History of Wayne County, Ohio, Volume I, Part 39

Author:
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1162

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Michael Hawn, a Revolutionary soldier, born in 1741, died in 1844, aged one hundred and three years, and is buried in the Lutheran graveyard at West Lebanon.

CHAPTER XX.

MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS.

EARLY-DAY MARKET PRICES-1818.

From the diaries and memory of John Larwill, a pioneer merchant of Wooster, the following table of market prices is given the reader :

Coffee, per pound, sixty-two and a half cents ; tea, per pound, three dol- lars; common keg tobacco, per pound, fifty cents; coarse muslin, per yard, fifty cents; nails (forged), eighteen to twenty cents per pound; iron, per pound, sixteen cents ; salt, per bushel, four dollars; indigo, per ounce, one dollar; powder, per pound, one dollar.

Other commodities were in proportion. Transportation was ten dollars per hundred weight from Philadelphia, and three dollars and fifty cents from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, brought in freighting wagons. It took thirty-five days to make a trip to Wooster to Philadelphia. A teamster received one- half of his pay before he left here and the remainder in that city. To that city he carried furs and skins of beaver, bears, otters, coons, deer, together with dried venison-hams, and such other commodities as were staples of ex- change, and then brought back with him goods and wares for the Wooster merchants. At that time a saddle of mutton could be purchased from the Indians for a quarter of a pound of gunpowder.

MARKET QUOTATIONS FOR 1909.

The following prices prevailed in this county in 1909: Coffee, twenty- five cents; tea, fifty to seventy-five cents; tobacco, sixty cents ; muslin, per yard, ten cents for best; nails, per pound, four cents (common) ; iron, per pound, four cents ; salt, per bushel, eighty cents ; indigo, per ounce, fifteen cents ; gunpowder, fifty cents ; hogs (live weight), six to seven dollars; cattle (beef), six to eight dollars per hundred. This will show the great contrast in many household articles with the passing of years, but it should be under- stood that during the Civil war period prices of most all the articles herein named were much in advance of those of today.

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FIRST WHITE MAN TO DIE IN WAYNE COUNTY.

The following is an account of the first white man to die in Wayne county, as chronicled by Ben Douglas, in 1878:

The first white man to die in this county was Alexander Crawford, a brother of Josiah Crawford, who later in the county's history owned the Bahl's Mill. Shortly after his arrival in Wooster his horse was stolen by an Indian. He immediately started in pursuit of the savage thieves, going on foot, which was at that time a popular method to travel. He persevered in his search as far as Upper Sandusky, but failing to overtake or capture them, he abandoned his pursuit. On his return he could obtain no water to drink, save what lay in the pools in the woods and by the roots of fallen timber, and being very dry, was compelled to slake his thirst with this green- scummed and poisoned water. This was in 1808, and his pathway was amid the solitudes and stolid gloom of dense and dreary woods. On his return to Wooster, he was burning with a violent fever, when he found a stopping place under the protecting roof of William Larwill, which proved to be. his last abode on earth. He was sick but a few days, and died in the small office of Mr. Larwill's store, which was situated on the grounds known now as No. 4. Emporium block. Mr. Larwill described his sufferings as being terrible. He had no medical aid.

Near the present .First Methodist Episcopal church the town site pro- prietors had laid out a cemetery and donated it to the town. It was called the "public graveyard." Here Crawford's remains were interred. John Larwill, Benjamin Miller, William Larwill, Abraham Miller and one or two more dug his grave and buried him. His coffin was made of rough boards by Benjamin Miller and his son Abraham, and he was carried to his final resting place upon spikes of wood on which his coffin rested. Later his grave could not be identified by anyone. The sombre years have swept over it and it casts no shadow unless upon some stricken heart. The deathground holds him and his sleep is as sweet as if under the granite shaft.

TWO NOTED CHARACTERS, DRISKEL AND BRAWDY.

Among the noted characters who caused much trouble at a very early time in Wayne and adjoining counties may be cited the names of the Driskels and Brawdys.

The Driskels were settlers of Wayne county prior to 1812, but how much earlier than this they came to Wooster and its vicinity is not known. John

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Driskel was one of the first supervisors of Wooster we have any record of. and was acting in that capacity in the last named year. He had three broth- ers, Dennis, William and Phenix, and a sister Sally, who married Bill Gib- son. His family consisted of four children, Bill, Pearce, Dave and Reasin. They emigrated from Columbiana county to Wayne county and for a time lived on Apple creek, near the old Sibbs mill.

