History of Sandusky County Ohio with Illustrations 1882, Part 19

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages:

USA > Ohio > Sandusky County > History of Sandusky County Ohio with Illustrations 1882 > Part 19

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

decay, leaving a young and more vigorous shoot to shade the spot it had darkened, and so on in endless succession. In the forest to which the pioneers of this county came, foliaged branches crowded each other, and enveloped poisonous gasses breathed from decomposing vegetation. Fallen trunks, crossing each other at every angle, closed natural watercourses and made the oversaturated soil a fulsome breeder of malaria. Armies of insects filled the woods with their hungry hum, and howling wolves made night melancholy. To sucha wilderness, every feature of which shot arrows of despondency, brave men brought determined spirits and generous women devoted hearts.

It has been said that the white settlement of Sandusky county began before Wayne's war, and that the first settlers were James Whittaker and Isaac Williams, the former having been brought here a captive, and the latter the son of a trader

* About 8-10 cents per acre. Treaty of 1817.

126

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

at Upper Sandusky and a captive. These two families were indisputably the first permanent white settlers. Arundel and Robbins, the English traders mentioned by Heckwelder in the narrative of his captivity, can not properly be called settlers. They were here for the purpose of speculating, and had no intention of remaining to assist in the development of the country. The War of 1812 brought to the county a company of French from Michigan, who made squatter settlements on the river prairies as soon as peace was established,

In the earlier and poorer days of the Republic there was no public policy for the encouragement of settlement. The public domain was looked upon by Congress as an important source of revenue, and laws were passed from time to time making it a criminal offence to settle upon public lands. One dollar and a quarter an acre was the unvarying price, and whoever paid it received a patent from the Government. Purchasers usually found on their land small clearings and rude cabins lately deserted by that nomadic class of people known as squatters. They are the link which in history connects the native hunters with the pioneer woodsmen. Partaking of the character of both, they precede one and follow the other.

There is another class of pioneers who may be termed squatter settlers, for they came to stay, and awaited with patience the opportunity to purchase land. This class a wholesome homestead law would have benefited. Industrious, but poor, they toiled amidst every difficulty of forest life, borne up by the hope of securing an heritage for their children. How discouraging it must have been, after two or three years of ceaseless toil, to see the title of their prospective homes become the possessions of another yet such was often the case.

The first settlers of Sandusky county, outside of the old military reservation now included in the city of Fremont, and ex- cepting the French and captive settlers on the Sandusky prairies, penetrated the forest near the eastern border, and were mostly Eastern people, who had temporarily located in the Firelands. Land east of the Reserve line was selling at prices ranging from two to four dollars. Preferable land on this side was surveyed and platted, preliminary to being placed on the market at one dollar and a quarter per acre. Emigrants, when on the ground, with their goods packed in large covered wagons, sought out a dry spot in the trackless wilderness, cut out a road just wide enough to pass through and erected a temporary cabin. Two or three families usually came together, and gave each other such assistance as was needed in raising a house, which was made by the first arrival, of poles. Notches were cut in on each side at the ends, so that the hastily built structure might stand more firmly. Mud, plentifully mixed with leaves, was used to fill the cracks, and a chimney of sticks was built outside. These cabins were little better than Indian huts, but the lone pioneer was unable to erect a hewed log house, such as he had heard his Eastern parents talk about. He was almost a solitary adventurer in an inhospitable forest. Having provided a shelter for his family, this advance guard of the pioneer army next set to work to prepare a spot of ground for corn, which in new settlements is the staff of life. He did not cut down all the trees, as is done in modern clearing, but only the underbrush and saplings the larger trees were girdled to prevent them from leafing. These advance Settlers often planted considerable corn, without even clearing away the water-soaked logs, which covered more than half the surface.

127

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

Skirmishers of the pioneer army made their appearance in Townsend in 1818, and about the same time in Green Creek and York. This year, also, the incipient village of Lower Sandusky extended up the river as far as the second rapids, and a few openings were made in the forest adjoining the bottoms below town.

