other necessities that corn could not supply.

Game was found in great abundance, which helped to solve the problem of how this land was to be settled. Without this addition to the resources of the pioneer, this land must have remained a waste wilderness for years. But, for all that, the game was not an un- mixed blessing. The limited amount of stock owned in the Miami settlement was in con- stant danger from the attacks of wolves and bears, while the birds and raccoons exacted heavy tolls frora the growing crops. Most of the settlers had firearms, but a larger propor- tion of them than we of a later day are wont to suppose were poor hunters, or did not find time to hunt more than necessity compelled. Trapping, however, served an excellent pur- pose at this juncture, securing the needed provision and, at the same time, allowing the farmer to devote his time to his improvement. A mode of capturing wild turkeys, which yielded large results, was to build a square pen of common fence rails some three feet high, covering it with the same. A trail of corn or wheat was laid, leading to an opening at the bottom of the pen. A trap thus con- structed and baited would frequently catch a whole flock, which, attracted by the grain, would follow up the trail and unconsciously pass into the cage, and, becoming bewildered, would fail to find a way out again. For deer,

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HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

wolves and smaller game, a snare was con- structed of a tough, elastic undergrowth sap- ling, to the end of which a rope with running noose was attached. The sapling bent over, and the noose adjusted so that an animal must put its head through it to obtain the bait, was the whole plan. This required some care, however, and made satisfactory returns only to the most skilful. The dead-fall was used more particularly for wolves and small " var- mints." This consisted of a trap with weighted slab, which, when sprung, came down upon the victim with crushing force. The larger ones, intended for wolf-catching, were very powerful, and sometimes proved dangerous to the trapper, if carelessly placed when baiting it. From such sources came a not inconsider- able revenue. Wolf scalps were a legal ten- der for taxes; deer furnished not only meat for the table, but material for the hunters' clothing, and the various fur-bearing animals supplied the table with those commoner luxu- ries to be obtained only at the store, miles away.

Since the coming of the first families, the Indians had maintained, so far, a friendly at- titude toward the settlers. The disturbing clement had withdrawn and had met a severe chastisement at Tippecanoe. A village of the Shawanoes or Shawnees, known among the settlers as Oldtown, was located on the bank of Stony Creek, at out a mile and a half south- west of the present town of De Graff. A good many of its inhabitants, however, soon left after the accessions to the settlement began to be more numerous, so that there was barely a representation of the natives in 1812. But a low miles north there was no such lack of the native lords of the forest, and the " troubleus times" that were ushered in by this year. brought to this community. as to many other in the Northwest, days of anxiety and nights of far. It was a matter of moment- on It jest to this community to learn the

attitude of the tribes that occupied the adjoin- ing territory. Opposite Oldtown, or nearly so, on the banks of the same stream, a block honse was put up by Hiram Curry, at the sug- gestion of the settlers, who feared that the Indians here might not prove friendly, but, fortunately, was never needed for warlike purposes. The part played by the Indians in these times has been set forth elsewhere in this volume, and need not be recited here. Suffice it to say, the friendly tribes were col- lected elsewhere in the county and guarded, while they were protected from the assaults of the hostile savages. Every precaution, how- ever, was taken to protect this settlement from hostile incursions. The unarmed settlers were furnished with muskets and packages of cart- ridges, though there is no record of any of them being used against the savages. Not- withstanding these measures, the settlers knowing the weakness of their position, were easily alarmed. Soldiers passing through this section, kept them alive to what was going on beyond their sight and hearing, and vague rumors finding means of spreading in some incomprehensible way, kept many in a chronic state of fear. Mr. Shaw relates that the dogs of the settlement could be heard for three miles about, and when one began to bark, the whole dog community set up a disturbance that made every settler believe the Indians were right upon them. Old Mr. Shaw was seriously ill with a miasmatie fever at that time, and he had made up his mind to make no struggle if attacked. His wife, fre montly alarmed by the dogs, would have the cabin, and, with the gun near her, hide in a brush- heap until the cold drove her back to the cabin again. With the return of peace, the Indians resumed their old haunts, but only for the temporary purposes of hunting and herring. Bead-work and fancy baskets were sold by the squaws, and their camps often presented a picturesque picture of the " noble

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HIISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

red men " lolling about the fires, while the squaws, busy with the colored strips of wood with which they made their baskets, worked by the fire-light. The baskets, filled with cranberries, which the marshes further north bore in abundance, were very tempting and found a ready sale at the larger settlements.

