History of Muskingum County, Ohio ; with illustrations and biographical sketches of prominent men and pioneers, 1794, Part 5

Author: Everhart, J. F; Graham, A. A., Columbus, Ohio, pub
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: [Columbus, O.] : F.J. Everhart & Co.
Number of Pages: 600

USA > Ohio > Muskingum County > History of Muskingum County, Ohio ; with illustrations and biographical sketches of prominent men and pioneers, 1794 > Part 5

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Schoolcraft says that " nothing we have in the shape of books is ancient enough to recall the

HISTORY OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY, OHIO.

period of his (the aborigines) origin ; he gives a description of the Rosetta stone, with its tri-lin- gual inscription, hieroglyphic, demotic and ancient Greek.

Bradford, American Antiquities : "The an- cient remains of the United States were the pro- duction of a people elevated far above the sav- age state ; that in this country " the numbers to twenty were represented by dots or points ; and astronomical symbols and phonetic hiero- glyphs" were used. Pownall's Antiquities de- scribes the Mexican picture writing in three parts ; speaks of the winged globe as the sign of infinity ; the sign of the serpent a symbol of life, the spirit, and other signs, all of which were protected by Egyptian edict.

Winchell, in Pre-Adamites, classes the Mon- goloid race at the head of the Brown Races, and determines the 6th sub-division to be the Behring family, and the 7th the American fam- ily, and settles the " vexed question," as to who built the Great Pyramid, by showing that Cheops was the builder, and his son, Merhet, was Prince and Priest in the Fourth Dynasty, 3400 B. C., and that portraits of his Dynasty reveal the ex- istence of a Semitic type ; that, according to Lepsius, the Egyptian and Semitic types of the Mediteranean race were extant at the time [See pp. 204-5].

The inscription on the tablet taken from the mound in Brush Creek Township is composed of three different forms of ideation, which are made out to be Demotic or Enchorial, Hiero- glyphic and Greek. The Demotic, according to Herodotus, had ceased to be used 525 B. C. ; the Hieroglyphics had ceased to be used about the third century, A. D., and Greek characters were then used as ideations. The inscription, therefore, must dete back to the time when one of these classes ceased to be used, which was 425 B. C.

That the mounds embraced in our contempla- tion are rude imitations of the Pyramids, for the same purposes, is certainly probable. And as will be seen in the report on the disclosures of the mound in Brush Creek Township, there were three graves distinguished from every other, and as the inscription upon the stone taken from that mound included three angle marks, our belief in the antiquity of the mound and its contents is made stronger and stronger until we doubt no more.

The difficulty, however, is in formulating these ideations, and necessitated the citation of the authorities quoted in this chapter, and as their views were condensed, the difficulty is scarcely diminishdd until the discovery that Alpha and Omega were the first two characters in the inscription was made. This harmonized with evidence of the writers in favor of a theastic de- sign on the part of the builder of the Great Pyramid, and brought to our aid the learned Piazzi Smyth's " Third Key," again harmoniz- ing with the history of the Egyptian Dynasties, which shows that they had a Priesthood ; and, ergo, the formulation we have adopted, and the

first of which is found in "the Revelation of St. John the divine," chapter 1, verse 8.

The repetition will be found of common occur- rence in almost every variety of expression in those days, and has not altogether disappeared at this day.

The astronomical formulation, interpreting the characters not found within the parallel lines, is found in the first verse of the XIX Psalm, and is associated with the angle stone marks, which, if they have any signification, may be interpreted : distinguished persons, servants of Deity, worthy of the great respect shown in the entombment ; these angle stones are only found upon the Great Pyramid, and other Pyramids in Egypt, and in numbers corresponding to the numbers buried within. From the foregoing we reach the fol- lowing translation :

I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the Lord God, which is and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty ; giving first, power on earth; secondly, the spirit, added from heaven without ending.

" The heavens declare the glory of God," as a scal of His power to bless, first, with life, and forever, these servants.

