USA > Ohio > Champaign County > The history of Champaign and Logan counties : from their first settlement > Part 27
USA > Ohio > Logan County > The history of Champaign and Logan counties : from their first settlement > Part 27
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37
The moral and religious tone of feeling among the citizens of those days in many parts of the county, could not be said to be pre-eminent, though a very kindly state of feeling prevailed amongst the people. The first religious service I now recollect of hearing, was held at the house of old Father Henry, by the Rev. Joshua Inskeep, a Methodist local preacher residing in the east part of the county. The people at this meeting were well-behaved an ! attentive. Father Inskeep continued to hold meetings and preach to the people in different parts of the county for several year in
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succession, doing much good in the name of the divine Master among the people wherever he went. A few years later, the Rev. John Gutridge, a Baptist minister came and settled in the village of Zanesfield, and built up a prosperous church which was dedi- cated as "Tharp's Run Church." This was a place resorted to by many professing Christians from a distance as well as by the peo- ple of the surrounding neighborhood. Society began to assume a, higher tone throughout the country, and several religious de- nominations established churches and schools in many parts of the county.
EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF NANCY STEWART.
BY MRS. S. M. MOORE.
The subject of this sketch was a half-blood Indian, born of a fair and beautiful white woman, who had been taken prisoner by the Indians in Virginia, when but a child nine years of age, while out gathering blackberries.
Her name was Margaret Moore. She was carried off by them to their home in the Indian country, far from any white settlement ; for according to history, the whole country between the great lakes and the Ohio was an unbroken wilderness, inhabited only by the red man and the beasts of the forest.
She lived with them until she became the wife of one of their chiefs. (Blue Jacket, or Capt. John, I think he was called.) By him she had a son, whom she called Joseph.
After the close of the French and Indian war with the colonies, there was an exchange of prisoners between the whites and Indians. Her husband, whom she said she dearly loved, permitted her to return to her people on a visit, on the promise of returning to him again, which she fully intended to do. He kept the boy, Joseph, the more fully to insure her return. But when among her friends, they positively refused to let her return to her Indian home.
Nancy was born in Virginia, and never saw the face of an Indian except when she looked in a mirror, until they moved out to the State of Ohio, which was probably about the year 1804-5. She had married a man by the name of James Stewart. They settled on . the Miami river, in what is now Logan county, a short distance be-
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low Lewistown, on land now owned by John H. Moore. I well re- member when she and her mother visited at my father's house when I was quite a child.
There was a great contrast between mother and daughter. The mother was a handsome old lady of some sixty years or upwards. Nancy had decidedly Indian features, and was badly marked with small-pox. She had four children, Elizabeth, Henry, Margaret and John. Her Indian son Joseph came to see them about the time of the war of 1812. He was brought up by his father among the Indians, and was a pretty fair specimen of the aborigines of the wild woods-dressed in their style, with buckskin leggins and moccasins, a blanket belted around the waist, and silver brooch for fastening over the breast. He had been subjected to the cruel and barbarous custom of cutting the rim of the ear from top to bot- tom so as to hang apart from the ear, suspending a weight thereto for the purpose of making it distend as much as possible while healing.
He had but one of his cut, for the reason, he said, that they could have but one cut at a time, as they could lay only on one side. Be- fore his one ear got weil, he got out of the notion of having the other cut. It is supposed that he fought with the British and In- dians in the war of 1812, as he went away and never came back here again.
Nancy's children never married. The family, James Stewart, grandmother Moore, Nancy and perhaps some of the children be- longed to the Christian Church at what was called the Muddy Run Meeting House, on Madriver, below West Liberty, and there they were buried.
BELLEFONTAINE FORTY YEARS AGO.
BY WILLIAM HUBBARD.
Though quite old enough for most purposes, the writer hos not attained the years of a firstrate reminiscent; Judge Mecallech whose mind is as clear as a bell and exact as a chronometer (6 antedate me the full fourth of a century. He is an oney lop fish" local history ; and, without quitting his room, could write a : 1- ume of inestimable value from the resources of memory alene. 00 can narrate the story of Logan county " in the beginning" if ol which he saw, and part of which he was." Noi a till los Tie cleared, nor a house built of date so remote as to be lost the pale of his recollection. His reminiscences of persons of dhde- culiar class who seek the adventure and court the privatis w Jp in the wilderness, would be of great interest now mot n ther. He knew Tullis and Powell, the proprietors of Ballet umdie .: be knew those rough characters, the Frakes', the Cooper, anil ine semi-barbarous denizens of the "Fallen Timber ;" he Liew Ibut remarkable man, Lewis Davis, and the weird and mystorou "old Blaylock," and the heroic Simon Kenton. All of these char co. and many more, to the writer of this article, are merely iradilinh. ary.
