History of Logan County and Ohio, Part 67

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 67

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Zanesfield, named Robindi. The store of Lot Inskeep was subsequently moved to Garwood Mills by Joseph Stokes, who succeeded Inskeep. Shoe packs and moccasins were the only coverings for the feet. The latter were made by the Indians from deerskin; the former were made from hogskin, and consisted of a piece of skin large enough to cover the foot, which was lapped across the front and then sewed up from the toe to the instep, where an opening was left to insert the foot. The heel was then sewed up, forming quite a comfortable covering. When the weather was very coldl, they were lined with wool and were half-soled. Shoes were subsequently made by traveling shoemakers, who would come into the settlement and manufacture any number of them for fifty cents a pair. Traveling tinkers used to journey from set- tlement to settlement, and remelting all the old pewter dishes and platters that had been broken or worn out, would recast them. In 1818, the Connecticut (Yankee) clock ped- dlers made their appearance for the first time, and clocks became an institution in all the well-to-do families. It was some time before scissors came into the settlement; and it is related of Mrs. Lydia A. Marquis that, in making a quilt, she was compelled to cut the blocks out with a knife, as there was not a pair of shears in the settlement. For salt they were either compelled to travel to Portland, now Sandusky City, or to Chillicothe. They generally went through with a load of wheat, and returned with salt and other necessary commodities. In .the fall of 1810, Abishai Warner went to the latter settlement and bought a bushel of salt, paying for the same $13. Several projects for making salt from deerlicks were attempted, but in all cases signally failed, after a considerable outlay of money. In later times, previous to the building of the Cincinnati, Sandusky and Cleveland Railroad, the wheat was all

hauled to Portland, a distance of 100 miles, the entire trip occupying nine days. The price of wheat in the settlement in 1842 was 50c. per bushel, while at Portland it brought $1. A load consisted of twenty-five bushels, and the teamsters usually went through in companies, camping ont on the way. The barter price of wheat was a bushel of salt, no matter what was the price of wheat; and salt and leather would usually constitute the load back. Sugar was also produced for the market, and brought from Se. to Ge. per pound, and molasses from 50c. to GOc. per gallon. Gin- seng found a ready market at Se. per pound for green and 25c. dried, and many a maiden fair arrayed herself in stylish English calico from the proceeds of what she dug out of the ground. Meal was the staple article, and form- ed the foundation of the pioneers' supplies.

In the year 1808, the greatest consternation prevailed in the little settlement on account of the failure of the corn crop. Jose Gar- wood, in a manuscript written a few days before his death, relates that in that year Dan Garwood, Moses Euans and George llarris, with a five-horse team, went to Chil- licothe to get a load for the use of the settle- ment; and Jose himself, then quite a boy, went along to ride the fifth horse as they threaded their way on the zigzag road down the Darby. He further relates that wheat was not planted until 1808. The first crop, when made into bread and caten, made every one sick, and the experiment was not tried again until the war of 1812. The principal meat was venison and other wild game which the forest afforded. When a long, cold win- ter compelled the game to seek other locali- ties, the settlers often suffered for want of meat. Einund Outland relates that his father's family lived at one time nearly two months without bread, and at the same period meat also became very scarce. One morning, after being without food of any kind for some

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HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

time, his mother went to the spring near the cabin, and saw two pigeons. With joy, she returned to the house, and informing her husband, he immediately went down and shot them. These were thankfully eaten.

The first cook-stove introduced into the township created a profound sensation. It was purchased by Dr. John Elbert in 1839. The second one was purchased by Jose Gar- wood. They cach cost $55, and were paid for in dressed hogs at $2 per hundredweight. Strange as it may seem, this introduction of stoves was considered an unwarranted inno- vation by the good people, and they were treated with distrust and contempt, many preferring to bake their "Johnny cake " on the board and "hoe cake " in the ashes, the " pone " in the oven over the fire-place, and the wheaten loaf in the old-fashioned tin re- flector besi le the large open fire-place. For their supply of kettles, both for house use and for making maple sugar, the settlers had to go to the Mary Ann Furnace in Licking County; and when the old ten-plate store for beating churches, school-houses, and occa- sionally the "best room," made its advent, quite a trade was carried on from that point.