This chapter was written in 1880, and a paper prepared from it was read before the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at the session held in Boston, Mass., in August, of that year ; and the paper was earnestly solicited for publication by the officers of the Association, but was reserved for the history of this county.

January 2d, 1882, I received from Daniel G. Brinton, M. D., Secretary of the American Phil- osophical Society, Vice President of the Numis- matic and Antiquarian Society, of Philadelphia, Member of the American Antiquarian Society, of the Historical Society, of Penna, etc., etc. Author of "The Myths of the New World," " The Religious Sentiment," etc .. etc., "The names of the Gods in the Kiche myths, in Cen- tral America," with compliments of the Author. This is a very able paper, and was read by Dr. Brinton before the American Philosophical So- ciety, November 4, 1881, and from which the following extracts are taken. They will doubt- less strengthen the foundation for the interpreta- tion given to the Brush Creek Tablet :

" The following remarkable invocation to Hur- akan, which is one of the finest in the Popol Vuh, premising, according to the same authority, that Hurakan is equivalent to All Powerful :

I. Acarroc, Atoob a gih, at Hurakan, at u Qux cah, ulen !

Hail, beauty of the day, thou Hurakan, thou (its) Heart, the Sky, the Earth !

2. At yaol rech ganal-raxal, at pu yaol mial. qahol !

Thou giver (of) our prosperity, thou, and giver (of) daughters, sons !

3. Cha tziloh, cha maquih uloc a raxal, a ganal :

Make firm, extend hither thy glory, thy great- ness :

4. Cha yatah, u qazsic, vinakiric val nu qahol :

心

PHOTO. BY. 5

ELIJAH HART CHURCH.

THERE is, perhaps, no more difficult task for the biographer than to portray the traits of a "life well spent," so as to fully represent its meritoriousness, and gain the approbation of those who knew the subject best, even when that life has been one of official and public character, with well defined boundaries in the spheres in which it has moved. And this difficulty is increased when the subject has not filled any such positions, but modestly guided his bark "adown the stream of life," not even keeping a record of his stopping places.

Mr. Church was as remarkable for his self-abne- gation as for his fidelity to his duty (however small it may have seemed), and his charity toward the erring and the needy. It would, therefore, have come with a better grace for some one of his life- long friends to tell the story of his life, that seems to the stranger-historian a part of the woof and warp of Zanesville's history; but after this great lapse of time, since his demise, they have shirked the op- portunity of doing justice to the memory of their friend, and will have to be content with such a tribute as the brief notes at our command permit.

His father, Joseph Church, with his wife and several young children, came from Bucks county, Pennsylvania, to Zanesville, in the spring of 1807. The subject of this sketch was born in a log cabin, on the north side of Main street, above Seventh; he attended "old Mother Goff's school" in 1812-13; Arthur Reed's, on Cyprus alley and Seventh (where the Richard's Block stands); William McCormick

and Marcus Metcalf had him for a pupil. He learned his letters off a paddle-letters pasted on one side and a-b-ab's on the other; the course of instruction ended without graduation. When he was near through the rudiments, the teacher solilo- quized [with Milton :]

"I will bring thee where thou shalt quit Those rudiments, and see before thine eyes The monarchies of earth."

October 15, 1815, Joseph Church and wife, who had recently united with the Presbyterian Church by the confession of their faith, took their children, including Elijah, to the church, and, with many others, they received the outward sign of invisible grace in the rite of baptism, administered by the Rev. James Culbertson, of whom Mr. E. H. Church always loved to speak in the highest praise.

At the age of fifteen Elijah engaged with his father to learn the shoemaking, and " worked at the bench " about three years, attending school during the winter months. He then apprenticed himself to William Janes, a bricklayer, and became a good workman, and worked at that trade fifty years.

