History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Part 103

Author: H. Z. Williams & Brothers
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 559

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"As soon as information was received that the consti- tution of Ohio prohibited slavery, Colonel Kilbourne purchased the township he had previously selected, within the United States military land district, and in the spring of 1803, returned to Ohio, and began improve- ments. By the succeeding December, one hundred set-

* Recollections of Colonel Hillman-Howe's Annals.

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HISTORY OF OHIO.

tlers, mainly from Hartford county, Connecticut, and Hampshire county, Massachusetts, arrived at their new home. Obeying, to the letter, the agreement made in the east, the first cabin erected was used for a school-house and a church of the Protestant Episcopal denomination; the first Sabbath after the arrival of the colony, divine ser- vice was held therein, and on the arrival of the eleventh family a school was opened. This early attention to education and religion has left its favorable impress upon the people until this day. The first fourth of July was uniquely and appropriately celebrated. Seventeen gigantic trees, emblematical of the seventeen States forming the Union, were cut, so that a few blows of the axe, at sunrise on the Fourth, prostrated each successively with a tremendous crash, forming a national salute novel in the world's history."*

The growth of this part of Ohio continued without in- terruption until the establishment of the State capital at Columbus, in 1816. The town was laid out in 1812, but as that date is considered remote in the early Ameri- can settlements, its history will be left to succeeding pages, and there traced when the history of the State capital and State government is given.

The site of Zanesville, in Muskingum county, was early looked upon as an excellent place to form a settle- ment, and, had not hostilities opened in 1791, with the Indians, the place would have been one of the earliest settled in Ohio, as it was, the war so disarranged matters, that it was not till 1797 that a permanent settlement was effected.

'The Muskingum country was principally occupied, in aboriginal times, by the Wyandots, Delawares, and a few Senecas and Shawnees. An Indian town once ' stood, years before the settlement of the country, in the vicinity of Duncan's Falls, in Muskingum county, from which circumstance the place is often called "Old Town." Near Dresden, was a large Shawnee town, called Waka- tomaca. The graveyard was quite large, and, when the whites first settled here, remains of the town were abundant. It was in this vicinity that the venerable Major Cass, father of Lewis Cass, lived and died. He owned four thousand acres, given him for his military services.

The first settlers on the site of Zanesville were William McCulloh and Henry Crooks. The locality was given to Ebenezer Zane, who had been allowed three sections of land on the Scioto, Muskingum, and Hockhocking, wherever the road crossed these rivers, provided other claims did not interfere, for opening "Zane's trace." When he located the road across the Muskingum, he selected the place where Zanesville now stands, being at- tracted there by the excellent water privileges. He gave the section of land here to his brother, Jonathan Zane, and J. McIntire, who leased the ferry established on the road over the Muskingum to William McCulloh and Henry Crooks, who became thereby the first settlers. The ferry was kept about where the old upper bridge was afterward placed. 'The ferry-boat was made by fastening

two canoes together with a stick. Soon after a flat-boat was used. It was brought from Wheeling, by Mr. McIntire, in 1779, the year after the ferry was established. The road cut out through Ohio, ran from Wheeling, Virginia, to Maysville, Kentucky. Over this road the mail was carried, and, in 1798, the first mail ever carried wholly in Ohio was brought up from Marietta to McCulloh's cabin by Daniel Convers, where, by arrangements of the Postmaster General, it met a mail from Wheeling and one from Maysville. McCulloh, who could hardly read, was authorized to assort the mails and send each pack- age in its proper direction. For this service he received thirty dollars per annum; but owing to his inability to read well, Mr. Convers generally performed the duty. At that time the mails met here once a week. Four years after the settlement had so increased that a regular post office was opened, and Thomas Dowden appointed postmaster. He kept his office in a wooden building near the river bank.

Messrs. Zane and McIntire laid out a town in 1799, which they called Westbourn. When the post office was established, it was named Zanesville, and in a short time the village took the same name. A few families settled on the west side of the river, soon after McCulloh ar- rived, and as this locality grew well, not long after a store and tavern was opened here. Mr. McIntire built a double log cabin, which was used as a hotel, and in which Louis Philippe, king of France, was once enter- tained. Although the fare and accommodations were of the pioneer period, the honorable guest seems to have enjoyed his visit, if the statements of Lewis Cass in his "Camp and Court of Louis Philippe" may be believed.

