History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Part 42

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

USA > Ohio > Preble County > History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches > Part 42

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After finishing his job of rail splitting Silas Dooley came back to Seven Mile and engaged to clear two acres of land one foot and under, for James Crawford, com- monly called "Big Jimmie." He also cleared two acres for John Pottenger.

Now comes the turning point in Silas Dooley's life. Homesick, out of work, without money and poorly clad, he became discouraged and resolved to go home to his native Kentucky. Having no other means of accom- plishing the two hundred and fifty miles that lay between himself and his relatives, he resolved to walk. Just as he was getting under way he met Captain David E. Hendricks, who immediately hired him to clear six acres of land, for which he was to receive three dollars and fifty cents per acre. This clearing is now occupied by the town of Camden. The same year Robert Runyon put the cleared land in corn. At the same time Captain Hendricks had three other hands chopping and splitting rails, viz: Isaac Wiseman, James Wright, and Thomas Combs, a half Indian. The chopping went steadily on until the deer became so tame that they would browse off the tops of the trees while the men would be cutting up the trunks. They worked in different places for Captain Hendricks, and cleared part of the ground on which Eaton now stands. Messrs. Wiseman and Doo- ley cut down a giant poplar tree on the lot now occupied by the Presbyterian church. Thus was his time occu- pied until the arrival of his father, mother and brother, David, who came toward the close of the year 1805.

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The family was soon busily engaged in making the farm previously entered habitable. The first house consisted of a camp hut, constructed of round poles, enclosing three sides and leaving one end open for the fire in front. They had a skillet and a Dutch oven, in which they boiled and baked, and made sugar. Their farm was well stocked with sugar trees, and the largest and best of them were tapped, and a considerable quantity of sugar made by Mrs. Dooley. She tried the Indian plan of making sugar, viz: To allow the sugar water to freeze and to throw away the successive coats of ice that would form on the surface of the liquid until nothing but the finest quality of molasses would remain. She made sugar also by making a clay furnace, and then inverted the skillet lids and baked a clay rim around them, in which she boiled the sugar water. By dint of hard labor the family felled the timber, picked and cleared away the brush, and thus prepared six acres of land for the reception of corn, which they constantly attended, and managed to lay by. A few days after the noted eclipse, which occurred in June, 1806, they went to James Crawford's and held a Thanksgiving meeting. After this they started back to Kentucky to remove the balance of their family; and in August of the same year they got started, bringing their teams and a number of cattle with them. They were accompanied by one or two neighbor families. Upon their arrival they cut and hewed the logs for their cabin. The Indians often came from Fort St. Clair, and camped by the big sulphur springs on the farm of Silas Dooley, afterwards owned by his son, Hayden.

In the spring of 1807 Silas Dooley entered a quarter section on Paint creek, three and a half miles southwest of Eaton. In that same year he cleared five acres of this land, and raised thereon a good crop of corn, de- spite the thefts of the squirrels. The following winter he was sick, and did nothing until spring, when he broke up his cleared ground again and prepared to plant. But at this junction Silas stopped work, and Cornelius, Katie and Polly Van Ausdal, and perhaps Sallie Curry, were the guests invited to the wedding, for Silas Dooley wouldn't stop work for anything short of his own wed- ding. On the fifth of May, 1808, he was married to Johanna Westerfield, the daughter of Samuel Wester- field. The infair was held on the sixth at his father's, and the honeymoon was spent in planting corn. Then he set to work to construct a round log cabin, fourteen feet square, with a puncheon floor and large, open fire- place, and he testified that there were spent the happiest days of his life.

In the War of 1812 Mr. Dooley was a member of Captain David E. Hendricks' rifle company, which was not subject to the draft, as the militia volunteered in a body. It was a full company of sixty-four men, rank and file, and was raised in the Paint and Upper Seven Mile settlements. Many families were thus left desti- tute of male help, but the parents, wives, and daughters put their hands to the plow, rolled logs, and carried and burned brush.

Silas Dooley procured a substitute in the person of

Nathaniel Bloomfield, the father of William Bloomfield, of Eaton.

In 1819 Mrs. Dooley, the mother of Silas, died and was buried in a coffin furnished at an expense not ex- ceeding one dollar.