Such is the brief record at command; the barren- ness, however, is relieved by the peculiar interest he took in the growth of his native town, and the pains he was at to preserve the personal reminiscen- ces of the pioneers ; his affection glowed as he un- folded their good deeds. His own genial manner im- pressed the writer so that he often thought him a

type of a race that seems almost extinet, but that was given to hospitality, and afforded the enjoy- ment of security from suspicion, amid friends that were true, under every trial, who sought to add to the comfort and enjoyment of their kind. This was a favorite thought with Mr. Church; his was a warm and generous nature. So that it seems a reality to think we hear a well known friend of the family say,-Aye, my boy, kiss your mother, kiss her again; fondle your sweet sister; pass your lit- tle hand through the gray locks of your father ; love them tenderly while you can! Make your good nights linger, with the words of your soul-love oft repeated to father, mother, sister, brother, though these loves shall die.

" Full swells the deep pure fountain of young life, When on the heart and from the heart we took Our first and sweetest nurture; when the wife, Blest into mother, in the innocent look, Or even the piping cry of lips that brook No pain and small suspense, a joy perceives Man knows not, when from out its cradled nook She sees her little bud put forth its leaves."

And so we find him fond of home and the loved ones there ; and at the fireside telling o'er and o'er the events of the past-full of interest, for he kept a journal of passing events that extended over thirty years, noting many things it seems surpris- ing he should have taken an interest in-the death of individuals, the work of churches, the unset- tling of an old pastor, and the ealling of a new one; the election of church officers; the ehange of fami- lies in churches ; the change in county officials ; but we forbear, adding only what you know so well, that he communicated through the press what he knew concerning the early history of Zanesville, in over eighty articles. He died March 22d, 1880; died as the spring dies into summer; as the summer ripens into fall; as the leaves die, to spring forth into newness of life on the other shore. God was merciful to him, and he was gathered to his fathers, without terror.

At the time of his death the living children were John, George, Hattie, and Annie; Hattie is Mrs. John L. Clemens, of "Clemens & Son ;" Annie is Mrs. Vincent Ferguson.

He was the oldest native born eitizen in Zanes- ville at the time of his death, and, by his death, the chain, that binds us to the infant days of the eity he loved so well, is shortened. One after an- other these much loved fathers are passing away, and it will not be long until the stranger may ask of us, as the Prophet of Israel, "Your fathers, where are they ? "

The Odd Fellows' Fraternity took the following notice of the death of Elijah H. Church :

A feeling of sineere sadness pervaded the proceed- ings of the Directors of Odd Fellow's Hall Assoeia- tion, at their monthly meeting, held on the evening of April 6th, and expressions of genuine sorrow fell from every one present, at the vacant chair of their late associate, Elijah H. Church. This chair Mr. Church has occupied for over twenty years, never missing a meeting, unless prevented by illness, or absence from the eity. When first elected to the Board, the affairs of the Association were in a dis- astrously embarrassed condition. Besides heavy mortgages on the building, on which interest had accumulated, there was a large floating debt, and nothing but the personal security of two or three of the Directors saved the property from the ham- mer of the Sheriff. Mr. Church lived to see this valuable property entirely freed from every in- cumbranee, and its stock, whenever any was offered for sale, bringing double its face value in the mar- ket. Towards this success, the prudent counsels, economy, perseverance and personal labor of Elijah Church, essentially contributed. On ad- journment, the following resolutions were ordered to be recorded on the minutes of the Association, published in the city papers, and a copy given to the family of the deceased :

"Resolved, That in the death of our old friend and associate, E. H. Church, the Board of Direc- tors of Odd Fellows' Hall Association has lost a valuable member, to whose judgment, punctu- ality, encouraging advice, and unwearying energy, the stockholders are largely indebted.

" Resolved, That the Order of Odd Fellows, to which Elijah H. Church was so long and affectionately attached, has lost a faithful brother whose long life and upright walk and conversation were an emin- ent example of the principles inculcated by the Order and embodied in its motto of " Friendship, Love and Truth."

"Resolved, That Zanesville has lost one of her oldest and worthiest citizens ; one possessing a re- markable love for the memories of its pioneer founders, and for the relies of the olden times, and one whose honesty, sterling integrity, fidelity to every duty, and attachment to his friends, de- servedly gained for him the respect and honor of the whole community.

