USA > Ohio > Preble County > History of Preble County Ohio: Her People, Industries and Institutions > Part 12
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THE LOG CABIN DESCRIBED.
It was built of round logs from about eight to fourteen inches thick, the cabin being sixteen feet by twenty feet. The logs notched at the corners and the spaces between the logs filled with a piece of wood so split as to form a wedge and held in place by wooden pins, and the crevices all filled with a blue clay mud. A window was on each side and one end formed by cutting a log off, and the space had been filled with a cloth stretched over it, but when seen by the writer it had a sash filled with three panes of glass, eight by ten. The door was puncheon, or slabs split off of an ash log, about two inches thick, and hewed and nailed to cross-pieces, and the hinges were wood, fitting over a wooden pin nailed to the logs, and the latch was a wooden bar, dropped be- hind a piece of timber fastened to the inside of the house logs, and was raised from the outside by a buckskin string attached and run through a small hole in the door three or four inches above the latch, and when they locked the door they simply pulled the string inside. The floor was made of the same material as the door. The roof was covered with clapboards four feet long, held in place by a pole laid along about six inches above the lower end, and the poles held from rolling down by a piece of timber extending upward from the pole below; while, overhead, this house had a ceiling of the same material as the floor, with a hole about three feet by four feet near one corner, and the stair- way was a ladder. The bed upstairs was formed by boring holes in the logs and poles driven in and the outer end supported by a wooden leg, and ropes
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stretched across, on which a straw tick was placed. The chimney was the em- bellishing feature of the house, built at one end and out of doors, so as to. give more room, with the logs cut off just at the chimney. I think it was about eight feet wide by six feet deep outside, and into its throat could be rolled a log four feet long. The chimney was built of stone, the fireplace be- ing of some kind of sandstone that stood the fire, and the stone carried up about six feet high; then from there up it was made of split laths that were just like our tobacco laths, laid in the blue clay mud and extending to about two feet above the roof, and the inside and outside heavily plastered with the blue mud. In the fireplace was hung an iron crane about four feet long, that could be swung out of the fireplace, and on the crane were iron hooks of dif- ferent lengths, on which to hang pots and kettles. The hearth was stone, and on it stood an iron pot, in which they baked, about a foot in diameter, stand- ing on three legs and with a heavy iron lid. The clothes hooks were wooden pins in the logs, and over the door were nailed deer's horns, in which the gun rested. A wooden water bucket and a gourd dipper completed the outfit.
Such as this were many of the houses of this county in those days, and many a young couple set up housekeeping in just such cabins, and they were happy and prospered, and we today enjoy the harvest for which they sowed the seed. As they prospered they built hewed log houses made by hewing a slab off the side of a log sixteen to twenty-four inches thick, leaving a log about six to ten inches thick, and at the corners notched to let the logs, built edgewise, come as near together as possible, and the cracks were filled with .split chinking and daubed with clay mortar, and they made very warm and comfortable houses, too, and when saw mills multiplied until they were within reasonable reach, they built modern frame houses or covered the old log house with siding and remodeled the interior and some of those old houses still exist in our county.
A RECOLLECTION OF PALATABLE PLEASURE.
The cooking was done in front of the big fireplace or in a kettle swung on the crane hooks. The bread, pies and cakes were baked in a tin reflector set before the fire, the top of the reflector flaring up like the top of the old poke bonnet of our grandmothers. As a boy I have eaten some of those dinners so cooked, and I do not remember to have eaten any since more juicy and palatable than they were.
The roads were simply cut out roads or trails, the tracks winding
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around the stumps, no gravel or grade, and in the spring of the year became almost impassable. As illustrating their condition, Dr. Christian Saylor, of Gratis, related to the writer some thirty-five years ago, that the hardest day's riding he ever did was about 1830. He was notified that his presence was desired at a conference over a patient some two miles north of Gettys- burg the next day. It was in April and he started on horseback before day- light, and was with the patient two hours, and got back long after dark, muddy from the top of his cap to his boots, and his horse so badly worn that he was given a couple of days' rest. Now the automobiles cover the route in an hour and a half, running easy.
