History of Van Wert and Mercer counties, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 68

Author: Sutton, R., & Co., Wapakoneta, Ohio, pub
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Wapakoneta, Ohio : R. Sutton
Number of Pages: 878

USA > Ohio > Mercer County > History of Van Wert and Mercer counties, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 68
USA > Ohio > Van Wert County > History of Van Wert and Mercer counties, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 68

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).

245

HISTORY OF VAN WERT AND MERCER COUNTIES, OHIO.

and boiling it, then ate with milk or fried it. It was delicious either way. We carried with us some ti lanterns. They were about a foot long by six inches in diameter, and punched full of holes. the burr edges being on the outside. As we had no occasion to use them as lanterns, we split them. fastened them to a clapdrand, and used them as graters, and grated corn on the cob, making nice meal when sifted, but they soon wore out. Then the millwright gouged a hole in an oak stump. like a mortar, planted a forket stake in the ground a few feet distant, and placed a sapling in the fork with the heavy ent on the ground and the top in the crotch. To this end was hung a piece of some hand wood (dogwood) about four feet or more long, through this holes were bored at right angles one above the other; in these, round pins were placed to serve as handles to work the pestle. We took hold either side of the stump, and pulled the pestle down upon the corn, and the spring of the pole hits it; thus we pounded corn and sifted into meal-two generally working at once-enough to feed an average of fifty people, until we were all taken down with the chills and fever ; and as all the surveyors were in the forest, we were not able to nurse one another, when my bro- ther, James Watson, came in from the woods with his surveying party, and removed us all to Piqua for medical and other attendance. taking five days to perform the journey. We boarded at Tompkins' tavern, attended by a French doctor (Shoper), who broke the ague on my mo- ther and myself by giving us all the soar pickles we eraved. We returned in the fall to our farm. During the winter men were engaged hewing and hauling timber for a large frame grist-mill. Father and his survey- ors were in the forests on the Auglaize until the time for raising the frame of the mill arrived, when all hands came in, and invitations were sent to Fort Wayne. St. Marys, and Fort Recovery, and great prepara- tions were made for their entertainment by the hunters und Indians bringing in venison, wild turkeys, ducks, geese, and plenty of wild boney, maple sugar, and molasses. not forgetting guys and whiskey with which to make egg-nor, without which no crowd could be gotten to- gether; all used it and tobacco, when they could get it, except my father, brother, and the Quakers in his employ, Mesire. Louis and Powell, who used neither. On the appointed day people came from Fort Wayne. Fort Recovery. St. Marys, and Piqua to the number of about fifty, which, with the surveyor, settlers, and millwright, swelled the number to over one hundred, but very few had ever assisted in rais- ing a frame of such large timbers ; they were very awkward. Hat it been a log building, probably any one could have carried up a corner; nor did the major know much more than the rest. However, they went to work and raised the west end and two sides, pinned, and thoroughly braced them, when the major thought he could put that end together on the ground, which was level, and raise the east end all at once, as there were so many powerful hands. It was put together all right, but then he discovered he had no ropes, and the timbers were green and very heavy. The trees on the bank were covered with grape vines, and they were soon substituted for ropes. Large and long-forked saplings were got to push with as the frame was raised ; and placing the corner and centre posts opposite the tenons of the sills, at a given signal a long pull and a strong pull altogether, and the whole eint was raised to a perpendicular successfully, with a great shout. Astride of the cross- beans and the upper beams men were placed with axes and pine, making six, and also a man with a hamdspike to assist in entering the tenon in the mortise, and hold it with his handspike until the pins were driven. All had conneneed to drive pins at a given signal. and had hit them one Hlow, when one of the men holding the upper corner ( southeast), thinking all was safe, let go his handspike, and the whole end fell with a deafening crash, fortunately injuring no one seriously. Capt. Riley had a narrow escape. He was steadying the frame, and standing on a pile of dirt dug out for the forebay, and as it fell he was thrown upon it and slid into the pit. Stunned for a few moments but not hurt, all thought him to have been crushed with the loose dirt, bat soon he hol- lowed, asking how many were killed or hurt, when all rushed to his rescue, and sent up a shout making the woods echo. This was the second shout ever made by other than the Indians at Willshire. All agreed to adjourn in gratitude for their narrow escape and complete the raising next day. Accordingly brush and bark camps were made along the bank of the river to sleep in overnight. Long tables were set out, made by putting legs or pins through slabe, and standing them in rows, with similar ones not to laugh for seats. With abundance of provisions, well cooked, and good coffee, all served in tin enps, and on tin plates, all partook of a hearty meal before dark.

