USA > Ohio > Scioto County > Scioto sketches; an account of discovery and settlement of Scioto County, Ohio > Part 4
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between the logs, that formed the sides of the cabin, were filled with mud to keep out the wind, and a large open fireplace occupied one side of the house.
The furniture was homemade. There was a table, a bench or two, and a few stools. The beds consisted of bunks fixed to the walls or laid on the floor. Blankets and bearskins were used for bedclothing. The kitchen utensils were a frying pan, an iron pot, and a Dutch oven. The latter is a shallow iron kettle with a convex cover to hold hot coals. It was used for baking. After the food, which is to be baked, is put into the oven, and the cover is in place, it is set near the fire, and hot wood coals are piled on the cover. Good bread may be baked in this manner.
After the cabin home was completed, the settler began to clear the timber from the land. Trees were felled and cut into logs. With these logs, sheds were built to shelter stock, and rails were made for fencing. Corn was planted that there might be meal for the family ; a small garden of potatoes and other vegetables was laid out; apple and peach trees were planted as soon as they could be obtained.
The first settlers brought their corn meal with them, and as soon as this supply was exhausted, two men went to Manchester or Limestone by canoe to secure more. No pork was to be had, but bear meat, which was very fat, was used in its place. Later, pork and corn bread became the principal articles of food. Thus, the old couplet :
"You can have plenty of pork and pone,*
If you don't like this, you can let it alone."
As long as the supply of game was forthcoming, the settler could vary his bill of fare with venison, wild turkey, or grouse.
*Pone is an Indian word and corn pone originated with the American Indian.
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In beverages, the settler had an abundant variety. His teas were made of sassafras, sage, or sycamore. Chips of the red wood from the sycamore were used to make sycamore tea. Coffee was so expensive that ten pounds of rye were browned and used with every pound of coffee. Distilled spirits were in general use as beverages.
The first mechanical problem the pioneer solved was the construction of a device with which to grind his corn into meal. The first contrivance used for that purpose adapted the principle of the mortar and pestle. A cav- ity was cut in a tree stump, and a pestle was made by driving an iron wedge into a heavy stick. A small quan- tity of corn was put into this homemade mortar and pounded into meal with the iron wedge and the assist- ance of a spring pole. The next appliance used for grinding corn, consisted of two stones, one laid flat upon the other. The lower stone was stationary and the
upper stone was revolved upon it by hand power. Corn was fed into this crude mill through the eye of the re- volving stone and then ground into meal. This form of mill was succeeded by the ordinary hand mills, having two cranks, and operated by two men, but these soon gave way to the water mill. To separate the bran from the meal, the pioneer used a sieve, made by stretching a piece of perforated deerskin over a hoop.
As soon as sufficient land, to yield subsistence for the family and stock, had been cleared, and farming operations were well under way, a hewed log house was erected in place of the cabin. All the neighbors were called to assist in the erection of the new home. Such work was known as a house raising and was regarded in the light of a picnic. After the walls of the house were erected, the doors and windows were sawed out. If the settler was successful, he finally built a substantial frame house. Years ago, it was not unusual to see a
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cabin, a log house, and a frame house, side by side. These homes indicated distinctly the thrift and progress of the pioneer.
In 1803, the first public road was opened in Scioto County, and consisted of a way cut through a dense forest. It was located upon the line of the present Gallipolis road. The specifications were simple. The contractor agreed to make a way having a certain width. The trees were to be cut sufficiently near the ground so that the stumps would clear the axles of a wagon. All brush was to be removed from the road and the mile trees were to be marked.
There was a wagon trail to Chillicothe as early as 1799, but it was not a highway created by law. Four dollars per hundred pounds was the rate charged for transporting goods from Portsmouth to Chillicothe over this road by wagon.
It was not until 1811, that a bridge of any con- sequence was erected in Scioto County. This bridge spanned the Little Scioto, a short distance above its mouth, and was of trestle design. In 1832, it was re- placed by a more substantial structure.