For a number of years after their settlement in Wayne county, old John Driskel was regarded as an honorable old man, though much addicted to intemperance and inclined when drunk to be quarrelsome. Dennis, his brother, was a temperate, enterprising citizen, and bore that name wherever known in this county. He was one of the trustees of Plain township, in com- pany with John McBride and Abraham Runyon, and in 1829 owned and con- ducted the old grist mill at Springville, in Plain township, which he sold in 1832.

For some years after he came to Wooster, John Driskel owned farms and made realty exchanges. The first suspicion of crookedness upon him occurred when Horace Howard was keeping the hotel called Eagle House, on West Liberty street. A party had gathered in the bar-room one evening, among whom was John Driskel, and the excitement becoming too boisterous, the proprietor ejected the inmates from the premises. As Driskel went out of the bar-room, he picked up a candlestick and carried it out of doors with him, but it seems he immediately threw it over into Mr. Howard's garden, who, not knowing this, caused Driskel to be arrested next morning. Mich- ael Totten was one of the jurors in the case. The evidence was not of that character to evince an act of theft on the part of Driskel, and he was ac- quitted. This was about eleven years after Driskel came to Wayne county, and this was the first suspicion upon him and the first arrest.

Steve Brawdy, a brother-in-law of William, a brother of John Driskel, was sentenced to the penitentiary from Wooster for stealing a heifer from Jacob Shellbarger, at Naftzger's mill. The warrant for his arrest was issued by Squire Bristow, and Jacob Crawford, constable of Congress township, assisted by Michael Totten and Moses Loudon, arrested him. Brawdy was a strong and powerful man and in the melee a knife was plunged into Loud- on's thigh the full length of its blade, but which only made Loudon the more determined and Mr. Totten and the constable the more resolute. He was taken before Squire Bristow, had a hearing, was bound over, received his trial at Wooster, and was sentenced to three years' confinement in the Ohio penitentiary. The fact of Brawdy's relationship to the Driskels induced many

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suspicions and the vigilance of the citizens and the officers soon led to the discovery of a gang in which John Driskel was the central actor.

About this time General Beall had a yoke of oxen stolen and taken to Cleveland and sold. A young man, Ben Worthington, was arrested and tried for this offense and sent to the penitentiary. The revelations of this trial established the complicity of Driskel and Brawdy with the Worthington theft.

John Driskel was finally arrested for stealing horses in Columbiana county, Ohio, and brought back from Beaver county, Pennsylvania, where he was caught, and was tried and found guilty and sentenced from New Lisbon to the penitentiary. This was along about 1829-30. He, however, managed to make his escape, the particulars of the same being as follows: Convicts were at that date permitted to labor, under guard, on the public works at Columbus. Driskel, with a chain and a fifty-six pound weight fastened to his leg, had charge of a wheelbarrow and was conveying dirt on the Ohio canal. He concluded he would make an effort to escape, and, picking up the ball in his hand, started to run and was immediately fired upon by six guards, who unfortunately missed him. He had shrewdly selected a period well on toward night for his escape. Arriving at a farm residence, he sought the wood pile and there finding an ax, severed the ball from the chain. Having dispensed with the ball and chain, he leisurely made his way back to Wayne county, to where his family lived, near Burbank, where he filed the clasp of the chain from his leg.

Mr. Totten afterward said he frequently heard him relate how he effected his escape. The cutting off of the iron ball by the farmer's ax, and the filing of the chain, etc., Driskel would tell of it and laugh over it until his voice might be heard a half mile.

The authorities hearing of his appearance in Wayne county, an effort was made to recapture him, when, to elude his pursuers, he led for a time a roving life, stealing horses, concealing them in thickets, burning barns, houses and other things, finally leaving the county. Shortly after this he was cap- tured in Mohican township, Ashland county, and committed to the charge of two men, named Peterson, to take him back to the Columbus penitentiary to serve out his sentence, but when stopping over night at Sunbury, Delaware county, the old man by shrewdness and force effected his escape and never again appeared in Ohio. He was next heard of in the West, where his fam- ily and confederates joined him and continued their criminal pursuits for some years. In time, the "Regulators" of northern Illinois rose upon them,

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captured old John, his son William and others of the gang. These were im- mediately shot and his youngest son David was soon afterward caught and hanged to a tree by judge "Lynch."