Mr. Dooley, sr., traveled extensively through parts of Indiana and Ohio while engaged in the ministry of the Gospel. In the winter of 1822 he was suddenly smit- ten with winter fever, and sending for Silas and George, he told them of his approaching death, and requested George to take his measure for his coffin, which was to be made similar to that of his wife. George replied, "Oh father, I can't do that!" The old gentleman told him to measure Silas, who was of the same height as his father. Moses Dooley soon breathed his last, and in order to get the coffin there in time, secured the assis- tance of the late William Caster. Silas Dooley, died July 8, 1877, aged ninety-one years and four months. Of his family of five sons and two daughters, all are dead save Silas Dooley, jr., who lives on the home place.

Hayden W. Dooley was born in Preble county, in 1814, and in 1836 was married to Adaline A. Runyon, born in 1817, and died in 1872. They had two children. Mar- quis L. was born October 16, 1837, and Mary E. was born December 7, 1838.

Silas Dooley, jr., the youngest son of Silas Dooley, the pioneer of Gasper township, was born on the home place, where he now resides. In 1846 he was married to Isa- bel, daughter of Alexander and Rebecca McCracken, who settled in Preble county about 1818. To Mr. and Mrs. Dooley have been born two children, one of whom, Emma, wife of William Morton, is still living. Mr. Doo- ley owns a farm of one hundred and sixty-two acres of land adjoining his residence.

EARLY INCIDENTS.

Ordinarily the daily life of the pioneers were made up principally of hard work, plenty of good, though plain, fare, and sound, invigorating sleep. In the main their life was uneventful. True little things occurred every day, which, if they occurred nowadays, would cause each particular hair to stand on end; and at night the howl of hungry wolves approached the very doors of the settlers' cabins, and such sounds would destroy modern nerves ; but to the brave, hardy, and fearless pioneer, these daily occurrences were scarcely noticed. In those days nerves were knit into muscles, and cowardice was almost un- known.

Occasionally, however, little events happened which were worthy of pioneer notice. The death of a settler, a bear hunt, the visits of Indians, a big meeting, and the like called for more than passing notice. The experi- ences of the pioneers were much alike, and what hap- pened to one man was a characteristic event in the history of all the settlers.

On this account, in narrating a few noteworthy inci- dents, we select some portions from the life history of a representative pioneer, and as Silas Dooley was the first man to make a permanent settlement his eventful career

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Hayden W. Dooley, son of Silas Dooley, the pioneer, was born in Gasper township, Preble county, Ohio, Sep- tember 1, 1814. He was brought up on his father's farm, and enjoyed no other opportunities for the ac- quirement of an education than the district school of his neighborhood afforded; but possessing a natural energy of character, and making the most of such advan- tages as he had, he qualified himself to occupy, as he did subsequently, important positions in the county and State. He was president of the Agricultural Society of Preble county for a number of years, and in 1856 was elected a representative to the State legislature and served one term. He was well and favorably known in

the county, and was universally respected for his up- rightness of character. He was an active and leading member of Friendship (Universalist) church, from its earliest organization, and his life was consistent with his religious professions.

He was united in marriage to Adaline A. Runyon, daughter of Robert Runyon, October 27, 1836, and set- tled where his daughter now lives. He resided there until his death, which took place May 31, 1874. His wife died October 30, 1872. They had but two chil- dren, Marquis L., born October 26, 1837 (died Febru- ary 25, 1865), and Mary E., born December 7, 1838, who occupies the homestead.

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SILAS DOOLEY, SR.

So much has been written in another place in this his- tory concerning the pioneer experiences of the subject of this sketch that it will be unnecessary to narrate them here.

