History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. II, Part 62

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co.
Number of Pages: 680

USA > Ohio > History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. II > Part 62

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But it is around Charlestown that the attrac- tions are greatest in number. All the beds of streams, the bottoms of wells, the roads, and in many places the foundations of small houses, are on solid rock. In fact, this is partly true through- out the entire township; but nowhere else is it so noticeable as about Charlestown.

When the forest trees stood unmolested and the whole country for miles in any direction was

uncleared, the winds were such as to give a pe- culiar flexibility to the climate. The breezes from the Ohio river in summer tempered the surroundings with a coolness which is now almost a total stranger.

Most of the soil is productive. The unprec- edented drouth of 188r, however, reduced crops to less than one-half their usual yield.

It is a limestone loam, mixed with sand. Along the bottoms of Fourteen-mile creek, which are never more than a few hundred yards in width, excellent corn, wheat, potatoes, and vegetables are raised, the number of bushels per acre varying according to circumstances. Up- land furnishes fine pasture. Here are immense herds of stock, composed mostly of cattle and sheep.

When the settlements began on the Ohio and in the interior of the township, the people de- voted themselves to growing corn principally, selling it to still-houses, fattening hogs, or flat- boating it to New Orleans. But this time has gone, never to return. Steamboats have long since ushered in a new era of commerce. A flat- boat now would be to some almost as much of a curiosity as the first steamboat was when Fulton made his trip up the Hudson or the Orleans went down the Ohio.

On the east and west sides of the township are quite large streams. Fourteen-mile creek, which received its name because it empties into the Ohio fourteen miles above Louisville, runs through the eastern side, and Silver creek, with its tributaries, intersects the western. Both have branches of considerable consequence.

Pleasant run, so named from its lively and hap- py way of falling over the rocks, which form its bottom, begins in the vicinity of Charlestown, flows past the old site of Springville in a south- westerly direction, and enters Silver creek, in Utica township. It is perhaps six or eight miles in length, and during the greater part of the year is dry.

Sinking fork traverses the same side of the township, and is of much larger size. It heads in Monroe, and meanders till it strikes the main stream near the township of Union. Its sides are lined by ledges of rock which ascend in some instances fifty to a hundred feet. Along the stream are trees of large size, including those kinds mentioned before.

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Fourteen-mile passes directly south through the east side and empties into the Ohio about midway between the northern and southern lines of the township bordering on the river. Its en- trance into the northern side is marked by abrupt cliffs. All the way down through the township hills with monstrous rocks border it. A pleasant little valley follows most of the time, though it is frequently lost in the rocky ledges.

During the early times, when salt was about as precious as coffee, there was accidentally dis- covered a salt spring on Fourteen-mile creek, above Work's mill. Some citizens were induced to dig for salt here, with the intention of erecting a manufactory for separating the water into its component parts and extracting salt. Discover- ing that the quantity and quality were insufficient to justify the expenditure of much money, the scheme was abandoned. In penetrating the rock a bed of gypsum was passed through, which may some day be made profitable. On the same creek is found excellent limestone suitable for building purposes, and in the immediate neighborhood a species of marble fit for tables, sills, posts, lintels, and other appendages to buildings.

Fountain spring, south of Charlestown, comes out through a rocky cliff, and furnishes water enough for a woolen mill. The water has a pe- culiar flavor, and its medicinal qualities have been strongly recommended.

Buffalo lick, on what is called the Lick branch of Fourteen-mile creek, lies one mile and a half east of Charlestown. During the periods when the Mound Builders and the Indians traversed this land, great numbers of wild animals visited this spring. On the east side is a fine sugar-tree grove. The three remaining sides are bounded by a hill, which curves gradually from the north, and ends in an abrupt ledge of rock on the south. The timber here is mostly stunted oak, beech, and ash. The spring proper, which has been blasted out, making a sort of cistern six or seven feet deep, is full of old boards, stones, and rub- bish generally. Just below, in a shallow basin, an opportunity is offered to try the water. It has a delicious sulphur taste, and is peculiarly adapted to certain classes of invalids. Some years ago a stock company proposed to buy the property on which it is located and erect a hos- pital in Charlestown, running a street-car convey-

