History of Logan County and Ohio, Part 59

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 59

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The increase of population developed new wants, which in turn were redressed by the ingenuity and inde fatigable industry of the sturdy men and kind-hearted women that

came to develop the resources of a new country, and provide homes for a future pros- perous people. It is difficult to tell how carly sheep were brought into the country, It was doubtless a hazardous undertaking to protect them from the wild animals that infested the country. And yet. as wool was required to supply one of the settlers' most urgent wants, it is reasonable to conclude that sheep were introduced at a very early period in the history of the settlement of the township. And this conclusion is confirmed by the stories which our pioneers tell of the use of the hand-cards long before the introduction of wool carding machinery, when it is remem- bered that fifty years ago wool carding ma- chines were ollinstitutions in the country. In this important branch of industry, however, Jefferson Township has been dependent on other localities, It was not until between thirty and forty years ago that a carding machine was established in the township, and that did not prove a success. The cultivation of flax being an important item of domestic economy, was not overlooked, and a thrifty family might provide every article necessary to clothe a person comfortably, except shoes and hats, and even the latter might be impro- vised from braided straw. The first effort at tanning leather, as can be learned, was abont the year 1816, when Jonathan Sumner started up a little tannery on Goose Creek, about forty or fifty rods north of the Bellefontaine pike. This was an insignificant affair and never amounted to much, though the remains were yet to be seen in 1830. Benjamin Smith started a tannery in Zanesfield in 1830 with such fixtures as to enable him to do ex- eellent work, of which mention will be made in another place. The mercantile business, so far as we can learn, was first represented by Lanson Curtis, who seems to have com- meneed trade on a small scale at Zanesfield, soon after the close of the war of 1812.

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HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

Social intercourse seems to have been en- couraged then as well as in later years, not only in gatherings, in which the men and women, both old and young, met together and shared each other's labor, and the interchange of visits between neighbors of the same vi- cinity; but a friendly intercourse was kept up between the various neighborhoods. Many of the early settlements had been made up, to a considerable extent, by Quakers or persons of Quaker origin and sympathies coming from different States and localities, and hence the encouragement given to social intercourse between the various groups situated at Darby and in the Beechwoods (by which was under- stood all that indefinite region about Gar- wood's Mills and beyond, and also on King's Creek in Champaign). It should not be under- stood that the social relations were restricted to any sect or denomination. If there were not as strong ties of sympathy between the various church organizations as seen to exist at present, still a difference of religious be- lief was not a bar to friendly intercourse.

Social customs have changed materially since the first settlement of this country, and vet the change has, for the most part, resulted from a change of surrounding circumstances. In regard to marriages, one of our county papers has recently published a list of mar- riages, as returned to the Clerk's office, from the organization of the county, showing that in the early history of the county those mar- ried by a minister were the exception, while for the last ten or fifteen years in Jefferson Township scarcely twice that many marriages have been solemnized by magistrates. An- other custom in reference to marriage fifty years ago: It would have been in violation of all rules of propriety for a bride to have appeared at the altar, or anywhere in public after marriage, without her head being ineased in an elaborate cap. Sixty years ago it was not an event to occasion any remark for

young ladies to walk five, six or eight miles to attend a religious meeting, or make a so- cial visit, while to ride on horseback behind her brother or a gentleman friend was a thing so common as to occasion no surprise. Cus- toms have changed as much in regard to travel, perhaps, as in anything else. The Hon. Benjamin Stanton returned with his wife from a visit to his former home in Jeffer- son County, a short time after commencing the practice of law in Bellefontaine, traveling in a one-horse wagon-then usually called a " carryall." It was innocent of any top or covering and had only such springs as were constructed of wooden bars, and yet no one suspected him of compromising his dignity. In 1830 there were not more than four covered carriages in Jefferson Township, and only two of them had springs. Steel springs in their present form were then unknown; the only carriages making any pretentions to case and elegance were hung on thoroughbraces on the principle of the old-fashioned mail-coach, though differing materially in construction. Hearses were unknown. When Abraham Painter died, one of his neighbors sent his son with one of those old-fashioned wagons with a bed curving up before and behind, and a three-horse team, the driver riding the saddle horse, and driving the lead horse with a single line, to convey the corpse to its last resting- place, while a few men and boys were seated promiscuously in the wagon around the coffin. And nobody's sensibility was shocked, and all was regarded as being done with due respect to the solemnity of the occasion, while if a looking-glass had been left in the residence of the deceased, without its face being turned to the wall, it would have been regarded as something entirely unbecoming. As carriages were almost unknown, it was usually cus- tomary for the family of the deceased to fol- low the remains to the grave on horseback.