Then they determined to have a dance on the green, by torch and moonlight, bright fires were burning, so that the smoke might drive away mosquitoes and give light, and many hickory back torches, held by lookers on, which they would swing furiously through the air to re- kindle once in a while. afforded a fine belt, and to all a novel, gratel, and beautiful sight. A man named Freshout from towards Fort Re- covery, furnished music on a violin, and, as there were no women to dance, men personated them by wearing their chip hats of far caps. The dances were scotch reels, frisch jigs, and Old Virginia hoestowns, and, as there was ample room, many were dancing at one time. Their joints were limbered by occasional tin cups filled with egg-ing. One

man, Fielding Corbin, who had all day been lying down groaning with rheumatism, became so much excited with the dance, or the stimulating effects of the nog, that he forgot his lameness when an Irish jig was played, and jumped up and daneed it to perfection, touching every note, keeping perfect thee, and excelling af; so that ever after the settlers called him Lomber Jimary. Many of the company daneed until day- light, and in the morning, in a few hours, the frame was raised in see- tions; a hearty dinner partaken and all started for their homes, delighted with the idea that they would soon have cora meat without pounding. and that they had been to the raising of the first frame building ever erected north of Dayton, Ohio. The irons and millstones were hauled from Dayton, taking four yoke of cattle to hani them through mond and swamps, which they had to bridge with corduroy ( poles land crossways); finally the mill was set running, and people came from all quarters with bags of corn and some buckwheat (no wheat had been raised as yet), from great distances to get their corn ground, camping out when more than a day's travel. The race was one quarter of a miile in length, and no sooner was it closed at the mill than the fish began to accumulate below the dam, which was eight feet high, and they could not be sent over. That being the only obstruction from Lake Erie, the river seemed to be perfectly tilled with pike, pickerel, lake sahnon, white fish, large muskallonge, black bass, and suckers. Father saw that by opening his waste gates at the mill, and letting water in at the dam. he could soon have the race full, when by shutting the upper gate and opening the lower a little they would be on dry land, and could be picked up with the hand, He jnanedistely set men to make barrels, and dispatched a two-horse wagon to Piqna for salt. Opening his gates the fish fairly swarmed until they became so thick that with a dip-not they could be thrown out as fast as a man could hamlle his net. Owing to the time taken by the team, the fish were so thick that they began to die in great quantities. Father caught and salted all that he could with the salt on hand, raised the gate into the pond and let them go; thus losing an opportunity to have made a fine fortune for that time. The salt did not arrive for several weeks, as he had to go to Dayton, ninety miles and back.

The mill was a success so far as supplying the settlers with corn meal and sawing lumber for himself, and to raft down to Fort Wayne and Defiance, etc.

The dam was framed in the shape of a triangle placed on a solid hed of limestone rock, which lay horizontally across the river between a high bluff-bank on the east, and an overdowed bottom in high water on the Westa

The east bank was not less than twenty-five feet high, covered by a heavy growth of white oak timber, the rave was day through this bluff and tim- bered like a lock on a canal : a hewed log abutment was built filled with stone at either end of the dam in the best manner, and it was believed that nothing could move the dam which was anchored to the bottom so firmly. But the St. Marys River above the dam was very crooked, with but eight feet fall in twenty miles, and headed in a vast swamp in Mercer County (now Mercer County reservoir'. The channel, obstructed by drifts. floated by the backwater below Sime's crossing. When the food crne in the spring. the highest ever known by the oldest inhabitants an In lian chief (Ockamoxy), it overflowed its banks and submerget our entire farm, and we were taken from the second story of our house in cannes neross to the west bank. (Willshire had been laid out, none taking part in the survey but himself and sons, James, Horatio, and Willshine.) The drifts below the dam obstructed the flow of the water, and i remained over the banks for several days and. the bottom of the river not extend- ing down to the rock, the water began to work around the east abnt- ment on the surface of the rock, and in one day washed away the entire bank, undermining trees, and head race, carrying all down the river. eut- ting a channel its entire width. This was the first great misfortune to his mill. But as the dam stood fast and the al utments also, and many large drifts had swept down, the millwright believed that by building a wing- dam from the dam's abutment up stream to the bank, they could repair damages, as they had saved lamber enough to plank it tight. They were set to work, and in a few weeks had it completed, although it was as luge as the centre dam ; the pond soon fille I. the mills started again. although they made no money for their owner. They accommodate i the entire frontier settlers: the mills were run constantly all the spring and summer. The next flood came with such a sudden rise that the drift swept the brush-dirt and stone from the starting of the dam, which had been place t there to render it tight an I bret it down. The water floated the entire frame, which was firmly framed together, and broke it from the abatments, and carried it down the river, where, after the flood subsided, it was found upon the bank at a great bend, some fifty miles below, where it remained intact for years, and was used by new settlers for . sills and timber for their cabins. Notwithstanding these disasters, father had another da built, and as keel-boats and large pirogues poled up from below. I gan to ascend as far as St. Marys Fort. The bault a lock near the west abatment. like a card lock, to let them and that beats through, should they wish to pass im modium stages of water (at high water they could pass over, with the water ten to fifteen feet over the dam).