Farming utensils were also very slow in their introduction, and meeting the favor of the settlers. The first left-handed plow was brought into the township in 1841, and was made by John Cooper of Erbana. Previous to this time, the plow in use was the right- handed one, consisting of a wooden mold- board and shod with an iron point.

The grain in the early times was tramped out with horses or pounded out with a fail. The first thr shing machine was a crude affair, but, of course, created a great sensation in the township. Its characteristic feature was its Ing . wings which beat the grain out. The machine was owned by a man named William Brown, and was first operated on the farm of

Stock, as a general thing. ran wild in the woods, but at night they had to be carefully housed. Hogs were long, lank and dangerous. Many having escaped, ran wild in the woods, and became very ferocious. Samuel Warner, while on his way through the woods, was attacked by a drove of these wild hogs, and pressed so hard that he took to a tree, where he was compelled to remain for a number of hours, the hogs in the meantime tearing the bark from the bottom of the tree with their huge tusks. After some years it was neces- sary to hunt these hogs like other wild game, so numerous and dangerous had they become. In the bear, however, the hogs had a formida- ble enemy, and it is said that a hog that could not outrun a hear had no show for an exis- tence, Cows would often get lost in the woods, and not infrequently, when found, would be mired in some lick or spring. On account of the wild pasture, the milk would often become tainted, thus inducing what was known as milk sickness, which did not dis- appear un' ** * mo pastures became the feed- ing gron d or the cows. Of course it was necessary ... the cattle, hogs, sheep and horses should have some mark by which cach individual could distinguish his own animals. This was done in several ways, by slitting. cropping and cutting the cars, and having each peculiar mark registered with the Town- ship Clerk.

Wild animals caused the settlers a great deal of trouble, and were very numerous in carly times. Bears, especially at times, were quite bold, as the following incident shows: In very early times as a wife of one of the settlers was busily engaged with her household affairs, she was suddenly startled by the loud barking of the house dog, followed by the screams of her three-year-old child.

Rushing into the yard, to her horror sho beheld a full-grown bear perched on a low I cutbuilding, and the faithful dog standing

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HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

guard over the child, which was only saved from a horrible death by its sagacity. The mother snatched her child from its perilous situation, and called her husband from an ad- joining "clearing," who quickly shot thie bear. The wolves, both on account of their sa- gacity and ferociousness, were a terrible pest, necessitating the enactment of a law for their extirpation. It was almost impossible for the early farmers to raise a flock of sheep, as a few of these animals would kill an entire flock in a short time. They were very watch- ful, and as they traveled mostly at night, it was hard to shoot them. Job Garwood and lsaae Warner, induced by the premium of $5 a scalp, made a specialty of trapping them. This was accomplished by either a dead-fall or the steel trap. It is related as a fact that when a wolf was caught in a steel trap, and the trap was fastened to a tree or stake, that the wolf would gnaw its leg off to escape. Rattlesnakes also infested the country, having their dens in the limestone cliffs along the creeks. Raccoons were also a great pest, de- stroying the corn and other productions of the settlers. Thus, a farmer who produced a good crop, and saved his stock, could be congratu- lated. . The first orchard was set out by Job Sharp, in 1802. The same year, his wife planted, near the house, a sprig of a pear which she had brought from Mitchell's, down near Urbana, as a riding whip. Strange as it may appear, this little sprig took root, and grew into a fine, large tree. Some vandal land drove a spike into the tree many years ago, causing it to deeay in the interior, but it has preserved enough vitality to bear fruit even at this late day. In 1810, Johnny Ap- pleseed, a personage familiar in almost every settlement at an early day, and whose name is yet held in regard and respect in the local- ity, planted a nursery on the farm of Joshua Inskeep. Many an old orchard in Zane Township owes its origin to the foresight of

this truly remarkable man, and, as long as the traditions of this locality will be cherished, the name of Jonathan Chapman will linger among the people.

