USA > Ohio > Champaign County > The history of Champaign and Logan counties : from their first settlement > Part 36
USA > Ohio > Logan County > The history of Champaign and Logan counties : from their first settlement > Part 36
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THE *PIONEER MEETING.
Mr. Joshua Antrim, Historian of the Pioneer Association of Logan and Champaign counties, bands us the following tothose of Hon. Joseph C. Brand, Mayor of Urbana, accompmiel with thio request of the Association that it be published. It was the Shining of Welcome to the Pincars, when they assembled at the Court House, September 5th, 1872:
MR. PRESIDENT AND LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF THE PIONEER ASSOCIATION OF THE COUNTIES OF LOGAN AND CHAMI- PAIGN ;- A society organized and created as yours has been, from patriotic motives, uns Ifish in its aspir itions, and impelled by an earnest desire to serve the era in which you live, as a mellom be- tween the past and the future, and through which to collect and preserve for future use the historical incidents, individu | hewasin and the interesting details in the settlement of these two beautiful counties, should command the respect and kind regard of every good citizen.
Three quarters of a century agyour fathers were neighbors to the Indians, and surrounded by the conco.nitants of that race-the buffalo, the bear, the panther, and other wild beasts, and lapped upon that barbarous and uneivilized state in which this beautiful country had for ages been enveloped. They were the company of Logan, Tecumseh, Moluntia and Kenton, and to recover frag- ments of the History of these brave men and women is the work of your society.
When we remember the change that has been wrought In this period, it is wonderful even to us, and marvelous to the old nations of the earth.
Seventy-five yearsago, on this very ground, our fathers and
* From the Urbana Citizen and Gazelle.
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CHAMPAIGN AND
mothers had to contend with the savages and the wild beasts of the forest ; but in this short time (which is scarcely anything in the life of a nation) we find in these two counties almost every acre of land subdued and cultivated, animated with # population of 50,000 active and enterprising people, while the plains and the valleys "blossom as the rose." Schools, colleges, universities, churches and cities now line the old Indian trail from the North to their hunting grounds in Kentucky, where the buffalo and the deer wintered upon the cane-brakes. Along this Indian trail our first army for the protection of the northern frontier marched and left its trace; the first railroad in Ohio was also built upon it; and will it be extravagant to predict that in less than a century from this time the cities and towns that now dot this historic path will run together and form an almost unbroken city from the southern to the northern boundary of the State? This line of country has the material and capacity to support its millions instead of thou- sands, with the varied pursuits and industries common to all densely populated countries.
It is a custom long since established in the old countries of Europe, through the agency of antiquarian societies, to preserve as near as possible the characteristics of their people in every century -to preserve in government museums specimen samples of the finearts, architecture, mechanical skill, implements of husbandry for house and field, arms, arinour, costumes (military and civil,) house and kitchen furniture, wares, &c. These relics increase in value and interest from age, and so will the valuable reminiscences of the trials, adventures and labors, as well as biographical sketches of representative men and women of the early days of our history enhance in value and interest as the years come and go, and the last link that binds the present to the past generations shall have been broken. You will then be remembered as lovers of your race and as disinterested public benefactors. Your archives will be carefully examined and your annals read with interest and avidity.
Mr. President, without detaining you with elaborate remarksand occupying your valuable time, I now, on behalf of the people and authorities of the city of Urbana, welcome you in our midst, and hope that this, your annual meeting, may be both interesting and profitable.
THE LOGAN COUNTY *TORNADO.
A whirlwind is a bad thing to get mixed up with. PoplaIlly ing in cities have little opportunity of judging the entire troms va this statement, but their country cousins are entirely swam of the fact, and their knowledge is based on the very splid Forwbbibm stone, experience. Their houses are not of the city perfern They contain no massive joists, and walls a foot thick, nor is auch Files or stone used in their construction. They are general. este structures, rarely over two stories in height, and are onbi ood to last much beyond the lives of their builders. I'mally when the wind becomes tempestnous in a country villcys me si- habitants of the place are very much concerned ulumi Gaumater. and are at their wit's end to find a secure ria. Sono case with the inhabitants of this little town, and the of la von d its nearest adjoining neighbor, on Friday evening, Hennes
Indications of a storm were apparent to the clos der binnen the day, but as twilight came on, the deines of the andy and the strange quiet that seemed to affect all things, porquey body the cue to what was to follow. The whirlwind coooo feto the west, and at about half-past bi o'clock it struck in The wany of Quincy, tearing the forest to pieces, and then after having |hver broken remnants behind it, coming upon the town it-off. ILdenkej like a massive balloon as it sped on its mission ctd irilomc, and little clouds appeared to be pursuing each other with @ koncem pidity through the upper section of it, while the lower part, men ponding to the basket of an eromut's vesel, scom d like theyhim ney of a locomotive. As it struck the town, honses, but, sonde ..
