USA > Ohio > Logan County > The historical review of Logan County, Ohio > Part 4
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HISTORICAL RETHAT OF MOGAN COUNTY.
the Mad river, just east of the present village of Zanesfield.
Some years later he removed to his farm north of New Jerusalem, Where he lived for more than a quarter of a century. and where he died in 1836, aged eighty one years; he was buried on the lot! just south of his residence on the spot alach he had choses for his burial place Ilis body was afterwards removed to Urtena where the State erected a menusent to ris memory.
The Logan County Pioneer Asocia tion has but lately planted a permanent stone to mark the place where he lived and died: and a substantial moment should be planted to mark the place where this pioneer and distinguished soldier rest- ed for so many years "after life's fitful iever was over."
In the war of 1812. Kenton was one of the Brigadier Generals of the Ohio forces. serving under General Harrison, and was conspicuous in all the councils and en- gagements growing out of this final con- test with Great Britain. The government granted him a pension of twenty dollars per month. thus recognizing his long and faithful service to his country. There has been an inclination. in some quarters, to sneer at this grand old veteran and Indian fighter, to call him names and be-little his services ; but I can find nothing in the history of the times nor in his life, to justify such conclusions.
Simon Kenton lived in troublous times and in the midst of contest and con- tliet ; he took part in the onward move- ment which led to the civilization of a continent, and assisted in opening the high- ways to peace, and dedicating the land forever to human liberty.
He was in the advance ghard it is true. and was on the out-posts where the bitter and ruthless warfare of the Indian and the savage made the most strenuous meas- n'es necessary.
He took his life in his hand and with enduring courage led his followers into the conflict- which were to win a perpetu- al peace, and with the great leaders who fought for the establishments of this re- public is entitled to the eternal gratitude of his countrymen.
In his relations with men he was kind, counterus, manly, and at all times con- -Morate of the rights of his fellowmen.
With the form of a giant and the strength of an athlete he was as tender in his affections as a woman, and as gentle as a cluld: mild mannered. blue-eyed. fair skinned. this man who had been in hun- drus of contests with savages and British soldiers, had never perpetrated a cruel or done an unmanly thing.
He was one of the foremost leaders of his time, and in his old days gathered around him his children and his friends, and with a voice full of sympathy mel- loved by age and ripened with the ex- perience of a long and adventurous life. he recounted the stories of the past, and dwelt upon the splendid civilization which had followed in the pathway of the pioneer.
He was buried upon the spot chosen by himself, upon a beautiful knoll over- looking the home in which he had lived for a quarter of a century. There he should have been permitted to rest in the peace he had so long and ardently battled for. surrounded by the friends he had gathered about him, and in the cen- ter of the new civilization he had done so much to form and fashion ; and the spot
32
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF LOGAN COUNTY.
which was his chosen resting place should be marked by his fellow citizens by one of the huge boulders, which would most fitly illustrate the strong character which was fashioned in the midst of the dangers and exposures of the frontier, and of the sturdy manhood, which was a part of the life and being of this grand old pioneer.
SIMON GIRTY.
Another character who figured con- spicuously in the early history of Logan county, was Simon Girty, commonly call- ed the Renegade. Ile was a white man, born in Pennsylvania, and when a boy was captured and carrid away by the Senecas and adopted into their tribe. This must have been as early as 1760, for in 1764, at the close of Pontiac's war, he was delivered to Colonel Bouquet as one of the hostages of the Indians. Ile escaped and returned to his Indian friends. At the conclusion of peace between the French and English, Girty was compelled. by the terms of the treaty with the Sene- cas, who were required to deliver up all captives, to return to the white settlements. He took part in the Dunmore war in 1774. on the side of Virginia, and became at that time a friend and acquaintance of both Colonel Crawford and Simon Kenton. He became an officer in the militia, and was an applicant for a captaincy in the Regular Army: his failure to secure this coveted position, it is said, had much to do with his desertion to the enemy in 1778.
ing. and his life among the Indians, had much to do with his desire to return to the wild life and the freedom of the plains, for it is an indisputable fact that in almost every insta: ce the white children captured and adopted into the Indian tribes re- fused to return to civilization when oppor- tunity was offered.