" And if they enquire whence come these trees Where not a bough once swayed in the breeze, The answer still comes as they travel on-

These trees were planted by Appleseed John."

Such is the productive character of some of these trees, that one on the farm of John Ins- keep has been known to bear as many as sixty bushels of apples in one year.

Death, the inexorable iconoclast, found its first victim in Henry Jones, known through- out the settlement as Grandfather Jones, in March, 1810. His body was interred in the Quaker graveyard. The first marriage was that of William Euans and Rachel Stokes, which occurred in 1811.

The Indians loved this locality with all the passion of their race, and often, after having beeu driven from its sylvan fastnesses, they would wander back in obedience to a law -- innate, higher than instinet-that of love for home and childhood associations. Previous to the war of 1812, the Indians were much more numerous than the whites, and were warlike. The steady and aggressive push of the whites had driven them to desperation, which only succumbed at the defeat on the Maumee by Mad Anthony Wayne, and sunk out of sight upon the death of Tecumseh, in the battle of the Thames. The trihes repre- sented in this locality were the Shawnees, Mingoes, Wyandotts, Delawares and Potta- watamies, of which the latter seemed the most offensive, and were distinguished from all the other tribes by their complexion being of a darker hue. As a necessary consequence, the pioneers never felt safe with the Indians within striking distance, and when the discouraging news of Hull's surrender reached this lo- cality; when the alarm was sounded that the Indians w.re massacring all along the

HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

border; when Procter's threat, that he would They would then gather or pucker the ends, so that, by the bulging of the middle, a trough would be formed. They would then tie up the ends with elm bark string. To keep the middle from coming together, when the bark began to dry, a cross-stick was placed in the inside. These tronghs were generally made in the spring and placed in a shanty to dry, so that they would be ready for the ensuing year. The shanties were also constructed by the women, and consisted of a framework of poles upon which was placed a covering of elm bark. These shanties were very durable and were seen standing many years after the Indians had left the locality. Samuel War- ner related an incident of seven squaws cut- ting down a large forest oak, and the only implements used were three of these squaw hatchets. The work, it is said, took them seven days and they never left the work day or night, and when the tree was felled, eleven coons compensated them for their labor and saved them from starvation. Although the Indians were generally friendly, the following incident shows that the settlers had to beever upon the alert: When Samuel Warner was ten years of age, he. in company with his brother David, was one day sent by his father to attend to a charcoal heap, that the latter was burning, when a renegade Indian, known as Indian John, and a reputed thief and dan- gerous man, came suddenly upon them, and. without saying a word, drew from the pocket of an old overent, which he had on. a piece of tangled rope, which he immediat dy began to untangle, meanwhile approaching the boss. Believing his suspicious movements boded no good. Sam dispatched his brother to the house, which was at quite a distance, for their father, while he continued to rake up the dirt on the heap, determining to do his best with to ugly iron rake which he was using. while Fe contrived to move away from the hakan, march to Chillicothe, became known-the ut- most terror prevailed, and a number of block- houses were built in anticipation of a speedy and sudden attack. But this did not occur, and the Indians that came to the settlement after the war of 1812, were generally friendly. They entered the settlement for the purpose of trading, and did so while on their way to and from the Indian towns at the north to their cornfields south on the Darby Plains. Their articles of barter consisted of skins, furs, moccasins, etc., but generally they had beautiful worked baskets, made of many colored stripes, taken from the box-alder. These baskets they filled with cranberries, which latter could be bought for fifty cents a bushel. They generally received in exchange meal, potato .s. salt, and, under some circum- stances, whisky. The squaws, as a rule, did all the work, and the perseverance and inge- muity manifested by them is still retained in the stories of pioneer times. Zane Township is « lebrated for its maple sugar camps, but the Indians made sugar in this locality long before the white man had learned of its value, and, Even after the country became settled, they would return to the camp for this purpose. The synaws, of course. did all the work, and their manner of proceeding was as follows: To tap the tree they struck an underband lick with a squaw-hatchet, which av is de- serile as having an eye like an old-fashioned wedding hoy, a long blade, and weighed gen- orally from one and a half to two pounds. They then would split long, thin strips of wood, eight or ten inches long, and drive tom into the split in the tree, so that the sap wenild run into the chin bark troughs. These to mels were made as follows: Finding a tree of the proper dimensions, they would out read dle tik. in Length about three fe. and porte it off would trim it with their Mucho ko vesi the th tit became pliable. X who followed around after kin, leisurely