* From Quincy Correspondence Cincinnati fazett , J. 1. 1.
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outhouses, buildings of every description, went to pieces with a continuous crashing that sounded like the shock of armies in bat- ile; and the terror-stricken citizens, such as were unhurt, rushed wildly to and fro with irresolute mind but feet of courier swiftness. Shouts of joy from mothers at finding their lost offspring, from husbands at seeing their wives again, and from children being as- Sured of their parents' safety, mingled with lamentations of grief from those whose search was unrewarded.
The scenes were such as would have ensued had the end of the world arrived, and there is perhaps no resident of the town who did not for the moment suppose that such was thecase. The terror was universal, and every thought was of self, until the wind had expended its forces. When the nature of the shock was under- stood, however, many persons recovered a portion of their lost courage, and their thoughts reverted to their relatives and friends. They then endeavored to ascertain their whereabouts, and many who left their houses under such circumstances, fell in the streets, struck by flying timbers and debris. After the shock had lasted about a moment, its destroying force was carried onward to De- Graff, which issituated three miles from Quincy, and there the same Beenes were re-enacted among the populace. The destruction was principaly wrought in the best section of the town, but was not as extensive as in Quincy. The whirlwind seemed to be traveling on a straight line at the rateof sixty milesan hour as it reached De- Graff, and it covered territory from fifty to a hundred miles wide. After the hurric me had passed over DeGraff, it progressed about three miles further in its course, and then died away with its force expended. The citizens of the devastated villages were then able to proceed about the mournful tisk of hunting out the victims of the disaster, and the work was one to which all hands were turned and which was soon completed. In DeGraff about fifteen persons were hurt. The house of Jonathan Roll, a large two story frame, fronting on the main street of the hamlet, was badly riddled and the roof torn off, and during the alarming crisis the occupants be- cune overwhelmed with terror, and rushed into the street. Mr. Poll in person carried his little daughter Lulie, a girl seven years of age, in his arms, and had scarcely left the building before d muss of flying wreck struck and knocked him to the earth and covered his body and that of his daughter out of sight in the
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ruins, When the rescuers reached him after the accident, the little girl, the pride of his heart, was still clasped in hisarm .; lub her eyes could never more twinkle the delight she f it will . in his company, and her tiny hand could never more pit wis ches- she was dead; and the form five minutes before all gracon] beauty, was now distorted into a shape that wring coplus leurs of sorrow from those who viewed it. Her injuries were born- ble that death could not have been delayed long enough for ber to know that she had received them.
Mr. Roll, personally, sufferel a broken shoulder blade add nu- merous and severe bruises. His wife and Levande Mos offer daughter by a former husband) met with an equity teridge ofs- fortune in their effort to seek safety. The girl's taille were dashed out, and she was mutilated as badly as her half asler, dad Mrs. Roll had her left forearm crushed, and received intermediaja- ries of so serious a nature that her recovery is entirely ( y tur l. The names of the other victims I am not recollect. Sie to say that they are receiving every attention, and, with the rope tion of a boy named Warner, who was blown a distance of the hundred yards, some assert, are in little danger.
THE PROPERTY DESTROYED.
The ravages of the wind in DeGraff are made phinly appsrem! to the occupants of passing railroad trains, and they simt lakk confused and widespread, although every effort is being pay fach to restore the town to its former shape. The chef thomchoro abuts on the railway depot as Buymiller does to the C. IL & D. Depot in Cincinnati, and a view of it in the present on is not gratifying. The last building on the east spl . uitje . nul ou a barn, which belonged to Newt. Richardson, punta jeenth : 1horas the barn of Dr. Hance. Next to the last namned came the fono house and stable of T. J. Smith, and then the Methodist church, a ·large frame structure. These buildings were all so : didales back from the street, and were leveled flat. In front of the church was the dwelling house, store, an't barn of Mrs. Caratime, and not an erect timber in either building is left stan bing. M. Roll's house and stable were situated next to Mrs. Cardine's property, and the stable was wrecked completely. Alljoining the Roll homestead of the west was Mrs. Lippincat's houses and ba.n. The house was bereft of its roof and otherwise damaged,
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while the stable was resolved into lumber on the spot. The last buildings on this side of main street were a small brick building, occupied as a tin and stove store by Samuel Pratt, and the frame cabinet shop of J. H. Rexer, both of which were ruined.
