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 9
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clothing in rags from brush and brier. Stroup was greatly vexed, but otherwise managed to finish his stock of hats. These men opened a roadway important even down to the present, for the "Old Mead River road" survives, as a public highway.
In the spring of 1802 George Parkinson moved to New Market. He had learned the hatter trade in Pennsylvania, and he and Stroup formed a partnership. They built a hewed log house and roofed it with shingles, the first house of that character built in Highland county. These two hatters were single men and kept bachelors' hall and were compelled to work and cook, and board the men they had in their employ. When their cabin was completed and ready for business, Stroup mounted his horse, rode to Maysville and brought back one hundred pounds of wool, for which he paid one hundred dollars. Their hats had a ready sale, not only at home but abroad, and large numbers were packed upon horses and carried to Chilli- cothe and Maysville from this New Market factory.
The struggles of young Stroup were such as would deter many from persistent effort for success. He left Huntington, Pa., to fol- low his trade as a journeyman hatter, stopping first at a settlement just formed on the banks of the Scioto called Franklinton, early in the year 1798. Stroup helped to lay out the town of Springfield. From Franklinton he went to Chillicothe, and at last drifted into New Market as we have seen.
In 1801 John Gossett built a grist mill on White Oak, two miles south of New Market; a large structure of hewn logs, covered with clapboards, the first mill of its kind within Highland county. John Smith, of Scotland, was the millwright. "Scotch Johnny," as he was called, was not only a man of fair scientific attainments, but is kindly remembered as honorable in his intercourse and dealings with others. He was diffident and sought retirement rather than public- ity. For building this mill he received one hundred acres of land, on which he settled and for the remainder of his days lived upon his farm a quiet, industrious man. It is not regarded as a large under- taking, in this day, to build a mill, but at the time this one was built, it was a large contract, exciting the wonder and taxing the faith of the people in regard to its possible success. All the plank for the forebay, water wheel and other necessary boxes and spouts had to be cut from the solid log with whip-saw, which required great labor as well as considerable skill. Workmen were scarce and the necessary machinery, which was much more difficult to obtain, having to be brought from Kentucky. Gossett made the millstones out of two granite boulders discovered by him in the vicinity, and did the masonry as well as the carpenter work. The work consumed nearly one year, and when the mill was said to be done there was intense excitement and great rejoicing among the settlers, whose hearts were lightened and their homes brightened by the prospect of relief from
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the long and wearisome journey to the falls of Paint for their daily bread. They talked of "our mill" with pride, and paused to listen in their forest journeys, when near its modest presence, to the whir of its water wheel, or the hum of its granite burrs. Some two years after the building of the mill Lewis Gibler came from Shenandoah county, Va., with several other families and settled in the neighbor- hood of New Market. Gibler purchased the mill from Gossett and continued the milling business. It may be said of Gibler that none were more kindly or generous than he. It was his habit when a stranger applied for meal or flour, to ask him if he had money to pay for it. If the answer was yes, Gibler would say: "Go and pur- chase from some one else; my surplus of meal and flour are for those who come into the neighborhood without money, and who, in this condition, might be compelled to go without bread." The history of Gossett was one of energy and endurance, his battle with misfor- tune one of courage and cheerfulness. He resided upon his farm, about two miles south of New Market, up to the day of his death at a ripe old age.
In the summer of 1801 a number of families moved into what is now Brush Creek township. Simon Shoemaker, Jr., and his brothers Peter and Martin, John Hatter, John Fulk, George Suter, James Williams, Jacob Roads, David Evans, George Cursewell, Jacob Fisher, Abraham Boyd, Peter Stultz, Dr. John Coplinger, Captain Wilson, John Roads, came from Virginia; while James. Washburn, James Reed, Leonard Reed, Michael Smiley and John Lowman were from Pennsylvania. This number increased the pop- ulation greatly and added largely to the importance of the Sinking Spring community. Henry Countryman and three sons, Martin, John, and Henry, also came from Virginia in the following year and located near the famous spring. Rev. Benjamin Van Pelt, a Meth- odis preacher from Virginia, was the first minister of that denomina- tion that ever preached in that neighborhood in the year 1802. There was no money in circulation in those days. Coin was almost unknown, and few, if any, had ever seen coin or heard it spoken of. Now and then a traveler would leave a few small pieces at the taverns along the Zanesville and Maysville road. This was horded by the delighted landlords, or kept for exhibition among his friends as evi- dence of his wealth and prosperity.