It is the opinion of Mr. Totten that this band of outlaws composed of the Driskels, Brawdys and others originated in Wayne county and this is like- wise corroborated by the statement of Hon. L. O'Dell, of Clinton township, one of the most intelligent of the early settlers of Wayne county. They had no long or settled residence at any point in the county, living at different times in Wooster, Wayne, Chester, Congress and Plain townships. They were a gang of bad, bold and dangerous men and desperadoes, a terror to peaceful and law-abiding citizens, whom even-handed justice pursued slowly, but finally visited with most fearful retribution. They were men of invincible courage, of powerful physical strength, and enjoyed nothing so well as a carouse and a knock-down. Their leading crimes consisted in burglaries, incendiarisms and horse stealing. They concealed their stolen horses in the dense thickets of the woods, stole corn from the farmers to feed them, and at a suitable opportunity run them out of the county.

Old John Driskel was a blustering, swaggering, bullying character, and when drunk was constantly provoking disturbances and putting society into a ferment of alarm and apprehension. Few men whom he encountered were his equals in the brutal conflicts which he induced. On the occasion of a public muster in Lisbon, Columbiana county, he became terribly boisterous and flung his banter to the assembled crowd. Like Caleb Quoten in the "Wags of Windsor," he was bound to have a place in the reviews. Timid men feared him and stouter desired to avoid collision with him. Driskel's rule was if he could not provoke a quarrel by general boasting and threats, to select a large musclar man and challenge him to a fight. And if he refused to accept, to hit him at the time or watch for another chance and deliver a blow upon him.

On this occasion, Driskel selected Isaac Pew, a large, bony specimen of a man, and after offering him sundry indignities, and without any warning, hit him a terrible blow. Springing instantly upon him, he bit off Pew's ear. This occurred at the tavern at Lisbon, then kept by Christian Smith, one of the associate judges of Wayne county at one time. Pew was a man who kept his own secrets and felt amply able to defend himself against Driskel, or any- body else, if he had a fair showing. When next general muster came around, Driskel was present, as was also Pew, the latter having remarked, "He has my ear and now I will have his nose." Seeing Driskel, he approached him,

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but suspecting his intentions, Driskel retreated and Pew followed him closely. He was interrupted by Bill Driskel, John's brother, but rushing past Bill and John, seeing he was about to be caught, turned about, when Pew instantly sprang at old John and bit his nose off.

On a certain occasion, old John was parading the streets of Wooster, talking boisterously and bragging that he weighed two hundred and eight pounds and that no man could whip him. Smith McIntire, who was clearing off some land on the Robison farm, south of Wooster, came to town in his shirt sleeves to procure tobacco. Being a very muscular looking man, Gen- eral Spink and Mr. McComb approached him and asked him if the thought he could whip that man, pointing to Driskel. McIntile said, "I can whip anybody, but I don't know that man and I am a stranger here and, more than that, I am a peaceful man." Whereupon he started back to his work, when Spink and McComb called to him to return. He obeyed and after some en- treaty consented to whip Driskey, upon the consideration of preserving quiet and establishing order. Spink remarked to Driskel pointing to McInțire, that he had not yet whipped him, when Driskel rapidly advanced toward him and said, "You think you can handle me," to which McIntire responded, "I do." Driskel said, "Well, let us take a drink and then to business." McIntire responded, "I want nothing to drink." Driskel took his drink and faced McIntire and when the word "Ready" was given, McIntire hit one blow that knocked him insensible and so serious was the result that Doctor Bissell had to be called and it was several hours before he rallied from the prostration. Not satisfied with this encounter, in a short time afterwards he challenged McIntire to a second test, which the latter accepted, having General Spink and Col. James Hindman for his seconds, Driskel choosing for his backers one of his sons and his son-in-law, Brawdy. The contestants met and with a similar result. McIntire, after his adversary was on the floor, picked him up like a toy and started with him toward the fireplace, exclaiming, "I will make a burnt offering of him," but his rash purpose was prevented. This fight occurred in the bar room of Nailor's tavern.

WEATHER AND CROPS YEARS AGO.

In 1816 the pioneers of Wayne county gathered their wheat in July. the weather being exceedingly cool for summer.

1817 .- A frost visited Ohio June Ist, completely destroying the fruit and killing the verdure of the orchards and forest trees.