The hogs and cattle ran half wild in the woods and each owner had a particular mark that he put on his stock while young, so it might be known. One mark I remember-about one inch of the pig's right ear was cut square off, and the left ear split some distance, called square crop right and slit left. When the farmer butchered, the neighbors helped round up the hogs and those that were too wild to be rounded up were shot in the woods and hauled in to the tubs.
The lights were from the fireplace, or from an iron cup with grease and wick, called grease lamp, and later, tallow candles made at home, as nearly every family came to own a pair of candle molds. These things have now become memories only, for I think in all the wide domain of the United States there is no place where civilization is starting now under such difficulties, unless it be in interior Alaska. Those brave men and women builded wiser than they knew-themselves independent, fearless and self -. reliant, and determined to win, they transmitted to their descendants the same spirit of vim and vigor, until our nation has learned to rely upon the splendid manhood of the state for leaders in every walk of life, and the names of Ohio men who have led in education, commerce, trade, war, the pulpit and the bar and political power, can never be forgotten in writing the history of the nation.
Those early settlers having to depend upon each other developed a brotherly helpfulness that should be emulated and followed now. When a cabin was to be erected they turned out all the neighborhood to assist .. When one of them got sick or injured by an accident and unable to gather or cut his crops the neighbors gathered and did the work for him; and the traveler, when night overtook him along the trails, called at the first cabin for a night's lodging and was seldom refused. Thievery was almost un- known, except an occasional raid by professional horse thieves, who, if caught, sometimes paid the last penalty.
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THE FIRST RESIDENT.
The first white settler of Preble county probably was John Leslie, who, in .1798, at the close of the Indian war, settled in the southeast section of Gratis township and some of his descendants still reside in that township. Jacob Parker was perhaps the first settler of Lanier township. He was a soldier in Wayne's army and with five others was sent out in search of a deserter in 1793, when near the south part of this county and they followed the trail to Twin creek about a half-mile southeast of West Alexandria and camped for the night. The next morning young Parker strolled about and on his return to breakfast told his companions that if he lived through the war he was going to buy that particular piece of land. They laughed at him, of course, but after the treaty of Greenville had secured peace, he came up from Cincinnati and built a cabin in 1798 on the piece of land where he had camped and as soon as it was surveyed he filed an entry for that quarter section and died there about the close of the Mexican War.
The first settlement of Ohio was at Marietta on April 7, 1788, by Gen. Rufus Putnam and his associates of the Ohio company. Of course, it must not be forgotten that a trading post was established about 1748 at Loramie, called Loramie's store or Fort Pickarwillamy, on the head waters of the Great Miami, but as it was burned and destroyed by the French and Indians a few years later, it cannot be said to be a permanent settlement. Then, about November, 1788, a settlement was made at the mouth of the Little Miami on the Syrumes Purchase, now in the city of Cincinnati. In Decem- ber, 1794, Hamilton was laid out and Dayton in November, 1795, and in each the following year a few settlers located. So great had been the fear of Indian troubles that in 1799 there were probably not more than ten thousand people in the state of Ohio, and they were located chiefly along Lake Erie, and the Muskingum, Scioto and Miami rivers. The Miami country in that day seemed to offer the greatest attraction to the pioneers.
A LESSON IN DOMESTIC ECONOMY.
The women of those days made the clothes for the family, many of them spinning the wool and flax and weaving it into cloth, and when they did not have those, they often tanned deer skins and bear and wolf hides and made them into garments, and from them also made shoes, called mocca- sins, and when they visited or went to church they walked or rode horse- back.
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The laws of the state recognized the implements so used as essentials for the family, and when the husband died the appraisers appointed by the court were ordered to set off to the widow without any appraisement, as her separate and necessary property, to keep house: spinning wheels and flax, twelve sheep and the wool from them, and one side saddle, one cow, beds, household furniture and cooking untensils, and table ware necessary to keep house. The same things are retained in the laws of the present time, although spinning wheels and side saddles have become curiosities.