In the meanwhile the settlement began to think about assuming the duties and responsi- bilities of citizens. It was with considerable difficulty that the requisite fifteen voters were found, but they were at length mustered at Mr. Shaw's house for an election of a Justice of the Peace. The candidates were Robert Dickson and Benjamin Schooler, and each took up his position on either side of the broad fire-place, one with a two-gallon jug and the other with a small cask containing whisky; as each man voted, he took a drink of his candidate's whisky. Each of the contest- ants had thus polled seven votes, including his own, and only Shaw had not voted. Ilere was a dilemma, the old man feeling that he could " be happy with either, were,t'other dear charmer away," vacillated between the two, finally voting for Schooler. The defeated candidate at once contested the election, on the ground that Shaw had voted after the prescribed hour for closing the polls, and the result was set aside. In the next election the procedure was followed, but anxious to do equal justice, Shaw cast the final vote, but cast it for Dickson. He deelined the whisky before, but on this occasion he was forced to drink from both jug and cask.

The demand for milling facilities was a very urgent one from the first. Removed from the nearest mill by miles of almost trackless forest, the settlers found it an almost intolerable burden to go to mill with their corn and wheat. Various devices were re- sorted to, to obviate this necessity. A rude mortar was fashioned out of a large block and a spring-pole made of a strong sapling. to

which was attached a pole in the end of which was fastened an iron wedge. With this con- trivance bushels of corn were " cracked " for the family use. Stansbury had a hand-mill of his own construction that would grind a kernel of corn at a time into a coarse sort of meal, but it was not available for the settle- ment. With a shrewd eye to business, how- ever, he set about building a mill on Stony Creek, near his place, as early as 1806, but it was a slow business single handed, and it was not until 1810 that he got it into successful operation. The character of the stream pre- sented some difficulties that were found diffi- cult to overcome with the means at command in that carly day. The low banks of the river were easily overflowed and the stream in this vicinity became a broad lake that it was necessary to dam before the mill could become an active member of the community. The dam was some ten rods long, and was made of brush and logs in the ordinary way of such structures. When completed, the mill was leased to John Provolt, who contin- ued operating for some months, when it was burned. This was a serious calamity, but what added to the seriousness of the oceur- rence was the fact that it was generally be- lieved to have been fired by an incendiary. Stansbury had had some serious disagreement with Provolt, in regard to the mill, and, from the known character of the man and other evidence, public suspicion pointed at once to Stansbury as the author of the conflagration. The mill was not rebuilt, and the settlement was forced to send once more to other mills, Spring Hill being at the time the nearest point.

The settlement of other parts of the town- ship was much later than at the bend and up- per part of the Miami River. A little colony of substantial people gathered in the vicinity of where Olive Chapel now stands, among whom were the families of Abner Newman.

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IHISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

Nichols, Joseph Cannan, Jacob Kress, and Thomas Spellman. The most of these fam- ilies came from Kentucky or Pennsylvania from 1820 to 1828. Farther west was John Leach, from Kentucky, and on the river, on the site of Quiney, was James R. Baldwin from Berkeley County, Virginia. He was the earliest settler at this point. He was a tanner by trade, and early set about build- ing up a business in the new country. It may be said, in passing, that this point seemed especially adapted to the tanning business. A little later John Saylor set up in the busi- ness a mile and a half southeast of Quincy and Thomas Turner about a mile down the river. He bought a quarter seetion of land situated on the high bluff on the south bank of the river, and hoped to make his fortune ont of the rise in land when the canal came up to that point. In 1825 James Canby came from Lebanon, Ohio, and settled near the present site of De Graff. He was the first doctor in this part of the county. but, aside from his professional character, he was a stir- ring business man, and soon found out a way to employ his activities. He seems to have shared in the belief that slack water naviga- tion would extend up the river at that point, and, purchasing land here, he put up a grist- mill in 1828.

Baldwin was the only resident at this point then, but the mill soon attracted emigration. Everybody turned out and built the brush dam, which was unusually well strengthened anl remains to this day, wher . the curious may she a sample of the engineering of the early time. Two run of stone were placed in the mill; one set of buhr stones were got from the " Raccoon Quarries, " while the other was the common "nigger head," and were os d simply to " crack " corn. Some years later, a saw mill was added. These industries attracted settlers from Clarke and Champaign Counties, and quite a community gathere !

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History of Logan County and Ohio, Part 53

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Battle, J. H; O.L. Baskin & Co Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Chicago, O.L. Baskin Number of Pages: 798

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Battle, J. H; O.L. Baskin & Co
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago, O.L. Baskin
Number of Pages: 798