On the west side ofthe street the destruction was not so great as on the east, but the number of buildings partially destroyed was about even. The list opens with Newt. Richardson's frame busi- ness house, which lost its roof, as did the adjoining store of Conrad Mohr. The dwelling of John Van Kirk came next, and was similarly treated, and the owner's saddle and harness shop next door also suffered scalping. The next house was Schriver, Wolf & Co.'s dry goods establishment, which, in addition to unroofing, was battered and broken in many places. A good sized frame next to this last named, occupied as a dry goods store, and owned by Benjamin Crutcher, was unroofed and otherwise damaged, and the hardwarestore of Grafford, Crutcher & Co., adjoining it met with bad luck, being nearly destroyed. On Boggsstreet, in rear of Main, Mrs. Russell's dwelling house (a large building,) Lippincott & ITersche's cooper shop and barn, and Lippincotts stable, were all very badly damaged, and on the west side of this street the dwell- ings of John O'Hara and David Gainey suffered severely.
C. H. Custenborder, a farmer living half a mile distant, lost his house and two barns, all of which were blown to atoms. The grist and saw mills of Schriver, Wolf & Co., near DeGraff, were in- jured to a considerable extent. In Quincy about seventy build- ings are believed to have been all or partially destroyed, and an estimating committee who reckoned up the matter calculated that the loss would reach sixty or seventy thousand dollars. Among the chief losses are the following: Baptist and Methodist churches, frame buildings, both are down. Wm. Cloninger's blacksmith, cooper and wagon shops, leveled with the ground, and dwelling house rendered uninhabitable for some days. The dwelling house was moved twelve feet from its foundations. Large frame house occupied by Daniel Clark and Edward Fitz- gerald, was rendered almost valueless by the damage inflicted. Henry Keyser's frame house, demolished. Widow Offenbach's dwelling house, roof off. Elias Walburn's crrriage shop, partially destroyed. D. S. Wolf's hotel and pump factory-roof off the former and the latter destroyed.
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These are but a few of the heaviest losses. Very few buildingsin the entire town seemed to have escaped the visitation. S veral people were caught and imprisonel in the ruins of their own houses as they tell, and had to wait some time before succor como to them. The force of the hurricane was felt very phinly in Quincy. and as instances, timbers of a thickness of eight or ten inches were blown from the Methodist Church a distance of ton vards, and in one place after the storm, a shingle was found driven into Momo weatherbording, just as if it had been steel and ny sharp pointe 1 as a razor. In De Graff, also, it drew a pump from the well of Alex- ander Corry, and threw it ten feet and over his house. A large piece of tin roofing was carried away from the town hall in the latter village, and was thought by imaginative country nem, in its progress, to be a winged gray horse. Masses of rubbish were car- ried several miles and deposited in fields, on the top of forest tres and elsewhere.
INCIDENTS.
The first reliable intimation of the coming destruction wasgiven to the inhabitants of DeGraff by a countryman, Who dro through town in his wagon as fast as his lame and an [qusted pv- ernment mule could hobble, and shouted to the people fossetts. Nobody understood the cause of his alarm, however, al many thought the volume of dust sweeping on toward them was cal by a runaway team. When the storm broke, n citizen naoned Johnson, who possessed the first requisite of a good Ciemmati Councilman, a capacious abdomen, laid himself down berede a stone wall, and had not been there thirty seconds, before Mr. Graffort, the hardware man, come gliding along aol 1 ly ranged himself on Mr. Johnson. It wasn't a good tif, however, and the next man was a Kentucky doctor of about Jobjen'aihe, who settled down on the two members of the stone wallore lo. with all the lightness and ease of a three story brick boa . Ho found, however, after he had done so, that the wall w ands buch enough to shield him from the destroyer, and sago pagin, thereby saying himself the unpleasantness of netine as prinelplo in a murder trial, as Johnson's breath had pulled down to send a thimbleful, and he could not muster up a whisper of remos- strance.