One of the early settlers of the county was Judge John Meroney, who was appointed as one of the first three associate judges, and he was so prominent, respected and loved by the early settlers of the county that his name deserves more than a passing notice. He was born July 10, 1865, in Essex county, Delaware, and during the Revolution, when a mere boy helping to load wheat for the American army, was captured by the British, but released in a few days on account of his youth. During the Revolu- tion his father moved to Reedy Fork in North Carolina, and he had for a companion John Haines, a boy of about the same age, and they grew to manhood together, between them existing the warmest personal friendship.
About 1798, John Meroney married Esther Ozias in Guilford county, North Carolina, and they began planning to move to the Great Miami Val- ley, that then was talked of everywhere in the older states as the agricul- tural Eldorado. He sold all his property except a team of horses and wagon and the necessary utensils and clothing he could haul therein, and thus moved to Springborough, Warren county, in 1801, and from there to Preble county in 1806, and bought and settled on the northwestern quarter of section 34, township 8, range 2 east, building his house near the big spring and there he continued to live until his death, October 16, 1848. He is said to have been the first settler on the upper course of Seven Mile creek. Mov- ing on the farm early in April he built his cabin in the woods and hastily cleaned about five acres of bottom land that was easily cleared, and during May, 1806, he planted it in corn as best he could and when it began grow- ing he had a whole summer's fight to keep the corn from being stolen by squirrels or deer.
A TRIBUTE TO A JUST JUDGE.
As associate judge in those early days we find the name of John Meroney given as at court oftener than that of any other of his associates. In 1813, he was elected and served as a member of the Legislature. In those days the settlers often turned out with their axes to help new comers
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or newly married couples build their cabins and to log rollings in clearing 'up the land. Judge Meroney being a good sized man and strongly built was always on hand, if possible, even going as far away as Twin creek to lend a helping hand, and it is said there were few who could hold the other end of the handspike with him. A man of strong personality, majestic appearance, more than ordinary mental capacity, conscientious and fearless in his advocacy of what he believed right, a kind, generous and helpful neighbor, he left his impress for good upon the early settlement and organi- zation of the county. Few men of the county were better known and none held in higher esteem than Judge Meroney.
In September, 1848, his old boyhood friend, John Haines, whom he had not seen for ever fifty years, came to see him, and Judge Abner Haines related that the meeting was most affecting and not of long duration, for Judge Meroney was very feeble and sick, but at parting he said, "John, I will now bid you farewell until we meet in Eternity." And as they shook hands John replied, "If thee gets there first, I want thee to keep a lookout for me, as I will surely meet thee in heaven." Within a month Judge 'Meroney was waiting, but not for long, as John followed a year or so later. It is a pleasure to write of such men, for they make the world better by their having lived, and of them we can truly say, "He hath done what he could."
THE FIRST BRICK HOUSE.
James I. Nisbet came with his father, William Nisbet, to Twin town- ship in 1805, and James located at what is now New Lexington, and laid out the town, and did his best to make it the county seat. He built and run a mill on Twin creek near the town and built the first brick house built in the county at that place in 1811, and it is a good and comfortable house yet. He was the first postmaster of the village and owned and run a general store for a number of years, and was for a number of years an associate judge, and was the first county surveyor appointed. It may be said of him that he was an energetic, wide-awake, pushing business man and was at the front of every enterprise that would help the community in which he lived. A man of more than ordinary mind and strong in his likes and dislikes he made enemies and held his friends, and the character and name of Judge Nisbet have been held more firmly in the minds of the people of Twin township than that of any other of the early settlers. He was buried in the New Lexington cemetery.