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HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

unwinding the rope. Suddenly the father came breathlessly running, and John slipped the rope into his pocket, denying that he had one. The father, warning the Indian against another such a visit, told him to make off, which he did, and was never seen in the settlement again. After the war of 1812, the Indians did not appear in this locality in great numbers, and soon ceased to come only at great intervals, finally disappearing altogether. The Wyan- dotts, who had a reservation at what is now Upper Sandusky, were the last to leave, and the ruins of their old mission church can yet be seen in that town.

As has been noticed above, there were nu- merous deerlieks in this locality, and to these licks deer in great numbers used to repair. Joseph Curl had a terrible encounter with a wounded buck near one of these licks. Ilay- ing shot the animal, and supposing also that he had killed it, he went up to it for the pur- pose of sticking it, when the buck suddenly sprang to its feet and charged Curl, trying to impale him upon his antiers, which he only avoided by dodging around a tree. For a time the battle seemed in favor of the animal, but at last, by a lucky stab, Curl disabled him, and finally killed him. In all probabil- ity, if the buck had not been badly wounded at the start, he would have been more than a match for his antagonist. So plentiful were the deer that Samuel Warner relates that he has killed as many as three in ten minutes, without leaving his tracks, while wild turkeys could be shot any time from the door of the cabin.

The pioneers, as a general rule, were men of great strength, agility and endurance. One of Joseph Curl's sons, Marion, was noted for his fleetness and agility. It is stated on the best of authority that he has been known to jump fifty feet on a level in what is known as a hop, skip and jump. In bravery he was surpassed by none. He was killed in

the war, but, like Col. Bowie at the Alamo, it was not until seven of his assailants had been killed that he was compelled to succumb to superior numbers.

The home of the famous Simon Kenton was in this township when it included Zanes- field, and even after the division he used to frequently be seen in this locality. He re- lated to Samuel Warner that once, when a captive among the Indians, he picked up a papoose and threw it into a kettle of boiling hominy, and in the excitement that ensued made good liis escape.

On the 2nd day of June, 1816, an alarm was sounded through the settlement in Zane Township that the little son of James Curl, aged seven years, had been lost in the woods. At this late day the alarm of a lost child will produce consternation, but words cannot de- piet the excruciating agony that was conveyed in those two words when this country was a wilderness, and the great forest heard only the tread of wild beasts-knew no track but the Indian war trail. The child, in company with two of his elder brothers, had gone into the woods for the purpose of hunting wild gooseberries. Ilis two brothers, growing tired, returned home, leaving him to follow; but he, continuing his hunt, soon wandered so far that he was unable to find the trail back to his fathers cabin. Night came on, and the little waif took refuge in a tree-top. The next day he wandered forth, his only food being wild gooseberries and wild onions. Toward evening he laid down, and was visited by two animals, supposed to have been wolves, but they did not molest him. From this time on until the eighth day he wandered through the woods, subsisting on the wild berries that he could find, while the only pro- tection that he had against the wild beasts was his innoceney and little hands. He said, in relating his adventure, that one day a large black, woolly dog came up to him, and

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HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

he put his hands on it and petted it. No doubt, this dog was a black bear. All the settlers, in the meantime, had turned out, but, as day after day went by and no trace of him was discovered, the parents, in despair, began to think that further search was useless, and gave him up for lost; but the little fellow traveled on until he reached the mouth of Bokes Creek, which enters into the Snoto River, in Delaware Co., twenty miles from his home. llere, with his clothes hanging in shreds from his little body, and bleeding from innumerable scratches received in the woods, he found the cabin of Samuel Tyler. He entered the open door of the cabin and stood in the middle of the floor before he was discovered, and with his pale face, emaciated form and wild look, produced about as much surprise as a wild animal would under the same circumstances, The good housewife folded the little waif to her heart, and then did everything to relieve his wants. At this cabin he was found by his brother, who re- turned with him to the anxious father and mother, who were overjoyed at what they considered the especial dispensation of Provi- denco.