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1825 .- May 18th the terrific "Burlington storm" swept over Delaware. Licking. Knox and Coshocton counties, the most violent tornado that ever visited Ohio.

1833 .- November 13th of this year, the "stars fell." It was a copious shower and meteoric tramps tumbled through the heavens and popped earth- ward in prodigal confusion.

1834 .- A frost occurred on May LIth, materially injuring the wheat crop.

1835 .- Heavy rains fell during the summer, submerging the bottoms and rendering tillage impossible. Hay crops were seriously damaged and cat- tle died from eating it. A comet was observed this year.

1841 .- An unusually violent snow storm May 2d.

1843 .- July 2Ist, severe frosts.

1845 .- Frosts appeared May 7th and 25th, destroying the wheat crop of that year.

1854-55 .- The winter of these years will long be remembered. Snow covered the ground thirteen weeks in succession. The month of May, 1855. was remarkably dry, but from the roth to the 17th of June of this year will not be forgotten in history for its remarkable floods.

1855 .- On December 24th it began to snow and from this date until the last of March the sleighing remained excellent, the snow covering the earth until about the 20th of April. Forest and fruit trees were killed, and since the first settlement of the country no winter presented so grim wrinkled a front.

1859 .- What is known as the "June frost" of this year was a sad visi- tation upon northern Ohio. June 5. 1859, on Sunday morning, the face of the earth looked as though a sheet of living flame had smitten the vegetation that covered its hills and valleys.

1873-74 .- The winter of these years is worthy of special mention. On January 6 and 7, 1874, occurred the "great ice storm," which must be dis- tinguished for its destructive effects upon the forests of the country.

1877 .- The mercury stood at Christmas time eighty to one hundred de- grees in the sun. The nights were balmy and frostless.

ADAM POE, TITE INDIAN FIGHTER.

The terrible encounter of the Poe brothers-Andrew and Adam-with the stalwart chief, Bigfoot, occupies a conspicuous page in the annals of our border strifes. It should contribute a most interesting feature to the history

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of Wayne county, that we are able to furnish with accuracy the brief sketch of the brother Adam, who for over twelve years was a citizen of this county. His sons were among the earliest of the pioneer band in Congress township and made the first improvements in that section, as well as having been a pioneer of 1813 in the town of Wooster.

The following narrative of this incident was written up and published many years since by that most accurate historian, Ben Douglas, and he gained his knowledge from Mrs. Kuffel, who was the daughter of Adam Poe, who was in the encounter with Bigfoot, and reads as follows :

A body of seven Wyandots made a raid upon the settlement of whites on the Ohio river, near Fort Pitt, and, finding an old man in a cabin, killed him, stole all they could and withdrew. The news of the murder spread rapidly and my father, Adam Poe, and Uncle Andrew, together with half a dozen neighbors, began pursuit of them, determined to visit sudden death upon them. They followed the Indians all night, but not until morning did they get close upon them, when they discovered a path or trail leading to the river.

My uncle Andrew, who, like my father, was a strong man and always on the lookout, did not directly advance to the river, but left his comrades and stealthily crept through the thicket, to avoid any ruse of the Indians and if possible surprise them. He at once detected evidences of their presence at the river, but not seeing them he crept quietly down to its bank, with his gun fixed to fire. He had not far descended when he espied Bigfoot and a little Indian with him, both of whom had guns and stood watching along the river in the direction whence the remainder of the party were. He (Andrew) now concluded to shoot Bigfoot, and fired at him, but his gun did not discharge its contents. The situation instantly became terrific.

The snapping of the gun alarmed the Indians, who, looking around, dis- covered Andrew. It was too late for him to run and I doubt if he would have retreated if he could, for he was a great wrestler and coveted conflict with the Indians. So he dropped his gun and bounded from where he stood and caught both the Indians and thrust them upon the ground. Though he fell uppermost in the struggle, he found the grip of Bigfoot to be of iron. and as a consequence the little Indian soon extricated himself and instantly seized his tomahawk and advanced with fatal purpose toward Andrew. To better assist the little Indian, who had the tomahawk aimed at the head of Andrew, Bigfoot hugged and held him with a giant's grasp, but Andrew threw up his foot and kicked the tomahawk out of the Indian's hand. This

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made Bigfoot indignant at the little savage, who soon repeated his experi- ment with the tomahawk, indulging in numerous feints, before he delivered the main blow, which Andrew parried from his head and received upon his wrist.