Capt. James Trimble made his second visit to Highland county in 1801 with his son Allen. Leaving Limestone they followed the trace called the New Market road to that place, reaching Squire Oliver Ross' home in the evening of the first day, and on the second day came to William Hill's on Clear creek. The next morning, while in company with Hill, searching for the lines of Treshley's survey, they came upon a camp of Indians. Hill asked Trimble if he would like to be introduced to Captain John. He assented, and, approach-
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ing the camp, Hill said to an Indian who was sitting down mending his moccasin, "Captain John, this is Captain Trimble from Ken- tucky." The Indian arose to his feet with his piercing black eyes fixed upon the white man and said: "Me know him very well; me Ottoe boy [meaning, of the Ottawa tribe], and go long with Dick- son, make him prisoner. Fight much white man. Make friends now." Captain Trimble was greatly surprised that after a lapse of thirty years the Indian should recognize in the man the mere boy he had taken prisoner in Augusta county, Va. Captain John gave Trimble much information about the country, and delighted his ear with the description of the rich lands in the Scioto bottoms. In the Indian's quaint manner he said, "Good lands-raise heap corn, but sick too much," and he went through a regular spell of fever and ague to explain his words, then said, "Indian came here-hunt-get well-leave squaw hoe corn and shake." This graphic description decided Captain Trimble in favor of Highland county. But this noted soldier and Indian fighter was fated never to enjoy his new home. Returning to Kentucky after another visit to Highland in 1803, having at that time built a cabin upon his land and prepared for his return in the fall of that year, he suddenly sickened and died in his old Kentucky home, leaving to others the settlement and devel- opment of his large estate in Highland.
Rev. Edward Chaney came to Highland county about 1801 and settled upon the land he had purchased some time before upon Clear Creek, a short distance above the Evans settlement. His neighbors were few and scattered, but his Indian friends were many and near at hand. They were of the Wyandot tribe, and, while friendly, were not the most agreeable in manners and character, for a refined and cultured minister of the gospel. Rev. Chaney, however, felt that he ought to instruct these men of the forest in the knowledge of the true God, and soon induced them to come to his house and listen to him preach. While unable to understand all that he said, they knew that he was talking to them of the "Great Spirit," and kept a rever- ent and profound silence while he talked, shaming by their manners the restless and uneasy feeling manifested by the modern congrega- tion of today. After the preaching was over, in perfect silence they left the room in single file to the place of their encampment. Mr. Chaney was the first Methodist preacher in that region, and while not in the traveling connection, did much to advance the cause of Methodism in his large and faithful service as a local preacher. Jesse Chaney, son of the preacher, was then a young man and aided in making the improvements in the county. He claimed to have made the first rails on the spot where Hillsboro now stands, cutting the timber and making the rails at the present crossing of Main and West streets.
Salmon Templin came from the Chillicothe settlement to Highland
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county and Penn township about the same time his brothers Robert and Carey came to Rocky Fork (1801). He lived for many years in that vicinity, a useful citizen and an honest man. The family name is not extinct in Highland county and wherever found gives evidence of that early training, intellectual and moral, that were distinctive features in their pioneer ancestry.
In 1801 John Brown came from Virginia and settled on Rocky Fork, much higher up that stream than any of his neighbors, build- ing his cabin on the face of the hill on the north side of the creek, where afterward he erected a more elegant home. He was a Quaker, in religion, and highly esteemed by the people everywhere. On arriving upon his land he at once began the work of planting an orchard and in a few years had an abundant supply of most excellent fruit. He built himself a cider press, the first in the county, to which his neighbors had free access.