Time passed, the orchards reached the stage when fruit was borne; and the extensive fields yielded annu- ally crops of corn much greater than the requirements of the inhabitants. This corn sold occasionally as low as ten cents per bushel. Apples and peaches were espe- cially prolific, for the pests that now infest our orchards were unknown. The many belts of large timber pro- tected the fruit against the frosts of early spring. Such favorable conditions produced bounteous crops of fruit and grain. But there were no nearby cities where the pioneer farmer could market his fruits and grain. There were no adequate means of transportation. Thus, the labor expended by the farmer, in growing more than sufficient for his own use, was of no avail. Corn was
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bulky and the fruits perishable; consequently, distant markets were closed to those products. To provide a sale for them, the farmers erected distilleries at which corn was condensed into whisky and fruits turned into brandy. Such imperishable products, of comparatively small bulk, found ready sale in the South .* This gen- eral distillation of spirits led to their free use in homes, at public celebrations, and at house raisings. Thus, the use of intoxicants became customary and few opposed it.
Samuel Marshall, Jr., was the first opponent of the use of intoxicating beverages in Scioto County. In 1824, he gave notice of his intention to have a house raising at which no liquor would be furnished. His neighbors thought that no one would attend a house raising at which there would be no whisky. But, upon the appointed day, there was an immense crowd on hand, no doubt through curiosity, to see a miracle per- formed. The conditions were so novel that all hands went to work with enthusiasm, and soon the house was erected.
As the products of Scioto County increased beyond the amount necessary for home use, markets were sought for their sale. This demand for markets created the business of boating on the Ohio and Scioto rivers. The boats used were of two designs, known as keel boats and flatboats. The former were long and narrow, and could be navigated upstream. The latter were used only to float down to their destination. Both kinds were cov- ered in order to protect the cargo. The keel boats were
*Similar conditions caused the Whisky Insurrection of 1794 in western Pennsylvania. In order to transport his products over the bad roads then existing the western Pennsylvania farmer was obliged to condense his grain into distilled spirits. The internal revenue tax levied in 1791 upon such spirits was resisted because it was a tax upon a form of manufacture necessary to enable the farmer to find a market.
Even now the moonshiner seeks to justify his illicit still upon the fact that he cannot market grain raised far back in the mountains unless he reduces its bulk by condensing it into whisky.
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much used in boating on the Scioto River between Portsmouth and Chillicothe.
New Orleans was the usual market and the keel boats on their return would bring a cargo of molasses, cotton, hemp, and tobacco in exchange for the produce taken down. Flatboats were built on either the Scioto or the Ohio, and loaded with flour, pork, beans, onions, whisky and brandy. Upon arriving at New Orleans, these products were converted into money, and the boat was sold for what the lumber would bring. Before the days of the steamboat, the boatmen made their way back home on foot. As the number of steamboats increased, and competition lowered the freight rates, transportation by flatboats and keel boats ceased.
Though the pioneer was obliged to work long and hard, he had his pleasures. Big game hunting was at his very door. His family used the meat of the game animals for food and their hides for clothing, gloves and thongs. Though some of the settlers were not good hunters, they went out with hunting parties to help dress the game, make jerked venison, and to pack the meat into the settlements. In this way, they procured meat for their families. Fishing in summer and raccoon hunting in winter did much to relieve the monotony of work.
The Fourth of July was a day for patriotic celebra- tions. Upon this day, large assemblages listened to the reading of the Declaration of Independence, to orations, the firing of homemade cannons, and to the music of the sheepskin bands.
Occasionally, a dance would enliven the community. The entire neighborhood came on horseback, usually arriving at the house, where the dance was given, a little before dark, that they might conveniently unsaddle and feed the horses. The women arranged their toil-
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ettes; the men exchanged their boots for light shoes, and all was ready. Dancing began at dark, was inter- rupted for supper, and then continued until daylight. As they started for home, each man was given a drink of the best peach brandy in the host's cellar. Then, they rode away, each beau on horseback, with his sweetheart on behind.
Friction matches were unknown until 1827. If the fire in the cabin of the pioneer went out, he kindled one by striking a spark into tinder with flint and steel. Usually fine, dry punk, or tow was used for tinder. This method of making fire was by no means easy and the settlers usually kept some fire burning. In the vil- lages, neighbors frequently borrowed fire from each other, carrying it from house to house on a shovel. It was, in a literal sense, that the pioneers kept the home fires burning.
Unfortunate circumstances produced a situation in the family of one of the first settlers in the French Grant that rivals the story of Enoch Arden. A pioneer, his wife, and several children, were living happily to- gether, when the wife became insane. There was no place of refuge, no asylum near, to which she could be taken. As she could not be cared for in the wilderness, she was sent to friends in an Eastern city, where she could be given proper care and treatment. The father, finding it impossible to till the soil and care for his small children, married again. Years went by, and the oldest son grew to manhood. He left home in search of his mother, he found her restored to reason, and she re- turned with him to the old home. She found that her children had been well cared for by the second wife and that the family was living happily and contentedly; and this noble woman returned whence she came.
IX THE FIRST VILLAGES
John Collins, who came in 1796, was the first per- manent settler at the mouth of the Scioto River. Chil- licothe was platted as a town the same year. Settlers, moving into Chillicothe, usually came in small boats by way of the Ohio and Scioto rivers. Collins believed that the mouth of the Scioto had advantages of location, and he built a tavern and store at the old mouth of the Scioto.
Alexandria was platted as a town by Major Belli on June 3, 1799, by order of Colonel Thomas Parker of Frederick County, Virginia. When Major Belli came from France to America, he landed at Alexandria, Virginia. It is probable that this fact accounts for the name of the village.
On March 24, 1803, Scioto County was established by the legislature of Ohio. Up to this time, it had been united with Adams County. The temporary seat of justice was fixed at Alexandria, and the act provided that the courts should be held at the house of John Collins. Thus, was the first village and first courthouse established in Scioto County.
Alexandria was located in the bottom land, just west of the old mouth of the Scioto River. At the time it was platted, Major Belli apparently had no knowledge of the ordinary freshets of that river. The village was inundated so frequently that it had to be abandoned. The frequent winter floods that swept Alexandria,
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carried away the settlers' fences, haystacks, grain, and sometimes their buildings. On Christmas, 1808, the water was more than three feet deep in their houses, and within a month it again drove them from their homes. To add to their sufferings, the weather was bitterly cold. By 1810, Alexandria was practically abandoned, though a few people continued to live there for several years longer. The inhabitants either moved to Portsmouth or emigrated west.
In April, 1803, Henry Massie filed the plat of the town of Portsmouth, which was destined to become the principal city of Scioto County. To encourage set- tlements in the town, Massie offered to convey to each freeholder in Alexandria, the same number of lots in Portsmouth as such person owned in Alexandria, pro- viding that he remove to Portsmouth or build a resi- dence there. The hope that Alexandria would become the county seat deterred the inhabitants from accepting the offer and they remained there, as one of them ex- pressed, "to my sorrow and without benefit."
In January, 1804, Rufus Putnam made a map of Ohio. It is quite complete and shows the location of the Scioto and Little Scioto rivers and of Alexandria.
There are several references to Portsmouth and to Alexandria, in the accounts of their journeys, written by early travelers. The earliest reference is by F. A. Michaux, who was at Alexandria in 1802 .* His de- scription of Alexandria is as follows:
"The ground designed for this town is at the mouth of the great Scioto, and in the angle which the right bank of this river forms with the northwest border of the Ohio. Although the plan of Alexandria has been laid out these many years, nobody goes to settle there; and the number of its houses is not more than twenty, the major part of which are log houses. Notwithstanding
*Travels to the West of the Allegheny Mountains, by F. A. Michaux (London, 1805).
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its situation is very favorable with regard to the numerous settle- ments already formed beyond the new town upon the Great Scioto (evidently Chillicothe), whose banks, not so high, and more marshy, are, it is said, nearly as fertile as those of the Ohio. The popula- tion would be much more considerable, if the inhabitants were not subject, every autumn, to intermittant fevers, which seldom abate till the approach of winter."
Michaux made note of the rank growth of the Jamestown weed (Datura stramonium) about the houses in Alexandria. The name of this weed, he says, was given it by the Virginians because it was first ob- served at Jamestown. The original name of this plant became corrupted into Jimson weed.
Fortescue Cuming has left us, in his Sketches, such a good description of Portsmouth, as he saw it in 1807, that it may be well to reproduce it in full.
"I walked to the upper end of the town, through a straight street, parallel to the Ohio, about half a mile long, on the top of a handsome sloping bank. I returned by a back street, which brought me to the banks of the Scioto, which river, running from the north- ward, falls into the Ohio a mile below Portsmouth, at an angle of thirty-three degrees, leaving only sufficient room between the two rivers for two parallel streets, on the one of which fronting the Ohio, building lots of a quarter of an acre, now sell at Fifty Dollars each.
Portsmouth is in a handsome and healthy situation, though rather too much confined by the Scioto's approach to the Ohio, so far above its confluence with that river. It is likely to become a town of some consequence, as it is the capitol of the County of Scioto. It is only two years since it was laid out, and it now con- tains twenty houses some of which are of brick, and most of them very good.
There is a remarkable naked, round topped, rocky mountain, on the Virginia side, opposite to Portsmouth, which forms a variety to the forest covered hills, which everywhere meet the eye of the traveler, through this western region."
John Woods made a voyage down the Ohio River in 1819, and stopped at Portsmouth on August twenty- eighth. His comments are of sufficient interest to justify reproduction.
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"Passed the Little Sciota, a small stream of Ohio. At noon, we reached the town of Portsmouth, in Ohio, at the mouth of the Big Sciota; a considerable stream, said to be navigable upwards of two hundred miles towards the north. Portsmouth is an im- proving place, containing a court-house, a bank, several good tav- erns and stores, with more than one hundred houses, many of them of brick. We could get but few provisions here. Alexandria is situated opposite, on the other side of the Sciota; it is a small place. We found change at those towns very scarce; what there was, was mostly cut-money; that is, when change is wanted, they often cut dollars, half dollars, and quarter dollars into smaller pieces, with an axe or chisel; and some of them are so expert and honest as to make five quarters out of a dollar."*
"The Navigator," an interesting book containing charts of the Ohio River in sections, and a description of the settlements on its banks, was first printed in 1801; but the charts were not inserted until the edition published in 1811. The charts were especially useful to those who traveled by river. "The Navigator" was used as a guide book, and is frequently mentioned in the journals of early travelers. It contains, also, much val- uable historical material, relating to the Ohio River and its tributaries. The Scioto was navigable for small keel boats, according to "The Navigator," "to a portage of only four miles to Sandusky of Lake Erie." Ports- mouth is described as "a village pleasantly situated three-quarters of a mile above the mouth of the Big Scioto on a high bank and containing about thirty buildings, some neatly built with brick, two stores, three taverns and one commission warehouse."
In 1838, a more pretentious book, "The Western Pilot," was published for the use of pilots on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The charts and text are better than those in "The Navigator," but the book is want- ing in the great store of historical fact found in "The Navigator."
*Two Years' Residence in the Settlements on the English Prairie, by John Woods (1822).
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The canal, which had one terminus at Portsmouth, was opened December 1, 1832. "The Western Pilot," in describing the new canal, incidentally gives consid- erable space to Portsmouth. It is predicted that much of the commerce, arising on the waterways between the Allegheny and Rocky Mountains, will concentrate at the mouth of the canal at Portsmouth! A vast commis- sion business was forecast for this city of the future, and it was predicted that its growth would be rapid.
The origin of the name for the city of Portsmouth is involved in obscurity. The United States Geological Survey is authority for the statement that it was named for the city in Virginia. The fact that Henry Massie was a Virginian lends some color to such origin. There is a local tradition, however, that Portsmouth, Ohio, was named for Portsmouth, New Hampshire. This tradi- tion has for its source, the story of a quaint character by name of Josiah Shackford, who came to Alexandria in 1802. When Henry Massie came to Portsmouth, he met Josiah Shackford and they became good friends. Josiah Shackford was born in Portsmouth, New Hamp- shire, and, the story goes, that Henry Massie was re- quested by him to name the new town for the birth place of Josiah Shackford, and Massie complied with the request. The most plausible explanation for the name has its basis in the location of the city on a good harbor, at the mouth of the Scioto. The pioneers firmly believed that the vast commerce that would arise in the future from Pittsburg to New Orleans would center at the mouth of the Scioto River, whence it would be dis- tributed inland to the Great Lakes region by way of Scioto. The future city, in their minds, was destined to be a great port at the mouth of the Scioto. The origin, no doubt, of the name was based upon such considera- tions, rather than upon those of trivial circumstance.
X HOW TITLES WERE ACQUIRED FROM THE UNITED STATES
The story of the French Grant is a story of impo- sition upon French people. Before 1790, an organiza- tion of rogues, operating in Paris, induced many French families to emigrate to the United States, for the pur- pose of making a settlement in the Northwest Terri- tory. These rogues described the lands, which they falsely claimed to own, as being cleared and settled. They represented that frost was almost entirely un- known; that trees spontaneously produced sugar; and that plants yielded ready-made candles.
When these French emigrants arrived at Alexan- dria, Virginia, they learned of the fraud that had been perpetrated upon them. Some immediately returned to France; some established homes in America; while others, from love of adventure and hope of finding a good location, crossed the mountains to the present situ- ation of Gallipolis. Here, they learned that the hard- ships of the new country were severe and that it was not possible for them to obtain a good title to lands. Conse- quently, many of them returned to the populated por- tions of America.
Those who remained prepared a petition to Con- gress and sent it to Philadelphia by Jean G. Gervais. Gervais, who was a man of education and ability, made his appeal to President Washington upon the ground of the assistance that the French had rendered to the colonies during their struggle for independence.
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Through the assistance of Washington, the petition and the efforts of Gervais were successful, and Congress, on March 3, 1795, enacted the legislation, known as the French Grant. By the terms of this act, a tract of twenty thousand acres in Scioto County was set aside for the relief of the French settlers of Gallipolis. The tract was surveyed into lots, containing 217.39 acres each. These lands were assigned to the French settlers by allotment, and patents were issued to them. Such a patent is an instrument, which, under the land laws, conveys the title of the United States. The lands in this Grant are known as French Grant lots. By the same act, four thousand acres were granted to Gervais for his services. These two tracts comprise what is now Green Township. The Gervais tract was laid off in the vicinity of the present location of the village of Haverhill.
When the allotments were made, it developed that eight of the Gallipolis settlers had not been provided for. By the act of June 25, 1798, Congress directed that twelve hundred acres, adjoining the Grant, be set off to them and that patents be issued to them; and this was done.
Only a few of the French at Gallipolis settled on these lands. Five French families, including Gervais, settled on the Grant on March 21, 1797. Gervais estab- lished a settlement where Haverhill is now located, and named it Burrsburgh in honor of Aaron Burr, who had charge of the French Grant bill in the Senate. Ger- vais acquired, under his grant and by purchase from others, four thousand two hundred and seventy acres. He sold all this land for eighty-seven hundred and fifty dollars, disposing of the last of it in 1811.
In 1806, Congress repealed a clause of the original act, which imposed, as a condition to the issuance of a patent, an actual settlement on the Grant by the French.
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This repeal made the patents to the assigns of these French emigrants valid.
All the lands in Scioto County, west of the Scioto River, are in the Virginia Military District. Virginia claimed the Northwest Territory, under a grant from the King of England, and did not cede this grant to the United States until 1783. Prior to such cession, Virginia, granted bounties in lands to the soldiers, sail- ors, and marines of Virginia, who enlisted to serve, either at home, in the Continental army, or on board armed vessels. Among the lands set apart for such bounties, was a tract "on the northwest side of the river Ohio, between the rivers Scioto and Little Miami." In the act and conveyance, making the cession to the United States, this tract and others were reserved for the bounties already granted by Virginia. The acreage of the bounty depended upon the rank of the soldier, sailor, or marine. The lands were surveyed, and passed mostly into the possession of persons who had purchased warrants from Virginians who had served in the Revo- lutionary War. Patents for these bounties were exe- cuted by the President and forwarded to the governor of Virginia, who was empowered to deliver them to the grantees or their assigns. Not all these lands were patented to Revolutionary soldiers, sailors, marines, or their assigns; and such as were not, became, by later legislation, the property of the Ohio State University.
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