Alexander C. Lanier is one of the names most often mentioned when
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talking of the early settlers, being the first clerk and the first recorder of the county, and the first clerk of the commissioners, and a township being named after him. He was born in North Carolina in 1779 of Scottish and Huguenot ancestors. His father was a captain in Wayne's army and prob- ably marched through the county. Alexander married and moved to Ken- tucky and bought land of land boomers and by defect of the title he lost it and then came to Cincinnati and set his two slaves free and moved to Eaton in 1807. Being well educated and having a genial personality, strongly built and energetic and forceful, the people naturally called him to help, and it is said that he wrote his own forms in the court proceedings and for the commissioners, and they are regarded as good yet.
He built the first brick house in Eaton, some eight or ten rods west of Barron street on south side of Main street. When the war of 1812 broke out he enlisted in General Harrison's army and came home as Major Lanier. The writing of the records previous to, during, and after that war plainly shows when he was absent; his writing being very legible, even after one hundred years. In 1817 he moved to Madison, Indiana, and died there in 1820, leaving one child, a son, J. F. D. Lanier, then about twenty years old, who subsequently became one of the organizers of the New York bank known as Winslow, Lanier & Company, that fifty years ago was re- garded as one of the greatest and best banks of that city, and during the Rebellion it gave the government strong support, the son never forgetting the flag under which his father served. The Indiana literary writer Lanier is a grandson of Alexander C. Lanier mentioned above, but do not confuse him with Sidney Lanier of Georgia.
SOME PROMINENT CITIZENS.
Another name prominently connected with the early settlement of the county is that of Samuel Hawkins, of whose characteristics little seems to have been saved to us. It is known that he was a soldier in the campaigns of both St. Clair and Wayne against the Indians, and that he rose to the rank of colonel, and was most severely wounded in one of the battles with the Indians, which wound is said to have been finally the producing cause of his death in 1814. He seems to have been a warm friend and supporter of William Bruce and to have stood high in the esteem of his fellow citi- zens, and by his generosity to have been a positive influence in locating the county seat.
Perhaps the most widely known and in his day the most influential
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man in the county was Col. George D. Hendrix, who claimed to be the first white male child born in the county, was born at Camden October 3, 1805, son of David E. Hendrix, whose father was a Tory during the Revolution, and David, although but a boy, refused to follow his father in his flight to Canada and remained with an uncle in New Jersey, and at the close of that struggle, although only seventeen years old and penniless, he deter- mined to make his way west and went to Pittsburgh and finally down the Ohio to Marietta and enlisted as a soldier in the campaigns of Harmar, St. Clair and Wayne, against the Indians, and as such passed through this county several times, and determined to finally settle in the Great Miami valley. After peace, David married Rosannah Stockhouse at Hamilton, and entered a piece of land in Butler county, which he sold and in 1803 removed to near Camden, and in 1806 removed again to Eaton and erected the second house in the town and in it kept for years the first tavern in the town.
In 1812 he, as captain, raised a company of soldiers and did garrison duty at Loramie and St. Mary's for a year. He died in 1845 in Eaton, at his son's. Such was the ancestry of George D. Hendrix, and it can not be surprising that the son, imbued with the lessons of his father's life, always had a strong feeling for the United States and all who sought freedom. In his early manhood, having been fairly educated for that time, he taught school several years, and was elected auditor of the county, and representative, and later state senator, and then sheriff, and later was appointed postmaster of Eaton. When Texas was having her trouble with Mexico he went to Texas, and joined Houston's army and fought with him until victory came, and in that war he received his title of colonel.
In 1839 George D. Hendrix married Almira Harbaugh and to them were born ten children, one of whom, Ada, married Judge James A. Gil- more. Colonel Hendrix was a dealer in lands all his life, and he accumu- lated several farms. When the Civil War broke out his age and family ties kept him at home, but he was untiring in his efforts to promote enlistment and assist in a material way the families of the soldiers in the field. He was of a genial, cheery and generous disposition, always hopeful and tried to be helpful to his fellow man. Some designing and pretended friends got him to go their security on notes, which in the end he had to pay, and when over three score and ten, was so reduced by the payment of security debts that he had but a pittance left, and he decided to start life again and went west as far as Texas and continued as a real estate agent for some twenty years, when he returned. His wife having been dead some years, he made his
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home with his daughter Ada until his death, May 29, 1900, at Eaton, Ohio. He was a tall, slender man with a quick eye and active mind, tactful in ad- dress and manners and could easily adjust himself to his company, fearless and resourceful. His reading was wide and various. With a strong memory for names and faces, he was during his activity in politics a foe to be feared and a friend to be cultivated. No charges against his honesty were ever made. It is related of him by those who knew him best that when he made up his mind that a certain man should be nominated, he would spend a couple of weeks or more a year before the time riding around the county, calling on old acquaintances and during such call, finding occasion to speak in glowing terms of the man he was helping, and when the time for the canvass for delegates came, his candidate was heard of everywhere and the result generally was a "cinch." He retained a lively memory of those old days nearly to the last.