Girty had been adopted by the Sene- cas, and was recognized by them as a member of their tribe. After his return in 1778, he was employed in the Indian department by the British commander, and was assigned to duty as a special agent with the Wyandots and Shawonoes. He took up his residence for a time among the Wyandots. at Upper Sandusky. and became one of their influential counselors. Shortly after he came to the Shawonoe and Mingo villages on the Mad river, and it is certain that he was in these towns at the time of Kenton's capture in 1778, and it was at the town of Wapatomica, and in the council chamber at that place. he made his eloquent appeal for the life of his old friend Simon Kenton.
Girty became a terror to all the sur- rounding country and like the bogy-men was used by the mothers to frighten their children.
While he has been maligned and tra- duced by almost every historian from that day to this, I am inclined to the belief that Girty was no worse than many of the other renegades who took the side of Great Britain in the struggle in which the people of America were battling for freedom : every Tory in the Revolution was a renegade and deserved the contempt and hatred of mankind.
Accompanied by McKee. Elliott and some ten or twelve other soldiers he es- caped from Pittsburg to Detroit. It is Girty had the excuse of having been more than probable that his carly train- bred at least in the camps and the homes
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HISTORICAL REVIEW OF LOGAN COUNTY.
of the Indians, and was by culture and in- stinct an Indian. I have no wish to justify him but I want him to be classed with all the other renegades who deserted their country in these times of peril. and who gave their aid and countenance to the enemies of liberty.
That Girty had good qualities as well as bad. must be recognized by his deter- mined defense of Simon Kenton: his appeal to his Indian friends upon that oc- casion has always been recognized as one of the master pieces of oratory in the In- dian Council Chambers : and that he ex- ercised great influence among the Indians is unquestioned.
He was present at many of the bat- to do. tles between the whites and the Indians, notedly Sinclair's defeat, and at the bat- tle of the Fallen Timbers, in 1794: it was Girty and his five hundred Indian follow- ers that surrounded and besieged Ft. Henry when Betty Zane made her dar- ing and successful dash for the powder in the cabin outside the fort.
After the treaty of Greenville, in 1795. Girty retired to Canada and never again appeared in the country lying south of the river.
His name and fame has for a century been one of infamy and crime, and yet this man had many good qualities, and now and then the spark of human nature flashed with kindly sympathy for his fel- lowmen.
HIe has been denounced time and again for not saving Colonel Crawford from his untimely fate ; but it is doubtful if any influence Girty might have been able to command, would have been of service to this unfortunate prisoner, and commend it to after generations.
no appeals, however eloquent, would have touched the hearts of his infuriated cap- tors.
It was a part of the awful fate of In- dian warfare, and the desperate hazard of battle, that had condemned Crawford to the stake, and it is more than likely that it would have been as much as Gity's life would have been worth to have at- tempted to interfere; at least we may be content with the belief that there was still within the bosom of the man who so earnestly and eloquently defended and saved his friend Simon Kenton, enough of the milk of human kindness, to have rescued Crawford had it been within his power so
That the sympathy for Crawford was deep and sincere was unquestioned; upon the other hand the dislike and hatred of his chief Lieutenant Williamson was in- tense, not only upon the part of the In- dians but upon part of many of the whites; Williamson had murdered the Mora- vians in cold blood, and bad shown him- self to be a brutal and unfeeling wretch. and a disgrace to the uniform he wore. Had it beer Williamson instead of Craw- ford. captured at the Sandusky, it is doubtful if the sympathies of very many would have been extended even had he been compelled to suffer the tortures en- dured by Crawford; but Crawford was suffering for the crimes and infamies of Williamson, and neither Girty nor any other could have saved his life.
Simon Girty was a renegade, and as a renegade he will go down in history, leav- ing behind a memory that has little to
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HISTORICAL REVIEW OF LOGAN COUNTY.
CHAPTER III.
EARLY SETTLERS-JOB SHARP-BUR RETTE THE MCCULLOCHS- SOLOMON MARIA -SAMUEL MICOLLOCH BUS. GEORGE M'ONTOCH- JAMES M. WORK MAN -- COL. PANTHE WORKMAN-SEN. JOHN A SPLENDID ANCESTRY.
With the conclusion of hostilities be- tween the whites and the Indians, and the treaty of Greenville in 1705. the tide of immigration turned westward : it was not however uitil a later date that the great out-pouring of humanity came to mix and mingle in that particular part of Ohio in which Logan county was after- wards to be marked out and established.
