USA > Ohio > Highland County > The County of Highland : a history of Highland County, Ohio, from the earliest days, with special chapters on the bench and bar, medical profession educational development, industry and agriculture and biographical sketches > Part 6
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THE COUNTY OF HIGHLAND.
of the citizens and at last a meeting was called to take into consid- eration some means of reform. This meeting was held under the shade of a large sycamore tree on the banks of the Scioto. A large crowd attended this meeting and perfect order was maintained while the deliberations were held. After considerable discussion it was agreed that whenever a trader sold whisky to the Indians, or in any way furnished them with intoxicating drinks, he should be com- pelled to keep all the Indians thus made drunk, in his own store- houses until sober. For the first violation of this law the offender was to be reprimanded in a public manner by two persons appointed for that purpose, and for the second offense, their whisky kegs would be tomahawked and the contents poured upon the ground. This was the first whisky legislation by the people of Ohio. This law was disregarded by one of the traders, but the penalty followed so quickly the offense, that the law was regarded as supreme, none dar- ing to violate it. Those early laws were crude but efficient, the law- makers honest and the lawbreaker was sure of punishment. In 1797 Gov. St. Clair appointed Thomas Worthington, Hugh Cochran and Samuel Smith to be justices of the peace for the Chillicothe settlement. Justice Smith did most of the business, and his prompt and decided action made him very popular. His docket no one could understand but himself. He never issued a warrant when he could possibly avoid doing so, but would send a constable to bring the party before him that justice might be administered. Law books were of no authority for him. He justified his own deci- sions by saying: "All laws are intended to secure justice, and I know what is right and what is wrong as well as those who made the laws, and therefore I stand in need of no laws to govern my actions." The following is one of his cases orally reported : Adam McMurdy cultivated some ground on the Station Prairie, below the town. One night some one stole his horse collar. Next morning he exam- ined the collars in the possession of his fellow plowmen then at work, and found it on one of the horses and claimed it. McMurdy went to Squire Smith and stated his case. The Squire sent his con- stable with instructions to bring the collar and the thief forthwith before him. The accused was immediately arraigned, court being held in the open air under the shade of a tree. A Mr. Spear testi- fied without being sworn, that "if the collar was McMurdy's he him- self had written his name on the ear of the collar." The Squire turned up the ear and found the name. "No better proof could be given" said the Squire, and ordered the prisoner to be tied up to a buckeye tree, and to receive five lashes well laid on, which sentence was immediately executed.
The generous inducements held out by General Massie brought a rapid increase to the town of Chillicothe. The rich low lands were laid off in farms of one and two hundred acres and sold for cash,
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THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS.
or on credit, for two dollars per acre. The settlers from the east, unaccustomed to the sight of cornfields so rank in growth that a horse was hidden a few yards away, were delighted with the rich- ness and fertility of the soil, and gladly availed themselves of the privilege to purchase upon such easy terms. The immense growth of timber of almost every variety, sugartree, elm, black walnut, oak, hickory, wild cherry, and hockberry, the undergrowth of spice wood, sassafras and wild plum, the grape vine and the blackberry, all conspired to fill the mind and heart with thanksgiving and song. Beneath all the wild rye, green and luxuriant, mixed with the prai- rie and buffalo clover, furnished abundant pasturage for flocks and herds. The fame of this garden of the world spread to the east and the people were anxious and excited over the prospect of a home in the west. Established landing places upon the river, Marietta, Gallipolis, Manchester and Cincinnati, were convenient resting points for the tired emigrants until they could determine the spot for their western home. The Marietta settlement rapidly extended up the Muskingum valley, and from Gallipolis settlements extended north toward the present city of Lancaster, then the prin- cipal town of the Wyandot nation. Zane's Trace leading from Wheeling to Limestone, run in 1796, passed through the present location of Chillicothe, and was the means of bringing settlers to that place, while the route from Kentucky through Manchester opened the way to the interior of the state. The settlement in and around Chillicothe was the first made in peace, west of the moun- tains. It grew very rapidly and was the central point to which the tide of emigration turned, and very soon became a place of import- ance, and a general resting place for the tired emigrants after the long and slow journey of the wilderness. Here all necessary infor- mation could be obtained in regard to lands unappropriated, and to purchase from the land proprietors suitable homes in the garden spots in the Northwest Territory. From this center the stream of emigration diverged in almost every direction, and very many who afterward became citizens of Highland county, made their first set- tlement near Chillicothe, yet are a part of the history of Highland county because of their long residence and identification with those early years.