It was in October, 1832, that I came to Bellefontaine to leun the printer's trade, with Hiram B. Strother. The office was then In the second story of the old jail building, a room unnecessarily large, which had been used temporarily as a court room, at sofie preceding time. The county offices, though not then ceenpal au such, had been in the western part of the building, on the une
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floor with the printing office. We had scant and badly worn fonts of "small pica" and "bourgeois" type. The paper was about half the present size of the Examiner, and was printed on a wooden (Ram- age) press, requiring two "pulls" to each side. The printers were Hiram Strother and David Robb, a youth of seventeen. The ink was put on the "forms" with "balls" made of buckskin and stuffed with wool. Young Robb beat a peculiar sort of tattoo on the types with his "balls,' while Hiram, then in the flush of young man- hood, joyous and hopeful, worked the press, and sung the "Star Spangled Banner."
Robert A. McClure occupied one of the vacant offices as a paint shop. I was an earnest "Clay man," and McClure annoyed me by singing incessantly-
"Hurrah for gallant Jackson, The British turned their backs on- He's ready still for action. (h. Jackson is the boy!"
When not singing he whistled the hated air, shrilly as he only could whistle. When he learned that it annoyed me, he took mis- chievous and renewed delight in his favorite melody. He was an excellent man, whom I respected in after years, but as a boy I thought he was sadly deluded in his choice of a President.
The "old Court-house" was then new. Indeed, it was unfinished. The scaffolding was still about the spire. George Shuffleton was the carpenter and contractor. The roof was then in progress of painting, and the workmen had precautionary ropes about their bodies to gard against the contingency of sliding. One Moses Bon- ham (au honest, good fellow, known as Magnum Bonum) was one day painting, when the rope became detached from his body, and he began moving toward the perilous edge with alarming velocity. Fortunately the rope followed him, and he caught it just in time to avert a catastrophe.
Joseph R. Swan was presiding Judge of the circuit when the old Court house was new. He had a great reputation, even in those early years ; and, save only Lawrence, none of his successors have possessed equal learning and ability. The home bar was then represented by Hiram McCartney, Anthony Casad, Win. Bayles, and Samuel Walker. McCartney was a dull, slow man, but had great energy, boundless ambition, and the most intense self-appreci- ation. He was an indifferent speaker, with an unpleasant lisp im
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his utterance. But he surmounted all obstacles, and put himself at the head of the bar, a position he retained through life. Casad was a good advocate, and his hosts of friends supplied him with business.
Baylos had the reputation of talent, but he made little avail of it. In personal appearance he resembled Tom Corwin as closely as Fielding Beddow did Michael. Walker was a Jusdre of the Peace, and did little in court. He was an Abolitionist, and am Anti-Mason, and, in religion, a Seceder. Of course, at that time he was unpopular. But he was an excellent man, whose memory the writer has much reason to venerate.
The Springfield and Urbana bars were represented at every term, as, indeed, they continued to be for twenty subsequent years, by John H. James, Moses B. Corwin, Charles Anthony and Samson Mason from the beginning; and afterward by Win. A. Rogers and John A. Corwin. I recall General Mason, with that imperial and yet wholly natural dignity of his, which became him as a well-fitting garment ; a dignity might well be called a talent. and was a rhetorical if not a logical force; Colonel James, who-e vast legal learning was fitly seconded by elegant language and admirable oratory ; Rogers, sitting with closed eyes, the most un- obtrusive and unassuming man in the Court-room, and vet to one or another of his marvelous acquisitions, in many specialties of the law, deferred to by every member of the bar; John A. Cor- win, erratic, meteoric and transient, passing from human sight forever, even while men wondered at his brilliance.
Of the lawyers, and they are many, who have since attained eminence at the same bar, and who are still living and in full practice, I shall not speak. Some youth, whose chin is not "rough and razorable," will, when he has become a gray-beard like my- self, speak of them when he can do so without the imputation of invidiousness.