To persons unacquainted with the vast and unbroken forests of the Northwest Territory, it would be incredible that within the pres- ent limits of Highland county a child was lost and that the entire community turned out in search for the wanderer and for fourteen days persisted in the hunt without success. Yet such is the case. Noah Evans says : "In the fall of 1802 word was sent to the Clear Creek settlement from below New Market on a branch of Whiteoak, that a child was lost in the woods, and requested help. All the set- tlers that could possibly be spared turned out to search for the child, each man taking his rifle. They would meet at the place and form companies, would stay and continue the hunt for several days at a time, then return home to see if all was well, then fix up and go back again and renew the search. This was a remarkable case and finally drew out all the people for ten or twelve miles around. The hunters got on the trail of the child and saw signs of it for fourteen days after it was missed. Wild and ferocious beasts were in the woods ; the child was of course unprovided with anything to eat except the berries and nuts that it had the ability and understanding to gather as it wandered about, and utterly incapable of defending itself if attacked. The hunters frequently came to the bed of grass and leaves where it had spent the night and they had reason to believe that it frequently heard the voices and calls of its friends, yet was afraid to answer. They supposed it had become so thoroughly fright- ened and bewildered as to be afraid of everything and everybody. The search, after some three weeks' effort, was finally given up; the child was never found or heard of afterward, and its fate remains a mystery to this day."
George Nichols came from Virginia and settled in Highland in 1802. Joseph Knox, who came with Nichols and lived in his family, was a wheelwright and soon had all the employment he could handle. A wheelwright in those days was a most useful and necessary person.
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His function was to make the spinning wheels that were a necessity in the economy of every cabin home, and which the settlers who brought their household goods upon pack horses could not carry west with them. Knox soon had all the trade to himself and kept it until George Hobson came from North Carolina and "put him up a shop" at the mouth of Clear creek. Hobson was a much better workman than Knox and his reputation spread all over the country as the "little wheel and reel maker." John A. Trimble calls up a pathetic picture of those early scenes when the little and big wheels were honored members in every home. Mr. Trimble has been dead for some years, and thirty years ago, when he wrote, he called the young of his day backward for thirty-five years to see the picture his mem- ory drew. "Who that was a child thirty or thirty-five years ago in southern Ohio," he wrote, "does not sometimes run his mind back to the long autumn evenings in the dear old log cabin on the hillside and see again the picture which the glow of its ample fire in the large fireplace in one end reveals. The father busy in front mending shoes, the eldest boy pounding hominy, the mother spinning on the humming little wheel, while Sally cards, and the younger boys and girls crack hickory nuts and build cob houses in the corner. And who of the sons and daughters of the pioneers does not recollect with swelling heart and moistened eyes that good old mother at whose feet, in company with puss, he sunk down, tired with the constant running of the day, chasing hogs from the fields, watching gaps, chopping wood, climbing trees for nuts or grapes, riding to mill, husking corn, and a thousand other things a boy must do, and was soothed into dreamland by her sweet and plaintive song mingled with the ceaseless half-base of the wheel."
The first settlement in Union township was made by a man by the name of Adams in 1802. He built a five-cornered cabin on Turtle creek, on the land that afterward came into the possession of Robert McDaniel. The fifth corner of this cabin was a fireplace. No one knew whence Adams came or whither he went. His principal occu- pation was hunting, and after a year or two of residence in his quaint home he packed his wife and two white-haired children on his pony and silently disappeared and was never heard of in that country again. Daniel Scott, in describing those early pioneer times, said : "There were two classes of persons who, in the early days of the Northwest, formed the vanguard of advancing civilization, both of whom disappeared at its approach. The first was the regular Indian fighter, the spy, the trapper and hunter, who scorned any labor less noble than that which brought for reward the delicious meat of the buffalo and bear, and the rich peltries of the beaver and the marten. They despised the effeminacy that erected a house for shelter and required bread for subsistence. No sound of the axe, therefore, accompanied their wide and fearless range through the forest, and no
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trace of improvement marked the extent of their explorations. The second partook somewhat of the nature of the first. Indian fighters they were of necessity, if not, as was most common with them, from choice. Hunters they were compelled to be or subsist without meat ; but they at the same time appreciated the value of bread and the com- forts of a cabin with a wife in it. Small clearings surrounded by pole or brush fence, with a little cabin in the midst, evidenced the presence of this class of pioneers on the extreme frontier. They rarely, however, purchased the land on which they settled, or remained long enough to become the tenants of the real owners. Restless and roving in their natures, they soon pulled up and again sought their appropriate and peculiar sphere on the blending ground of civilization and barbarism, where they could but faintly hear 'the tread of the pioneers, of nations yet to be; the first low wash of waves where soon should roll a human sea.' "
In 1802 Thomas Dick left Chillicothe and built his cabin a short distance east of the present town of Marshall, and became a perma- nent resident. That vicinity was then a dense wilderness, with no mill nearer than the falls of Paint. Mr. Dick was the founder of the first Presbyterian church in this region of country, of which church Mr. Dick was a member, worthy and respected by all up to the time of his death. The first school in Marshall township was taught by him in his own house during the winter of 1802. Mr. Dick was of a modest, retiring disposition, and although possessed of a strong and cultivated mind seemed entirely indifferent to the social distinction his talents and culture would confer. Few knew the history of that quiet man, which has been narrated earlier in this volume. After his remarkable experience among the Indians, he moved from the Ligonier valley to Kentucky in 1793; after Wayne's treaty removed to Chillicothe, and later because of sickliness of the locality and the death of his wife, determined to seek health and a home among the hills of Highland. C. G. Dick, his son, was the first white child born in the present township of Marshall.
