USA > Ohio > Knox County > Past and present of Knox County, Ohio, Vol. I > Part 3
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their chiefs with a subject of reproach against the whites; pointing to these of their people and saying to us, 'See how you have spoiled them,' meaning they had acquired all their bad habits of the white people, and were ignorant of hunting and incapable of making a livelihood as other Indians."
In 1819 there were belonging to Johnston's agency in Ohio eighty Dela- wares, who were stationed neaor Upper Sandusky, and in Indiana two thou- sand three hundred of the same tribe.
Bockinghelas was the principal chief of the Delawares after Johnston went into the Indian country ; he was a distinguished warrior of his day and an old man when Johnston knew him. Killbuck, another Delaware chief, had received a liberal education at Princeton College and retained until his death the outlines of the morality of the gospel of the New Testament. Killbuck creek, in Wayne county, Ohio, was named for this chief and a town by the name of Killbuckstown was on the road from Wooster to Millersburg, ten miles south of Wooster and had a place on the maps as early as 1754. When the country was first settled this famous Indian chieftain was an aged man. There were at least two chiefs of the same name.
The Delawares had a settlement at Jeromeville, Ashland county, which they left at the commencement of the war of 1812. Captain Pipe was their chief and resided near the Mansfield road. When young, he was a great warrior and a deadly foe of the whites. In talking on this subject, he re- marked to white men, "He who will not defend the graves of his dead is not worthy the name of man." He was at St. Clair's defeat, where he distin- guished himself as a human slaughterer, according to his own statement. He had a daughter of great beauty. A young chief of nobility fell in love with her, and, on his suit being rejected, mortally poisoned himself with the May apple.
INDIANS TRADING AT MT. VERNON.
At an early day the Indians, in great numbers, came to Mt. Vernon vil- lage to trade. They camped on the banks of the river and brought large amounts of furs and cranberries to trade for goods. They had one peculiar mode of trading. They walked in deliberately and seated themselves, after which the merchant presented each of the number with a piece of tobacco. Having lighted their pipes, they returned the residue to their pouches, which were made of whole mink skins tanned with the hair on, and with a slit cut in the throat, for an opening. In it they also kept some kinnickinnick bark, or sumach, which they always smoked with their tobacco, in the proportion of three of the former and one of the latter. After smoking and talking a while together, one only at a time arose, went to the counter, and, taking up a yard stick, pointed to the first thing he wanted and enquired the price. The ques-
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tions were, "How many buckskins for a shirt pattern?" etc., or "How many for cloth for leggins?" Their skin currency had a well established value. A muskrat skin was equal to a quarter of a dollar; a raccoon skin, a third of a dollar. The Indian, learning the price of an article, paid for it by picking out and handing over the skin or pelt, before proceeding to purchase a second article, when the process was repeated. While the first Indian was trading, the others looked on and said nothing, and when he was through, another stepped up and took his place, until all had finished their trading. No one desired to trade before his turn came and all observed great decorum, never attempting to get the price down, but, if dissatisfied with prices asked him, passed on to another article. They were cautious to never trade when intoxi- cated, but usually preserved some of their skins to buy liquor and end their visit with a frolic.
Several camps were located within this county prior to the war of 1812-14. One was located on the bottoms of Owl creek, just opposite the mouth of Center run, which the old-time settlers called the "Indian fields." Other camps were situated near Fredericktown, and Greentown, now Ashland county, then under the jurisdiction of Knox. In October, 1764, Colonel Boquet came from Fort Pitt (now Pittsburg) with his expedition of about fifteen hundred men. One of the results was the recovery of two hundred white captives, who had been stolen from the early white settlements near the Ohio river and in western Pennsylvania. Many of these captives had grown up with the Indians from childhood. Some had intermarried with them and had half-breed children. When they were thus reclaimed by fathers and brothers who had long mourned their loss, and who had accompanied the ex- pedition, many of the captives, instead of rejoicing, were thrown into great uneasiness. They clung to their Indian friends and relations, crying with loud lamentations at the separation, and in some few cases were with great diffi- culty torn away.
Custaloga was one of the main speaking chiefs at the councils. It was supposed his home was at one time at one of the Indian fields so numerously found by the early white settlers along Owl creek valley, a principal and very extensive one of which was Elmwood, a little below the present city of Mt. Vernon. This was on the right bank of the river.