The physicians forty years ago, strange to say, were Lord and Brown, who are yet living, and in practice. There may have been other physicians whom I do not remember. There were many afterward; but these gentlemen early attained and have kept through that long lapse of years the utmost confidence of the people, in all the qualities that compose the trustworthy phy - sician and the good citizen.
The county officers, so far as I can remember, were as follows
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Clerk, N. Z. McColloch ; Auditor, George Krouskop ; Treasurer, Thomas Armstrong ; Sheriff, Peter Kelley ; Recorder, B. S. Brown.
Isaac S. Gardner kept a store in a two story frame building, where the Metropolitan now stands. R. S. Canby had a stock of goods in an old frame house, the end to the street, on a lot where he subsequently built a two story brick. Robert Casebolt and Walter Clement had a store in a brick building, where the " Lo- gan House" now stands. The building was then on a hill, which, in the subsequent progress of the town, was cut down. "Jack Mays," then, or soon afterwards, kept a store in the brick corner, since known as the Lowe building.
A two story frame then, and long afterward, stood on the corner where now is the Riddle and Rutan building. General Workman, I think, then kept a hotel there, which soon afterwards passed in- to the hands of Daniel C. Moore. "Bill Bull" kept a tavern in am old building, opposite the present stand of Capt. Miller.
J. W. Earle & Co .- the senior member a reserved and mysterious man, kept a grocery on the old Rhodes' corner, where the Law- rence aud Watson building now stands.
Robert Patterson, Esq., then lived in the brick row, south of the Court House. The building at the east of the lot, as also the frame adjoining, were built afterward.
John W. Marquis lived on the lot now owned by Louis Holzer ; Thomas Coen lived in a two story frame on Main street, adjoining Gardner's store; Abraham Elder lived in a log house on the Leonard corner ; Mr. Hedges lived in a house standing where that of Mr. Shurr now is. I remember when his son, Henry E. Hedges, came home to spend his college vacation. He is now a distinguished lawyer of Circleville. Next door to Hedges lived William Cook ; and just across the street, in a small brick, Wal- ter Clement. The adjoining row of frames was then in progress of erection.
But it would be unprofitable, even if space did not forbid and memory fail, to specify all the residences of citizens. One noted place, however, must not be forgotten. In the property afterward · owned by Michael Smith, Thomas Haines kept a tavern, widely known as the "Golden Lamb," from the fact that the sign bore, -in gilt, the outward semblance of that emblem of innocence .-
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But the tavern was anything else than a seminary of virtue, or a conservator of morals. Haines was a amall man with a swarthy skin, and a dark, piercing eye. He was always carefully dressed, and painfully polite In conversation. He was a man of shrewd natural sense, but illiterate.
I recall, without effort, the noted characters and leading citizens of town and country.
Here is rough and rugged John Workman. He has the unfail- ing knack of seizing an offender by the windpipe, and there is no release from his grasp, until the protruding tongue makes dumb appeal for deliverance. Here is good old Davy H-, who has but one fault-a fondness for drink. Ile knows it is an excellent thing to have a giant's strength, but always feels that it is cruel to use it as a giant. He is the most penceful of men. Once, how- ever, we saw a bully twenty years his junior, provoke the old man beyond endurance, when, seizing the offender by the arnis with those great hands of his, he dashed him to the earth, and getting astri le of him, shouted with characteristic vehemence, and repetition of utterance: "Eli! Eli! Eli! Don't want to hurt you-don't want to hurt you !" And he didn't hurt him, releas- ing the bully uninjured in person, but wofully lowered in self- esteem. Hitched at a neighboring raek is Davy's wonderful bay stallion, Hector-a miracle of gentleness. No matter how intoxi- cated the old man becomes, he may safely mount his horse. Hoc- tor goes slowly as long as Davy sticks on; if Davy falls, Hector
immediately stops until his master climbs into his saddle again - all the time talking, and the horse seeming to comprehend .- Here is Isaac Clemens, one eye gouged out in a fight, a black and greasy patch over the sightless socket, giving him a most sinister look. Here is simple old Peter Watkins, with a strabismus which imparts to his countenance the most absurd expression that was ever won by mortal man. Tom Carpenter has only two drams ahead, and is not yet particularly quarrelsome. Apart from the crowd, stands giant and gentle Tom Colvin, with a smile on his face, bare-headed, bare-footed, and his shirt collar thrown open. It is but a little while since he was insulted by the noted black-leg and ruffian, George Pennington ; but he kicked him with his bare feet, until the wretch begged mercy for God's sake.
