History of Marietta and Washington County, Ohio, and representative citizens, Part 32

Author: Andrews, Martin Register, 1842-; Hathaway, Seymour J
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1490

USA > Ohio > Washington County > Marietta > History of Marietta and Washington County, Ohio, and representative citizens > Part 32

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).

"Agricola." in the American Friend for July 19. 1816. notes the fact that a large quan- tity of gold and silver had recently left this place for Philadelphia and that it would never return because the people of this county were

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not exporting surplus products; that nothing but unchartered bank paper would remain here. The specie which had come here to pay the soldiers and buy provisions for the war had been sent eastward to adjust the trade balances and then came-a crash.

It was estimated that the total amount of gold sent eastward from Ohio between June, 1818, and June, 1819, was $800,000.

HARD TIMES.

The American Friend (June, 1819) said : "Take the present times all in all, and they are truly alarming. * * *

* * This we know, let luxury and extravagance be laid aside and a true system of industry and economy be pur- sued, and it will operate most powerfully against the hard times."

This year and the next a list of banks whose notes were recived at par in Marietta was published, and there were many changes in the list from week to week.

Late in the summer of 1819 a meeting of merchants was held in Marietta when it was resolved that notes of the Cincinnati banks, of the Lebanon and Miami Banking Company, of the Urbana Banking Company, of the Dayton Manufacturing Company, and of the Zanes- ville Canal & Manufacturing Company should only be received at 15 per cent. discount, and the Farmers' Mechanics' & Manufacturers Bank of Chillicothe at 25 per cent. discount. In January of that year the Legislature of Ohio had passed a law making it a misdemeanor punishable with a fine of $500 to "receive in payment any bank note for a less amount than the sum expressed to be due in the body there- of," but the law seemed to have no terrors. Perhaps the merchants thought that if a fine were imposed they could pay it in some of the legally protected bank paper which would not cost them much, but which the officers of the State inust take at their face value.

In 1820 a parody of the "House that Jack Built" appeared in many papers. The follow- ing is a sample :

These are the farmers, all poor and forlorn, That sold to the Traders, all shaven and shorn, The Beef and the Butter, the Pork and the Corn, That was bought with the Rags, all tattered and torn, That was issued as money, noon, evening and morn, By the cunning Directors that manage the men That own the Bank that Jack built.

The confusion in currency and the lack of legal tender money compelled people to resort to barter. In October. 1820, a committee consisting of Rev. Samuel P. Robbins, Da- vid Putnam, William R. Putnam, William Slo- comb and Augustus Stone, was soliciting help for a mission among the Choctaws. A boat of 40 tons buirthen was to be sent with the con- tributions, and the committee had this to say to their benevolent fellow citizens: "During the present state of pecuniary embarrassment, money is not particularly solicited. further than to answer the purpose of transportation; but a portion of the common products of our soil, which the God of blessings has so bounti- fully bestowed."

Among the commodities mentioned by the American Friend as receivable in payment of subscriptions in 1819-20-21 were: Pork, Hour, cornmeal, oats, tallow, country linen, lard, wood, maple sugar, city orders, bacon, geese feathers, wool, leather, flax, wool cloth, firewood and deer skins.

In December 1820, "A Farmer" writes of the financial crisis in a letter to "Jeremy Slack Yardstick, Esq. : "

"It is useless, at present, to enter upon an explanation of all the causes which have led a happy and flourishing people into a state near- ly allied to general bankruptcy.

"Many of the members of the Legislature must duly reflect that much of the present gen- eral pressure has originated with them: they chartered bank after bank without providing for the redemption of the bank paper. When charters alone would no longer give confidence, they assimilated the honor of the State with these banks, by making it become a stockhold- er therein. Their measures gave currency to this spurious paper. It gave a fictitious rise to property, activity to honest enterprise, and | furnished unbounded means for fraudulent

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speculation, of a species which it ought to be ‹leemed a misnomer to call else but barefaced swindling. All at once this fictitious capital was forcibly drawn from circulation, owing to the numerous frauds to which its issue gave rise-and the fictitious impulse which it gave ceased with its circulation.'

In 1820-21 there was a strange condition of public sentiment with reference to the appraise- ment of property seized for debt. It frequent- ly happened that such articles would be ap- praised at two or three times the highest price they had ever maintained in the open market. Of course the goods thus estimated at a ficti- tious value could not be sold even at one half the appraisement, and the creditor was helpless.