Among the Friends it was customary to

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HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

solemnize marriage at the church, after which the wedding guests, preceded by the bride and groom, rode on horseback to the resi- dence of the bride, sometimes constituting an imposing cavalcade; and that was not infre- quently the occasion of some envious or malicious scalawag setting up a pair of pad- dies in some conspicuous place by the road- side as a token of derision towards the parties.

As the locality bad long been a favorite resort with the Indians, they were naturally intimately connected with its history. After the surrender of Gen. Hull at the River Raisin, large numbers of friendly Indians in the northern part of the county fled panic- stricken, and threw themselves on the pro- tection of the government. It is said about 500 of these were brought in to the vicinity of Zanesfield and cared for by the authori- ties. The feeling of danger, which was real, was constantly being excited, enhanced by false alarms and exaggerated reports In illustration, it is said that Esquire McCoid, of Urbana, then holding a Captain's commission in the volunteer service, with his command bad charge of a party of friendly Indians, bringing them southward, and finding some of them tardy, or their sense of danger not being equal to his, he promised one of the Indians a dollar to secreto himself in the rear, and fire his gun and give two or three Indian war-whoops. The ruse had effect, and more; for it is said that one of the command, hap- pening to be isolated from the rest, became to overcome with the sense of danger that he ran as far as Columbus, the first white settle- ment he chaneed to strike, with the startling news that MeCoid's command was entirely It to pieces and he alone was left alive to tell the story. The Indians, though not hos- tile, bring entirely unused to the restraints of civilized life, were a constant source of anxiety and annoyance to the few scattered Settlers. The braves as well as the squaws

would visit the cupboard or the larder with- out waiting for an invitation, or realizing any sense of impropriety or want of etiquette. Sometimes their visits were exceedingly ill- timed and mortifying. While Joseph Dick- inson lived in Zaneshield, on his first coming to the county, his Excellency Gov. Meigs visited Zanesfield with his statt for the pur- pose of inspecting the blockhouses and other defenses of the post. It was resolved to make his visit the occasion of a grand recep- tion, and Grandmother Dickinson, than whom none knew better how to spread an excellent repast, was charged with the duty of pro- viding for the creature comforts of the Gov- ernor and his attendants. The arrangements bade fair to all be carried out in good order. The soldiers belonging to the blockhouse, with the armed Indians, were drawn up in line, and received their distinguished visitor with a grand salute, whose echoes rolled down the valleys, bringing a horseman in hot haste from the extreme south end of the county, supposing the post had suffered an attack from the enemy. But what was the mortification of our excellent hostess to be compelled, while his Excellency was making his round of inspection, to observe the im- perturbable braves from time to time gravely enter her cabin and unceremoniously appro- priate such of the viands as suited their fancy, until, when the hour arrived for her honored guests to dine, there was nothing left but such seraps as the dignified red men had deemed unworthy of their attention.

With the return of peace, and the location of the Wyandot Indians on their reserve near U'pper Sandusky, they began gradually to disappear, until, in 1830, there were only four families connected with them in the reserve, and three of them were assimilated with the whites, and in fact all of them attended school, and made some progress in learning. In the summer of that year they

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HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

were seen in great numbers, for the last time, in the streets of Zanesfield. It was on the occasion of a camp-meeting held in Union Township, and they passed this way going and returning. They rode ponies, and the squaws-many of whom carried papooses on their shoulders, secured by their shawls in some peculiar manner-presented a strange, fan- tastic appearance.