It was in 1820 when an Indian squaw was shot, near the line between Utica and Martinsburg, in Licking county. She was of the Stockbridge tribe. She was taken to Mt. Vernon, where she died. A Mr. McLane shot her, and was sent to the penitentiary for the dastardly deed. He and four others were responsible for this diabolical work. McDaniel, Hughes, Evans and Chadwick were the other four implicated. They were engaged cutting wood, when this squaw, and others of the tribe, came up and camped near
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them. A game of cards was played and the loser was to shoot the old woman. McLane lost the game and hence shot her. The ball took effect in the squaw's thigh, and she was taken to Mt. Vernon by her companions and placed in the old log gunsmith's shop of John Earnhart on High street. But, on account of the cold November winds, she was kindly removed to a log house on the northwest corner of Mulberry and Vine streets, where she died after great suffering. But, Indian like, she never complained or murmured. They buried her on the northeast corner of the old graveyard. For a num- ber of years, in November, her husband would return, to find her grave un- disturbed. Her name was Rachel Konkupote and, sad to relate, she gave birth to a female child while lying confined by her wound, and on her death the child was given to John and Judah Bird, colored persons of Morgan or Clay township. The child was named Mary, and the Legislature subse- quently undertook to dispose of her. A habeas corpus case followed, was tried before Judge Brown, who gave the child back to the colored people, the Birds. The state finally allowed the family the sum of fifty dollars a year for the support of the child. This was brought about by Hosmer Cur- tis, who in 1822 was a member of the Legislature. The following record is shown of the bills allowed in the matter of caring for this unfortunate woman who was murdered in cold blood by heartless ruffians :
Order No. 3,928-Paying Moody for articles furnished overseers of the poor for the squaw that was shot, $2.84.
Order No. 3,929-Hosmer Curtis and Mott for expense incurred for sick squaw, $1.00.
Order No. 3,930-Jacob Martin, making coffin for squaw, $6.00.
There never occurred any serious difficulty with the Indians in the territory now known as Knox county, but in the strip over in Richland county, which territory all once belonged to this county, there was serious warfare at one time, just at the opening of the war of 1812. This being only a concise history of the present Knox county, such warfare will not be treated in this connection.
By the treaty concluded at the foot of the Maumee rapids, September 29, 1817, Lewis Cass and Duncan McArthur being commissioners on the part of the United States, there was granted to the Delaware Indians a reser- vation of three miles square, on or near the boundary of Marion county and adjoining the Wyandot reservation of twelve miles square. Again, by the treaty concluded at Little Sandusky, August 3, 1829, John McIlvain, United States commissioner, the Delawares ceded this reservation to the United States for three thousand dollars and removed west of the Mississippi river. Thus ended the Indian occupancy in this section of Ohio.
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CHAPTER III.
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NATURAL FEATURES-TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY.
Knox county, Ohio, is bounded as follows: On the north by parts of Richland. Ashland and Holmes counties ; on the east by Holmes and Coshoc- ton counties ; on the south by Licking county and on the west by Morrow and Delaware counties. It is almost in the exact geographical center of the state of Ohio. It is a continuation of the southern slope of the table land which separates the waters of Lake Erie from those of the Ohio river, which finally falls through the Mississippi into the gulf of Mexico. Its surface presents a succession of hills, in part rugged and steep where in- fluenced by the coal measure rocks; in other parts symmetrically rounded, and of graceful outlines, where composed of the olive shales of the Waverly conglomerate formation. These hills are all intersected by narrow streams or ravines. tributary to the larger water courses, the latter uniformly oc- cupying ancient valleys of erosion and handsomely bordered by alluvial plains. The ancient river system of Knox county is very well described and de- fined. There are four distinct traces of these preglacial channels running through the county.
The west channel enters the county from Richland county, near the center of the north line of Berlin township, and runs in nearly a south- erly direction to the middle of the township, thence bearing southwest to near Fredericktown, thence in a southeasterly direction through Morris to Mt. Vernon, on through Clinton, Miller, Morgan and into Licking county, near Utica.
A second channel is traced through Richland county, and enters Knox near the northeast corner of Brown township, thence nearly south into Howard township, to the northeast corner of Harrison, bearing a little to the west. running through the northwest corner of Harrison, touching the cor- ner of Pleasant township, thence enters Clay township from the southeast corner.
The tracings of a third channel of this ancient river bed is seen through the county of Ashland, entering Knox county in the northeast corner of Jefferson township, thence bearing slightly to the west, entering Union town- ship near Gann Station, continuing into Coshocton county through the south- west corner of Union township.
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1136360
The fourth and last channel of this pre-historic valley or old river-bed, is traced from the first named channel, just south of Mt. Vernon, thence run- ning due east to the south line of College township near Gambier village, thence in a northeasterly direction into Howard township, then along the south line of . Howard and Union townships, thence bearing to the south- east slightly, through the northeast corner of Butler township and so on into Coshocton county.
After this ancient valley was filled up by the drift the modern stream found a shorter course across the spur of hills, near Fredericktown, extend- ing out from the east side, and has cut its recent channel through the rock. Owl creek and the right-of-way of the Sandusky branch of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad occupy the old channel to Mt. Vernon. At Gambier it is the ancient stream which here divided a channel extending southward towards Martinsburg, now filled with gravel ande sandhills, and occupied by Big run. which flows northward, a direction opposite to that of the old stream, and becomes a tributary to Owl creek.
It should here be stated that geologists tell us that all the old valleys have been filled by glacial drift to the summit of the adjoining hills, and probably all, or nearly all, to the tops of the highest hills in the county ; the immense erosion which accompanied the retreat of the glacier sweeping away the great bulk of the drift, taking all the finer materials and leaving the resid- uum of sand and gravel.
Wells drilled for oil on the borders of Owl creek, toward the Coshocton county line, show that this deposit of coarse gravel extends at least eighty- two feet below the bottom of the valley, and in one instance a log was struck at a depth of one hundred feet. Hence there is here a valley, broad in extent, that was once filled with drift to the depth of not less than two hundred and seventeen feet, through which the channel has been plowed one hundred and thirty-five feet in depth, leaving a succession of terraces, the stream now flowing nearly one hundred feet above the bottom of the old gorge.
Following the Columbus road westward toward Mt. Liberty, the surface rises very slowly from the river over a bed of fine, gravelly and sandy alluvium, filled with small bowlders, many of them limestone, then striking irregular drift hills which reach an elevation one hundred and fifty-five feet above the railroad at Mt. Vernon.
The material of these hills is coarse, consisting chiefly of gravel and sand, with flat fragments from the Waverly and a few large granitic bowlders. The surface is uneven and billowy, as if piled up by the wave action of the shores when the water stood at this elevation.
1
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Thence to Mt. Liberty the surface rises to the height of two hundred and twenty-five feet above the railroad, the wagon road passing over undu- lating drift-hills, the material becoming steadily coarser, containing more limestone and more fragments of rock.
West from Mt. Liberty, a cut on the railroad at an elevation of two hundred and eighty-five feet above the deposit at Mt. Vernon, shows that the drift is wholly unstratified.
In Hilliar township the hills are composed of tenacious clay drift, the wells showing from eight to eighteen feet of yellow clay, then blue clay, pass- ing into hard-pan on the hills and resting on quicksand in the valley.
The timber in this region is beech, maple, oak, white and black ash and black walnut.
The wells of Lock, on the south line of Milford, pass through from eight to fifteen feet of yellow clay and from fifteen to twenty feet of blue clay, then on the higher lands striking gravel, on the lower lands fine quick- sands. The surface is the same through Milford and Miller townships-an undulating line of country from the finer material of the drift, bordering flood plains through which the small streams flow, generally over beds of water-rolled pebbles, this material resting on unmodified drift.
Eastward from Lock, drift apparently fills the old valley of erosion to the foot of the hills east of the Baltimore & Ohio railway line. These hills rise somewhat abruptly to the height of three hundred feet from the valley. These slopes are covered with drift, so that no rock exposures are found until the descent into the valley of Owl creek is reached, about one mile from Mt. Vernon. The rock is here broken and crushed as if by lateral thrust. An old water plain borders the west side of the railroad from Mt. Vernon to the south line of the county, marked by successive terraces, and from one to three miles wide. It is bordered by modified hills and drift forms southward of the valley in which Owl creek runs, until deflected to the east of Mt. Vernon.
The slope of the first hill, which rises to a height of one hundred and seventy-five feet above Mt. Vernon, exhibits the olive shales of the Waverly, covered by Waverly debris, with no evidence of drift, except occasional gran- ite bowlders. On the top of this hill are found thin bowlder clay and granite pebbles. Ascending the next slope to the height of three hundred and ten feet, the outcrop and debris of the Waverly continues with no drift material until passing about twenty feet downward on the southeast side. There granite bowlders are found, and the slope below is covered with drift, mingled with angular fragments of the local rocks. This drift continues to the top of the next hill, two hundred and eighty-five feet, but is thin and the soil is composed mainly of local debris. One mile to the north of the last named is a
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broad expanse of gently undulating sandy fields, exhibiting no evidence of drift except large scattered bowlders of granite, the soil being like the banks of any stream.
In Jackson township the Wakatomaka creek-which has the sources of. most of the tributaries in the recently eroded ravines of the coal measure rocks on the east-falls a little north of Bladensburg into the old channel now occupied by Big run, and is bordered by irregular sandy hills of water- washed material, which are continued northward to the junction of Big run with Owl creek near Gambier.
At Mt. Vernon, wells sunk in the alluvium pass only through sand and gravel. Those on the sandy slopes strike, first, a yellow clay from ten to fifteen feet; second, a blue clay from thirty to fifty feet, and third, gravel and sand, and broken stone to bed-rock.
That part of the country east of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad consisted originally of a high, undulating tableland, covered with drift of the glacial formation. Erosion has intersected it with narrow ravines and filled it with small streams, leaving a succession of well-rounded hills of very graceful out- line, characteristic of the Waverly in this part of the state. This peculiarity is only modified by the outcrops of Waverly conglomerate. Where this is wanting, or below the bottom of the valley, the hills are entirely without benches ; the lines of the landscape are all graceful curves ; the hills susceptible of cultivation on the top, and present scenes of quiet beauty rarely excelled. These features change upon approaching the coal measure rocks in the south- east part of this county.
West of Ankenytown is a plain of about ten miles wide, without rock exposure, but with occasional gravel ridges, the whole composed of river drift of sand and gravel and some clay on the margin, resting on quicksand and gravel, the whole of unknown depth, filling up the old preglacial channel.
In the broad valleys of the stream the native timber was mainly hard maple and black walnut; of the latter, a very large part was destroyed before its value was fully known, but very much has been cut and shipped to mar- ket. The large sugar maples in this district thirty odd years ago seemed a strange thing, but the thorough drainage afforded by the deep deposit of gravel fully explains their presence. If the alluvium rested upon clay. we should find soft maple, elm, and sycamore growing upon it, but no sugar maple. On the Waverly hills a mixed forest of beech, hickory, oak and black gum (Pepperidge) ; in a few places on the borders. of the stream, hemlock, and on the ridges where the Waverly conglomerate comes to the surface, the chestnut. Of the coal measure rock, the predominating timber is oak. On all the hills are scattered white wood, cucumber, black and white ash and elm.
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It was written by scientists in 1880 concerning the county's coal measure that, "Its rocks cover the greater part of Jackson and Butler townships and a small area in Jefferson township. The highest hills in Jackson rise one hun- dred feet above the upper outcrops of rock and are covered with the bleached and earthy debris of cherty ( impure variety of quartz or flint) limestone."
The coal discovered is of a fair quality, in two benches, in places found in paying quantities, but not considered rich in commercial value as mining property.
PROSPECTING AND THE RESULTS.
About 1870 what was termed as "oil signs" attracted the attention of enterprising men to the eastern part of Knox county. On the western margin of the coal field in Jefferson, Union and Butler townships were strong indi- cations of dislocation in the rock strata; gas springs were abundant, and from several places it was reported that oil in small quantities was obtained. A company was organized, territory leased and within ten years or less there had been expended almost a hundred thousand dollars in explorations, mainly under the superintendence of Peter Neff, of Gambier. Eight wells were located in the territory around the junction of the Kokosing and Mohican rivers, and their depths were all between five hundred and ninety and six hun- dred and twenty-seven feet and about the same material found in all of the borings. Gas, oil and brine were found in great quantities in most of these wells, and from two wells the flow of gas was great.
THE NEFF PETROLEUM COMPANY.