The Dooleys were formerly quite numerous in Preble county, but at the present time their number is com- paratively few. Moses Dooley, the oldest representa- tive of the family in Preble county, removed, in the year 1781, from Bedford county, Virginia, to Madison county, Kentucky. In 1805 he emigrated to this county and located a quarter section of land on Paint creek, in what is now Gasper township. Moses Dooley died in Wayne county, Indiana, January 12, 1822, and his wife on the home farm, January 7, 1819. They had a family of seven sons and three daughters. Abner, the eldest, was an asso- ciate judge of common pleas of the county for several years; Reuben was a minister of the Christian denomination; George, Moses, Thomas, and Silas were farmers; David died at seven- teen. The daughters-Mary, Nancy, and Jane, were the wives respectively of Samuel Kirkum, Thomas Harris, and Richard Leeson. After their removal to Kentucky the family were compelled, owing to the depredations of the Indians, to AHMAR tive in a block-house, and there Silas was born, on the eighth day of March, 1786. His pa- ternal ancestors were Welsh and his mother, whose maiden name was Mary Boyd, was of Irish descent. Silas came to Ohio with his father. He hired out as a hand for some time, and in 1807 entered one hundred and sixty acres of land on Paint creek, Gasper town- ship-the northeast quarter of section eighteen. His son Silas still has the patent for this land which was issued December 30, 1811. On the fifth day of May, 1808, Mr. Dooley was married to Johannah, daughter of Samuel Westerfield, who lived on the pike east of Eaton. Mr. Dooley was born December 2, 1785. The marriage license of Silas Dooley and Johannah Westerfield was without doubt the first document of the

kind ever issued in Preble county. The Westerfields were of Dutch descent, having originally come from Hol- land. Samuel Westerfield was born in New York. When about seventeen years of age he removed with his parents to New Jersey. While upon the journey the father and some of the children were massacred by the Indians. His mother and two children besides himself escaped. He came to Preble county about the year 1807 or 1808, having for some time previous lived in Clermont county, Ohio. The next day after their wed- ding Mr. and Mrs. Dooley returned to his father's in Gas- per, and the following day they began work in real earnest, Mrs. Dooley helping her hus- band in his corn planting. They soon moved into a cabin of their own, and they both spent the remainder of their lives on the farm where they first settled. Mr. Dooley's subsequent life was an uneventful one. His occupation was one which in his day required unceasing toil, the practice of economy and self-denial. He was a man of excellent character, lived a blameless life, possessed the re- pect due to such a character and such a life, and passed away peacefully, July 8, 1877. His wife died April 14, 1859. They had seven children: Cath- arine, Reuben, Hayden W., Mary, Isaac H., Warren B., and Silas. Catharine was I ; born February 5, 1809, married William Wolverton in 1828, and died in 1847; Reuben, born July 11, 1811, died in 1841, in Schuyler county, Il- linois; Hayden was born September, 1814, died in 1874. Mary, died in infancy; she was born May 12, 1817; Isaac, born May 5, 1818, died September 20, 1858; Warren, born May 25, 1821, died December 7, 1850; Silas, the only servivor, and now living on the homestead in Gasper, was born May 2, 1825; he was married September 27, 1846, to Miss Isabel McCracken, who was born August 15, 1826, in Washington township, Preble county, Ohio. They have had two children, Emma I., wife of William Morton, and a son who died in 1850, aged three months.

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has been made the exponent of the early incidents of the community.

The first death of which there is any remembrance that took place in the Seven Mile settlement after the arrival of Mr. Dooley was that of an infant child of Will- iam and Sarah Sellers. The burial was on the place called the Backbone, near Mrs. Mann's, in Gasper town- ship. James Crawford made the little coffin of punch- eons, and it fell to the lot of Silas Dooley to dig the grave. While engaged at this work there came an In- dian and two squaws, who appeared strangely interested, staying while the digging was going on, and watching with the closest attention all the details of the burial, never once speaking a word.

The first marriage license issued in Preble after it was severed from Montgomery county, was procured at Eaton by Silas Dooley, though many were married previously, having procured licenses at Dayton. This first license, issued about the first day of May, 1808, authorized the solemnization of the marriage of Silas Dooley and Han- nah Westerfield, the particulars of which marriage we noted in another place.

In 1806 a Mr. Enoch and son came from the Big Mi- ami to the farm of Isaac Enoch, now occupied by Robert Runyon, that they might fatten their hogs upon the abun- dant mast. The son was left in charge, and one day sud- denly took sick with something like a fit. As her hus- band was from home, Mrs. Enoch called upon the Dooleys for help. The sick boy lay in convulsions, and there was no doctor nearer than Franklin. It was de- cided to send for Big Jim Crawford, who had acquired some reputation as a practical "medicine" man. Silas Dooley, though bare foot and thinly clad, ran the dis- tance of three and one-half miles to Crawford's, over fro- zen ground pretty well covered with snow. Mr. Enoch who came home during the day started immediately for the boy's father and Dr. DeBoyce. They travelled all night, and a dark one it was, with nothing but a blazed path to guide them through the forest. But they only arrived in time to see the sick one breathe his last.