Andrew now, by a desperate endeavor, wrenched himself from the clutches of Bigfoot and, seizing the gun from one of the savages, shot the little Indian. Bigfoot, regaining his upright position, got Andrew in his grasp and hurled him down upon the bank, but instantly he arose, when the second encounter occurred, the issue of which threw them both into the water and the struggle now was for the one to drown the other. Andrew finally caught Bigfoot by the hair and plunged him in the water, holding him there until he imagined he was drowned, a conclusion in which he was sadly mis- taken. Bigfoot was only playing off and soon recovered and was ready for a second encounter. The current of the river had by this time borne them into the deeper water, when it became necessary to disengage themselves and seek to escape immediate destruction.

A mutual effort was at once made to reach the shore and get possession of a gun and close the struggle with powder and lead. Bigfoot was a glib swimmer and was first to reach the bank. In this contingency, Andrew wheeled about and swam farther out into the river to avoid if possible being shot, by diving strategies. The big chief, lucklessly to him, seized the un- loaded gun with which Andrew had shot the little Indian. Meantime Adam Poe, having missed his brother and hearing his shot, inferred he was either killed or in a fight with the Indians and hastened toward him. Adam now be- ing discovered by Andrew, the latter called to the former to shoot Bigfoot. Unfortunately Adam's gun was empty, as was the big Indian's. The strife was now between the two as to who could load the quickest, but Bigfoot, in his haste, drew his ramrod too violently from his gun thimbles, when it was thrown from his hands and was sent some distance. He rapidly recovered, but the accident gave Adam the advantage, when he shot Bigfoot as he was in the act of drawing his gun upon him.

Having disposed of Bigfoot and seeing his brother, who was wounded, floating in the river, he instantly sprang into the water to assist him, but Andrew, desiring the scalp of the great chief, called to Adam to scalp him, that he could save himself and reach the shore. Adam's anxiety for his brother was too intense to obey the mandate and Bigfoot, determined not to let his scalp be counted among the trophies of his antagonist, in the horrid pangs of death, rolled into the river and his carcass was swept from the eye

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of man forever. Andrew, however, when in the stream made another nar- row escape from death, for just as Adam arrived at the bank for his pro- tection, one of the number who came after him mistook Andrew for an Indian and shot at him, the bullet striking him in the shoulder, causing a severe wound, from which in course of time he recovered.

So that it was my Uncle Andrew that had the wrestle on the bank with Bigfoot and the struggle in the river with him, and it was my father, Adam Poe, who shot Bigfoot when he came ashore. The wound that my father received he got in the fight with the body of six Indians who were over- taken, five of whom were killed, with a loss of three of their pursuers and the hurt done to my father.

The locality on the Ohio river where the struggle occurred is in Vir- ginia, almost opposite to the mouth of Little Yellow creek.

POE WHIPS FIVE INDIANS.

While living on this side of the Ohio, two Indians crossed the river, both of whom were intoxicated, and came to Adam Poe's house. After various noisy demonstrations, but without doing any one harm, they re- tired a short distance and under the shade of a tree sat down and finally went to sleep. In the course of two hours, after they awoke from their drunken slumbers, they discovered that their rifles were missing, when they immediately returned to Poe's house and, after inquiring for their guns and being told they knew nothing about them, they boldly accused him of stealing them and insolently demanded them. Poe was apprehensive of trouble and, turning his eyes in the direction whence they came, discovered three more Indians approaching.

Without manifesting any symptoms of surprise or alarm, Poe coolly withdrew to his house and, saying to his wife, "There is fight and more fun ahead," told her to hasten to the cornfield near by with the children and there hide. This being accomplished, he seized his gun and confronted the five Indians, who were then in the yards surrounding the house and trying to force open the door. He at once discovered that the two Indians who came first had not found their guns, and that the other three were unarmed. So he dropped his gun, as he did not want to kill any of them, unless he had to, and then attacked them with his fists. After a hand-to-hand encounter, lasting ten minutes, he crushed them to the earth in one promiscuous heap. and, having thus vanquished and subdued them, seized them one at a time and threw them over the fence and out of the yard.

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History of Wayne County, Ohio, Volume I, Part 39

Author: Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen Number of Pages: 1162

Author:
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1162