Jefferson Township has been comparatively free from murders, suicides, or accidents re- sulting in death. A few cases of the latter have occurred, of which we can only call to mind the following:

In the summer of 1848, Nathan Walton was killed at the steam saw-mill north of Jerusalem, by the saw coming in contact with a handspike with which he was attempting to steady the log.

In December, 1850, Edwin Michener was crushed by a stone which he was attempting to bury. Having made an excavation by the side and partly under the stone, and being unable to roll it in, he got down and com- menced to dig further under the stone, when it rolled upon him, crushing him so that he died in a few hours.

About the year 1851, Jeremiah Grimes, a young man, residing with his parents on the Sandusky road, just south of the township line, was killed by the falling of a limb, while cutting down timber in the woods.

In the spring of 1864, Milton, son of Mr. George Corwin, living in the north part of the township, was fatally injured in the fol- lowing manner : He had hitched his horse to a rail in the fence, and, going to him, the horse scared, and, pulling back, jerked the rail out of the fence, which struck him, producing injuries resulting in death in a few days. In March, 1879, Isaac Rudasill received a fatal injury from being thrown from a horse. In company with two other young men, he was returning from Zanes-

field to his home, near Walnut Grove. When near Frank Myers', a mile south of Jerusalem, they got to running their horses, when Ruda- sil's horse slipped and fell, throwing him on the road with such violence as to produce concussion of the brain, resulting in death the following day.

On the 20th of July, 1880, Enoch M. Scott, a farmer, 70 years old, living near the head of Marmon's Valley, was returning from Zanes- field with a two-horse wagon and a spring wagon hitched behind it. On the road, his horses frightened, and became unmanageable. Running out of the road, they struck a log, which threw him off the wagon. Attempting to rise, the spring wagon knocked him down, and, running over him, bruised and mangled him in a most shocking manner, causing death after about forty-eight hours of intense suffering.

Thomas Thompson, who was the first Andi- tor and the first Recorder of Logan County, was one of the leading men in the early his- tory of Jefferson Township. He was distin- guished as one of the best scribes that ever held office in the county. He lived on the Urbana road, beyond the State bridge, and hence belonged to Monroe Township, after that was organized.

John Brown, one of the Trustees in 1818, and several subsequent years, was a brother of Aaron Brown, and lived on his farm, and after- wards on Peter Marmon's, who was his son- in-law. He removed to Michigan about 1821.

Ralph Lowe came from North Carolina at a very early date; was one of the first two Justices of the Peace, his first term expiring in March, 1818. He resided for awhile near the old saw-mill, one-half mile south of Zanes- field. He bought 100 acres of land lying im- mediately north of New Salem Church, on which he settled, and where he lived till 1866, when he sold, and bought a house and lot near Zanesfield, where he lived until his death, in the year 1812.

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HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

Lot Garwood was a prominent farmer, set- tling at an early date on the farm now owned by J. Il. Abraham. He was a brother to Levi Garwood, one of the Associate Judges of Logan Common Pleas Court. He frequent- ly hell the office of Township Trustee.

David Krouskop, for many years a Town- ship Trustee, was born in the township, or moved into it with his parents in early youth; frequently held the office of Infirmary Di- rector; removed to Lake Township about the year 1866.

Samuel Hyde Saunders was a man of many peculiarities, one of which was a mania for building all of his enclosures in the form of a hexagon, which gained him the appella- tion of Hexagon Saunders. He was the pro- prietor of S. II. Saunders' Surveys, Nos. 12,563 and 13,076, and besides the traet constituting the farm of Lemuel Watkins. It was here that he attempted to elaborate some of his peculiar ideas. In 1830 he was entirely car- ried away with the project of raising silk- worms and producing silk. For this purpose he had cleared quite a little patch, and de- voted it to the culture of Chinese mulberries, for the leaves ou which to feed his worms. These he had arranged on shelves around the walls of his six-sided httle shanty. During the feeding season which commeneed as soon as the leaves, which were of a rapid and lux- nriant growth, attained a sufficient size, after they had spun their cocoon, he used some- times to come to town with a parcel of them in a basket and stop at the house of some acquaintance to reel the silk. It was a curious though simple process. Ile was the first to instruct the housewives of the community in the manufacture of tomato catsup, then sup- posed to be the only use to which the tomato was adapted. He was a man of extensive information. and fond of company, though living entirely alone. Zane McColloch was a favorite associate, and they spent many hours