The friendly Indians from Fort St. Clair frequently en- camped near the Big Sulphur springs, on Silas Dooley's farm.

In the autumn of 1806 a family encamped near these springs and were very friendly with their white neighbors, who treated them kindly, giving them pumpkins and other articles of farm produce. The Indian one day, after killing a bear and a deer, thought that he would re- turn the compliment. He came to the house and en- quired for the old man, and when Silas told him that he was not at home, the Indian said, "maybe you have some meat ; me go show you." They started back along a cow-path and came to the place where Abraham Over- holser's house now is, here he had killed and dressed in good order a deer, and had taken all but the forequarters which he gave to Silas, who tied the quarters together and swung them across his shoulder preparatory to the homeward trip. The Indian made all manner of fun of the pale face's way of carrying a load, and while leading the way toward the house took particular pains to lead

: him under a big hornets' nest. The hornets commenced aggressive operations, and as they swarmed about him, the now thoroughly aroused Silas ran for dear life, never letting go of the deer meat upon his shoulders. The Indian stood off at a safe distance, convulsed with laugh- ter, and at the close of the race innocently asked: "What you call um?" But Silas could take a joke even if there was in it a bitter sting.

At another time Mr. Dooley went over on Twin creek, some eight miles distant, to purchase some bacon, for which he paid all the money he had in the world. The weather being very warm, the fat meat came very near melting before he reached home. Arriving at the house about dark, he hung the meat against the cabin to cool before putting it away, and went to bed feeling rich in the possession of meat in August,-a rare luxury-but entirely forgetting to secure said meat. In the morning the meat was cool, but it was gone, and Mr. Dooley con- sidered it one of the heaviest losses he had ever sus- tained.

Gasper Potterf, sr., was a native of Virginia, and was born in 1754. He was married to Susannah Rid- enour in 1784, and settled on section number twenty- six, of Gasper township, in 1806, being the second set- tler. He was a man of great energy and industry, and was of German descent. In 1808 he built the first mill of the township, on Seven Mile creek. This rude and simple structure was of great utility to the pioneers, doing the principal part of their grinding for several years, and had to be run day and night to accommodate its custom- ers; the bolting had to be done by hand. In connection with this mill he also erected a distillery about the same time, and, doing his own grinding, this was a source of great profit to him. During the War of 1812 the de- mand for whiskey at the forts advanced the price to one dollar per gallon. The profits of this enterprise enabled him to purchase large tracts of Government lands, and also to erect, some time before the year 1820, a large and well equipped mill-which is still standing, though idle- which did a very large business in its day. The building is still in a pretty good state of preservation. In addition to this he also built and run a saw-mill, which did a very large business. In addition to the foregoing he for many years carried on the farming business on a farm of some three hundred acres, and when the infirmities incident to old age began to make inroads on his constitution, and his strength and energy began to fail, he made a partial distribution of his property among his children. Prior to this he had, however, given each of his children one hundred and sixty acres of land.

His first wife died November 7, 1831, aged sixty-five years, and forty-seven years after her marriage. The fruit of this marriage was thirteen children, six sons and seven daughters, all of whom are now dead except one daughter, who lives in Indiana. There are quite a num- ber of grandchildren still living in the township.

Some years after the death of his first wife he married a widow lady by the name of Nancy Jane Longnecker, by whom he had three children, two sons and one daughter. The elder son, who was named for his father,

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still resides in Gasper township; the other two children reside in Eaton.

The subject of this sketch died October 4, 1836, aged eighty-two years.

Gasper T. Potterf was born in 1833, and in 1854, was married to Julia Leech who was born in 1836. Eight of their ten children are living. Jacob Leech died in 1880, and his widow is still living with her daughter, Mrs. Potterf.

Jacob Potterf, born in 1786, emigrated to Ohio from Virginia in 1806, and settled in section sixteen, Gasper township. He died in 1862, on the farm in section thirty-four. He married Christina Brown, born in North Carolina in 1793, who died in 1878. Her parents settled at a very early day in Harrison township, on the land now occupied by the village of Euphemia. Of their nine children, four are living.