ance back and forth ; but for good reasons the enterprise never came to a successful trial, and hence there has been nothing done in this direc- tion. Around this spring and up Lick branch for some distance is a limestone of a bluish tint. In this bed of rock are hundreds of footprints. Some are ten to fifteen inches across, and the same distance from the heel to the toe. The indentations in many places are six inches deep, and resemble the footprints of prehistoric ani- mals. They are distinct, and easily measured. A few years ago the footprints apparently of a man could be seen, but now the running water has left no trace of so remarkable a vestige of antiquity. Hundreds of smaller tracks are scat- tered about. They appear to be those of deer, buffalo, elk, and other animals of the forest.

Barnett's cave, one mile west of Charlestown, is of much historic interest. The entrance is about five feet high by three in breadth, and is on a side hill facing east. Above thirty or forty feet is a clump of old cedars, which need some trimming to look respectable. The visitor de- scends a steep plane of half a dozen yards, pulls away an old door without hinges, and enters. He is immediately attracted by nothing unusual for such places. A room large enough for a score of sleepers is the first attraction. Stalag- mites and stalactites are scattered around in pro- fusion. The bottom, as one walks along, is wet, and hard in most places, though sometimes mud is found in abundance. Avenues lead off in various directions, two hundred feet from the door. Some fifty yards within is a scalloped spring four to five inches deep and from three to even feet in diameter. A huge rock hangs over- head, so as to compel the visitor to stoop in pass- ing, while an old quart fruit-can affords an oppor- tunity to taste the water. The walls are covered by coral formations, and the ceilings by ponder- ous flat slabs of a wavy appearance.

This cave has many stories connected with its history. On one point there appears to be con- clusive evidence. The red man at an early day, when pursued by the pioneers of Charlestown commonly made it a shelter. Human bones are frequently found, which on exposure to light crumble into dust. The real part it played in the Indian warfare is not known, however. The hardy frontiersman has left but few traces by which to read its experience and rehearse its life

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to the villages of to-day. But there is a tinge ot romance connected with its existence which will always serve to make it interesting. As to its exact length there is considerable doubt. Per- haps a thousand yards would be something near its convenient traveling distance, though it cer- tainly extends much further in lesser dimensions.

East of the village of Charlestown is another cave. It is considerably larger than Barnett's cave, and yet has a less interesting history. The entrance is easily reached and the passage fol- lowed without much difficulty. Young people in their picnics and excursion parties often make it a stopping-place where they rest their weary limbs, drink of its cool water, and wonder that such places ever were made. Its length is several hundred yards; its height and width often changing-sometimes widening, and then again becoming almost so narrow as to make progress a trifle unpleasant for people of large size. There is nothing to show that it was ever used by the Indians.

EARLY SETTLEMENTS-SPRINGVILLE.

The same influences which affected the Indian, as he traveled from the Falls of the Ohio to the headwaters of the White river, seemed to affect the first settlers in this township. An Indian trace, which was simply a path running up ravines, over plateaus, and down side-hills, formerly ran west of Charlestown near the old site of Springville. All of the county in 1800 was indefinitely bounded, and many of the five- hundred-acre tracts were unsettled in reference to their ownership. Their first owners, in many instances, had failed to have their deeds recorded and proper arrangements made to sell their prop- erty, if so desired. Yet there were some who had moved onto their land, and begun the work of clearing off the forest and preparing for the requirements of life. These persons were among the first settlers. As early as 1800, on tract one hundred and fifteen, a town sprang up from some cause or another, as the township began to receive its first citizens. This settle- ment included men who have long since passed to their reward, leaving behind them nothing by which to know their names. Near the village was a spring, which furnished good water for household purposes; also a small stream, which was fed mostly by other springs, farther up in the township. From these circumstances the settle-

ment took the name of Springville. The place grew to some size, perhaps numbering in its most prosperous days, one hundred inhabitants. Here the first courts were held in the county, beginning on the 7th of April, 1801. The jus- tices were appointed by General W. H. Harrison, Territorial Governor of Indiana, and were called Justices of the General Court of Quarter Sessions, and were as follows: Marston G. Clark, Abraham Huff, James N. Wood, Thomas Downs, William Goodwin, John Gibson, Charles Tulley, and William Harrod. The court-house was simply a large room in one of the business buildings. It had no claim to any of the modern style of temples of justice. Close by a still-house was in active operation, furnishing the traders a brand of whiskey of remarkable purity. Several stores or trading-posts came into existence, which necessarily made it a great rendezvous for Indians.