Many persons at this time advocated the abolition of all legal process for the collection of debts, so that the honesty of the debtor might be the only security.

In 1822-23. as a result of the "sickly sea- sons," some inhabitants of this county sought new homes in the higher land far from the river. It was urged by some persons that an artificial route should be made to an Eastern market, the better to escape the danger of in- fection from New Orleans.

In 1822 the stage coach appeared in our county, first on the road to Wheeling.

Bear and otter skins were still found in the market.

SEARCHI FOR SILVER.

About this time the Muskingum Mining Company made an expensive search after sil- ver by sinking a shaft near Chandlersville. Some of the best men of Marietta and Zanes- ville were engaged in the enterprise. It is easy to ridicule the experiment after the result is known, but if we examine the evidence pre- sented at the time they began the work, we must confess that there was a reasonable pros- peet of success and that in making the investi- gation they showed a commendable public spirit.

Among the new industries was a mill for extracting linseed oil, erected at Newport in 1821-22 by Joseph Barker. Jr.

THIE SCOTCH IMMIGRATION.

There was still public land to be obtained within the county. 1.440 acres being sold in the first half of the year 1822, and large tracts owned by the members of the Ohio Company or their assignees, were still unoccupied. The year 1823 is marked by the arrival of many emigrants directly from Scotland-a valuable addition to our population.

The following note from Nahum Ward was written in February, 1823, in Scotland, whither he had gone to sell Washington Coun- ty lands :

"I have had all my lands laid off in a book' in parts of 50, 80, 100 or 1,000 acres, and in the bond which I give them I stipulate that if they do not find the tract as I have described it in the bond, that I will refund the money, on their arrival on the land, and the bond shall be void. I have none but very decent men going out."

We can readily believe that Mr. Ward's opinion of the men he was sending hither from Scotland was correct, for they have left many worthy descendants in our county. The ar- rival of the first party at their new home is mentioned in June, 1823. and in November, George Richardson, William McKay. George Duncan. Archibald Fisher and Daniel Nichol report themselves well pleased with the land they have purchased.

After 1821 partial relief came to the dis- tressed farmers through an increased demand for our products at good prices, but the con- fusion in currency occasioned by the multiplic- ity of local banks continued to annoy the com- mercial world until 1863. To the credit of the banks of Marietta. it must be said, that they weathered the storms better than those of some other towns.

It is interesting to note that for more han 20 years there was discussion in favor of an improvement in the navigation of the Muskin- gum. . As early as 1819 such improvement was advocated. In 1824 the steamboat "Ru- fus Putnam," went in a time of freshet to Zanesville and returned in safety, thus show- ing the power of a steamboat to stem the cur-

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rent of the Muskingum even when it was at the highest. The officers and passengers were received with great honor at Zanesville and hopes were entertained that soon the river might, by a system of dams, be made navigable at all seasons of the year. But this hope was not realized until 1841.

CHANGE IN METHOD OF TAXING LAND.

In 1825 the unfair system of taxing land by the acre, rather than by its commercial val- ne, a system especially hard upon the owners hill land, in Washington County, was changed to our present system of levying taxes upon the assessed valuation. For this change we are especially indebted to the earnest labors of our Representative, Ephraim Cutler. It might be supposed that much of this land was held for speculative purposes but such was not the case. In fact the greater part of the fertile bottom lands had been given to actual settlers as described by Colonel Barker.

These donation lands were given in lots of 100 acres to actual settlers whether members of the Ohio Company or not. This move- ment to encourage settlement and preserve this part of Ohio for the Union was begun by the free action of the Ohio Company and af- terward continued by Congress. The result was beneficial to the country but it left to those officers and soldiers, who had invested the earn- ings of eight years of hard military service, a few acres of land about Marietta, and the tin- cleared and unoccupied land of the hills.

For a long time the tide of immigration passed this land, and settled on the alluvial plains of the Scioto and Miami. After 1823 a new and hardy race of farmers began to take possession of these hills and transformed ! country stores. the lair of wolves and panthers to beautiful farms, bearing abundant crops. In 1825 to- bacco became a paying crop and there was much attention paid to new varieties and im- proved quality of seed. Another attempt was made to form an agricultural society; Presi- dent Joseph Barker announced that the coun- ty fair would be held near the Court House on

the third Wednesday of October, 1826, and that pens would be provided for the stock which might be brought. At this period the Belpre cheese was as well known along the river, as the Western Reserve and the New York Cream have been in later times.

IMPROVEMENTS.

Th advertisements which appeared from time to time fixed approximately the date of the first appearance of many of the improve- ments and luxuries which soon came to be re- garded as necessities.

Iron plows, a great improvement on the wooden mould-boards, were advertised in 1827. A baker, who had been plying his trade before 1825, advertised his wares in that year and in 1827 informed his friends that he had ice for sale in the month of June. In 1828 appeared the first notice of a "theater" at McFarland's Hall. The play announced is the comedy of "Paul Pry."

We have said that it took 20 years of agi- tation to secure an improvement of navigation on the Muskingum. It took more than 30 years of earnest work on the part of the cit- izens of this county to secure a railroad, con- necting us with the East. As early as 1827, even before a rail had been laid at Baltimore, our citizens were awake to their interests and were striving to convince the officers of the projected railroad that it was best to have the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad strike the Ohio near Marietta.

In 1827, two of our merchants, Augustus Stone and Dudley Woodbridge, were offering to sell goods at wholesale as well as retail, thus showing the increase in the number of

In 1829 a new foundry appeared, at first on the west side tinder the management of a skilled workman from Steubenville. The next year A. T. Nye assumed control of the business, and it has been continned under the direction of his sons and grandsons to the present day.

As late as 1830 an advertisement for a

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runaway slave appeared in the Marietta pa- pers, but no other had appeared since 1820. In the next decade one more advertisement of that kind was published.

In1 1829 there was a movement for the erec- tion of a free bridge over Duck Creek, but this reform, which we now consider so necessary to our commercial progress, was delayed almost 40 years.

In the period between 1825-30 the strife between religious bodies grew unusually bit- ter and the controversialists eagerly sought the columns of our weekly papers and taxed the patience of the editors if not the readers.

It is evident from many letters and com- munications that the Masonic body occupied a very prominent position throughout the first 40 years of our history, being almost the only society, beside the churches. Apparently the discipline of this society was strict ; the names of members expelled were advertised in a way which public sentiment would hardly tolerate today.

TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT.

Until about 1830 such strong drinks as whiskey, apple brandy, and peach brandy, were as freely advertised as any other commodity. They were freely received in payment for debts or for goods. The hospitality of the settler would have been considered scant of the guest were not offered some form of spirituous li- quors and the best merchants thought it prop- er to treat their customers at the close of a trade. But in 1830 the whole community had been awakened to a sense of the evils result- ing from intemperance and societies sprang up in different parts of the county to repress its inroads upon the home.

A CHANGE IN THE POPULATION OF THE COUNTY.

The year 1830 marks a change in the pop- ulation of Washington County. Just before this time, Scotch emigrants had begun to come to the hill land, and next came a large number

of German farmers. Both of these have formed an important addition, not only to the productive power of this part of the country. to its wealth in houses and chattels, but, what is of more importance, to its wealth in citizen- ship. From the very first they have shown themselves true Americans, ready to decide political questions on their merits according to the evidence presented and not at the dictation of a boss. The best evidence of their char- acter as citizens is found in the beautiful homes scattered over the hills from one end of the county to the other ; in the school houses and churches found in every township : in the abun- dance of those things which satisfy the wants of mankind and even of those which contribute to his intellectual development and refine- ment.

In 1830 there were some industries not now seen in our county ; they have been replaced by others which have proved more remunerative. At that time hemp was produced in considera- ble quantities; fax also was cultivated, both for the oil and fiber ; castor-oil beans were also raised in such quantities as to be manufactured into oil. About this time attempts were made at the cultivation of silk and it was found that the climate was suitable for that business, but the demand for labor in other occupations was so great that it did not prove remunerative. Silk culture failed because la- borers could not be hired here at 10 cents a day. Some attention before this time had been paid to the improvement in cultivation of sweet potatoes but as yet no experiments had been made in storing them in large quantities, hence the trade was temporary and not very large.