246

HISTORY OF VAN WERT AND MERCER COUNTIES, OHIO.

Father was elected to the Legislature in the Bill of IN23 -24. The dam stood fast and the lock worked well. Stephen Louis and William, his son, and Major Low, were running the mall. My brother was at Fort St. Marys, and the men were engaged rafting lumber to Fort Wayne. the first humber ever seen in that piace, as that hurts calls came down with the Blood tide. Keel-boats coming upor down were let through the lock by the bands at the mill. Something happened to call them away one forenoon for an hour or two, when an unprincipled villais, named Bush, came up with two pirogues lashed together, and a eres of four men to push it up with setting poles, and not finding any one at the mill, he seized a yohe of cattle that were there for the use of the nall, and hitched a seraper to them, took the picks, shovels. cte .. from the mill, and as the water was then rising and but a few feet below the dam, on the west side, which was alluvias land and free from trees, he commenced to ent a channel around the dam. There was no one at home exeend my mother, two sisters, and my Mother Horatio, and myself. My mother went and begged him to desist. pointed out to him the damage he might do, and told him that the men would be home to dinner and open the lock. But he being captain of such a big craft, felt his dignity, and only worked the barder, and had quite a stream running round which would soon have turned the whole river. My mother ran home loaded all the guns, the large botes and two squirrel rides belonging to funtion and myself. Horatio was sent to find the men, and I was left to watch the dig- gers; in less than an bour the two Quakers. Major Low, my mother and brother appeared at the scene of operations, having taken from the keel- boats, as they passed, Captain Bush's gun, which my mother intended to use if necessary. The Major was large and powerful. the Quakers ready to fight to the death. We boys could with our guns pick off' a squirrel from the tallest trees, and were told by Louis, if they can- meneed to fire, which one to shoot at. and were ready and willing to obey orders. There were on our side three men, two boys, and my mother, with six guns. Friend Stephen, with his drab suit sonal broad-tai, drab hat, and about sixty years of age, was very venerable in appearance. He approached Bush and said: " Friend Bush, what dost thou intend to do? Don't thee know that thee will cause great damage to friend Riley, and may be ruining his mills ?" " Don't care if I do; he's no right to dam a navigable stream and stop iny boat from going up a navigable river." " Did thee not see the lock made on purpose to let thee through and did not the Captain's wife tell thee that we would be back by noon and open the lock and help they through?" " Wal, yas, but I han't ter be hosted by no woman." " Friend Bush, if thee and thy men don't instantly go to work and fill up the ditch thee has dug, we will shoot every one of the dead! not a minute to wait, all take non." which we did.

The ruffians were thoroughly overawed by the warlike Quaker, and our guus pointed waiting his order to fire, went to work with a will by his direction, we all the while with our gui s anmning at them until the breach was filled ; the lock was opened and they passed through. a watch Was set to watch the damn, fearing they might through spite return and open the slutice. Thanks to the courage of Stephen Louis and his son the Major, and our squirrel rifles, the dom was sale, and a victory won, although bloodless. Had Bush persisted their lives would have paid the penalty. The dam stood firmly. and the lack answered the purpose up to the time of our departure down the river in a flat-boat in April. 1-2%, and for many years after, and although to my father it proved rumous, it was an Inestimable blessing to the new settleis, in a vast region of country. Captain Riley, previous to going to Columbus, used all las efforts to aroute the public to the importance of adopting a system of internal improvements, and especially the construction of canals, the importance of which he had pointed out in his letters from the woods in 1×19. and in order to lay the subject before the Legislature of Ohio, he addressed the following letter to Governor Clinton, of New York.