One mile and a half west of this settlement the first Governor of the State of Indiana, Jona- than Jennings, lived. He, too, engaged in mak- ing whiskey, but on a larger scale than his kins- man at Springville. John Bottorff carried on the milling business a short distance up the stream-which, as before noted, was called Pleasant run, from its gentle way of tumbling over the rocks, though to an insignificant amount at best. His mill was of the horse-power kind, and, from outside circumstances, soon went down. Jennings had a mill also in connection with his farm and still-house, and for many years furnished the neighborhood with corn-meal and buckwheat flour.

But there came a dark day. The land on which the settlement was located became the subject of dispute in reference to its ownership. Trials were' had, many enemies made, and a quarrel set in motion which continued to revolve with varying degrees of velocity till the village ceased to exist. All these transactions took place within eight years. During this time the settlement had been founded; it grew to be the most important place in the central part of the county, and then had died a natural death. The village had all the characteristics of pioneer settlements. In fact, it gave birth to a class of men who in after years played a prominent part in the affairs of county and State government. It is also a fact worthy of note that one of the

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signers of the Declaration of Independence- Judge James Wilson, of Pennsylvania-is buried in the old Springville burying-ground. His exact resting-place is not precisely known, though it is supposed by the side of other old residents who lie in the same ground.

Many years ago the town died. The place where the stalwart judges dispensed justice is for- gotten, except by a few old settlers, whose heads have seen the frosts of nearly a hundred winters. At the present time the summer months find the original site covered by a luxuriant growth of corn, oats, grass, fruit-trees, and the farm prod- ucts generally. The lurking savage, who watched the hamlet spring into existence and then retire into nothingness, has passed away, and new homes are built upon fields where their genera- tions sleep. Peace be to their ashes-the town and all its happy recollections, and the people who devoted themselves to making a garden out of a wilderness.

THE MOUND BUILDERS.

At the mouth of Fourteen-mile creek, and about three miles from Charlestown, is one of the most remarkable stone fortifications in the State. The stream here entering the Ohio forms a sort of peninsula. This body of land is very high, and terminates in an abrupt bluff, com- manding a splendid view up and down the river. It has many natural advantages, making it im- pregnable to the opposing forces of prehistoric man. Fourteen-mile enters the river a short dis- tance below the fort. The top of the ridge is pear-shaped, the part answering to the neck being at the north end. This part is not over twenty feet wide, and is protected by precipitous natural walls of stone. It is two hundred and eighty feet above the Ohio, and slopes gradually toward the south. At the upper field it is two hundred and forty feet high, and one hundred steps wide. At the lower timber it is one hundred and twenty feet high. The bottom land at the foot of the south end is sixty feet above the river. The ab- rupt escarpment along the Ohio and a portion of the northwest side of the creek cannot be easily scaled. This natural wall is joined to the neck by an artificial wall, made by piling up loose stone-mason fashion, but without mortar- which have evidently been pried up from the cor- niferous layers within a short distance of the

walls. This wall is about one hundred and fifty feet long. It is built along the slope of the hill, and had an elevation of seventy-five feet above its base, the upper ten feet being vertical. The inside of the wall is protected by a ditch, and is drained by a sort of tiling. The remainder of the hill is protected by an artificial stone wall, built in the same manner, but not more than ten feet high. The elevation of the side wall above the creek bottom is eighty feet. Within the arti- ficial walls is a row of mounds, which rise to the height of the walls, and are protected from wash- ings by a ditch twenty feet wide and four feet deep. The top of the enclosed ridge embraces ten or twelve acres. There are as many as five mounds that can be recognized on the flat sur- face, while no doubt many others existed which have been obliterated by time and the agency of man in his attempts to cultivate the ground.