Sandusky county did not present the true picture of pioneer life until after the public lands were platted and placed upon the market. Huron county was by that time well advanced in settlement, and general improvement under rapid way. The fame of the exhaustless fertility of Sandusky's fertile vegetable soil had reached New York, and a stream of emigration turned westward. Some came in large covered wagons all the way, but by far. a larger proportion utilized lake transportation from Buffalo to Huron, and thence in wagons. Many Huron settlers abandoned unfinished improvements, and began anew in the adjoining forest. York, Townsend, and Green Creek townships received their immigration mostly from New York. A few years later .Central Ohio caught the pioneer fever, and many people of Penn- sylvania stock joined axes with the New York Yankees in a general war against the forest.

Below the falls, on the Sandusky, the dry river hills were entered early, and a French colony gathered about the head of the Bay, where many of their descendants are yet living. The Black Swamp west of the river was for many years viewed with an eye of despair and abandoned to wolves, frogs and mud hens. This dismal region was first penetrated for purposes of settlement in 1826. Its rapid development did not begin until neat the close of 1830. The black swamp was a subject for conversation in nearly every country house in Perry county, Ohio. The settlers, then nearly all sturdy of Pennsylvania stock,

inured to rugged work, looked with favor upon this rejected tract which concealed its fertility beneath vegetation and water. Old men with their families abandoned the homes they had made, and young men bade farewell to the firesides of their fathers, all seeking fortune in a new country.

Farther west, in Scott and Madison townships, the pioneers came from the Seven Ranges, many of them from Columbiana county, Ohio. They trace their genealogies back to New England. The complement of settlement is made up of people of Pennsylvania German descent, who came to this county from Central Ohio Perry, Guernsey, Columbiana, and Wayne counties have contributed more to the settlement of the Black Swamp than any other part of the country. The pioneer community of Woodville was characteristically Yankee.

Pioneer life, particularly in such a wil- derness as primitive Sandusky county, is a most thorough test of strength of character, a test which only the fittest survive. Many were induced to leave cultured homes and communities by the delusive hope of accumulating a fortune amidst surroundings such as are pictured by romantic fiction; a few knew something of pioneer life in other places, where nature's wild beauty and a healthful air lightened the woodman's task. But Sandusky county's forest taxed not only the spirit but the bodies of the pioneers. It is estimated that less than two-thirds of all who joined the advanced settlers endured the conflict. Some who had purchased land sickened at the sight, and, if they were able, either turned back to the homes of their childhood, or pushed westward to fairer lands. Others entered upon their task with spirit and resolution. A willing hand sank the axe deep at every stroke, and a buzzing wheel furnished music to

128

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

the cabin. All went well till poverty came poverty with every discouraging accompaniment. A crop almost ready for the harvest became the plunder of animals and birds. Reserved capital was soon exhausted, and nothing remained to supply the necessities of life. The awful picture of starvation impressed itself upon a troubled fancy. Disease and distressing sickness completed the desolation of spirit, and often grim death entered the loving family circle and wrecked every hope. All the past was lost, and nothing in future seemed attainable. Prudence counseled desertion of an undertaking whose only end seemed desolation and ruin. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that many of the early immigrants deserted improvements commenced and lands partially paid for. Only those excelling in bravery, sturdiness, and determination, continued the battle of the wilderness to a successful issue. The survivors of that trying period have a right to recite the story of their hardships, and we of a younger generation would be ungrateful to refuse to listen. Their life was one of stern reality and work-disinterested work-having for its affectionate inspiration a desire to leave their children the heritage of an estate. But pioneer life had its amusements and good cheer as well as toil, privation, and sadness. A few outline sketches of early scenes may be of interest in this connection.