FROM PRINTER'S DEVIL TO EDITOR.
Another of our citizens who came down to us from those early days, but just a little later than Hendrix, was Thomas J. Larsh, born in Dixon township in 1809, son of Paul Larsh, who was the second sheriff of the county. Thomas received only such education as could be obtained in the common schools of that day, and in 1824 entered the office of the Eaton Register to learn the printer's business and worked there four years, then for the Piqua Register two years, then purchased and published the Rich- mond Palladium for two years. He then bought and operated a steam sawmill in Jackson township for six years and in 1847 was elected county surveyor, and at various times served some dozen or more years as such. In 1850, he was elected as the representative of the county to the Constitu- tional Convention that framed our present state constitution, then for two years as editor of the Eaton Register. In 1860, he was elected auditor and served for six years and deputy for two more years. He also served as chief clerk to the state treasurer from 1876 to 1878, then deputy auditor again, dying in 1882. During all that time in the intervals, he was acting either as county surveyor or deputy, and as such he left his impress upon the county for a century. During the active period of his life the lands of the county having been all settled and becoming valuable, farmers became more inquisitive about their land lines, and he was called to retrace old government lines, and being well versed in woodcraft, which aided him in his search for "blazes" along the line and all the marks of the old sur-
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veyors, he was eminently successful in fixing the boundaries satisfactory to the parties, and one of his strong traits as a surveyor was that when he had the lines established, he monumented corners and witnesses, until now the universal comment of the surveyors is, that you can always find what Larsh did, whether or not you agree with his decision.
Cornelius Vanausdal, born in 1783, in Berkeley county, Virginia, came with his father to Lanier township, this county, in 1805, and worked on his father's farm until 1808, when Eaton was made the county seat. He saw there was need for a general store and he came to Eaton and started one on a small scale, but the needs for such a store were so great that his trade rapidly developed, and he was broad-minded enough to foresee and kept up with the demands of the times. During the war of 1812 he engaged in fur- nishing supplies to the army in Ohio, and from 1828 to 1833 he was one of the chief partners in a wholesale dry goods firm in Cincinnati, and, in fact, for many years ran a wholesale department to his store in Eaton, and the first merchants of Richmond, Indiana, for a number of years were his patrons at Eaton for their supplies, as Eaton is older and then was larger than Richmond. He also was a partner of Judge Curry in the pork-pack- ing business at Hamilton during the thirties, and during the Mexican war he and his son Isaac started a dry goods house in Dayton, in which he con- tinued until 1863, and the house and business remain prosperous today. In 1810, he took the first census of the county and in 1812 was a paymaster in the United States army. In 1819, he was elected a member of the Legislature.
In 1817 he bought the Western Telegraph, the first newspaper pub- lished in the county, which was started but a few months before, which paper was the original Eaton Register, only the name being changed. While in the Legislature he became acquainted with Samuel Tizzard, a practical printer, from Ross county, and induced him to come to Eaton and take charge of the paper, which he subsequently owned. In 1822 he erected a brick building at the northwest corner of Main and Barron streets, for his store and dwelling house, and in it he spent the balance of his life, and the house somewhat remodeled stands today as one of our substantial build- ings. In 1812 he married Martha Bilbe, and they journeyed down life's road together for fifty-eight years.
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