Many attempts have been made to learn the correct history of this mound. Into one of the mounds a trench was cut in search for relics. A few fragments of charcoal and decomposed bones, and a large, irregular, diamond-shaped boulder, with a small, circular indentation near the middle of the upper part, that was worn quite smooth by the use to which it was put, and the small pieces of fossil coral, comprise all the articles of note which were revealed by the excavation. The earth of which the mounds are made resembles that on the side hill, and was probably taken from the ditch. That side of the mound next to the ditch was protected by slabs of stone set on edge and leaning at an angle corresponding to the slope of the mounds. This stone shield was two and a half feet wide and one foot high. At intervals along the great ditch channels were formed between the mounds, that probably served to carry off surplus water through open- ings in the outer wall.

On the top of the enclosed ridge, and near to the narrowest part, there is one mound much larger than any of the rest, and so situated as to command an extensive view up and down the Ohio, as well as affording an unobstructed view east and west. It is known by the name of Lookout Mound. There is near this mound a slight break in the cliff of rocks, which furnishes a narrow passage-way to the river.

The locality affords many natural advantages for a fort or stronghold, and one is compelled to

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admit that much skill and ingenuity were dis played in rendering its defense as perfect as pos- sible. Stone axes, pestles, arrow-heads, spear- points, totems, charms, and flint flakes, have been found in great abundance in plowing in the fields at the foot of the old fort. No one can view the remains of an extinct people without feeling a deep reverence for their customs and modes of living. But, after all, we know little of their everyday life. It is a doubtful question, at best, to those who are most conversant with archæol- ogy, and the sciences which deal with the origin of man.

In other portions of Charlestown township are mounds, though of such slight importance as not really to deserve even passing notice. However, everything which relates to antiquity is always interesting. It causes us to think of our origin and of our destiny, the sphere we are oc- cupying in the affairs of the universe, and the final winding up of all material things.

INDIANS AND WILD ANIMALS.

From prehistoric times until the date of the first white settlements at Clarksville, Springville, and other posts on the frontier, the red man and the beasts of the forest roamed in all the sim- plicity of savage life where are now prosperous farms and manufactories. The savage found no trouble in taking game; deer, wild turkey, bear, and occasionally buffalo cantered over the ravines and gobbled a welcome to the bow and arrow. The first white settlers kept their families sup- plied with meat in all necessary quantities by the rifle. Bears were killed in great numbers, and their shoulders and hams smoked for summer eating. The fat was extracted and often was the only oily substance kept in the house.

One kind of dangerous animal was the wild hogs. They ran through the woods in droves, and when met gave no quarter to the unfortunate hunter or traveler. However, they were quite easily shunned. Their sense of smell was not acute, and for this reason, mainly, an active and experienced hunter found them of little conse- quence, if properly avoided.

CHARLESTOWN.

During the troublesome times which afflicted Springville, another village was ushered into ex- istence, which in after years comes to play for a time the most important part in the history of

Clark county. Unlike its predecessor, it was well located for all the material and spiritual things of backwoods life. We refer to Charlestown. From it a mine of information has been gleaned, a story of remarkable clearness and perspicuity, a foundation upon which all other township his- tories of the county depend.

The town was laid off in 1808. It is situated upon tract number one hundred and seventeen, of the Clark Grant. The original proprietors were Barzılla Baker and Mr. McCampbell; John Hay and Charles Beggs served as surveyors. McCampbell owned the western half of the tract, and Baker the eastern. The latter had a cleared field of ten acres, which extended as far westward as where the Christian church now stands. McCampbell, who was the father of Samuel McCampbell, well known in the later history of Charlestown, owned a meadow, the northeastern line of which ran from near the old graveyard on the hill to M. P. Alpha's cor- ner, thence again with the line of Market street to a point not far from the site of the old acad- emy. All that part of the town between these two fields, including most of the public square and the business part of the town, was in the woods when the village was laid out.