The most distinguishing characteristic of the pioneers, was their generous, social disposition to give each other assistance in every time of need. Sincere, welcoming generosity shone from every fireplace, and when a new corner into a community was received with his family into a cabin, and entertained with the best its scanty accommodations could furnish. The site of a house being selected, neighbors for miles around welcomed their new neighbor

by building a cabin for him. Such a company was always in the. best of humor, for a raising was one of those holiday occasions which break in on the dull monot- ony of life, dispelling doubt and gloom, and leaving only jollity. After a general hand shaking with their new neighbor, the company organized for work by appointing a captain, whose business it was to direct the work of the day. Then trees about the chosen site of the cabin were cut down, the large, straight-grained trunks being split into puncheons for the floor and door. The ground once cleared, the

raising commenced. A skilled axe-man stood at each corner, and when, with many a "heave, oh heave!" a log tumbled into position, it was notched near the ends so that the next, crossing at right-angles, would rest more firmly. Thus log by log the cabin was raised, while another party of men, better skilled in woodcraft, was dressing or puncheons and splitting shakes clapboards for the roof. The first houses were rarely more than one low story high, so that by means of skids, logs were easily placed in position. The logs which built up the gable were smaller and were secured by poles running the whole length of the building, at intervals of about three feet. On these, clapboards were laid in such a way as to make a tight roof. The roof was weighted down by poles laid over the rafter poles, and held in position by blocks at the ends, running from one to the other. A puncheon floor vindicates the axe-manship of our pioneer fathers. Many of them were as smooth as plane dressed floors, yet no other tool was used than an axe. One side was hewn smooth, and the others notched so that the sleepers brought them .exactly to the same height. A chimney, a window, and a door completed the structure.

The chimney was built of poles imbedded in mud mortar, on a foundation of

129

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

stone, and was usually placed outside of the house against one end; a large opening was cut out to form a fireplace. A fire-chamber was formed of stone to keep the poles of the chimney from burning.

An opening about five and one-half feet high and four feet wide was cut info the side for a doorway. The door was made of puncheons pinned to cleats at each end, and was hung on squeaking wooden hinges. A window was made by cutting out a piece of one or two logs, pinning bars at right-angles across the centre, and pasting over the opening greased paper. Glass in the West was a rare luxury, and sold at a price far beyond the reach of early settlers.

The cabin completed, the company indulged in various amusements, such as wrestling, running races, lifting, and shooting at a mark. Whiskey, always free on such occasions, increased the general hilarity, and at times was the cause of a friendly fight.

Cabin furniture corresponded with the simplicity of the building. A bedstead was made by joining two poles, one into the end, the other into the side of the cabin near one corner. The two other ends were tied together with bark, and supported by a post resting upon the floor. Pins were driven into a log of the side of the cabin, and into the pole opposite, to which was fastened strips of hark in such a way as to form a matting. Under the bed was a convenient place for packing articles not in everyday use. A white linen curtain concealed from view this useful, though suspicious looking corner.

Few cabins afforded more than two split bottom chairs. These, however, were generally easy and comfortable, elegance being a secondary consideration. Benches were in common use. They were made by driving into wide punch

eons long pins, for legs. The table was generally the product of a cabinet shop, and constituted part of the outfit purchased before leaving home.

One or two kettles and a spider consti- tuted the cooking furniture. The table fare consisted of corn bread, pork, and wild meats.

Articles of dress were largely of home manufacture, and were made either of flax or wool. Every pioneer in the more favored and earlier settled part of the county, had a few sheep and a flax patch. The flax was pulled, bleached, and dressed. The tow was then cleanly carded with a hand card. The spinning-wheel prepared it for the shuttle. Spinning was at one time the National employment of American women. It is particularly an occupation of pioneer life and the accompaniment of penury. There is real beauty in that picture representing virtue, which figures a devoted wife and mother, busily spinning with both hands; one foot is on the treadle which moves the whirling wheel, while the other is rocking, in a cradle, her tender offspring, quieted by the rhythmic hum to sweet, innocent sleep.