In 1804, Muskingum county was formed by the legis- lature, and, for a while, strenuous efforts made to secure the State capital by the citizens of Zanesville. They even erected buildings for the use of the legislature and governor, and during the sessions of 1810-11, the tem- porary seat of government was fixed here. When the permanent State capital was chosen in 1816, Zanesville was passed by, and gave up the hope. It is now one of the most enterprising towns in the Muskingum valley.

During the summer of 1797, John Knoop, then living four miles above Cincinnati, made several expeditions up the Miami valley, and selected the land on which he afterward located. The next spring Mr. Knoop, his brother Benjamin, Henry Garard, Benjamin Hamlet and John Tildus established a station in what is now Miami county, near the present town of Staunton village. That summer, Mrs. Knoop planted the first apple-tree in the Miami* country. They all lived together for greater safety for two years, during which time they were occu- pied clearing their farms and erecting dwellings. During the summer, the site of Piqua was settled, and three young men located at a place known as "Freeman's Prairie." Those who settled at Piqua were Samuel Hil- liard, Job Garard, Shadiac Hudson, Jonah Rollins, Daniel Cox, Thomas Rich, and a Mr. Hunter. The

* Howe's Collections.

* The word Miami in the Indian tongue signified mother. The Miamis were the original owners of the valley by that name, and affirmed they were created there."

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last named came to the site of Piqua first in 1797, and selected his home. Until 1799, these named were the only ones in this locality; but this year emigration set in, and very shortly occupied almost all the bottom land in Miami county. With the increase in emigration, came the comforts of life, the mills, stores, and other neces- sary aids to civilization, were ere long to be seen.

The site of Piqua is quite historic, being the theater of many important Indian occurrences, and the old home of the Shawnces, of which tribe Tecumseh was a chief. During the Indian war, a fort called Fort Piqua was built, near the residence of Colonel John Johnston, so long the faithful Indian agent. The fort was abandoned at the close of hostilities.

When the Miami canal was opened through this part of the State, the country began rapidly to improve, and is now probably one of the best portions of Ohio.

About the same time the Miami was settled, a com- pany of people from Pennsylvania and Virginia, who were principally of German and Irish descent, located in Lawrence county, near the iron region. As soon as that ore was made available, that part of the State rapidly filled with settlers, most of whom engaged in the mining and working of iron ore. Now it is very pros- perous.

Another settlement was made the same season, 1797, on the Ohio side of the river, in Columbiana county. The settlement progressed slowly for a while, owing to a few difficulties with the Indians. The celebrated Adam Poe had been here as early as 1782, and several localities are made locally famous by his and his brother's adventures.

In this county, on Little Beaver creek, near its mouth, the second paper-mill west of the Alleghanies was erected in 1805-6. It was the pioneer enterprise of the kind in Ohio, and was named the Ohio paper-mill. Its proprietors were John Bever and John Coulter.

One of the most noted localities in the State is com- prised in Greene county. The Shawnee town, "Old Chillicothe," was on the Little Miami, in this county, about three miles north of the site of Xenia. This old Indian town was, in the annals of the west, a noted place, and is frequently noticed. It is first mentioned in 1773, by Captain Thomas Bullitt, of Virginia, who boldly advanced alone into the town and obtained the consent of the Indians to go on to Kentucky and make his settlement at the falls of the Ohio. His audacious bravery gained his request. Daniel Boone was taken prisoner early in 1778, with twenty-seven others, and kept for a time at Old Chillicothe. Through the in- fluence of the British governor, Hamilton, who had taken a great fancy to Boone, he and ten others were sent to Detroit. The Indians, however, had an equal fancy for the brave frontiersman, and took him back to Chillicothe, and adopted him into their tribe. About the first of June he escaped from them, and made his way back to Kentucky, in time to prevent a universal massacre of the whites. In July, 1779, the town was destroyed by Colonel John Bowman and one hundred and sixty Kentuckians, and the Indians dispersed.

The Americans made a permanent settlement in this

county in 1797 or 1798. This latter year, a mill was erected in the confines of the county, which implies the settlement was made a short time previously. A short distance east of the mill two block-houses were erected, and it was intended, should it become necessary, to surround them and the mill with pickets. The mill was used by the settlers at "Dutch Station," in Miami county, fully thirty miles distant. The richness of the country in this part of the State attracted a great number of settlers, so that by 1803 the county was established, and Xenia laid out, and designated as the county seat. Its first court house, a primitive log structure, was long preserved as a curiosity. It would indeed be a curiosity now.