on the common, engaged in the old English amusement of shuttlecock. One or two sea- sons, however, seemed to satisfy "his curiosity in the silk-worm business," for he soon after disappeared. It is probable that he joined his family, who, for some cause or other, never lived in this vicinity. He died not many years after leaving here.

Tom Hale was another peculiar character, though of a different type. He was remark- able for his ingenuity, which seemed to take the direction of looms and weaving. He had formerly lived in the eastern part of the State, and had sojourned awhile in the State Capital somewhat unwillingly, his visit being occasioned by the peculiar views he enter- tained about the ownership of some bacon.

A history of Jefferson Township would be incomplete without a brief mention of the colored population. The township being settled to a considerable extent by Friends, or Quakers, from North Carolina and Vir- ginia, it is natural that it should be regarded as an attractive stopping-place by an oppressed race, who were justified in regarding them as friends. Hence, from its earliest history it has been the abode of a very considerable number of colored people. The number, however, has latterly been de. lining, until at present it consists of but one family and per- haps two or three transient sojourners.

Henry Newsom, John Newsom, and Kin- chen Artes were among the first to come, followed by Tabarns, Byrds, Wades, Wal- dens, Stewarts, Allens, Ashes, Madrys, Mar- nings and others, until, from 1840 to 1850, they constituted a very considerable element in the population of the township. About the year 1849, the Newlin family, consisting of some forty men, women and children, came from Carolina. They were directly from a state of slavery, having been manumitted by their master by will. As a class, they were much inferior to the colored people hitherto

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HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

in the country, being sadly addicted to the use of intoxicating drinks.

Before this time, however, the colored peo- ple had begun to leave in considerable num- bers, going at first to Mercer County, about the time of the building of the Saint Mary's reservoir, and later to Cass County, Mich., and more recently still to Paulding County. Many of them have acquired a considerable amount of property and become good, intelli- gent citizens, while others, less energetic and provident, have made little or no advance- ment. They have usually shown a commend- able spirit in reference to education. Solomon Day, Esq., Principal of the colored schools of Dayton, was raised principally in Jefferson Township. Micajah Dimry, who was the first colored juror of Ohio, came from North Caro- lina in 1831, and has resided in Jefferson Township ever since. Though not in affluent circumstances, he owns a good farm, which he has acquired since he came to Ohio.

It is difficult to state who built or owned the first saw-mill in the township, or at what precise time. It is probable that it was built before the war of 1812, for it was abandoned as carly as 1820, and in 1830 only a few vestiges of the ruins remained. The most remarkable feature about it was the race, which was nearly or quite a mile in length, commeneing on the farm of T. E. Pennock, and extending to within about twenty rods of the south line of the survey, the mill standing near where the West Liberty road crosses the line of an old projected railway. It is probable that it was not a paying concern, as it was suffered to go down before any other mill was built in the community. The saw-mill built in the town- ship was by Joshua Folsom, in 1830, one mile north of Zanesfield. The dam was built of logs and earthwork about twenty yards above the present. The mill was constructed with a sash saw, and run by a flutter-wheel. The dam was several times washed out,

which involved a heavy expense in repairs. Yet it continued to be successfully run, with various modifications and improvements, un- til in 1850, when Charles Folsom, into whose hands the property had passed after the death of his father, dug a new race from the old dam down to where the flouring mill stands, where he built a new saw-mill with a 24-foot wheel. But afterwards building a flouring mill, he appropriated the water power to that, and put in a steam engine to run the saw- mill. With this, he run it successfully for a number of years, but finally pulled it down and removed it, devoting all his attention to the flouring mill, and to other business in which he had engaged.