The whirl of the wheel and thud of the loom, mingled with the echoing stroke of axes, the crash of falling trees, and roar of clearing fires. The music of the wife's industry did not cease at nightfall, but wolves heard the sound and owls hooted its melody. Shirts, trowsers, bed clothing and dresses were all the product of woman's busy hands. But upon the woman rested more than the burden of spinning and weaving and sewing and cooking and rearing her family, and hunting cows in a fenceless forest and milking and making butter. Mills, during the first years of settlement, were inaccessible, and the preparation of corn for food involved great labor. As among the Indians, corn was used considerably in the form of

130

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

hominy, ashes being used to take off the outside shell. Corn was prepared for "johnnycake" by cracking it with a hammer or wooden mallet, on a block hollowed out for the purpose. It took one woman an hour to prepare in. this way sufficient meal to supply the appetites of three men. It was not long, however, until mills with very simple machinery were constructed where a creek of sufficient size offered a favorable site. Most of these consisted simply of a buhr driven by an undershot or breast wheel. The bolting was all done by hand. Corn was sifted before using, by the cook herself, while wheat flour was bolted through a web of cloth hung on rollers and turned by hand. The customer always had to turn the bolt for his own grist. These mills, on account of their slowness, were wholly inadequate even to the simple wants of the

pioneers. People came long distances through the woods to bring such grists as they could carry on the back of a horse, and when once at the end of their tedious journey, were compelled to wait one, two, and sometimes even three days for their turn. The mills built by Chambers and Moore, on Sandusky River, were more efficient. Being centrally located, an extensive business made the best machinery of the time profitable, and the water supply furnished all the power, necessary. We say improved machinery for the time, for Moore's mill of sixty years ago would be an insignificant establishment, compared with Moore's mill of the present. The pioneers, speaking of the old mills, very appropriately termed them "corn crackers." But people who had cracked grain got along very well; all were not so fortunate as to have that. It is a significant fact that many of the early settlers of this county were poor, sometimes even to the point of physical want.

Very few of the pioneers had more

than enough money to bring them here. They depended for a start upon their own labor and the resources of the country, about which so much had been said in the old communities. The first season's planting, owing to the difficulty of preparing the soil, was small, but under favorable conditions would have been sufficient to furnish bread, had the destroyer remained away. What must have been the hardworking farmer's disappointment and chagrin, to see his crop at ripening time become the feast of all the multitude of animals and birds, which filled the woods. Blackbirds, squirrels, raccoons, and turkeys literally devoured the drooping ears of an entire field, upon which the hard pressed family placed sole dependence for their winter's food.

Another and prevalent cause of poverty and want in pioneer Sandusky county, was fever and ague, which visited almost every cabin. Scarcely a spring opened but the old, unwelcome visitor returned in its most malignant form. At places clearing fires died out for want of attention, and weeds smothered the growing corn. The spinning wheel, perchance, ceased its cheerful whirl, and the dismal prospect, amid desolate surroundings, day by day, became more gloomy. All were not thus unhappily afflicted, but all had generous hearts and were willing to lend assistance in a day of need. As the forest gradually became more broken the years grew brighter and crops increased in fullness. Hewed log and frame houses took the place of the first rude cabins; and when at evening the family gathered round the great brick fireplace, the parents and older children told and retold to the interested little ones, melancholy experiences of sickness, want, and hardship. Those experiences are, thanks to our hardy and resolute ancestors, happily past. Events live only in imagination and history; very few memories

131

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

yet retain impressions of the heroic conflict, and the number is monthly becoming smaller.

To increase the acreage of tillable land was a main object of the well-to-do pioneer. He first girdled the trees and cut out the underbrush and logs of a small patch, probably ten acres, for the first season's planting. The next season, if health permitted, he more than doubled the "girdle clearing," and began to cut or burn down dead trees standing on the first opening. Those that were hollow or partially decayed burned readily, but solid timber had (to be cut. Straight white oak, walnut, and poplar was split into rails for fencing fields under cultivation. Other trees were cut into, logs, and when several acres had been thus reduced, a frolic was made, to which all the neighborhood came. Log-rollings were the joy of pioneer life. All work was turned into fun. Heavy lifts were made a contest of strength, and the fatigues of the day were drowned by the contents of well filled jugs. These pleasant gatherings, after the logs had all been piled ready for the torch, often terminated in happy social occasions, in which the wives and sisters figured conspicuously. Dancing was a fashionable amusement, encouraged by the mothers, and greatly enjoyed by all. When the men went to roll their neighbors' logs, their dames and lasses dropped in to help do the cooking, and perchance make a quilt between meals. The men concluded their labor by triumphantly carrying the captain on their backs; the women dedicated a quilt by enfolding it around their hostess. The strains of a fiddle brought all together, when night's shadows expelled the day. Round dancing was then unknown, but all the variety of movements may be described as a free and easy, go as you please affair. It was not expulsion from the ballroom to step on a lady's toes,