The most miraculous event that occurred in DeGran s 'lloret
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to have been the escape of a French stallion-a splendid animal- that was lodged in a stable back of Main street. The stable was leveled flat with the ground, and a surface of perhaps one hundred feet square was covered with corn cobs and rubbish, and the ani- mal was found afterward standing where his stall ought to be, and calmly feeding upon the loose hay strewn around him. A simi- lar incident was the escape of a brood of pigeons. This last event was chronicled by one youngster to another (as overheard by a bystander) in very grieved tones, "There wasn't one of the old pigeons hurt," and the event was sufficiently singular to excite comment among older people than the boy. On Hay street a small frame dwelling house occupied by John Van Kirk was turned half way round with the gable end to the street, without a board being displaced.
The Ministerial Association of the Bellefontaine District was to have met in the Methodist church to-day, but upon second thought concluded they would not do so. The funerals of the dead girls, and also that of Mrs. Glick; in Quincy, took place on Monday, and were not very largely attended, owing to the other interests that claimed the absorbing attention of the people. The towns have been visited by thousands of people siner the disaster, and the re- lief movements are in good shape, and promising an abundantly satisfactory retorn. In DeGraff the houseless ones have all been provided with shelter by their neighbors, but in Quincy the de- struction was so general that many had to be sent to the country, and thrown on the hospitality of the farmers. In many houses in Quincy the occupants can be seen at their work. sewing women plying the needle at the win lows, where sash, glass and all are missing, and domesties washing in apartments with apertures in them large enough to admit a horse, seemingly.
The following curious poster, written with ink, meets a person's gazo on nearly every dilapidated house front in the place :
"Blown down, but alive and ready to do duty in my dwelling house, one door north of the old stand. SAM, FRANTZ. "Stoves, queousware, &c."
Half a dozen persons in the two towns were carried some yards by the strength of the wind, and one by the name of Johnnie Parks, living in Quincy, says he held to the post as long as the post stood it, but when it went he went too. He couldn't resist
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the inclination. It is most probed . that the wheel via l'apive was brought chiefly to bear upon the forests b for . it had raotel Quincy. The scene in these uninhabited triet, of Iml. mnt convincing evidence of the wind's terrible power. Theessanoch as the Opera House, and thick beyond the rap city tower's aring to encircle, lie here, wreached out of the very good by the airy monster. Some are split in two, and they hugh hef no strewn around in endless confusion. Others ore ( hetselle? ? at the base, and others still have had their ban dus Lapastor Those that are still standing are bent an hirsicont intdramg, when compared with their former creet po ition.
HOW KINGS CREEK GOT ITS NAME.
-
BY ED. L. MORGAN.
According to the best information which can be obtained, this township (Salem) was first visited by the whites, in the fall of 1786. At that time an army of Kentuckians, under the command of Gen. Benjamin Logan, passed through here, when on their way to destroy the Indians on Mac-a-cheek. The advance of this army was commanded by Colonel Daniel Boone and Major Simon Ken- ton. The following incident, which occurred at the time, was re- lated to the writer, and others, by Simon Kenton, at Taylor's mill, on Kings Creek, in the spring of 1814:
A few of the mounted inen, who were a short distance in ad- vance, suddenly encountered a few Indians, in the prairie, a short distance west of the present residence of Mr. John Eichholts. The two parties discovered each other at the same time, and the Indians, who were on foot, made a vigorous effort to reach the high ground upon the east, that they might have the advantage of the timber, and fire at the whites from behind the trees ; but by a timely and rapid movement, they were headed off by the horse- men. The Indians then wheeled to the north, and on entering the high grass, near the creek, they scattered like frightened quails, and squatted and concealed themselves in the high grass and weeds. The Kentuckians pursued, and at a point about one- fourth mile below the present site of the Kingston mills and nearly opposite the present residence of Mr. Nathaniel Johnson, one of the borsemen came upon an Indian, who, upon being dis-
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covered, rose to his feet, presented his gun and pulled the trigger, but fortunately for the soldier, the gun missed fire, and the Ken- tuckian shot and killed the Indian before he could make his es- cape. This Indian, from his dress and appearance, was supposed to be a chief or king. After scalping the fallen for, And divest- ing the body of its ornaments and jewels, they watered their horses at the beautiful stream hard by, and gave it the name of "The King's Creek," which name it still bears.