About 1843 or 1844, the next saw-mill was built on Mad River, near the residence of George Peters. It was run very successfully by the proprietor for a number of years ; but, Mr. Smith going into the mercantile business, the mill was rented out, and finally run down so as to render it an unprofitable investment. The property afterward came into the pos- session of Mr. Shaots, who sold all of the mill worth removing. The frame was moved to Zanesfield, where it is used by Brown & Mar- quis. Daniel Arbeghast, and Samuel Ley- master built a steam saw-mill, with a muley saw, a short distance north of Jerusalem, about the year 1848, which did an extensive and profitable business. It was afterwards run by W. A. Sleuker, but has been removed a number of years. Near the same time of its erection, Luther Smith built one on his farm, near the head of Hladley's Bottom. It was similar in its construction, but not as successful in its operation. After being run awhile by Smith & Moody, and afterward by George D. Adams, it was sold, and removed to Union County. But the upright saws have almost entirely gone out of use, and the portable engine, with its circular saw, seemed to take the field, and one was found

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IHISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

in almost every neighborhood. But, with the great improvement in roads in later years, good, substantial, permanent engines, with ereular saws and all the late improvements, are more in demand.

Of flouring-mills-passing the Wilkinson Mill with the brief mention already made-we have only twoleft of which to speak: The Baldwin Mill, built by John Pim, in 1836, and the Folsom Mill, built eighteen years later. The former was built, and run as a water mill, exclusively, for many years. Many improve- ments were made, however, on the original model, and finally, the water-power being dermed insufficient, a lease for several feet additional head was negotiated with Charles Folsom, and a steam engine was put in, which gave it a capacity for first-class merchant work, and it has contributed largely to the business and prosperity of the township. The mill was run first by John Pim, then by I. J. Baldwin, Baldwin & Potts, Baldwin & Bro., then sold to Riddle & Rutan, and run by (i. P. Stevenson, and then sold to J. N. Dickinson.

The Folsom Mill site possessed natural ad- vantages to commence with surpassed by none in the country, and to this was added a building of the very best material and work- mauship, and in this was placed works com- bining all the modern improvements then in use. One of the conveniences connected with it is the water being trunked under ground from the forebay to the penstock, thus obviating trouble in regard to freezing, and dispensing with an ugly and inconvenient Vier to passage around the mill.

it would be difficult at this late date to vare ant of the trails followed by the r 'n' ir migratory wanderings he fore 1

1 1 n of roads by the white settlers. Ya- If the State authorities sur- of ot a road from Springfield to y, how Tremont. It passed 1

through Urbana, up the West Liberty road to a point where that road bears to the right to go down into the valley. From that it continued on up the east side of the valley to the State bridge, so called because it was first constructed by the State. From this point northward through the Township the road followed the present line of the West Liberty, Zanesfield and Rushsylvania pike, except that it has been straightened in places, especially across the farm of Mr. Shaots, where it curved around up the valley, passing nearer the house than the present location. There was also a curve in the road just south of Zanes- field, which was straightened when the pike was built.

It was most likely a number of years that this road was made before the road was sur- veved and cut out from Columbus to Belle- fontaine; probably after the county seat was established at the latter place. It followed the line of the present road from Middleburg to Zanesfield, and then down the Urbana road to the south line of Major Long's land, which passed a short distance north of the residence of Mrs. Margaret Knight, and with that line west to the hill, up to the summit, bearing to the left, entered the Goose Creek bottom, just south of the corner of Oliver Fawcett's land and up the bottom to the line of the old road just below the pike, and thence up the hill, south of Jonah Bulwer's house. In 1833 the road was surveyed and opened from Sandusky street, at Leas' corner in Zanesfickl, west- ward on the line between Curtis and Long to the west line of the survey, thence west to intersect the old road in Goose Creek bottom. About the time the road from Columbus was opened-for there is nothing on record to in- alicate the date-the road to East Liberty, then known as Garwood's Mills, was opened, the line being the same as at present, except that it commenced in the Columbus road near the brick meeting-house, east of Mad River, and

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History of Logan County and Ohio, Part 59

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