All this time, since 1789, what is now Highland county had been part of Washington county, which had for its east boundary the Scioto river. On July 10, 1797, Gov. St. Clair by proclamation established Adams county. It included a great area both east and west of the Scioto river, from the Ohio river north to the Indian treaty line and including the lands of Highland county. Court was first held at Manchester on the Ohio river. The governor appointed commissioners to determine the location of the county seat, who, after some trouble, settled upon a point a short distance
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THE COUNTY OF HIGHLAND.
above the mouth of Brush creek, at a town now known as Adams- ville. This action of the commissioners greatly incensed the good people of Manchester, who kept up such a warm contest over the matter, that it was finally arranged to change the location to West Union, which action was taken in 1804, when peace and quiet was restored to the disturbing elements in the body politic. Long before that, on August 20, 1798, the greater part of Highland had been made part of the new county of Ross, and the seat of justice was established at Chillicothe. The Ross county then established was a great territory. Its east boundary was the west line of the Ohio Company's purchase. The north boundary was the Green- ville treaty line, and the west boundary was a line drawn north from the mouth of Eagle creek on the Ohio river. These lines had been those of the older county of Adams, the northern part of which was set off as Ross. The dividing line was run west from "the forty-second mile tree" on the line of the Ohio company. The old line between Ross and Adams may be found by drawing a line on an accurate state map, from the southeast corner of Vinton county, through the southeast corner of Highland, to the west line of High- land. All of Highland south of that line was in 1798 to 1805 part of Adams county, and all north thereof in Ross county.
CHAPTER IV.
BEGINNINGS OF NEW MARKET AND GREENFIELD.
T HE remarkable prosperity of the new town of Chillicothe, and the probability of the erection of a new county between that outpost and the older town of Manchester, led to the founding of New Market. As it is told in the words of one of the old residents of Highland county," the pioneer in founding the new county seat was Henry Massie, a younger brother of Gen. Massie, who came out from Virginia shortly after Manchester was located and engaged as an assistant surveyor under his brother. In the summer of 1796, while the settlement about Chillicothe was mak- ing, he was engaged in locating and surveying lands on the head waters of Brush creek, in the present county of Highland. The summer and fall of the next year was employed by him in the same way. Most of the rich bottom lands on the Scioto and Miami having been taken up by the early surveyors, he was of necessity confined chiefly to the hill region, then in Adams county, and extending north of Manchester some thirty miles. While making these surveys he became impressed with the beauty of an upland tract which he entered and surveyed for him- self. The land was not rich, but it lay finely and seemed to occupy a position which one day might make it important, and a source of wealth for himself. It was, as near as he could then ascertain, about equidistant from the only located towns in the military district, and, he doubted not, might become the seat of a new county, when it became necessary to establish another north of Manchester. Thus impressed he returned with his company to Manchester about the first of December, and during the winter made a visit to his brother at Chillicothe. He was surprised at the rapid growth of that place and the surrounding country, and at once understood that his brother would become very wealthy by the sale of his lands and town lots. Immediately he determined to lav out a town himself early in the next spring on his previously selected
* John A. Trimble in the Scott sketches published in the Hillsboro Gazette many years ago.
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THE COUNTY OF HIGHLAND.
site, and communicated his project to his brother, who warmly approved the plan and promised him all the aid he could in advanc- ing the enterprise.