Mrs. James Marquis relates that she, to- gether with a sister and two brothers, was once lost in the woods. They had all gone to a slate quarry to procure some slates, and through some cause they wandered off, and. on account of the woods having been burned over, they were unable to find the trail back to the cabin. Night coming on, the older children built a shelter of bark to protect their little sister, who was only two years old. The neighborhood having been alarmed. search wa made, and they were found far in the night, three miles from home, in the midst of the dens. forest. Mrs. Marquis was then only six years old, and carried her little sister all the distance.

This section has been famed from earliest

times for its sugar-making, and was a favor- ite resort for the Indians for that purpose, as before described, and is yet said to be the greatest sugar-producing township in the State, and the value of the production is only exceeded here by that of corn and wheat. Some of the sugar houses are fitted up in a most elaborate manner, of which that of Talford Blackburn is a fair example. It con- sists of a large building about 20x60 feet, in one end of which is a furnace on which is a sugar pan twenty feet long and three feet wide, on one side of which are nine large ket- tles, while on the other side are right flat iron pans. AInto these receptacles the sap is con- ducted by an iron pipe, from two large tanks, called store troughs, in an adjoining build- ing, while the sap, by an ingenious arrange- ment, is changed from one pan to another, according to its varying conditions, until it is finally " sugared off." The capacity of such a furnace is two hundred barrels per day, but the amount usually handled is from one hun- dred to one hundred and fifty barrels. The cost of fitting up such a camp, including buckets, erocks, hanling barrels, etc., is from $800 to $1,000. The larger camps contain from 1,000 to 3,000 vessels, and produce per annum from 2,000 to 5,000 pounds of sugar at an average of about 10 cents per pound Thirty thousand dollars worth of sugar was formerly considered an average yield for the township, and twenty-five years ago one camp is said to have produced over 25,000 pounds, but the sugar interest is now on the decline.

The fathers of many of the earliest settlers in this township were soldiers in the Revolu- tionary War, and a few of the pioneers them- selves acted their part in that great struggle an l in the Indian wars which, for years, blazed along our frontiers. " Mad " Anthony'sover- throw of the Indians at the Maumee Rapids, and the crashing defeat at the battle of Tip- pecanoe, had the effect, however, of checking

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HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

the Indians in their depredations, and it was only through the insidious and malicious ma- chinations of the British agents, in 1811, that they were again prevailed upon to dig up the hatchet and take sides against the Americans- a poliey reprehended at home and bitterly censured among all civilized nations. They joined the British, and the first knowledge of that fact came from the lurid glare of the burning cabins which blazed a foreboding boa- con light along our defenceless borders. The news of Hull's disgraceful surrender of the fort at Detroit spread consternation and alarni among the settlers. A company was at onee organized, consisting of nearly all the able- bodied men in the settlement, and Zanesfield, then a part of this township, became a fron- tier post. The garrison at that point narrowly escaped an attack and surprise by a mere ac- cident. A few soldiers, who were out on a seouting expedition some miles from the post, had gotten up one morning early for the purpose of hunting squirrels for their break- fast ; after shooting quite a number they re- turned to their camp, and, later in the day, while scouting, came across traces of a large band of Indians. The latter, evidently, had heard the firing and had hastily decamped, supposing their movements had been dis- covered. The strong log house of Job Sharp was used as one point where the families of the Sharps, Warners, Inskeeps, Euans, Stokes, Ballingers and Curls gathered on a threatened attack ; from the top of the house a lookout was kept for the Indians. The house of Wil- liam Seger, in the south part of the township, was used for the same purpose. Isaac Painter remembers going to a block-house, in what is now Champaign County, with his mother and her children, in company with other families, on the occasion of a threatened Indian descent, while his father was off serving as a soldier. William Inskeep recollects well the day of Commodore Perry's victory on Lake Erie.

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History of Logan County and Ohio, Part 67

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