In 1800 the Head families, from Kentucky, came into Highland and settled near Franklin. Dick, William and Biggar Head spent their lives upon the farm originally settled by them, one of them near Marshall, and the other in Brush Creek township as now known. They reared large families and their descendants were worthy, respectable people, contributing largely to the development of the county in its moral as well as its material advance. Some time after the arrival of the Heads, Joseph, John and Benjamin West came from Virginia and established themselves near Sinking Spring. This West family were connected by ties of blood (first cousins) with the great historical painter, Benjamin West, who, while born in this country was educated and lived most of his years in England.
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Incidentally we have spoken of the presence of the Christian min- ister in the midst of the dangers and deprivations of frontier life. The sacred order constitutes one of the essential elements of the social life. Society can no more exist without it than without some form of civil government. Men must have some religious ritual, the form must exist even where the reality is dead. Men will not con- sent to occupy a place in associated communities without the recog- nized performers of religious rites. Conscience demands them for the living and the dead. Be the rite ever so crude or strange in form, the mother demands it for her new-born babe, and the chil- dren demand it at the obsequies of the parents. There is no stoi- cism, no sullen apathy, so strongly intrenched within its philosophic indifference, but that it is at some time bathed in tears. Human wisdom never erects her temple so high as to be above the tempest. A voice that is oracular must speak to men in the day of their calam- ity, even though the oracle be unheeded in their pride and elevation. A hand that is unseen is looked for to wipe away the tears from the face of sorrow, even though it be unsought amid the sunshine of prosperity. It were no easy matter to measure the influence the pioneer preacher exerted in moulding and shaping the character of that early age. With no human helper, and no meretricious adorn- ment, without wealth, standing alone as God's messenger to the lonely cabins in the wild woods, the preacher with his hymn book and Bible seemed a presence from the unseen world, a voice heard from without, speaking the same words that the Holy Spirit had been whispering within. The first sermon preached in the present town- ship of Marshall was at the home of Biggar Head, by the Rev. David Young, a Methodist, in June, 1802.
The Indians were still quite numerous, camping and hunting along the streams and among the hills of Highland and Pike counties. Brush creek and the Sunfish hills were favorite resorts even after they had moved to their own lands in the northwest part of the State, which had been set apart for them. Every fall they would return for a hunt over the grounds which for years had been their own. Major Franklin tells of an old Indian, called King Solomon, who encamped every fall near the mouth of a branch creek that emptied into Rocky Fork, some four miles east of Hillsboro. He and his companions hunted all over the surrounding country, were entirely peaceable and inclined to be friendly with the whites. Quite a little trade was established between the two races, the Indi- ans anxious to trade bear meat and venison for salt and other arti- cles used by the whites. During the summer of 1803 much alarm was felt over the rumor that the Indians had forsaken the reserva- tion and had started upon the war path. This news spread through the sparsely settled districts of southern Ohio, and the dwellers in the log cabins made ready for defense by fortifying their own homes
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or meeting at the home of some one more central in the neighbor- hood and preparing for defense. The settlers in Highland met at the house of Biggar Head, and after supplying themselves with a good stock of provision awaited the attack of their Indian foes. The house was fixed for defense as strongly as possible, while within were Biggar, Thomas and William Head, Anthony Franklin and Thomas Dick; Mrs. Dick and Mrs. Bigger Head being the only women. The means of defense were four good rifles and two kegs of powder. They remained thus housed for two days when the news was brought that the alarm was false and they returned to their several homes. This alarm caused the settlers about Sinking Spring to meet and make preparation for defense. While there had been perfect peace for eight years, and the Indians had in good faith kept the treaty made with Wayne, still the memory of the cruel character of Indian warfare would revive under the least report of any disposition on the part of the red man to break his promise, and dig up the tomahawk. The Indians had been con- vinced for some time that they were unable to cope with the white man for the repossession of their territory, and, while sullen over their defeat, seemed unwilling to break the peace purchased by the blood of their most noted warriors in their conflict with the whites.
This alarm had its origin in a mysterious murder which has never been cleared up. Captain Herrod, of Kentucky, was among those who settled near Chillicothe in 1796, and was a man of great influence in the community. In the spring of 1803, some men who were out hunting in the vicinity of his clearing, found a body of a man "tomahawked and scalped," which was identified as that of this worthy citizen. It was supposed, from the character and circum- stances of the killing, that it was the work of the Indians. More careful investigation, however, disproved this suspicion. The per- petrator of this dreadful crime was never discovered, though sus- picion fastened upon a white man whom Captain Herrod had defeated in a contest for captaincy of the militia. From this kill- ing grew the startling story of the Indian uprising which so alarmed the cabin settlers remote from the scene of the murder. The excitement. became so intense that Governor Tiffin sent a request to Major Manary, whose residence was upon the North fork of Paint, some distance from the locality of the murder, to raise a body of men and go to the place of the killing, and then to march to the Indian settlements and find out, if possible, what they knew of the murder, and if positive information was gained he was to make prisoner the guilty party. But the Indians were ignorant of the whole matter, and the quiet and peaceful intention of the vari- ous tribes was apparent. When the alarm was first given, the peo- ple on the North fork of Paint were called to Old Town to take measures for defense. Among the number thus called was David
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Wolff, an old hunter and a man of considerable wealth and standing among his neighbors. After Wolff had been in town several days he hired two men, Williams and Ferguson, to accompany him back to his farm to see after his stock. The party went well 'armed. When some two or three miles from Old Town, they saw an Indian approaching them on the same path they were traveling. This Indian proved to be the Shawanee chief Waw-wil-a-way, who had been the old and faithful hunter of General Massie and the life long friend of the white man. He was well known to all the settlers and was honored for his sober, industrious and generous character. He was married, having a wife and two sons, and their home was near the mouth of Hardin's creek in the county of Highland.
Old Town was the trading place for the old chief, and he and his sons had started that morning upon a business visit to the town. He had his gun upon his shoulder and with easy pace was approach- ing the white men. When they met he greeted them most kindly and asked after the health of themselves and families. Wolff asked the chief how he would like to trade guns; the chief answered maybe he would and handed his gun to Wolff to examine it, at the same time taking Wolff's gun. While the Indian was engaged in his examination of the white man's gun, Wolff, who was on horse- back, opened the pan of the Indian's gun and threw out the priming, without the Indian detecting the action. After this cowardly action he handed the gun back to the Indian, saying he would not trade. Wolff and Williams then dismounted from their horses, and asked the chief if the Indians had commenced war. The chief replied, "No, no! the Indians and the white man were now all one, all brothers." They then asked if he had heard of the murder of Captain Herrod by the Indians. The Indian was greatly surprised and said he could not believe it. Wolff assured him it was true. The Indian said: "Maybe whisky, too much drink was the cause of the quarrel." Wolf replied that Herrod had no quarrel with the Indians and that it was not known who killed him. "Maybe bad white man kill him," said the chief. The conversation here ended and the parties separated, the chief shaking hands with all before leaving them. After the chief had gone a short distance, only a few steps, Wolff raised his rifle and taking deliberate aim at the Indian's back fired. The ball passed entirely through the chief- tain's body, but he did not fall though conscious that he had received his death shot. But he did not give up to die, as others would have done under like circumstances. "Caesar, when stabbed to his death by a friend in the senate chamber of imperial Rome, gath- ered his robes about him that he might fall with dignity." Not so with the gallant chieftain of a conquered race. Swiftly he turned with unerring rifle raised to face the foe standing three to one against a dying warrior. Wolff, who was betrayed as guilty of the
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