though such a sad accident rarely happened, for the nimble, though not tender feet, of these pioneer lasses quickly rebounded from the solid puncheon floor. One thing commendable can be said of the pioneer "French Four" or quadrille; it was performed with hearty enthusiasm. The dancers were lost in their amusement, and joy inspired every step. Beaux swung their partners with a generous hug, and the girls made no peevish objection. Joyfully the dance went on till howling wolves grew hoarse, and candles melted to their sockets.

Stock was allowed to pasture in the fenceless woods. Every cow was provided with a bell, and every flock of sheep with several. Cattle often ate the poisonous grass, which caused that terrible disease, milk sickness, spoken of at greater length elsewhere in this history. Sheep were penned in a high enclosure every night, to protect them from wolves, which often came to the cabin door. Hogs were marked and turned out to fatten on nuts and acorns. Hogs bred in the woods became wild, and sometimes dangerous. It was unsafe to go far from the clearing, accompanied by a dog, for the sight of that animal arouses all the savage nature of a hog. An old settler assures us that an infuriated boar was a more dangerous enemy than a bear or wolf. Every farmer had his stock marked, which the law required him to have recorded in a book of indentures kept for the purpose by the township clerk.

No market was accessible to the pioneers of Sandusky county, where farm products could be exchanged for cash, but furs always commanded the ready money. This circumstance made many of the pioneers hunters, particularly those in the north part of the county. Soda ash found a ready cash market, and several kilns in the east part of the county were

132

HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

constructed for its manufacture. Fish filled the streams emptying into the bay and river. Nature thus afforded

the otherwise unfavored early settlers a bountiful supply of nutritious meat. The woods also abounded in deer, squirrels, and turkeys. Nature lavished her wealth too bountifully upon Sandusky county; too much timber and too many animals was the cause of much distress.

As the little spots of sunshine in the long reach of forest grew more numerous and larger, the pioneers began to avail themselves of the advantages of churches and schools. The first schools were kept in private houses, where all the children of the neighborhood came, each contributing a share toward the support of the teachers, which was very little, indeed, but, as a rule, the teachers were as poor as the pay; there were, however, many exceptions to this unfortunate rule. The first schoolhouses. were built by the voluntary efforts of the neighbors. A little council of residents determined on a location, and set a day for raising. All concerned came, and by night the house was under roof. Several holes were cut in the walls, over which greased paper was pasted, which served the purpose of a window, for light alone was needed; cracks between logs admitted sufficient fresh air. The benches were made of puncheons, and a wide puncheon on each side of the room, fastened to blocks about three feet high, served as a desk. Reading, writing, and arithmetic were the only branches taught. Until 1825 teachers were supported wholly by private subscription. The first school law which gave each township at least one school, supported entirely or in part by taxation and the proceeds of section sixteen, which the ordinance of 1787 set apart for the support of education, was passed in 1825, and went into effect soon after. In 1829

a new law, authorizing the trustees to divide each township into districts, was passed, and was more effectual. Still, in the new communities of Sandusky county, the tax of three-fourths of a mill on the dollar was insufficient, and private subscription had to be relied upon. The teachers boarded with the scholars, and many of them worked for two shillings a day. The public school system of Ohio was revised and established on a solid basis in 1838, when local authorities were given permission to levy taxes to the amount needed for the liberal support of public instruction.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Sandusky County Ohio with Illustrations 1882, Part 19

Author: Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: