USA > Ohio > Muskingum County > Zanesville > Past and present of the city of Zanesville and Muskingham County, Ohio > Part 13
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May 5, 1904, the Columbus, Newark & Zanesville Railway began operating an electric interurban line between Zanesville and Columbus, entering the city on the tracks of the Z., R., L. & P. Company to the waiting room. The city now possesses five local lines of electric railway, with transfer rights: the Putnam and Terrace, Brighton and Greenwood, Blue avenue and Mon- roe street, Linden avenue, and Gant Park, and the interurban.
CHAPTER VIII.
ZANESVILLE, COMPRISING ZANE TRACE. FERRIES. TOPOGRAPHY. TOWN PLATS. NATCHEZ. WEST ZANESVILLE. PUTNAM. ZANESVILLE. MARKET IIOUSE. CITY PRISONS. CEMETERIES. FIRE DE- PARTMENT. WATER WORKS. MAYORS.
THE ZANE TRACE.
Although Kentucky had, in 1790, a population in excess only of Delaware and Rhode Island, in 1800 she led Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode
Island, New Jersey, Delaware and Georgia, and showed an increase of 200 per cent. during the decade. The old wilderness road was long and dangerous, and threats of separation were pre- valent in the territory south of the Ohio river. The Northwest Territory was being rapidly oc- cupied and to facilitate intercourse with both sections, on May 17, 1796, Congress passed an an act authorizing Ebenezer Zane, of Wheeling, Virginia, to mark out a road from that settle- ment to Limestone, now Maysville, Kentucky, on the Ohio river. In the following year he, his brother Jonathan, his son-in-law, John McIntire, John Green, Wm. McCulloch, Ebenezer Ryan and others proceeded to cut out the road.
The opening of this road, in that day, was as stupendous an undertaking as the construction of a railroad, of similar length, is in ours, notwith- standing that the cutting was hasty and the specifications demanded no more than that the road should be passable for horsemen. Immi- gration was commonly on foot and if a horse were owned it was loaded with packs and if the immi- grant were so fortunate as to also possess a cow, similar burdens were laid upon her ; when several families traveled in company, as usually occurred, the journey was not so unpleasant and unevent- ful, and as the forest was rich in game the camp fire at night, after a hearty meal, was highly enjoyed.
The pack horses of the Zane trace party, which carried the tents and provisions, were in charge of Green, and as McIntire lacked skill in the use of the ax, he was detailed to kill the game, of which there was an abundance in the surround- ing woods; the remainder of the party, being experienced axmen, marked out the site of the road by blazing the trees, felling the timber and cutting out the underbrush.
The old Indian trail from Wheeling, by way of the crossings of the Muskingum and Scioto rivers to the Ohio river, was well beaten and was several inches in depth, and its general course was closely followed except where better lines and grades could be secured. No trouble was experienced from the Indians, but at night regular watches. by two men, were established, and fires were maintained as protection against prowling beasts of prey, the duty being performed in rotation, by short watches, that each man could secure his needed rest.
Upon approaching the Muskingum. the first survey was down the Big Salt Creek, to what is now known as Duncan's Falls, but subsequent surveys demonstrated the superior water power at the confluence of the Muskingum and Licking rivers and the crossing was reached by a course down Mill Run and along the river bank to the ford at the foot of Market street. This entrance was regarded as unsatisfactory for the develop- ment of the proposed town, and a new line was
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run by which the approach was made over what is now designated as the Wheeling road, Green- wood avenue and Main street, thence crossing the Muskingum below the island, described in the caption topography, over Chap's run to the Mays- ville pike.
The Indian trail crossed at the head of the upper falls, at the foot of Market street, to West Zanesville, thence over the Licking Island to Natchez, or South Zanesville as it was later called, up Chap's run and through the fair grounds to the Maysville pike.
The road was completed in 1799, and Febru- ary 14. 1800, President John Adams and Timothy Pickering. Secretary of State, signed a grant to Ebenezer Zane of three tracts of land in "the Territory Northwest of the river Ohio," each one mile square, "to have and to hold the said three tracts of land, with the appurtenances, unto the said Ebenezer Zane and his heirs forever." These tracts were located at the crossings of the Mus- kingum, Hocking and Scioto rivers, where Zanes- ville, Lancaster and Chillicothe are now respect- ively located.
The Muskingum tract being hilly was regarded as the least valuable and December 19, 1800, Ebenezer and Elizabeth Zane, in consideration of $100 conveved it to Jonathan Zane and John Mc- Intire. The several grants imposed upon Ebenezer Zane the duty of constructing, operat- ing and maintaining ferries at the several river crossings, during the pleasure of Congress, and the obligation, at the Muskingum, went with the land conveyed to Zane and McIntire, and was by them given to Wm. McCulloch and Henry Crooks, for a term of five vears, on condition that thev remove their families to the Muskin- gum. This was done in 1797, McCulloch erecting the first cabin in Zanesville on the south side of Main street, on land now occupied by the canal, and Crooks located in Natchez, at the confluence of Chap's run and the Licking. The first boat was two canoes lashed together and when Mc- Intire arrived with his household goods from Wheeling, his boat was put into the ferry service. The ferrymen's cabins were the only places of shelter for travelers arriving at the ferry after dark, and lodging accommodations were fur- nished on the floor.
Mrs. Nancy Crooks was the first white woman in the settlement and her nearest white female neighbor was at Lancaster. Mrs. McCulloch was a half breed and her son, Noah Zane McCulloch, was the first white male born on the banks of the Muskingum, an event which occurred April 7. 1798.
During the hard-cider campaign of 1840, Noah Z. McCulloch visited Zanesville to hear Har- rison speak and a meeting of the old settlers was held at which toasts were drunk to old times and
departed comrades. Daniel Convers was present and proposed : "Here's to the health of the first white male child born on the banks of the Mus- kingum, who was not exactly white," at which there was a general laugh as all knew McCulloch was meant.
The apparent discrepancy in the dates of pro- prietorship and occupancy are explained by the delays which occur in the land office in issuing patents ; the title may rest in a person according to the records of the office and he may not have any documents to assert it. Therefore, notwith- standing that the patents from the general gov- ernment to Ebenezer Zane were not dated until February, 1800, and from him to McIntire in December, both acted upon the assurance that they were actual proprietors.
FERRIES.
The ferry privileges cost from $10 to $15 an- nually.
The upper ferry crossed from the foot of Market street to Lee street in West Zanesville, and was kept by Daniel Whitaker in 1800; Mc- Intire persuaded Whitaker to convey it to Black Mess, who ran it until the Main street bridge was erected, but the license was in the name of Mc- Intire. The river was fordable, at low water, at the head of the falls for wagons, horses or on foot.
The middle ferry was established in 1797 be- tween Zanesville and Natchez and was operated by McCulloch and Crooks, under agreement with McIntire.
The lower ferry was owned by Rufus Putnam, Increase Mathews and Levi Whipple, and was established in 1806, between Zanesville and Put- nam ; it landed, on the Zanesville side, at the foot of Fourth street, and the ford was at the foot of Fifth street. When Harvey built his tavern at Third and Main he purchased a right of way and laid out a road, running diagonally from his tavern to the ford, and which came to be called Harvey's Bridle Path : at the ford and ferry he erected a finger pointing to his tavern. May 16, 1853. this alley was vacated as a public alley, at the request of the owners of all the abutting property.
The fees for ferryage were fixed by the com- missioners, and are interesting to contemplate in these days of five free bridges over the river. Foot passengers, 3 cents ; man and horse, 121/2 cents ; loaded wagon and team, $1.00; empty wagon and team, 75 cents ; four wheeled carriage and team, 75 cents ; loaded cart and team, 50 cents ; empty cart, sled or sleigh with team, 371/2 cents ; horses, mares, mules and meat cattle, each IO cents ; hogs and sheep, 3 cents. In all cases where the ferryman was compelled by law to
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ply after dark he could demand and collect for a foot passenger, 614 cents, and for a man and horse, 25 cents.
TOPOGRAPHY.
Notwithstanding the topography of the city is still rough and irregular, great changes have been wrought in the primeval conditions; when the railroads were constructed, their embankments along the rivers established a grade to which much of the adjacent low lands or "bottoms" have been made to conform, the land between Third and Fourth streets and the river having been filled, in many places, as much as ten feet in depth.
A ravine originally coursed where Potter alley is now located, commencing at Market street and crossing Main street, at a depth of six feet, to Diamond alley, or Harvey's Bridle Path, as it was known in that day ; following Diamond alley to South street the ravine ran in a southeasterly direction to Fifth street, crossing the lot of the Griffith & Wedge Machine works to Mud Hollow, into which it emptied.
Mud Hollow was a deep ravine along the course of Sewer alley, from North to South street, and at the latter point took a southeasterly direction across the site of the First Baptist church to Marietta street and into Slago Run, north of the locks. At Main street the depression was about fifteen feet; to the east beyond Sixth street the hill was long and steep, and to the west. to Fifth street, was extremely abrupt. Wagon wheels were always locked in descending either grade and a four-horse team and covered wagon, crossing Mud Hollow, was lost sight of to a per- son standing at Fourth and Main streets. Three slaughter houses and one tannery were located along the course of this stream.
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Fourth street, to the south of Main, was quite a descent and at the northeast corner of Fourth and South streets, where the Presbyterian church was built, in 1816, an abrupt bluff existed, some sixteen steps being necessary to reach the surface of the lot, and a heavy stone wall was constructed in front of the church ; the bluff extending east to Sixth street and about five feet of filling was necessary to bring South street to a convenient grade with the cross streets.
The old dwellings standing on elevated ground on south Sixth and Seventh streets bear witness to the original contour of the ground in that neighborhood; a steep hill or bluff commenced near Seventh and Marietta streets and ran diagon- ally across Sixth and South to Locust allev. Sixth street was called High street because of its elevation.
From Seventh to east of Eighth street, and from a short distance south of Main to Market and Underwood streets, was swampy ground and
Main street was corduroyed; when a sewer was dug in this thoroughfare several years ago the corduroy was uncovered several feet below the surface. The swamp was fed from the springs in the hills east of town, and in 1817 a ditch was dug along Fountain alley across Main street to Seventh and South streets to intersect Mud Hol- low.
The rocks at the foot of Main street were a popular resort, and moonlight nights brought the town people there to dance on the smooth sur- face to the strains of the violin of Black Mess ; back of the rocks was a natural sward but the canal destroyed the rocks and the resort.
At Center and. Fifth streets the original ele- vation of the ground on the east side of the street is shown in the Academy lot, and the sudden de- pression on the west side may be seen in the rear of the dwellings in the direction of Third street.
When the town charter was granted grading the streets and filling hollows was begun and much complaint was made by those whose prem- ises were affected by the improvements. The stagnant water caused much sickness and during some seasons it was particularly fatal. Main street was cut down in many places and filled in others, and when the Opera block was erected the fill in Fountain alley was found to be about ten feet and along Fifth street towards Main still deeper, increasing as Main street was approached.
The Muskingum improvement has concealed the "falls" which naturally exist in the river : three falls occurred within the present limits of the city, and the aggregate drop of the water was from eight to ten feet. The upper falls extended from the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad bridge to the old dam formerly existing at the foot of Market street ; the middle falls extended from the Third street bridge to near Main street ; and the lower falls began at the mouth of Slago Run and ex- tended to nearly opposite Fifth street, where a large island or sand bar was uncovered during low water. These are now covered by the back water from the dam at Duncan's Falls. The water on the Zanesville side was deeper and swifter, and was the favorite channel, and boits selected it to the advantage of the Zanesville trade.
At the mouth of the Licking a little island ex- tended from the forks of the present bridge to the site of the Licking dam, dividing the stream into two mouths ; before the town was settled the island was covered with grass, underbrush and trees, some of the latter measuring as much as thirty inches in diameter; wild geese built their nests and hatched their young, and Indians com- ing up over the lower falls always stopped at the lower end of the island to examine their canoes and rest before passing the upper falls. The road from West Zanesville to Natchez passed over
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the island, and persons in canoes to and from Natchez passed around the lower end of the island. When the pier, at the forks of the "Y" bridge was built the stone was taken from the river and it was necessary to cut the lower end of the island away ; the destruction of the vege- table roots in the soil and the diminution of its area effected its gradual disappearance, especially after the improvement of the river.
TOWN PLAT.
Zanesville was laid out during the autumn of 1800 and the spring of 1801, the principal streets being delineated by cutting out the underbrush and felling the trees, and the plat was filed for record, April 28, 1802, at Marietta, the settle- ment being then in Washington county.
The east line of the town, as originally laid out, was the west line of Seventh street, which was forty-nine and one-half feet west of the east line of the Zane grant ; the south line was the north line of South street, which was thirty-three feet north of the south line of the grant; the north line was the south line of North street and the west line extended to within a short distance of the river. These limits allowed nearly fifty feet on the east and thirty-three feet on the south under the control of the proprietors, and as they owned all the adjacent land north and west of the town plat, interference by antagonistic in- terests could not well occur.
The proprietors platted all lots fronting upon streets running north and south, and only two triangular lots at the extreme west end of Main street fronted upon that thoroughfare; as Main street was so named on the plat, and was the public highway, persons desiring a frontage on it were obliged to purchase several lots, and sub- divisions thus begun has been continued to the present day. The reason for this system of front- ing the lots is now unknown but it has been sug- gesten that the proprietors doubtless considered that the water power would cause a large manu- facturing city to arise and the river would be the course of the traffic, and the highway would be a subsidiary and unimportant avenue of com- munication.
Shortly after the platting Jonathan Zane and John McIntire partitioned between themselves the remainder of the grant lying outside the town limits; McIntire acquired twenty-two acres south of Center street and west of Seventh street, and 246 acres on the west side of the river, east of Blue avenue, south of Adair avenue and north and west of the rivers, which included what are now known as West Zanesville, the two Mc- Intire Terraces and the River addition. Before his death he platted his east side outlots, acquired the land between South street and the river and an extensive area east of the original grant.
In 1804 the town contained twenty-one cabins and one hundred and fifteen inhabitants; one- third of the cabins entertained strangers, the emi- grants separating here; those traveling north crossed the upper ferry, and those to the west and south the middle ferry or the ford and lower ferry.
NATCHEZ.
Tradition is not history and personal recollec- tions are faulty because confusion of dates and events frequently occur ; the American is not an iconoclast but a practical man, and wants fact and fiction to be clearly defined ; while he indulges in imagination at times he knows it is imagination notwithstanding he may endeavor to convince an- other that it is fact, but when he deals in facts himself he wants them unadorned, although they may be hideous and destructive of cherished legends ; he can still preserve the legend but re- late it as one does a fairy tale. Corroborative evidence, therefore, should be sought when mere assertions are made of ancient events and this comment is penned because of the reiterated state- ment, by several chroniclers who have been con- sulted, that in 1794, or 1797-8 Joseph F. Munro, Herman Blennerhassatt and Dudley Woodbridge, under the firm name of J. F. Munro & Company, established a trading post at the mouth of the Licking river, where the office of Hook Brothers & Aston now stands, and exchanged whiskey, powder and lead for furs and pelts, which were shipped in large quantities, by water to Marietta and Pittsburg, and by pack horses to Sandusky. Munro built a cabin on the site named, in 1798, and engaged in the business as stated, but that Blennerhassatt was associated in the business at either of the dates is improbable, if not impossible. At the first he was still in England and he did not purchase the island in the Ohio river until March, 1798, and, if this notorious character ever was interested in the commerce of Zanes- ville it must have been not earlier than 1799. Munro was engaged in business at Zanesville in 1801 and was in partnership with Convers in 1803.
Andrew Crooks settled near his brother Henry, in the spring of 1798, on the bank of the Lick- ing, west of Chap's run, and the first industry at Natchez was hat making, conducted by one Molesbury, in 1800, and in 1801 by James Jen- nings; in 1802 a tannerv was in operation on Chap's run, owned by Reuben Jennings and sold in 1804 to Levi Chapman ; in 1803 Joseph Whit- aker manufactured brick and in the same year John Mathews bought goods to the amount of $1,965.00, from Jeffrey Price, and opened a store in the cabin formerly occupied by Munro. Gen- eral Van Horne arrived at Zanesville in 1805 and in 1806 laid out the town, but the plat was never recorded, and in the same year erected his resi-
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dence in what is now Pine street ; its color gave it the name of the white house and was plainly seen from the Zanesville side; the next dwelling was built in Pear street.
About 1828-9 Isaac Dillon built the Pataskala mills, near the bank of the Licking, and operated them until 1835, when he sold to Moses Dillon, and he to Solomon and William Sturges; in 1855 William Beaumont became owner and in the flood of 1860 the north abutment of the dam was de- stroyed and the mill seriously damaged; in 1868 a portion of the dam was again washed out and in 1872 the mill was thoroughly overhauled and sup- plied with turbine wheels, and when Mr. Beat- mont died, January 19, 1873, it was operated by his widow; the plant is now the property of the Hook Brothers & Aston.
In 1830 Isaac Dillon owned a portion of the Zane grant in Natchez, which consisted of a strip between the National road and Muskingum avenue, and extending from the Muskingum river to a point about eighty feet west of Pine street ; Dillon laid out and platted this tract as "South Zanesville," but did not record it, and neither the Van Horne nor Dillon parcels were ever incorpor- ated as a village, and remained under township government until annexed to Zanesville, the two- story brick school building in Pear street, erected by the township, being the only property which came to the city upon annexation.
When the subject of annexation was agitated in West Zanesville, Col. H. D. Munson became interested in the question as much from curiosity as desire for information, and attended a meeting of the annexationists in West Zanesville; he was impressed with the arguments presented in favor of the project and was convinced that if it was beneficial for his West Zanesville friends it was equally so for Natchez, and agitated the matter in his home neighborhood, where it was so promptly and unanimously endorsed that Natchez was an- nexed before West Zanesville. Natchez asked to be annexed and made no conditions; the other sections had propositions which were essential and one councilman plead for Natchez by repre- senting the city as a groom whom three women desired to marry him, but two wanted an agree- ment about their privileges when the alliance was accomplished, but the third wanted him for him- self alone. By request of the city council, ex- pressed in an ordinance passed February 28, 1870, the County Commissioners, on May 18, 1870, authorized the city to annex Natchez, and August 15 the formal action of the council was taken and the territory made the Seventh ward. The ad- dition of Natchez to the city contributed to the success of the movement in West Zanesville, and aroused the wide-awake citizens in Putnam to the advantage of one central authority instead of three conflicting and often inharmonious munici- palities.
WEST ZANESVILLE.
The first settlers on the site of West Zanesville came in 1797-8, from the Kanawha region of Virginia, the first cabin being that of Elias or Ellis Hughes, a frontier scout and noted Indian fighter, who was reputed to have killed one hun- dred Indians and who participated in the famous battle at Point Pleasant; his rude home was erected near the mouth of the Licking and John Ratliff, another Indian fighter and scout, was soon after a close neighbor; these pioneers re- mained but a few years and moved some twenty miles further into the wilderness, or what is now Muskingum township.
Zanesville and West Zanesville were the points at which the Virginians settled, and it may not be irrelevant to call attention to the superiority of the rough, daring and often unlettered Virgin- ian as a pioneer ; he despised the polished, calcu- lating Yankee and was despised, in turn, for his coarseness and vulgarity, but he was the man who conquered the country ; it was he who sus- tained the hardships of the forest life and de- stroyed the Indian supremacy: it was he who made it possible for the Yankee to come here, because the dangers had been eliminated and the privations had been reduced. The Virginians and Kentuckians were one blood and had prac- tically subdued the country and held it for the United States before the settlement at Marietta. and in all the engagements with the Indians. Virginians and Kentuckians composed the rank and file of the commands. It is not surprising, therefore, that when people began to form set- tlements around them Hughes and Ratliff were crowded out.
West Zanesville grew faster than Zanesville and in the summer of 1800 a school was opened by David Harris, whose house was on the river bank at the foot of Lee street ; about twenty-five pupils were enrolled, nearly all of whom resided on the west side of the river, those from Zanes- ville and Natchez wading the stream during low water and coming in canoes when it was too high to ford.
The town was platted by McIntire in 1809 but was never recorded, and June 7, 1816, West Zanesville township was created, beginning at the Muskingum river at the mouth of the Lick- ing and up the latter to where the military line was crossed, thence west and north until it em- braced portions of what are now Falls and Mus- kingum townships. September 3 this action was rescinded and Muskingum township created and the territory of the former West Zanesville township divided between Falls and Muskingum townships.
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