"Resolved, That we deeply sympathize with his bereaved family in the irreparable loss which they have sustained, and that we will long keep his many virtues and upright qualities of head and heart green in our remembrance.

"JOSEPH CROSBY, Treasurer."

HISTORY OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY, OHIO.

Give their life, (their) increase to my descend- ants :

5. Chi pog-tah, chi vinakir-tah, tzukul ave, cool ave.

That they may beget, may increase nurses for thee, guards for thee :

6. Ziquy ave pa be, pa hoc, pa beya, pa xivan xe che, xe caam.

Who shall invoke thee in the roads, in the paths, in the water-ways, in the gorges, under the trees, under the bushes.

7. Cha yaa qui mial, qui qahol :

Give to them daughters, to them sons.

8. Ma-ta habi it-tzap, yanquexo :

Let there not be disgrace, misfortune.

9. Ma-ta choc qaxtokonel chiquih, chi qui bach.

That not comes the deceiver behind them, be- fore their face.

IO. Me pahic, me zokotahic; me hoxomic, me gatonic.

May they not fall, may they not stumble ; may they not hurt their feet, may they not suffer pain.

II. Me kahic requem be, rahzic be.

May they not fall in the low road, in the high road.

12. Ma-ta-habi pak, toxcom chiquih, chi qui vach.

Let there not be a stumbling block, a scourge behind, before their face.

13. Que a yatah pa raxa be, pa raxa hoc ;

Give them (to be) in a green road, in a green path :

14. Ma-ta-habi quil, qui tzap a cuil, av itzmal.

Let there not be to them evil, to them misfor- tune (from) thy locks, thy hair.

15. Utz-tah qui qoheic tzukul ave, cool ave, cha chi. cha vach.

Fortunate to them (be) existence, nurses thine, guardians thine, before thy mouth, before thy face.

16. At u Qux cah, at u Qux ulen, at pizom Gagal ! at puch Tohil !

Thou its heart the sky, thou its heart the earth, thou veiled Majesty ! thou and Tohil.

17. At puch Tohil, Avilix, Hacavitz, pam cah, u pam ulen, cah tzak, cah xucut.

Thou and Tohil, Avilix, Hacavitz, body (of the) sky, its body the earth (with its) four sides, four corners.

18. Xa-ta-zak, xa-ta-amag, u pam cha chi, cha vach, at Qabainl !

So long as light, so long as time (be) its body before thy mouth, before thy face, thou God !"

By the same author : " There is another invo- cation in the Popol Vuh, containing some other names of Deity, a literal translation of which I shall give, after Brasseur :

" Hail ! O Creator, Maker ! who sees and hears "us ! Do not leave us ; do not desert us. O "Qabauil, in the sky, on earth, soul of the sky, " soul of the earth. Give us children, posterity, " | as long as | the sun goes, and the light. Let " the seed grow, the light come. Many green

" paths, green roads, give us ; in peace, in white " peace, be the tribe ; in welfare, in white wel- " fare, be the tribe ; give us, then, happy life and " existence. O Hurakan, Chipi-cakulha, Raxa- " cakulha, Chipi-nanauac, Raxa-nanauac, Voc, " Hunaphu, Tepen, Gucumatz, Alom, Qaholom,

" Xpiyacoc, Xmucane-Grandmother of the Sun, "Grandmother of Light ; let the seed grow, the "light come." (P. 210.)

"Such was the prayer which, according to "Kiche traditions, their early ancestors ad- " dressed to the divinities, in those far-off years " when they dwelt in the distant Orient, in the fer- " tile land of Paxil and Cayala, before they had " yet gone to Tulan to receive the tribal and fam- "ily gods which they adored in later days.

"Such is the testimony which these rude na- tives bear through the witness of their language to the source and power of knowledge ; and such was the impression it made upon their untutored minds that even to this day, after more than three hundred years of Christian teaching, it is not the mild Judean Virgin, nor the severe Christian God, who is their highest deity, but it is the Wise Naoh, the Spirit of Knowledge, the Genius of Reason, who in secret receives their prayers as the greatest of all the gods. They have also other divinities whose worship has con- stantly been retained in spite of all the efforts of the missionaries."