Charlestown, like some other places, derived its name from one of its surveyors-Charles Beggs, by adding the frequent termination "town" to "Charles," his first name; hence the designation, one appropriately fitted to the new settlement. What induced the founders to lay off this town in the woods will perhaps never be known. It may have been the peculiar idea that many young and inexperienced pioneers have, that all places naturally adopted for a trading- post will ultimately become a great city. If this were their idea, however, in if they certainly failed.

In the original plat there were one hundred and fifty-nine lots and about ninety-five acres of land. They were eighty by two hundred feet. McCampbell and Baker donated the proceeds from the sale of thirty lots for public buildings. In the central and best building part of the town, a public square was laid off, comprising about three acres. As the years went by and the town limits began to be taken up in houses and man- ufactories, additions were made to the original plat. Mathias Hester and D. Tilford made the

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first addition, lying north of Thompson street, and comprising twenty-two lots, or about thirteen acres of land. James Ross added eighty-two lots, or forty-two acres, some time after. James McCampbell made an addition of forty-nine lots, or twenty-nine acres. John Naylor added twenty lots, or twelve acres. Barzilla Baker again made an addition of forty-seven lots, or twenty- eight acres; and last, and least in quantity, came James Garner with ten lots, or six acres. The railroad addition, including five acres, is not in- corporated, and therefore is not properly within the town limits. The cemetery, which has nine acres, also lies outside of the corporation. Most of the lots are of the same size, and, taking the whole number, there are three hundred and ninety-nine lots, or about two hundred and forty acres, included in the corporation.

From the beginning there were many things which contributed toward making the new settle- ment vigorous. It had the spirit of enterprise . which marks all primitive county seats. The court-house at Springville, if such it could be called, was replaced by a more commodious brick building on the public square in Charles- town. To be sure, these facts soon induced in- telligent men to make it a stopping-place or to locate permanently there. It can be truly said its first citizens were generally men of moral and steady habits. They came mostly from the New England States, and were tolerably well edu- cated.

A PIONEER TEMPERANCE SOCIETY.

But in process of time retail liquor establish- ments, the bane then as now of nearly every com- munity, were set up; and lamentable was their influence on the people of the town and its neighborhood. To correct this evil, efforts were early made to organize something like a tem- perance society. For this purpose the Rev. Mr. Cable, pastor of the Presbyterian church, Judge Scott, an elder in the same church, and Rev. George K. Hester, had a conference in the house of the latter. After consultation a paper was prepared setting forth the general principles and purposes of the temperance cause, and it was circulated in the community in order to pre- pare the public for a temperance meeting. Mr. Cable, having had little experience in such mat- ters, was in doubt as to the best way to conduct

the meeting. Mr. Hester referred him to Rev. John Strange, at that time Methodist presiding elder In the Charlestown district, who had organ- ized several temperance associations. Soon after this Mr. Strange held a camp-meeting in the Robertson neighborhood, and here these two Christian gentlemen had a consultation in reference to the matter, resulting in the appoint- ment of a temperance mass-meeting in Charles- town. The assembly was accordingly held, and was addressed by Rev. Mr. Strange, Dr. Adams, Judge Ross, and several Presbyterian ministers whose names are not remembered. At the close of the meeting a number of persons signed a total abstinence pledge, and thus was laid the foundation of the first temperance society in Charlestown.

TAVERNS AND STORES.

It must not be presumed that the county-seat was without the necessary places of rest for the traveler, or other places where the villager might secure coarse boots, a pound or two of coffee --- which always came by way of New Orleans from abroad, or any other of the thousand and one things which country stores keep. As the road leading from Charlestown Landing on the Ohio, passed through the town, it was in the line of considerable travel to pass through the village. The ferries were kept busy at certain times of the year in carrying passengers across the Ohio, who, in most instances, were bound for the upper counties of Washington, Bartholomew, Scott, and Jefferson. The emigrants usually crossed at McDaniel's and Wood's stations. They commonly had wagons, but often the en- tire household furniture was carried on pack- horses. The route led through a dense forest of oak, poplar, beech, and smaller timber.

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History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. II, Part 62

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co. Number of Pages: 680

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co.
Number of Pages: 680