Hiram Strother, the soul of honor, glowing with kindness, and generous to a fault; good and gruff George Krauskop, with pir in
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mouth, wending his way to or from his office; Jacob Krouskop, armed with his goad, driving his ox-team, loaded with sand or sugar wood; N. Z. MeColloch, up with the lark, and out in the early miorn, summer and winter, without coat or vest; Tommy Armstrong, genial and kindly when you knew him, but with an austere and repellant look ; Isaac and Robert Gardner, behind the sounter, busy weighing and measuring; Samuel Newell, in plain- øst garb of homespun, shaking hands with everybody, and intent on keeping his seat in the Legislature; Hiram McCartney, tall and erect, walking with a pre-occupied air to and from the Court House ; Tony Casad, chatting and laughing, with a joyous word for every one; Richard Canby, my especial wonder for the extent of his knowledge, and the easy and elegant flow of his conversa- tion; Joe Newell, strange, brave and generous, with troops of friends; Joseph Black, who has not gained his mental equilibri- um since the great tornado, and who turns white as the sheeted dead whenever a black cloud appears in the sky ; Dr. Brown, just returning on that bay horse of his, which, from youth to old age, knew not the luxury of being curried ; Dan Workman, with his handsome and pleasant face, telling his inimitable stories; John B. Miller, saying witty things. d-ing "the brown business," and giving imitations of Forrest; John Miller, (silversmith,) with only Samuel Walker at his back, proclaiming abolition in defiance of public sentiment ; David Robb, Sr., then an invalid, very gray, yet destined to nearly forty years of after life ; Robert Patterson, stately and reserved ; Dr. Lord, on his great bay mare, going to visit » patient in the country ; Henry Snyder, Walter Clement, good old Robert Casebolt, Aleck Spencer-and how many more ?
Memory is not only a " tomb searcher"-she is an enchantress as well. All these familiar forms and faces are present, distinct, vital and palpable to " the mind's eye." They come, as the poet has feigned that the soldiers of Napoleon come, " from the plains of Italy, from Syria's sands and Russia's snows, and gather iu shadowy columns, at sound of reveille, for midnight review.
Napoleon, Ohio.
PIONEER RECOLLECTIONS.
Hull's Surrender at Detroit-The Last of Tecumseh.
The Western Reserve Historical Society, has printed the per- sonal recollections of General George Sanderson, of Lation er, U. who died in that place, on the 26th of August last, in the - venty- fifth year of his age. Gen. Sanderson was a native of Pennsylvania, but with his parents removed to Lancaster in 1800, where he re- sided all his life. He published the Independent Times At Lancas- ter in 1810, and on the breaking out of the war in 1812, remmized a company of volunteers for Col. Lewis Cass's regiment. feueral (then Captain,) Sanderson, was at the surrender of Droit with his regiment, and with Harrison at the river Thaun , 19 a Chemin in the regular army. We make the following extrets from his recollections, in regard to two of the most interesting events of the war :
HULL'S SURRENDER.
It was late in May, 1812, when Gen. Hull arrivedat our camp at Dayton, and Governor Meigs relinquished command. A few days after we were on the march for Detroit. The real was a difficult one to travel, but with the aid of efficient guides, and the protection of Divine Providence we arrived . - Mestour des. tination, after much suffering and many stoppages of the way. For nearly two months after our arrival, we engaged In the per- formance of no extraordinary military duty, the general routine of camp life being the order from day to day. In August the British and Indians arrived, and soon after the scene occurred which produced such indignation at the time, and about which histories do not agree. My company, belonging to Cos' regi-
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ment, was surrendered with all the Ohio volunteers, Miller's reg- ulars, and a large force of militia. I shall never forget the scenes which then transpired. My opinion of Gen. Hull's conduct, formed at the time, (and events have not changed it,) was that Gen. Hull was an imbecile-not a traitor or a coward, but an imbecile, caused by the excessive use of ardent spirits. He was a constant, heavy drinker, On the day before the surrender, his son, Captain F. Hull, came among my men in a beastly state of intoxication .- On the day of the surrender I saw Gen. Hull frequently, His face about the chin and mouth was covered with tobacco juice, and I thought, in common with other officers, that the General was un- der the influence of liquor. His personal appearance indicated that he had been drinking. 'The General was surrounded in camp, with a military family, the members of which were fond of high living, wines, liquors, etc. I know how we poor volunteers wondered how they could keep up such luxuries. Our surgeon re- lieved my mind by informing me one day that Hull's officers drew all the liquors from the hospital stores, on continued com- plaints of illness, Hull's surgeon (one of the party,) certifying to the requisitions.