Many adventurous and most desirable settlers however, came to find in these out-posts of western civilization homes for themselves and their children. and from these carly families we find names which became closely inter-woven with the his- tory and developments of this portion of Ohio.
JOB SILARP.
Among the very earliest of these set. tlers was Job Sharp, who came from Vir- ginia and settled in the eastern part of Logan county, now Zane township, in ISO1, with his wife and three children, and his brother-in-law Carlisle Haines.
He was a native of New Jersey, but had removed to Virginia, and from Vir- ginia came to this Ohio country; he ar- rived on Christmas day (801, and thus with the exception of those who had been here in connection with and during the Indian occupation, was the first white man to cast his fortunes with the opening up of the new country.
Ile was a most useinl and progressive pioneer, and did much towards the clear- ing up and the up-building of the new country. He planted the first orchard. .d. what was at that day still more im- portant, in 1805. built the first grist-mill: it was but a rudely constructed affair, with millstones dressed from native boulders, but it answered the purpose of these early settlers and they soon came from far and near to become patrons of Sharp's mill.
What this meant to the early settlers can hardly be understood by those living in the present day.
The usual method of preparing corn for food was by cracking and crushing it in mortars, or other rough methods; it was only at best but a coarse meal, some- times called grits, and the amount of la- bor necessary to prepare a sufficient quan- tity for even a small family was very great, and generally required the entire time and labors of some members of the household.
The Indian name of corn was "samp," and I distinctly remember, when a boy, of having visited one of the rude mills of the Pequot Indians, in New England. called "samp-mortar;" it was simply a large round hole drilled or cut in the top of a large boulder and about the size of an ordinary camp kettle, and would pos- sibly hold about one bushel of corn: into this mortar the Indians placed their corn and pounded it with a stone pestle until it was of such fineness as would enable them to use it in cooking. I saw this method still in use in the early days of the Civil war in the mountains of West Virginia, where the natives by this slow and laborous method. prepared "grits" for their daily use. It can therefore be casily
35
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF LOGAN COUNTY.
#flerstood why the settlers ist and near and were gathering a most desirable com- Woold come and bring their cor to have munity of citizens in that section, other portions of the county were being settled In people from other states. it ground at Sharp's inill, and thus reheve them from the daily drudgery of preparing In the slow method of the mortar and pestle the corn necessary for family use.
Job Sharp was a Quaker and was the advance guard of that splendid gathering oi Quakers that settled the head-waters of the Mad River and the Darby, and he- came in after years the very bone and sinew of our great northwest.
The settlement of Job Sharp was soon followed by cumerou- families of Quak- ers. coming from Virginia, and drawn hither by the opportunities offered, and that spirit of progress and adventure so distinctly a part of those early times. Among these families we find the names of John Sharp. Thomas James. Levi Garwood. Daniel Garwood. Joshua Sharp. Joseph Stratton. Joseph Curl. Joshua Ins- keep, Joseph Stokes. John In-keep, the Bishops, the Evans, Ballinger-, Warners. Cowgills. Outlends, and many others nearly all of that sturdy Virginia and North Carolina Quaker stock which did so much to bring the wilderness under subjection and to transplant the gentle refinement, and the kindly spirit of Chris- tion sympathy into these valleys and be- side these streams of Logan county.
Here in Zane township in 1857. the first church in Logan county was erected by these Quaker people, and dedicated to that religious belief which had inspired the teachings and consecrated the life of William Penn.
While the carly settlers in the east- ern part of the county were following the foot prints of Job Sharp and his family. through the snow of that winter of 1801.
In 1802, Thomas Antrim, who had in Virginia married Phebe, a daughter of Job Sharp, and had removed west to Chil- licothe. came to join his father-in-law on the Darby. Hle was a blacksmith and at the same time a Quaker preacher and most excellent citizen. He was especially active in the matter of the building of the first Quaker church, and his son Daniel, boin June 9th. 1805. was the first white child born from the incoming pioneers.
John Sharp, a brother of Job, followed in 1863, and this community began to grow and prosper. 1549092
Around the cabin of Isaac Zane in and about Zanestown and near the head waters of the Mad river, another settle- mient of Quakers was being made, and as early as 18c6, we find the Marmons, the Browns, Martins. Reams, Antrims, Me- Collochs, the Johnsons, the Williams, the Pickerells, Randalls, Moots, Greens, Pax- tons. Athys and the Newsoms, contribut- ed by New York, Pennsylvania. Kentucky, Virginia and other states were adding to the substantial population of the county.
In the southern portion of the county and along the Macachack and the Mad rivers came the Piatts, Newells, Blacks, MeBeths. Kellys. Millers, Whites, Crock- etts. Taylors. Duuns, Enochs, and a host of strong ard splendid specimens of man- hood and womanhood to aid in the dedi- cation of this new and most promising ter- ritory to freedom. In the western and central portions of the county were the MePhersons, Reeds, Taylors, Tulles, Powells, Krouskups, Shelbys, Workmans,
36
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF LOGIN COUNTY.
MeClouds, Newells, and McCullochs.
were it after years to become the very many of whom had been in the county, centers of loyalty and patriotism. and had been part of its population while yet the block-houses were most conspicu- ous for their purpose to keep peace, and to maintain friendly relations by force if it should become necessary.
The northern sections of the county, counted among the early and most sub- stantial settlers, such names as the Bells. Greens, Fassetts, Wilsons. Thorntons, Roberts, Hathaways, Bates, Kellers, Curls. Earlys, Lukens, MeCrarys, Antrims, Fish- ers, Harrimans, Rosebrooks, Ansleys, Hat chers, Skidmores, Me.Adams, Suttons and Stewarts.
The improvements were of the rudest and most primitive character. the log cabin made a most substantial home for the early settler and his family. and he found in the forests the game necessary for his table; there was a widespread and most generous hospitality: the cabin door stood open for the traveler or the vis- itor, and the smoking bread, baked in the dutch oven on the hearth. offered to every comer the welcome of the house- wife's most generous provision. It was a day when with peace came those who had shared the dangers and the hardships of the Revolution and they found in these ont-posts of the frontier the peace and plenty they had dreamed of amidst the struggle for independence.
It was fortunate for the future of this great commonwealth that these men, who had borne the heat and peril of the bat- tle, had come to assist in its up-building ; it was still more fortunate that these women of the Revolution were content to assist in turning these forests and prairies into the quiet and loving homes which
Slowly but surely these scattered set- tlement- grew and formulated themselves into protective communities; and about these early habitations there was formed such a cluster of social and family re- lationships that the blood of Virginia and the blood of New England is being transmitted through after generations, proud alike of their ancestors and of their achievements.
FIRST WHITE CHILD.
It has been claimed that Daniel An- trim was the first white child born in Lo- gan county. June 9th. 1805. I knew him for very many years as a most estimable citizen and entertaining and companion- able gentleman. He had a whole store- honse of information concerning the early settlement and was a man of wide infor- mation and much experience.
For many years he lived a neighbor to General Simon Kenton and was especially fond of relating stories of interest con- cerning this old pioneer.
He has repeatedly told me of Kenton's splendid carriage and handsome physical proportions, of his gentle and sympathetic nature, and his kindly treatment of all with whom he came in contact. He was present at Kenton's burial and was among the real mourners who stood about his grave.
ROBERT ROBITAILLE.
Another of the early settlers of Lo- gan county was Robert Robitaille, a French Canadian, who must have come to Logan county as early as 1793 or 1794.
Ile came from Montreal and brought
37
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF LOGAN COUNTY.
with him a stock of goods and established " trading post at the Wyandot village of Zane-town: his store or trading post was situated just south of the hotel for- merly kept by the Browis, and on the site wow occupied by the stable of that hotel; Vis stock of goods consisted of such ar- viele's as were usually brought into the In- drm country for sale. not only to the whites but to the Indians as well.
Ile was a thrifty, energetic and suc- cessful business man, and came of a good family in Montreal. That he was a man of good address and highly esteemed and commended himself to the people among whom he had cast his fortune and es- tablished his business, was evidenced by the fact that in 1708 or 1799. he married Flizabeth. the youngest daughter of Isaac Zane. Ile prospered in business, and about the time of the settlement of John Gunn. south of Bellefontaine. he con- clusled to remove his store or trading post to Gunn's stand, where he died shortly after, leaving a widow and two sons. Robert and James Robitaille.
Ile was buried in the cemetery near Gunn's tavern .. on the Ludlow road, about one and a half miles south of Bellefon- taine. His widow afterwards married James M. Reed.