At the time here referred to, there stood near the spot a henry locust tree, which afterward attained to a greit height and un- common size for one of its kind, and was often referral to by tho old settlers as the place where the Indian king was kille 1; and some folks who believed such things, asserted that they frequent- ly saw the red man's ghost, with his "raw head and bloody bones," prowling about the tree or perched upon the topmind brinches in form of a huge horned owl, as they passed that way of a mem- light night ; and so great was the dread of some, that they would travel halt a mile out of their way, rather than risk an encounter with his "royal highness." But that tree is gone, the ghost I is disappeared, the generation that feared it has passed away and is almost forgotten -nothing connected with the event now remains, save only the creek and its name-they will abi le forever
* DEATH OF HON. MOSES B. CORWIN.
Moses Bledsoe Corwin died at his residence in this city, Thurs- day evening, April 11th, 1872, aged 82 years and 3 months.
He was the first child of Ichabod and Sarah Corwin, and was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, January 5th, 1700, and six years later the family removed to Lebanon, Ohio, where he grew up to manhood.
June 4th, 1811, he was married to Mirgaret Fox, of Lebanon, and in 1812 they moved to Urbana, arriving here June 18th, and here they spent the remainder of their lives. Upon his arrival here, Mr. Corwin began the publication of the Watchtower, the first newspaper published in the then large county of Champaign, in- troducing press and types into the vast wilderness, undismayed by the popular illiteracy of most early settlers, and less annoyed by the competition of other presses a hundred miles away.
Early in 1811 he had been admitted to the bar and he began his practice here, which became very extensive, his circuit including Cincinnati and Detroit, at which places he was an attendent at court. In those early days the lawyer traveled like an old style gentleman, astride the best horse in the country, his legal acumen stored in his brain and legal authorities in his saddlle-bags. The journey of a circuit then was no trifling trip, as it now would be, but occupied weeks always, and frequently extending into months.
In 1838 Mr. Corwin was elected Representative from Champaign and Union counties to the State Legislature, and was re-elected in 1839.
" From the Urbana, O_ Citizen and Gazette.
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He represented this District (then composed of Champaign, In- gan, Union, Delaware and Clarke counties.) in Congress, in 1819 50. and again in 1853-54, serving, faithfully an I acceptable, the people of the Eighth D strict, in times when politied strategy and high- toned compromise were actively engaged in preparing evd webs for a future day to unravel. Oa all the mesuresof those des-, Mr. Corwin entertained and advocated advanced idea, walter event. ually led him to enroll himself in the ranks of the Bajabilan party, early in its career, in which he lived politically until his natural death.
His social life was a thread of interesting portray.4of the cor- acter of true friendship. The fire of love varned brightly lo his heart and the sun never set upon his anger. Toa friend he was all friend, in adversity or thrift. In the hour of trial, of depuis- spair, his friend found him strong to avert any danger imd with a will to do it.
An incident occurs to us that is fruitful of the lessness of friend. ship and shows the true tests. It was told Ly Jon ihin E. Cup- lin, in the First M. E. Church, many years ago, in in address ou Temperance. And to make this incident the more tully umiler- stood, it must be known that in his carly minhost, Mr. Corwin was an intemperate man, beyond the ordinary dram di dingen . toms of the day, and Mr. Chaplin was his chosen comparing of the hour.
In the fall of 1830, in November if we mi-take not, the naturally religious faculties of Mr. Corwin as-omed supremacy over his grosser passions and led him to unite himsett with the ML. It Church. He closed his lips against liquor in all its forman I bærumno totally abstinent. The great change in so prominent a map was the theme of every tongue and excitement even resulted from eo great a reformation and so prominent an example.
The example was not lost on his most valued and truly honer. able friend, Jonathan Chaplin, and he too made the effort to ab. stain from the cup. For days and nights he wrestled with the demon appetite, and fongh! manfully against the love of that which be know would drag him down to destruction. At the purn. ing of the eighth day he succumbed to the demands of his futter. ing brain and with shaking nerves, and mind racked with the tor- ture of an appetite freed from resistance, he arose long before dawn,
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