Capt. Riley's Efforts in Behalf of Internal Improvements before and achile a Member of the Ohio Legislature, and his Correspondence with Gor. De Helt Clinton.

WILLSHIRL,, Vax Wier COUNTY, Ojo, Ang. 17, 1-23.

SIR : Since I had the pleasure of seeing your Excellency in New York in Is19. I have removed into this wilderness and established my family on the St. Mary- River, which, uniting with the St. Josephe River at Fort Wayne, thirty miles northwest from here by land, and ninety by water. forms the Manner or Miami of Lake Erie, My object in coming to this country was to avail un self of the advantages incident to new set- Und countries, where the sol is rich and vegetation luxuriant. Jamal cheap and navigation open to Lake Erie about six months in the year; . but above all to build up a town winch shall commemorate the name of my deliverer from Arabian slavery.

It was two years fast January since I came into this wilderness. twenty miles from any inhabitant. I have got at gtist-wall and saw mill in operation, a State road established which leads from Piqua on the Great Mami to Fort Wayne and crosses the river bere. a town laid out and nearly twenty houses built on it. a post other established, and we are now ready to open a trade with your emporium in flour, beck, pork,

potash, ginseng, etc. etc., as soon as your grand canal shall be ready for

I give you this sketch of my late transactions in order to apologize for the liberty I take, which I hope will be considered sufficient.

Being extremely anxious to build vessels here of as large a burthen as will enter and pass the Grand Canal when finished, and to keep them running as packets, with freight and passengers, from the mouth of the Hammer River to New York, to be navigated by sails on Lake Erie and the Hudson River, with masts to raise and lower at pleasure.

they leave to sollest such information on the following points as your Excellentey may deem it expedient to give me. It is for my own private or the paddie use as regards the dimensions of the craft, etc. And that which regards the canal, with your permission. I should wish to publish bere, where every citizen of this extensive and fertile region feels more than a common interest in its progress and completion, and reveres (almost next to the Deity) the gigantic powers of mind, talents, and great exertions which, under your administration, have brought this stupendon- work so far to its termination.

First, when will the Grand Canal be probably finished so as to paca boats its whole length? What is the country through which it passes? How many rivers and lakes does it eross or come in contact with, and at what places or points? How many locks are constructed on it, and where severally located ?

What are the largest dimensions of beats which can pass through this canal ? What length and breadth can pass the locks, and what is the greatest depth of water a boat is allowed to draw in the canal when loaded ?

What sort of construction is most approved on the canal by present experience ? Can vessels properly constructed belonging to other States than New York navigate the Grand Canal, and if they can, under what restrictions? What is the rate of toll of duty per ton which will be exacted of them the whole route from Albany to Buffalo? Do light vessels pay the same daty per ton as loaded ones?

Kuowing the intimate acquaintance your Excellency has with the whole subject, and your peculiar talent at description ; knowing also that such a description as would give a correet idea of the geography and topography of the country through which it passes, and the silent- ties which have been surmounted in the progress of this astonishing work, are ouly known to those who have been on the spot as magnets and workmen innl commissioners, permit ms, sir, to hope that at your leivate you will be so kind as to draw up and forward me the requested information, which shall be duly circulated in order to encourage the rising spirit of internal improvement in this country, and to disseminate a knowledge in which the whole mass of our fellow-citizens are most deeply interested.

I am most respectfully yours, etc., JAMES RILEY. DE WITT CLINTON, Esq., Governor of the State of New York.

ALBANY, January 19, 1824. SIR: I have just received your letter of the 230 of December I am glad to learn that so zealous a friend of internal improvements is placed in a situation where he will have the power as well as the inclination to promote objeets of essential importance to the best interests of our country.