As late as 1876 in company with his son, Doctor James Robitaille, of Mon- treal. I visited this burial ground and we discovered his grave with a rude wooden head board still standing, marking his resting place. It was the purpose of his son to erect a more substantial monu- ment to his father but he died shortly after returning to Montreal, and his pur- pure was never carried into effect.
Robitaille was unquestionably the first
merchant or trader in Logan county, and his store commanded a wide and extensive custom.
His young sons. Robert and James. after the death of their father, and after the marriage of their mother, went to live with James M. Reed until after the death of their mother. when they were taken by an uncle to Montreal: they crossed Lake Erie on the first steamboat plying on the lakes, called The Walk-in- the-Water, and Doctor James Robitaille informed me that when they started for Canada with their uncle, the axmen were just cutting the hazel brush and timber out of the streets of Bellefontaine.
Robert Robitaille, the eldest son, went at a later date and joined the Wyandots in the west. where he died some years since. Dr. James Robitaille became quite a distinguished citizen of Canada, and at one time served as Treasurer General of Canada: he left quite a family in Mon- treal all highly esteemed: his son-in-law, Professor Archambault is the head of the college on Mount Royal and is recognized as one of the distinguished educators of Canada.
THE MCCOLLOCHS.
Three of the early settlers of Logan county were the three brothers, William. Solomon and Samuel McColloch. They were born in Berkeley county, Virginia, and came to Logan county about 1803. They belonged to an old and influential family and were the neighbors and friends of the Zanes, in Virginia, and thus were induced to try their fortunes on the frontier. Ebe- nezer Zane. the founder of Wheeling. mar- ried a sister of the McCullochs. William Mc- Colloch, in company with Jonathan Zane
HISTORIC. ME RETIENS OF LOGAN COUNTY.
and John Melviyic, a son-in-law of FLen ezer Zane, assisted Ebox or Zane in en ting the road from Whoing to Maysville in Kentucky, by way of Zanesville Wil- liam in company with one Crooks, leased the ferry at Zanesville and kept it for four of five years: he married Nancy, the eldest daughter of Isaac Zane, early in 1807, and hved until about 1803 in Zanesville, when he removed to Logan county and settled on the land now occupied by Joseph Shoots, south of Zanesfield, for I find that he voted at the election in Zane township in 1806. His son. Noah Zane MeColloch, was born on the 7th day of April. 1708, and was the first white child boin in Zanesville. Muskingum coun- 13. William McColloch was a man of great prominence in the new country, and appears to have been closely identified with all mat- ters connected with the advancement of pub- lic interests; he was a justice of the peace and otherwise recognized by his fellow cit- izens.
In the war of 1812 he raised an indepen- dent company of scouts and commended them as captain: he was killed in the fight with the British under General Brock and the Indians under Tecumseh, at Browntown on the present site of Detroit; he leit a family of four sons and three daughters.
SOLOMON MC COLLOCHI.
The second brother was for many years one of the most prominent and distinguished citizens of Logan county, and in the very first election in Zane township in 1800, he was chosen as one of the first three com- missioners of Champaign county.
Ile afterwards occupied many places of trust and importance and was the first Di- rector of the town of Bellefontaine. having been appointed by the court for this purpose.
hits and Received the dettepelle the lots from the original properties a i brought the lot to sale at will elastico
Herengined in Logan county total com time in 1832 always being attp online incent, when the western fever au ml cena i him. and he removed to hidron, where og d'ed some years later.
Miller Kenton, a son of Grupy Show Kenton, married a daughter of Solomon MeColl. ch: Colonel James M. Workmar married another daughter.
SAMUEL MC COLLOCIL.
A younger brother of Willem and So' caron. Samuel McCulloch, came with In- brothers to Logan county in 1803. and set tled in what is now Monroe township: there came with him his son. George, at that time aleut fifteen years of age: Samuel Me- Colloch is the head of the family of Mecat- lachs, represented by the Rev. George Me- Collach.
That he was a man of great character and standing is evidenced by the fact th . he was a representative in the legislature in 18co from Champaign county, which at tl .. time included Logan and Clarke counties within its boundaries: he was an officer in the war of 1812. being a lieutenant in the company of his brother. Capt. William McColloch: he lost an arm during the war, and was one of the pensioners on the early rolls of Logan county.
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