By 1830 bears had disappeared from the north side of the Ohio River, at least in this part of the State. A few wolves still roamed over parts of Washington and Morgan coun- ties and committed depredations upon the in- creasing flocks of sheep, but the number of these plunderers was small and the flock mas- ters looked forward hopefully to the time when the few vagrant robbers could be exterminated. To hasten this end. public-spirited farmers

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had contributed from their private means to raise a fund, which was deposited in the coun- ty treasury, for the purpose of giving a boun- ty of Șio to everyone who should be so for- tunate as to secure the scalp of a wolf.

By this time the depressing effects of the "sickly seasons" ( 1822-23) had almost disap- peared; a succession of years when general health had prevailed had encouraged settlers to come into the county and filled the older in- habitants with a more hopeful spirit for the fu- ture.

A new era was about to begin-an era of improvement in labor-saving machinery, of better means of communication and exchange. The canal and railroad were about to take the place of the bridle path through the wilder- ness.

Further notices from the American Friend and other contemporary papers will give us a vivid picture of the times :

A writer, in December 20, 1816, complains that under the existing system of taxation, poor unimproved land in this county was made to pay a tax of from four to 10 per cent. of its market value.

At a meeting of landholders held in Green- leaf's Hall, December 28, 1816, vigorous reso- lutions were passed condemning the method of taxing by acres rather than by valuation. Na- hum W'ard said he paid out $1oo in bringing the resolutions before the Legislature but no relief was obtained until 1825.

On February 14, 1817, the ice on the Ohio near Marietta was 19 inches thick. The fol- lowing notice appeared under date of March 2Ist : "No mail has arrived at this place from the East since our last." A few days later was printed the following : "The Bank of Marietta commenced the payment of specie on Thursday morning, March 27th."

In 1817 there was organized the "Emigrant Society of the County of Washington, Ohio," for the express purpose of "administering re- lief to sick and distressed emigrants, of giving employment to their poor, and of counseling and giving information to those who may not

have obtained an adequate knowledge of the situation of the various parts of this State."

A letter from New Orleans gives an inter- esting view of the increasing commerce of the Western Country concentrated at a point at New Orleans. In no previous year has the produce been brought in such quantity to this market."

The total expenditures of the county for the year ending June, 1817, were not quite two thousand dollars; to be exact, they were $1,989.231/2.

May 2, 1817 .-

General St. Clair has for some years past received from the State of Pennsylvania $400 per annum. The Legislature of that Common- wealth, at its last sitting, added $350 a year to his pension.

N. Y. Columbian, 1817 .-

A merchant from Marietta, Ohio, has just left this city with several tons of goods (it be- ing his second trip), who takes them from Al- bany by way of Geneva and Hamilton on the Allegheny River, to his place in the State of Ohio.

In a newspaper of 1817, "Fair Play" stated that it was known that certain individuals had purchased all the salt which could be made at the Kanawha works and then had raised the price to $2 a bushel. He asked the General Assembly to interfere and protect the public against these "pests of society."

Relief came from another quarter, within a few months, as the following extract from the Zanesville Express will show :

NEW SALT WORKS.

We are pleased to learn the success of the under- taking of Jacob Ayres, Esq. He has with great labor obtamed a stream of salt water which yields more than one barrel per minute, and in quality inferior to none hitherto discovered. We are assured that he will man- ufacture from two to three hundred bushels daily, and that the business will be in operation in the present week. Those citizens oppressed by the present price of this useful commodity will be gratified to hear that they can soon be supplied from his works at a price not higher than $1.50 per bushel.

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HUMANE SOCIETY.

June 5, 1818 .- MR. PRINTER, Pleace to give the following a place in your paper and oblige an old subscriber :

We are about to establish a society in our good township of Warren, which we intend styling the "Hu- mane Society." the principles of which will differ ma- terially from those established in some of our sister towns -for whereas. their avowed principles are to take in strangers ; the most prominent of ours will be to turn them out. for where any of our waste cabins are eleared of a family of troublesome paupers, we make it a rule instantly to put a fire to it, which has not only a very salutary effeet, but is attended with other very admirable consequences, as it rids us at once of the following. viz., squatters, vagrants. sometimes scoundrels and gener- ally fleas. ZENO.

AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.

In the spring of 1819 a meeting, of which Capt. Jonathan Devol was chairman and An- selm T. Nye, secretary, was held in Marietta to form a "Society for Promoting Agriculture and Manufactures."