When the news of the surrender was known to the troops, they were scarcely able to restrain their indignation. Hundreds of hor- rible oaths and threats ascended, which I hope have not been set down by the " Recording Angel." McArthur broke his sword, as did other officers. General Huli was repeatedly insulted to his face, and soon hid himself away, The members of his military family, especially the General's son Abraham, received some pret- ty tall abuse from us Ohioans. After the surrender, and before the enemy had entered, many officers, myself among the number, implored Col. Findlay to take command of the American forces, and resist the enemy, but he declined. Colonel James Miller was importuned the same as Findlay, but he was unwilling to take the responsibility, saying as near as I can recollect, " Matters have gone too far, but had General Hull signified to me his intention of surrendering, I would have assumed command, and defended the fort to the last." Miller would have done so, and so would Mc- Arthur had he been in the fort.
Some little time after Hull had ordered the white flag, August 16, 1812, Col. Isaac Brock, the British commander, entered the
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fort, attended by his staff and several Indian Chiefs. The Amer- ican troops were ordered to the parade ground, and there piled up their muskets, swords, pistols, knives, cartridge-boxes, etc. A heavy guard was placed over us, and we were then sent to the " citadel," where we were kept until released on parole. Hull and the regular officers were sent to Quebec. I was very particu- lar to have a good look at General Brock, as 1 had never before seen a British officer of his rank. He was a heavily built man, about six feet three inches in height, broad shoulders, large hips, and lame, walking with a cane. One of his eyes, the left one 1 think, was closed, and he was, withal, the ugliest officer Lever saw. He wore a bright, scarlet uniform, with a sash wrapped tight around his waist. When he came to our company, he said to me: " If your men attempt to escape, or complain of their treatment, 1 cannot be answerable for the consequences ; but if they remain quiet and orderly, they shall shortly be released, and no harm shall befall them. This was good news to my men, many of whom were afraid when they returned in a defenseles condi- tion, the savages would be let loose after them. All the officers of our army, who conversed with Brock, spoke of him as being a very courteous and agreeable gentleman, who had seen much ser- vice in India and the East.
WHO KILLED TECUMSEH .
My company shared in the glorious route of Proctor and his proud army, that result being attained by the victory at the river Thames. It was on that memorable day, October 5th, 1813, that Tecumseh fell. I remember Tecumseh. I saw him a number of times before the war. He was a man of huge frame, powerfully built, and was about six feet two inches in height. I saw his body on the Thames battlefield before it was vokl. Whether Colonel Johnson killed him or not, I cannot say. During the battle all was smoke, noise and confusion. Indeed, I never heard any one speak of Colonel Johnson's having killed Tecumseh, until year afterward. Johnson was a brave man and was badly wounded in the battle in a very painful part-the knuckles and, I think, also in the body. He was carried past me on a litter. In the evening on the day of the battle, I was appointed by General Harrison to guard the Indian prisoners with my company. The location was near a swamp. As to, the report of the Kentuckians having skinnel
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Tecumseh'a body, I am personally cognizant that such was the fact. I have seen many contrary reports, but they are untrue. I saw the Kentucky troops in the very act of cutting the skin from the body of the chief. They would cut strips about half a foot in length and an inch and a half wide, which would stretch like gum elastic. I saw a piece two inches long, which, when it was dry, could be stretched nearly a foot in length. That it was Tecum- seh's body that was skinned, I have no doubt. I knew him .- Besides, the Indian prisoners under my charge continually pointed to his body, which lay close by, and uttered the most bewailing ories at his loss. By noon the day after the battle, the body could hardly be recognized, it had so thoroughly been skinned. My men covered it up with brush and logs, and it was probably eaten by wolves. Although many officers did not like the conduct of the Kentuckians, they dare not interfere. The troops from that State were infuriated at the massacre at the river Raisin, and their battle cry was " Remember the River Raisin." It was only with difficulty that the Indian prisoners could be guarded, so general was the disposition of the Kentuckians to massacre them.
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