On the 5th day of April, 1798, Henry Massie set out from Man- chester with a small company to lay out the town on the uplands. Following the Kenton trace through the dense wilderness, the party arrived on the 7th at the place of their future operations, and camped near a fine spring. The next day they began the erection there of some huts for their accommodation, beginning what was known as Camp Ross. They had brought with them on their pack horses meal, bacon, salt, &c., sufficient for their immediate wants, also axes and implements. The company consisted of Henry Massie, Oliver Ross and his daughter, a girl of fifteen, Robert Hus- ton and another. Miss Ross went as tentkeeper and cook, and was then believed to be the first white woman in the present county of Highland, in consequence of which Massie gave her a lot in the town when it was laid off. Huston and Ross were both Irishmen, who had emigrated only a few years before. Henry Massie had indulged in his dream of founding a town so long that he had become firmly convinced that it would soon rival his brother's already suc- cesful enterprise on the Scioto. He accordingly proceeded to lay the town out on a grand scale. The city of Philadelphia was taken as a model and followed in every detail of the city that was to be. This plan formed the plat into regular squares and intersected the streets at right angles. The two main cross streets were ninety- nine feet wide and all the others sixty-six. The town plat covered four hundred acres, and looked superb on paper. The public square, designed for the court house, contained four inlots, and was the northeast corner at the intersection of the two main cross streets. Each inlot was eighty-two and one-half feet in front, and one hun- dred and eighty-five in depth. One lot was donated for school pur- poses, and an outlot for a cemetery. The town was thus blazed out in an unbroken forest, and as its name Massie selected the title of a favorite village in his native Virginia. So the embryo metrop- olis of the uplands received the name of New Market. After the town was laid out Massie commenced running off the adjoining lands in lots to suit purchasers who were expected soon to appear. While thus engaged Ross and Huston officiated as chainmen. They continued in this service until they had earned sufficient wages to purchase for each a hundred acre lot of land adjoining the town plat.
Having prepared copies of the plat of his town, Massie sent them with a brief description of the country, and a statement of the inducements to actual settlers, to Maysville, Manchester, Chilli- cothe and other places. This brought visitors from all over the country to his encampment the next summer, among whom were
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BEGINNINGS OF NEW MARKET AND GREENFIELD.
Jonathan Berryman and William Wishart, who were pleased with the country. Berryman bought a hundred acre tract adjoining the town plat on the south, and Wishart bought a corner lot in the town. Berryman returned to Manchester, his temporary residence, while Wishart remained and commenced improving his purchase by cut- ting out the trees and brush and building a log cabin, designed for a tavern house. This cabin was the first house erected in the town of New Market, and stood on the lot where now stands the deserted home of Lewis Couch. Wishart was an industrious energetic Scotchman, and soon had his building in condition to serve as a tavern. But the rush of new settlers did not follow in such nm- bers as to crowd the new hotel, small as it was. The fame of the rich land about Chillicothe, and the wonderfully rapid growth of that place, drew most of the immigrants, who had but little respect for oak hills as farming lands, and no dread of fever and ague.
As an inducement to settlers, Massie offered to every man who purchased of him one hundred acres of land an outlot of three acres, and in order to get the country opened up and in a condition for cultivation, he employed men to clear out land adjoining the town plat, giving fifty acres of land for clearing ten. The first year there was no crop raised, and all the breadstuff used had to be brought on pack horses from Manchester. But the settlers and surveyors had little difficulty in supplying their wants from the game which was found in great abundance in the woods. They also found service berries and mulberries in great profusion, and in the fall great quantities of hazel nuts, hickory nuts and walnuts. They had taken cows with them, so that milk was plentiful, and it could be kept cool at the excellent spring near Ross Camp, which was the headquarters of the surveyors, and for a time, until Wis- hart's tavern was opened, for visitors and new comers.