Zane's trace, passing from Wheeling to Maysville, crossed the Hockhocking* river, in Fairfield county, where Lancaster is now built. Mr. Zane located one of his three sections on this river, covering the site of Zanesville. Following this trace in 1797, many individuals noted the desirableness of the local- ity, some of whom determined to return and settle. "The site of the city had in former times been the home of the Wyandots, who had a town here, that, in 1790, contained over five hundred wigwams and more than one thousand souls. Their town was called Tarhe, or, in English, the Crane-town, and derived its name from the principal chief of that tribe. Another portion of the tribe then lived at Tobytown, nine miles west of Tarhe-town (now Royalton), and was governed by an in- ferior chief called Toby. The chief's wigwam in Tarhe stood on the bank of the prairie, near a beautiful and abundant spring of water, whose outlet was the river. The wigwams of the Indians were built of the bark of trees, set on poles, in the form of a sugar-camp, with one square open, fronting a fire, and about the height of a man. The Wyandot tribe that day numbered about five hundred warriors. By the treaty of Greenville, they ceded all their territory, and the majority, under their chief, removed to Upper Sandusky. The remainder lingered awhile, loath to leave the home of their ancestors, but as game became scarce, they, too, left for better hunting-grounds."*

In April, 1798, Captain Joseph Hunter, a bold, enter- prising man, settled on Zane's trace, on the bank of the prairie, west of the crossings, at a place since known as "Hunter's settlement." For a time, he had no neigh- bors nearer than the settlers on the Muskingum and Sci- oto rivers. He lived to see the country he had found a wilderness, full of the homes of industry. His wife was the first white woman that settled in the valley, and

*The word Hock-hock-ing in the Delaware language signifies a bottle; the Shawnees have it Wea-tha-kagh-qua sepe, i. e., bottle river. John White, in the American Pioneer, says: "About seven miles northwest of Lancaster, there is a fall in the Hockhocking of about twenty feet. Above the fall for a short distance, the creek is very nar- row and straight, forming a neck, while at the falls it suddenly widens on each side, and swells into the appearance of the body of a bottle. The whole, when seen from above, appears exactly in the shape of a bottle, and from this fact the Indians called the river Hock-hock-ing." -Howe's Collections.

* Lecture of George Anderson .- Howe's Collections.

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shared with him all the privations which are incident to a pioneer life.

Mr. Hunter had not been long in the valley until he was joined by Nathaniel Wilson, John and Allen Green, John and Joseph McMullen, Robert Cooper, Isaac Shaefer, and a few others, who erected cabins and planted corn. The next year, the tide of emigration came in with great force. In the spring, two settlements were made in Greenfield township, each settlement containing twenty or more families. One was called the Forks of the Hockhocking, the other, Yankeetown. Settlements were also made along the river below Hunter's, on Rush creek, Raccoon and Indian creeks, Pleasant run, Felter's run, at Tobeytown, Muddy prairie, and on Clear creek. In the fall-1799-Joseph Loveland and Hezekiah Smith built a log grist-mill at the upper falls of the Hockhock- ing, afterward known as Rock mill. This was the first mill on this river. In the latter part of the year, a mail route was established over the trace. The mail was car- ried through on horseback, and, in the settlements in this locality, was left at the cabin of Samuel Coates, who lived on the prairie at the crossings of the river.

In the fall of the next year, Ebenezer Zane laid out Lancaster, which, until 1805, was known as New Lancas- ter. The lots sold very rapidly, at fifty dollars each, and, in less than one year, quite a village appeared. December 9th, the governor and judges of the Northwest Territory organized Fairfield county, and made Lancas- ter the county seat. The next year, Rev. John Wright, of the Presbyterian church, and Revs. Asa Shinn and James Quinn, of the Methodist church, came, and from that time on, schools and churches were maintained.

Not far from Lancaster are immense mural escarp- ments of sandstone formation. They were noted among the aborigines, and were, probably, used by them as places of outlook and defence.

The same summer Fairfield county was settled, the towns of Bethel and Williamsburgh, in Clermont county, were laid out, and in 1800 the county was erected.

A settlement was also made immediately south of Fairfield county, in Hocking county, by Christian Wes- tenhaver, a German, from Hagerstown, Maryland. He came in the spring of 1798, and was soon joined by sev- eral families, who formed quite a settlement. The ter- ritory included in the county remained a part of Ross, Holmes, Athens and Fairfield, until 1818, when Hock- ing county was erected, and Logan, which had been laid out in 1816, was made the county seat.