I have had the pleasure of a conversation with two of your Canal Board, Messis. Williams and Kelley, on canals, and I was entirely -at- istied with their just comprehension and enlightened views. There are few men of superior intelligence on subjects of this nature. With Gov. Brown I have had a correspondence, although I have not a personal ac- quaintance. I have long known, however, with such men as a Canal Board, you have reason to expect a very able report, and when it comes in I will want you to send me a copy ; and if you shall then require any further elucidations, I will with great pleasure furnish them, from mo- tives of personal respect, and from a full persuasion that the content- plated canal is identified with the general prosperity.

I am very respectfully your most of't servant. DE. WHIT CLINTON.

JAMES Runny, Esq., Representative Ohio Legislature.

Wonderful Sugarity of a Horse .- Father drove to Ohio a team of Borse-Pick and Charley. Charley was a large, powerful chestnut. sorel, of a kind and gentle disposition. Father always role him, as his weight was, when at health, 250 pounds, and we had no other powerful enough to carry him and swim streams. He was a great pet of father's, and would not have him. When he was surveying, he followed him and carried him across swamps and streams, when he dismounted and set his compass and continued his line. For several days before he started for Columbus there had been heavy rain, which was about the 29% of November, Dass, and the streames were remy very best. Charley was brought out after dinner. It was raining quite hard. Old Charley was We collect lam) always began to grown before starting on a jomis.

A.W. CHILCOTE

MRS. A. W. CHILCOTE

RES. OF A. W. CHILCOTE , WILLSHIRE . VAN WERT CO. OHIO

---

DR. J. F. SHAFFNER.

MRS. J. F. SHAFFNER

RES. OF DR. J. F . SHAFFNER, WILLSHIRE , VAN WERT CO. OHIO.

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HISTORY OF VAN WERT AND MERCER COUNTIES, OHIO.

Fatherthought that by starting be conkl eross the rock . ( Duck and Black ) Infoge they were swimming and reach Graves's tavern at Shane's D'uns- ing la forte night ; be bid as all good by, and started, and reached Back Greek ; it was swimming, plunged in, and crossed ; hurried on, and formal the log approaches to the Black Creek brider washed away, and the crock not findable. He rode up the stream, hoping to be able to ford it. as the channel was wide and the current swift, Coming to a place where there was not much underbruch, he made the attempt ; but finding that he would have to swim for some distance, be role up to a fallen tive and dismounted and tightened his girth, and as he was about to mount old Charley broke away, dashed into the stream amidet floating driftwood, Jeavta : bim perched upon the fog nearly Fff'a mile from the launnt. Old Charley could be heard sporting and splashing through the water. After a while he shinnid, and repeated several times, when father called to him. " Come Chudley ," and he soon beard han returning, sporting aud whinneying, and came up to him, and stopped close alongside of the Ing. ready for him to mount ; which he dol. Letting him have the bri- die. he plunged into the stream and swam with him safely to the shore. On coming to the shore his tracks were seen where be had waited until father called. They reached Shane's Con ings, and were welcomed by Esquire fireaves, who was the first chile soffer of Showsedle, and kept tavern in a log house near the river. Father continued his journey, taking four days to reach Columbus, and having to swim the Loramte, Mad River, and Big Darby: crossed the Miami at Piqua in a boat swimming the horse: the Scioto, in Sullivan's Ferry, at the foot of Broad Street, Columbus. On the adjustment of the Legislature he entered into the political campaign, making speeches in favor of John Quincy Adams for President, where nomination by the Legislature he was the means of procuring, riding Old Charley nearly all over the State. When at home we frequently turned hin into the woods. On one occasion a number of gentlemen en route to Fort Wayne, viz. Henry Clay, Jorge Benett. Gen. John Tipton, and Capt. Hackley, stopped overnight. Their horses were put in the stable. Old Charley came up, let down the bars, pulled out the pin that fastened the stable-door, drove them all out, and took possession. The horses were caught after several days' chasing. Upon my father's removal to New York he was sold to the Hon. John Johnston, Indian agent at Pigna, and became their family horse. and lived to be forty-one years old. All believed he possessed the power of reason, and anticipated the wants of his friends.

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History of Van Wert and Mercer counties, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 68

Author: Sutton, R., & Co., Wapakoneta, Ohio, pub Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Wapakoneta, Ohio : R. Sutton Number of Pages: 878

Author: Sutton, R., & Co., Wapakoneta, Ohio, pub
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Wapakoneta, Ohio : R. Sutton
Number of Pages: 878