Ross selected his lot of land adjoining the town plat on the east, but made no improvement that year, being constantly engaged as chainman for Massie, who had become principal surveyor in that region and therefore received large numbers of military warrants to locate, chiefly on shares. Joseph Carr, who was a surveyor and land jobber, came to the new settlement during the summer and gave much of his time to surveying lands. When Berryman went back to Manchester, after selecting his land, he intended to return in season to make the necessary preparation for winter, but one of his horses getting crippled, he was compelled to postpone his return until late in the fall. He was a native of the state of New Jersey and had come to Manchester with his wife and effects the previous autumn. When his horse recovered he loaded his few articles of household goods into his light Jersey wagon, and about the first of October set out for New Market. There was no road for wagons, none having passed into the country north, and he followed a pack-
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THE COUNTY OF HIGHLAND.
horse trace until he struck the Kenton trace, which was the route followed by all who had gone to the new settlement. Cutting his way through the woods by day, he camped out at night, using the closely covered wagon to sleep in, his horses hobbled and belled, grazing around, and his dog under the wagon, little disturbed by the howls and hoots of the wolves, panthers and owls. On the eleventh day he arrived safe and well on his land, adjoining the town plat. It was forenoon when they reached the end of their journey, and the day calın, beautiful and pleasant as autumn days often are. Berry- man immediately went to work vigorously with his axe to cut logs for his cabin, while the horses were turned loose to graze on the luxu- riant growth of wild pea vine which was then common all over the hills, and the wife set about preparing dinner, to which she and her husband set down on the ground, carpeted with autumn's variegated fallen leaves, with a peculiar relish. They were at home, though they had neither house nor field, and they therefore doubly enjoyed their simple repast, and the pure cold water from the bubbling spring near by. The labor of preparing the logs and clearing off the ground for the cabin was interrupted a few days after by the straying of the horses. One was found some miles north of New Market, dead, evidently from the effect of a snake bite on the nose. The other horse was probably taken by some strolling band of Indians, as the country some twelve miles north was then pretty thickly set- tled by the Shawanees and Wyandots. But about the middle of November Berryman was ready for the "raising." Men were of course scarce, but what few could be had were kind and neighborly. They turned out, some four or five of them, and by hard lifting man- aged to carry the logs to the place and raise the cabin. The remainder of the work, such as roofing, laying puncheon floor, build- ing the cat and clay chimney, making the clapboards, door, and other work, he was compelled to do himself. After all this he moved in, for while all this work was going on he lived in his wagon. About the first of December it began to rain very hard and continued for some two weeks, so that Berryman could not daub his cabin to keep out the wet and the cold. He was enabled, however, to provide for his future wants by killing a large bear from his cabin door, while deer and wild turkeys could be found in large numbers but a short distance from his home. The weather becoming cold after the rain, Berryman became alarmed, lest he should be unable to chink and daub his house so as to keep out the snow and the cold in the severe weather that was certain to follow. He hit upon a plan to obviate this difficulty by building large log heaps on all sides of his cabin, and after chinking the cracks, fired his log heaps, made his clay mortar, and fixed his home all snug and warm, the heat from the burning logs keeping the clay from freezing, and drying it quickly and even
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BEGINNINGS OF NEW MARKET AND GREENFIELD.
baking it hard. This work was done between Christmas and New Year, and his home was one of comfort and plenty, and stood ten- anted for many years, a pioneer palace where virtue, contentment and religion reigned. Jonathan Berryman planted the first orchard in the present county of Highland. He brought from New Jersey a large selection of apple and peach seeds of choice variety, and planted as soon as possible on reaching his land near New Market. His peach orchard in three or four years was in fine condition, giving an abun- dant supply of the most excellent fruit. Berryman was also a bee man, and soon the hum of those honey-making workers could be heard among the flowers that grew in wild profusion.
In March following the laying out of the town, Oliver Ross, Massie's assistant, came back from Manchester, bringing his eldest son, St. Clair Ross, another son and the daughter, and arrived upon the 16th. They erected a temporary camp on their land east of the town plat and commenced clearing for a corn patch. As yet the town of New Market had no permanent settler. The persons engaged in laying out the town had all returned to Manchester for the winter. Oliver Ross was a comparatively old man, and when he and his sons went on to the ground to commence the clearing, which was on the 17th of March, 1798, he requested St. Clair to take the axe and cut down a sapling. After this was done he handed him a grubbing hoe and requested him to take up some grubs, remarking that he wanted him to have it to say when he became an old man that he had cut the first tree and taken up the first grub in the New Market settlement, which was, except for the settlement of Sinking Spring by Wilcoxon, the first in the present county of Highland. The Ross boys planted four acres of corn that spring, and prepared for future improvement by slashing the timber for fall burning. Their nearest towns were Chillicothe, Cincinnati, and Manchester. They still lived in their camp during the summer. Their carpet, says Mr. Ross, was nature's green earth ; their table a split log with the flat side up, and their standing food was corn meal gruel, thickened with wild onions. Sometimes this was varied by a roast of venison or other game. St. Clair Ross was married to Rebecca Eakins in 1807, by Samuel Evans, a justice of the peace, at the residence of the bride's father, Joseph Eakins, near New Market.