The country comprised in the county is rather broken, especially along the Hockhocking river. This broken country was a favorite resort of the Wyandot Indians, who could easily hide in the numerous grottos and ra- vines, made by the river and its affluents as the water cut its way through the sandstone rocks.

In 1798, soon after Zane's trace was cut through the country, a Mr. Graham located on the site of Cambridge, in Guernsey county. His was then the only dwelling between Wheeling and Zanesville, on the trace. He re- mained here alone about two years, when he was suc- ceeded by George Beymer, from Somerset, Pennsylvania.

Both these persons kept a tavern and ferry over Will's creek. In April, 1803, Mr. Beymer was succeeded by John Beatty, who came from Loudoun, Virginia. His family consisted of eleven persons. The Indians hunted in this vicinity, and were frequent visitors at the tavern. In June, 1806, Cambridge was laid out, and on the day the lots were offered for sale, several families from the British Isle of Guernsey, near the coast of France, stopped here on their way to the west. They were sat- isfied with the location, and purchased many of the lots and some land in the vicinity. They were soon followed by other families from the same place, all of whom set- tling in this locality, gave the name to the county when it was erected in 1810.

A settlement was made in the central part of the State, on Darby creek, in Union county, in the summer of 1798, by James and Joshua Ewing. The next year they were joined by Samuel and David Mitchell, Samuel Mitchell, jr., Samuel Kirkpatrick and Samuel McCull- ough, and, in 1800, by George and Samuel Reed, Robert Snodgrass and Paul Hodgson.

"James Ewing's farm was the site of an ancient and noted Mingo town, which was deserted at the time the Mingo towns, in what is now Logan county, were de- stroyed by General Logan, of Kentucky, in 1786. When Mr. Ewing took possession of his farm, the cabins were still standing, and, among others, the remains of a black- smith's shop, with coal, cinders, iron-dross, etc. Jona- than Alder, formerly a prisoner among the Indians, says the shop was carried on by a renegade white man, named Butler, who lived among the Mingos. Extensive fields had formerly been cultivated in the vicinity of the town."*

Soon after the settlement was established, Colonel James Curry located here. He was quite an influential man, and, in 1820, succeeded in getting the county formed from portions of Delaware, Franklin, Madison and Lo- gan, and a part of the old Indian territory. Marysville was made the county seat.

During the year 1789, a fort, called Fort Steuben, was built on the site of Steubenville, but was dismantled at the conclusion of hostilities in 1795. Three years after, Bezaleel Williams and Hon. James Ross, for whom Ross county was named, located the town of Steubenville about the old fort, and, by liberal offers of lots, soon at- tracted quite a number of settlers. In 1805, the town was incorporated, and then had a population of several hundred persons. Jefferson county was created by Gov- ernor St. Clair, July 29, 1797, the year before Steuben- ville was laid out. It then included a large scope of country west of Pennsylvania; east and north of a line from the mouth of the Cuyahoga; southwardly to the Muskingum, and east to the Ohio; including, in its terri- tories, the cities of Cleveland, Canton, Steubenville and Warren. Only a short time, however, was it allowed to retain this size, as the increase in emigration rendered it necessary to erect new counties which was rapidly done, especially on the adoption of the State government.

The county is rich in early history prior to its settle-

* Howe's Collections.

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ment by the Americans. It was the home of the cel- ebrated Mingo chief, Logan, who resided awhile at an old Mingo town, a few miles below the site of Steuben- ville, the place where the troops under Colonel William- son rendezvoused on their infamous raid against the Mo- ravian Indians; and also where Colonel Crawford and his men met, when starting on their unfortunate expedi- tion.

In the Reserve, settlements were often made remote from populous localities, in accordance with the wish of a proprietor, who might own a tract of country twenty or thirty miles in the interior. In the present county of Geauga, three families located at Burton in 1798. They lived at a considerable distance from any other settle- ment for some time, and were greatly inconvenienced for the want of mills or shops. As time progressed, how- ever, these were brought nearer, or built in their midst, and, ere long, almost all parts of the Reserve could show some settlement, even if isolated.