This was the style of the company that made these first explorations in Knox county. Peter Neff was the leading spirit in the enterprise and about 1880 this company was reorganized as the Kokosing Oil Company and it was this company who utilized the product of natural gas in a novel manner. Twenty-five thousand dollars were expended in buildings, forming a plant in which the manufacture of "carbon black" was carried on successfully. There five hundred pounds of No. I black were produced daily by the employment of the acid waste of oil refineries, making of it a valuable commercial article, by using a very small amount of natural gas. With eighteen hundred burners, for the consumption of the natural gas, fifty pounds of the "Diamond." or No. I black, per day, and with twenty-eight burners for the consumption of the acid waste, one hundred and fifty pounds of the "Pearl," or No. 2 black, was made.
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. When this enterprise was established the gas wells there had been dis- . charging for about ten years, but this being before natural gas had ever been piped, its real value was not known and this use to which it was put was considered a wonderful thing. Really, coal oil was what all were exploring for and yet the natural gas was all that ever materialized in paying quantities in this county. It is doubtful if the finding of large oil wells within Knox county would be of more value to all the people than has been the use of natural gas, now so abundant and cheap.
It was in the nineties that natural gas commenced to form a prominent factor in the commercial workings of this county. Then it was that the citizens awoke from their lethargy and secured numerous manufacturing plants, and still retain them with much profit. The gas wells are scattered here and there over the county and the fluid has been piped and made to serve for fuel and domestic heating and lighting as well, and factories have been enabled to run with profit and compete with the section of the country where coal has to be used as a power fuel.
THE MOUND BUILDERS.
Without going into the details of this pre-historic race, their strange manners and customs, etc., the author will be content to simply note a few facts concerning these "mounds" as now to be seen within Knox county, without pretending to offer any theory as to who built the same and at what age in the world's history they were constructed. This topic belongs rightly to the study of archeology and is only mentioned incidentally in a local history. There are, however, the best evidences that the Mound Builders were in Knox county in considerable numbers, a few scattered monuments of this mysterious people still remaining. There is no authentic history regarding this people. The known records of earth are silent-as silent as these grass- covered mound's that perpetuate their memory. Nothing of their beginning or end is positively known today. They probably antedate the various Indian tribes who anciently occupied and claimed title to this soil now called Ohio, though this is only problematical, for the two nations may have been con- temporaneous.
The townships of Knox county where these prehistoric mounds are to be seen today are Berlin, Clay, Liberty, Morgan, Wayne and Clinton, at Mt. Vernon. 1
The best description found of these was published in a local publication of the county and from extracts from "Howe's Collection," the best authority
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in Ohio on such matters, from which works we take the following facts, re- gardless of their wording and theories advanced :
About eighty rods south from the town of Fredericktown, on quite an eminence, is a mound in an excellent state of preservation, it having been kept intact during the period of this county's history of the present race, the white men. Here, William Allen, pioneer, cleared the land, planted fruit trees over it and preserved it. A mile southwest of this mound, in 1830, was perceptible an embankment enclosing a large area. About four miles south of southwest of this point, in the south part of Wayne township, is a mound in the woods, though not so well preserved. Three miles on an air line to the southwest of Mt. Vernon, in Green valley, is a small mound, almost obliterated now by the plows of civilized life. About 1820 Josiah Bonar, a boy long since dead, dug into the center of this mound and found bones in and near the mound. One hundreds rods east of this is another, of similar size, which can scarcely be found today. In the northwest corner of Liberty township there was seen by the pioneers in the woods an embankment with a gateway, enclosing a plat of ground only a few rods in diameter. The ditch inside the enclosure was a hard-pan subsoil, holding water, so as to render it marshy in the bottom. This work is described by one writer. It has the appearance of a military work, but from its proximity to higher ground, and the fact of the earth from the ditch having been thrown out- ward, would seem to preclude that idea. The mystery deepens when it is learned that the Indians who were frequently asked about these mounds and "earthworks" could throw no light, either historic or traditional, upon their existence here. About the only relics of this race found within Liberty town- ship were discovered on the farm belonging to J. D. Higgins, a mile east of Mount Liberty." On the hill north from his residence is a mound thirty feet in diameter, and was originally ten feet high, but has been greatly lowered by the plowing of the land. It was opened by Mr. Higgins, who found only ashes and a few bones almost reduced to charcoal.
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