And March 26th, 1882, received a publication from the same painstaking and reliable author (Daniel G. Brinton, M. D.), "The Books of Chilan Balam, the Prophetic and Historic Re- cords of the Mayas of Yucatan, from which the following extracts (which the archaeological stu- dent will highly prize) are taken :

"Civilization in Ancient America rose to its highest level among the Mayas of Yucatan. Not to speak of the architectural monuments which still remain to to attest this, we have the evidence of the earlist missionaries to the fact that they alone, of all the natives of the New World, possessed a literature written in "Letters and characters," preserved in volumes neatly bound, the paper manufactured from the bark of a tree sized with a durable white varnish.

A few of these books still remain, preserved to us by accident in the great European libraries ; but most of them were destroyed by the monks. Their contents were found to relate chiefly to the pagan ritual, to traditions of the heathen . times, to astrological superstitions, and the like. Hence, they were considered deleterious, and were burned wherever discovered.

This annihilation of their sacred books affected the natives most keenly, as we are pointedly in- formed by Bishop Landa, himself one of the most ruthless of vandals in this respect. But al- ready some of the more intelligent had learned the Spanish alphabet, and the missionaries had added a sufficient number of signs to it to express with tolerable accuracy the phonctics of the Maya tongue. [This last clause is italicized by the compiler. ] Relying on these memories, and, no doubt, aided by some manuscripts secretly pre-

HISTORY OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY, OHIO.

served, many natives set to work to write out in this new alphabet the contents of their ancient records. Much was added which had been brought in by Europeans, and much omitted which had become unintelligible or obsolete since the Conquest ; while, of course, the different writers, varving in skill and knowledge, pro- duced works of very various merit.

I come now to the contents of these curious works. What they contain may conveniently be classified under four headings :

Astrological and prophetic matters. Ancient chronology and history.

Medical recipes and directions.

Later history and Christian teachings.

The last mentioned consist of translations of the "Doctrina," Bible stories, narratives of events after the Conquest, etc., which I shall dismiss as of least interest.

The astrology appears partly to be reminis- cences of that of their ancient heathendom, partly that borrowed from the European almanacs of the century 1550-1650. These, as is well known, were crammed with predictions and divinations. A careful analysis, based on a com- parison with the Spanish almanacs of that time would doubtless reveal how much was taken from them, and it would be fair to presume that . the remainder was a survival of ancient native theories.

But there are not wanting actual prophecies of a much more striking character. These were attributed to the ancient priests and to a date long preceding the advent of Christianity. Some of them have been printed in translations in the "Historias" of Lizana and Cozolludo, and some of the originals were published by the late Abbe Crasseur de Bourbourg, in the second vol- ume of the reports of the "Mission Scientifique au Mexique et dans l'Amerique Centrale." Their authenticity has been met with considerable skepticism by Waitz and others, particularly as they seem to predict the arrival of the Christians from the East and the introduction of the worship of the cross.

It appears to me that this incredulity is un- called for.

Another value they have in common with all the rest of the text of these books, and it is one which will be properly appreciated by any stu- dent of languages. They are, by common con- sent of all competent authorities, the genuine productions of native minds, cast in the idiomatic forms of the native tongue by those born to its use. No matter how fluent a foreigner becomes in a language not his own, he can never use it as does one who has been familiar with it from childhood. This general maxim is tenfold true when we apply it to Europeans learning an Amer- ican language. The flow of thought, as exhib- ited in these two linguistic families, is in such different directions that no amount of practice can render one equally accurate in both. Hence the importance of studying a tongue as it is em- ployed by the natives, and hence the very. high

estimate I place on these "Books of Chilan Ba- lam" as linguistic material, an estimate much increased by the great rarity of independent composition in their own tongues by members of the native races of this continent.

CHAPTER II. THE AMERICAN INDIANS AND OHIO.