The next year, 1799, settlements were made at Ravenna, Deerfield and Palmyra, in Portage county. Hon. Benjamin Tappan came to the site of Ravenna in June, at which time he found one white man, a Mr. Honey, living there. At this date, a solitary log cabin occupied the sites of Buffalo and Cleveland. On his journey from New England, Mr. Tappan fell in with David Hudson, the founder of the Hudson settlement in Summit county. After many days of travel they landed at a prairie in Summit county. Mr. Tappan left his goods in a cabin, built for the purpose, under the care of a hired man, and went on his way, cutting a road to the site of Ravenna, where his land lay. On his return for a second load of goods, they found the cabin deserted, and evidences of its plunder by the In- dians. Not long after it was learned that the man left in charge had gone to Mr. Hudson's settlement, he having set out immediately after his arrival, for his own land. Mr. Tappan gathered the remainder of his goods, and started back for Ravenna. On his way one of his oxen died, and he found himself in a vast forest, away from any habitation, and with one dollar in money. He did not falter a moment, but sent his hired man, a faithful fellow, to Erie, Pennsylvania, a distance of one hundred miles through the wilderness, with the compass for his guide, requesting from Captain Lyman, the commander at the fort there, a loan of money. At the same time, he followed the township lines to Youngstown, where he became acquainted with Colonel James Hillman, who did not hesitate to sell him an ox on credit at a fair price. He returned to his load in a few days, found his ox all right, hitched the two together and went on. He was soon joined by his hired man, with the money, and together they spent the winter in a log cabin. He gave his man one hundred acres of land as a reward, and paid Colonel Hillman for the ox. In a year or two he had a prosperous settlement, and when the county was erected in 1807, Ravenna was made the seat of justice.

About the same time Mr. Tappan began his settlement, others were commenced in other localities in this county. Early in May, 1799, Lewis Day and his son Horatio, of

Granby, Connecticut, and Moses Tibbals and Green Frost, of Granville, Massachusetts, left their homes in a one-horse wagon, and, the twenty-ninth of May, arrived in what is now Deerfield township. Theirs was the first wagon that had ever penetrated farther westward in this region than Canfield. The country west of that place had been an unbroken wilderness until within a few days. Captain Caleb Atwater, of Wallingford, Connecticut, had hired some men to open a road to township No. 1, in the seventh range, of which he was the owner. This road passed through Deerfield, and was completed to that place when the party arrived at the point of their destination. These emigrants selected sites, and com- menced clearing the land. In July, Lewis Ely arrived from Granville, and wintered here, while those who came first, and had made their improvements, returned east. The fourth of March, 1800, Alva Day (son of Lewis Day), John Campbell and Joel Thrall arrived. In April, George and Robert Taylor and James Laughlin, from Pennsylvania, with their families came, and Mr. Laughlin built a grist-mill, which was of great convenience to the set- tlers. July 29th, Lewis Day returned with his family and his brother-in-law, Major Rogers, who, the next year, also brought his family.

The following is copied from Howe's Collections:

" Much suffering was experienced at first on account of the scarcity of provisions. They were chiefly supplied from the settlements east of the Ohio river, the nearest of which was Georgetown, forty miles away. The provisions were brought on pack-horses through the wilderness. August 22d, Mrs. Alva Day gave birth to a child-a female -- the first child born in the township. November 7th the first wedding took place. John Campbell and Sarah Ely were joined in wedlock by Calvin Austin, esq., of Warren. He was accompanied from Warren a distance of twenty-seven miles, by Mr. Pease, then a lawyer, afterward a well- known judge. They came on foot, there being no road; and, as they threaded their way through the woods, young Pease taught the justice the marriage ceremony by oft repetition.

"In 1802, Franklin township was organized, embracing all of Port- age and parts of Trumbull and Summit counties. About this time the settlement received.accessions from all parts of the east. In February, 1801, Rev. Badger came and began his labors, and two years later Dr. Shadrac Bostwick organized a Methodist Episcopal church. The re- maining settlement in this county, Palmyra, was begun about the same time as the others, by David Daniels, from Salisbury, Connecticut. The next year he brought out his family. Soon after he was joined by E. N. and W. Bacon, E. Cutler, A. Thurber, A. Preston, N. Bois, J. T. Baldwin, T. and C. Gilbert, D. A. and S. Waller, N. Smith, Jo- seph Fisher, J. Tuttle, and others.

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History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Part 103

Author: H. Z. Williams & Brothers Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages: 559

Author: H. Z. Williams & Brothers
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 559