Isaac R. Potterf, born on the home place in 1821, in 1844 married Miss A. C. Campbell, who was born in Delaware in 1821, and came with her parents to Gasper township in 1829. To them have been born four chil- dren, three of whom are living : Lydia F., wife of Jacob A. Guild, lives in Camden; Emma M. and Ella L. are at home. They took a child to raise.

Catharine, the eldest daughter of Jacob Potterf, mar- ried Thomas F. Stephens who resides in Gasper town- ship. Elizabeth is the wife of Henry Neff, of Camden.

Abraham F. Pottenger lives in Gasper township.

John Railsback was born in Bourbon county, Ken- tucky, in the year 1783, and married Hannah Conger, who was born in Kentucky in 1787. In 1806 they settled in Gasper township, Preble county. He entered land in section eighteen, before he brought his wife from Kentucky. He built a log cabin, and commenced clear- ing his land.

Their son, Isaac C. Railsback, was born in Kentucky in 1806, and when but three months old, came to Gasper township with his parents. He married Elizabeth M. Runyon, who was born in 1841, and died in 1878, one year after the death of her husband.

The second son of John and Hannah Railsback was named William. He died in early infancy.

Isaac and Elizabeth Railsback had five children, two of whom are living: Martha A., widow of James M. Davis, resides in Washington township, and Julia F. Mc- Clanahan, wife of Thomas F. McClanahan, lives on the old farm.

Robert Runyon, born in Kentucky in the year 1785, emigrated from that State to Preble county in 1810, and settled in this township, where he died in 1873. He was twice married, first to Elizabeth Burns, and second to Mary Slayback who was born in 1791, and died in 1867. Wilson, the only surviving child of the first marriage, lives in Eaton. Three children of the second marriage are living. A son, Harvey, resides in Richmond, Indi- ana, and two daughters live in this county-Mary Run- yon in Eaton, and Sarah, widow of William N. Duggins, in Dixon township. Mrs. Duggins was born in 1829, and was married at the age of twenty, to her husband (now deceased), who was born in 1824. He died in

the year 1875. She is the mother of six children, who are all living.

The next in order of the pioneers is Stephen Allbaugh, who is a native of Maryland, and who came to Gasper township in 1812, and has resided here continuously ever since. He is now in the ninetieth year of his age, al- though he has been somewhat afflicted more or less for several years; but is, at this writing, enjoying good health. In 1814 he married Nancy Potterf, daughter of Gasper Potterf. They have had eight children-three sons and five daughters, all living but one son, who died in Iowa. One son and two daughters are living in Gasper township, two daughters in Eaton, and one son in Indiana. Mr. Allbaugh has been engaged in farming, and in former years carried on the distilling business. He often speaks of the superior quality of whiskey made in an early day, when the practice of its adulteration was unknown, and when delirium tremens were never heard of. He is sin- cerely of the opinion that copper distilled whiskey is not injurious to health, and can refer to men who for many years made a daily use of whiskey without mental or physical injury, but thinks persons had better abstain from using the drugged whiskey thrown upon the market now.

Last spring, when the weather was yet disagreeable and he had been confined to a sick bed and under medical treatment for a long time, troubled with a cough and heart disease, he had the convicton that it was his duty to have the ordinance of baptism administered by immersion. So he sent for the ministers of the Dunker church with a view of discharging that duty. The preachers came and the time for immersion arrived. The water of the creek be- ing chilly Mr. Allbaugh's neighbors held a council, be- lieving that in his feeble condition immersion would prove fatal; they thereupon procured a large bath box and filled it with water, intending to take the chill off by putting in some warm water. Finaly the preacher came and council was called, and it was finally agreed to sub- mit the whole matter to him. He quickly decided to go to the creek. So he was placed in a large arm chair, surrounded by bedding and placed in a spring wagon, taken to the creek and immersed, and taken to his home, and improved more rapidly than he had done at any other time. This, perhaps, may be taken as an evidence that a determined will has a great influence on our phys- ical organization.

The subject of this sketch has resided in the township sixty-eight years. His wife died September 9, 1874, aged eighty years and twenty days.

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History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Part 42

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

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