To formulate plans, the following com- mittee was chosen :

William R. Putnam, Marietta. Benjamin Dana. Waterford. Maj. A. W. Putnam, Belpre. Alexander Henderson. Col. Simeon Deming. Wooster. Ephraim Cutler, Warren. Capt. Ebenezer Battelle, Newport. Col. Joseph Barker. Union. Christian Schultz, Virginia. Dr. David Creel, Virginia. Dr. Joseph Spencer, Virginia. John Griffith, Virginia. George Neal, Virginia. Isaac Morris, Virginia.

American Friend, November 27, 1818 .-

"The example of the suspension of specie payments, by the banks of Cincinnati, has been followed by the Franklin Bank of Columbus, Farmers', Mechanics' & Manufacturers' Bank of Chillicothe, and the Muskingum Bank."

The mails were so irregular at this time that seven consecutive numbers of a weekly paper from Washington came at one time. Mr. Wilcox, the postmaster, explained that the mails were brought as far as Winchester by coach; that between that place and the Poto- 13

mac more mail would some times accumulate than a single horse could carry.

February 23. 1821 .-

"Since the year 1810, the territorial extent of this county has, in the laying off of new counties, been reduced almost one half.

"We have no disposition to lower the esti- mation in which other parts of the State are held. We would only say that this quarter in our opinion is too much underrated-and when our agricultural practice shall become more improved-when our farmers shall have learned the most rational and profitable appli- cation of their industry-when the advan- tages of raising sheep shall be duly estimated, our county will no longer be spoken of as a tract mostly barren and unfit for cultivation."

GRAND CIRCUS HUNT.

Notice is hereby given, that there is to be a circus hunt on the head waters of the Big and Little west branches of the little Hockhocking on Thursday the 8th day of February. 1821. It is hoped that all those who feel able to perform a march of four or five miles, both men and boys, will appear on the ground on Wednesday, the 7th of February. prepared to camp out for the night. The inhabitants of Warren, Belpre and De- catur will assemble at or near Mr. Hall's on the Water- ford road ;- those of Wesley Barlow, etc. will form the north line from John Smith's west to the road leading from the Ohio to Federal Creek, so as to intersect said road about six miles from the Ohio. Those of New- berry will form on said Federal Creek road. It is ex- pected that all who have horns or conch-shells will bring them. No dogs to be brought on the ground. As it is the express object of this hunt to kill wolves and panthers. it is hoped that those who can not re- frain from shooting deet will leave their guns at home. Walter Curtis, Newberry. William Johnson, Decatur, Thaddeus B. Pond, Barlow, Amos Dunham. Warren, Miller Clark. Belpre, O. R. Loring, Belpre, W. P. Putnam, Belpre. John Stone. Belpre. Committee of Arrangements.

A later report says that on account of want of system the hunt was not successful although wolves, bears, and panthers were seen in differ- ent places.

A rhyming satirist describes this hunt and at the same time pays his respects to the Ohio

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Legislature for removing the bounty on wolf scalps :

CONVENTION OF WOLVES.

It was of late upon Hockhocking The wolves in droves together Hlocking, Resolved with landable intention To form a national convention And gather all their sage directors Lawyers, scribes, and quacks, and doctors, That they might send our Legislature A sort of complimentary letter. *

Address.

Last spring a might host beset us.

And, through the woods did chase and sweat us, With guns, horns, pitchforks, spears and flails They followed, pell-mell, at our tails Then trembling, pale with panic fear Heart-struck we fled. like driven deer ;

But ( not a single grinner slain )

All, all our fears ( thank God) proved vain, The rout went home, all cursed gruff. For their day's work. and tired enough.

But noble sirs, what you hae done We all approve it as our own: Your gen'rous souls omitted scalping Your brithers, through the forest yelping. And. frae onr lugs took off the bounty Throughout the State in every county We bless and praise your matchless kindness Tho' some sour knaves hae called it blindness.

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History of Marietta and Washington County, Ohio, and representative citizens, Part 32

Author: Andrews, Martin Register, 1842-; Hathaway, Seymour J Publication date: 1902 Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1490

Author: Andrews, Martin Register, 1842-; Hathaway, Seymour J
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1490