The next permanent settler that came to New Market was Jacob Bean, then came McCafferty, and some others the exact date of whose arrival is unknown. Robert Boyce arrived from Manchester with the first wagon brought out to the settlement of New Market. He sent word he was coming and asked the people to aid him in cutting a road through the woods to the settlement. St. Clair Ross was one of the number that helped open the way. He also helped cut the road
H-5
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THE COUNTY OF HIGHLAND.
from New Market west to the crossing of Whiteoak, thence to Will- iamsburg, or Lytlestown as it was then called.
Soon after the founding of New Market, the town of Greenfield had its beginning. The latter was preceded, and in part brought about, by the advent of Jacob Smith and his brother Enoch, and a party of some fifteen families, from Virginia, in the Scioto valley. They came down the Ohio to Manchester, and followed the trace from that place to the falls of Paint, where the Smiths, being millwrights, determined to abide. Crossing over to the north side of Paint, they prepared to spend the winter at the falls, and being strong handed soon erected a number of cabins, sufficient to house the party. Octo- ber and November were delightful months ; game was very plentiful, and the settlers at the mouth of Paint had raised a very large crop, so that the new comers at the falls found their wants easily supplied. The Virginians made but little effort, during the winter, toward clearing and preparing the land for the spring planting. Instead, they engaged with zest in the delightful pastime of killing deer and bear.
Jacob Smith, however, while others were thus occupied, was pre- paring to establish a mill. He made a visit to Chillicothe to see General Massie, who owned all the land about the falls, and Massie, who contemplated a homestead near the falls, at once made a propo- sition to Smith to give one hundred acres of land for every twenty of his own that was cleared and made ready for cultivation, as well as the first two crops from the cleared land for themselves. After the two crops promised were taken off this land, tenants from the Chillicothe settlement were placed upon it and cultivation and improvement was continued under the supervision of General Massie himself, who began in 1800 the erection of his famous mansion. Meanwhile General Massie joined with the Smiths in building a dam across the creek, and the Smiths built a mill that was an excellent one for that day, and, as afterward improved, took rank as one of the best in the country. Massie also erected a small mill as a convenience for his own tenants.
In 1798 General McArthur, having witnessed the success of Massie's settlement, conceived a like purpose for himself upon a large tract of land, upon the west bank of Main Paint, which he had sur- veyed and located some two years before. He journeyed with a small party through the unbroken wilderness, there being no road open from Chillicothe west, carrying his outfit upon pack horses ; explored his lands, and selected a beautiful sloping spot upon the west side of Paint for a town, which was platted upon a liberal scale, with wide streets intersecting at right angles. He gave to actual settlers both an inlot and outlot. A square-the southwest corner of Main and Washington streets-was donated for a courthouse and jail, and a lot for a burying ground was also given. General McArthur was
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BEGINNINGS OF NEW MARKET AND GREENFIELD.
strongly impressed with the notion that, not far in the future, this place would become the seat of justice for a new rich county, and thus impressed he acted. The town being blazed out, staked off and platted, nothing remained but to give it a name, and the new town was called Greenfield. Possibly the tender memories of other years flooded the soul of General McArthur when he recalled the little vil- lage of that name in Erie county, Pa., where he had spent his boy- hood days, and where his aged father and brothers and sisters were still living, and where, in the churchyard, beneath some weeping willows, the grave of his mother was kept green by tender hands.
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