WHEN THIS CONTINENT WAS DISCOVERED-THE DIVISION OF THE COUNTRY BY THE NATIVES -- THE FIVE NATIONS : HIURONS, NEUTRAL NATION, ERIES, AUDASTES, DELAWRES-THE EARLIEST APPROACHI TO A MAP-THE CONFEDERATES : FORMERLY FIVE, NOW SEVEN NATIONS-OHIO COMPANY-THE MUSKINGUM RIVER, CALLED "ELK EYE CREEK"-INDIAN TRAILS; FIVE DIFFERENT ROUTES THROUGH THE OHIO WIL- DERNESS-ENGLISHI NEGOTIATIONS-THE LAN- CASTER TREATY-DISSATISFACTION OF THE OHIO SAVAGES-THE BOUNDARY LINE TO BE DETERMINED-GEORGE WASHIINGTON PROMI- NENT AMONG THE SPECULATORS ; IIIS IMPRES- SIONS OF THIS REGION-CONFERENCE BETWEEN THE OHIO TRIBES-THE PEACEFUL DELAWARES -THE MURDER OF LOGAN'S FAMILY-LEAGUED THE MINGOES WITH . THEIR NEIGHBORS ON THE SCIOTO IN THE WORK OF VENGEANCE- DUNMORE'S EXPEDITION-" CRESAP'S WAR - LOGAN'S SPEECH-ELOQUENT DEFENSE OF

CRESAP BY LUTHER MARTIN-TIIE FALI. OF CORNSTALK-FORT HENRY-HEROIC CONDUCT OF MISS JANE MCKEE-ELLIOT AND GIRTY, THE DESPOTIC WHITE SAVAGES-THE PEACE CHIEF, WHITE EYES-BROADHEAD'S EXPEDITION AND CONFERENCE WITH THE INDIANS-" WANT OF VIRTUE IS INFINITELY MORE TO BE DREADED THAN THE WHOLE FORCE OF GREAT BRITAIN" -ENORMOUS PRICES OF THE NECESSITIES OF OF LIFE-COLONEL JOHNSON : HIS POSITION AND INFLUENCE-PROCLAMATION BY THE KING OF FRANCE-REPLY OF THE KING OF GREAT BRITAIN-THIE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE COURTS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND CONCERN- ING AMERICA-THE CLOSE OF THESE DIFFI- CULTIES BY THE RESULT OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

When this continent first became known to the European nations it was regarded as a solitary and unbroken wilderness. No axe had felled a tree nor plowshare broken its soil that they knew of. Here and there, however, they found a few wigwams of the red man, with patches of maize, beans, and squashes, cultivated by their squaws and children. The men, asnow, spent their time in hunting or war. The gen- eral appearance of the country was that of a vast uncultivated domain, promising great fertil- ity and luxuriance.

The country from the Mississippi to the Atlan- tic, from the Carolinas to Hudson's Bay, was divided between two great families of tribes, dis-ª tinguished by a radical difference of language. These were called, respectively, Algonquins

HISTORY OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY, OHIO.

(original people), and Aguanoschioni (united people). The latter became known as the Iro- quois, Mengwe, and Five Nations. At the period when the whites first became acquainted with this territory, the Iroquois proper extended through central New York, from the Hudson river to the Genesee, and comprised five dis- tinct nations confederated together, which, be- ginning on the east, were known as Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. West of them were the Hurons, the Neutral Na- tion, and the Eries : on the south were the An- dastes, on the Susquehanna, and the Delawares on the river which bears their name ; on the east the various Algonquin tribes.

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History of Muskingum County, Ohio ; with illustrations and biographical sketches of prominent men and pioneers, 1794, Part 5

Author: Everhart, J. F; Graham, A. A., Columbus, Ohio, pub Publication date: 1882 Publisher: [Columbus, O.] : F.J. Everhart & Co. Number of Pages: 600

Author: Everhart, J. F; Graham, A. A., Columbus, Ohio, pub
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: [Columbus, O.] : F.J. Everhart & Co.
Number of Pages: 600