The history of Champaign county, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its cities, towns, etc.; general and local statistics; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; history of the Northwest territory etc, Part 21

Author: Ogden, J. W. (John W.); Beers (W.H.) & Co., pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : W.H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 926

USA > Ohio > Champaign County > The history of Champaign county, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its cities, towns, etc.; general and local statistics; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; history of the Northwest territory etc > Part 21

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were inquired into why the exchange was made which not only insured unusual hardships and disappointments, but too frequently was attended with all the barbarities of savage warfare, the answer would perhaps be to promote their success in life ; but underneath and beyond this was the love of forest life, the freedom from conventional restraint, the hunter's paradise.

Accustomed to look discomfort and danger in the face, the earliest adven- turers soon learned to regard them as matters not worthy of anxious thought. Their wants were few and easily supplied. It is doubtful whether the Indian, in his best condition, is a match for the white man, and it became a second nature to suspect and circumvent the savage. Too often, indeed, the latter was treated with cruelty and treachery. Promises and pledges made on the part of the Government and authorized agents of the great land companies were unful- filled. Aggressions and misunderstandings easily led to acts of violence, in the absence of which the early settlements might have been spared the infliction, and the country the recital, of the atrocities which attended the Indian war- fare.

Much was known of Ohio long prior to the Revolution of 1776; but the first settlements in the State were made soon after the termination of the Revo- lutionary war and were composed largely of soldiers and their families, impelled, in some cases, by the spirit of adventure, and not infrequently to seek compensation for their services, which the General Government was unable to pay except in lands and land grants. A large portion of Ohio, prior to the Revolution, formed part of the domain of Virginia, under charter from King James. At the close of the war, she ceded to the United States this territory, reserving, however, all the lands lying between the Little Miami and Scioto Rivers, in Ohio, for the purpose of paying the Virginia soldiers who served in the war of the Revolution. A portion of Champaign was included in this res- ervation, and the road known as the "Ludlow line "-passing north and south through Salem and Union Townships-marks one of the western lines of the reservation.

The reports carried back, from time to time, of the mildness of the climate, fertility of the soil, the abundance of game and future prospects of the coun- try, soon turned a tide of emigration to the new El Dorado. Many of the early settlers came originally from Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina, but many of them moved directly from Kentucky to Ohio. These pioneers of civiliza- tion and their immediate descendants braved the dangers of a comparatively unknown region, and endured the toils and trials unavoidably incident to a country totally without improvement. The present generation knows little or nothing of what it costs in time, in patient endurance and in deprivation of every comfort, to change the wilderness into a fruitful field, and to lay broad and sure the foundations of the prosperity that crowns the State of Ohio to-day.

The population of the Northwest Territory increased so rapidly and to such an extent that before the close of 1798 it contained 5,000 free male inhabit- ants, of full age, and eight organized counties-this being the requisite condi- tion, under the ordinance of 1787, to entitle the people to elect Representatives to a Territorial Legislature, and on the 24th day of September, 1799, the two Legislative Houses were organized.

On the 30th day of April, 1802, an act of Congress was passed authorizing the call of a convention to form a State Constitution, which convention met at Chillicothe on the 1st day of November next following. On the 29th of the same month, a Constitution for State Government was ratified and signed by

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the members of the convention. It was not referred to the people for their approval, but became the fundamental law of the State by the act of the convention, and by this act, Ohio became one of the States in the Federal Union.

The first General Assembly, under the State Constitution, met at Chillicothe March 1, 1803, and, among other acts, created eight new counties, among which were Greene and Franklin. Champaign County was formed out of these in March, 1805.

By the act of the Legislature, passed February 20, 1805, the boundaries of the county were described as follows: "Beginning where the line between the eighth and ninth ranges, between the Great and Little Miami Rivers, intersects the eastern boundary of the county of Montgomery ; thence east to the eastern boundary of the county of Greene, and to continue six miles, into the county of Franklin; north to the State line; thence west with said line until it inter- sects the said eastern boundary of the county of Montgomery ; thence to the place of beginning."

In the year 1817, Logan County, on the north, and Clarke, on the south, were established, and reduced Champaign to its present limits. From Howe's "History of Ohio " we learn that prior to the act of the Legislature defining the boundaries of Champaign, the first court for the then county of Greene, which, with Franklin, included Clarke, and extended to the lake, was held in a log house, containing but one room, built by Benjamin Whiteman, five and one-half miles west of Xenia, near the Dayton road. On the 10th of May, 1803, the court for organizing Greene County was held in this log cabin, then the resi- dence of Peter Borders. The first business of the court was to lay off the county into townships, and, after being in session one day, it adjourned for the trial of causes at the same place, August 2, 1803. One of the grand jurors was Joseph C. Vance, who afterward took an active interest in the settlement of Champaign County proper. The Judge having given his "charge" to the jury, "they retired out of the court " to a small hut a short distance off to make solemn inquest of crimes committed. The records do not show there was any business for the grand jury when they retired, but they were not long per- mitted to be idle. It was characteristic of the times that personal disputes and difficulties be settled "by combat," and, as courage and strength were com- mon, personal encounters were the rule. Black eyes and bruised faces not infrequently closed quarrels and " gave satisfaction.'

Among the incidents of the day, it is narrated that Owen Davis, the owner of a mill hard by, charged some one with stealing hogs. The insult was resented, and a fight was engaged in at once, in which Davis came off victor. He then went into court, and, addressing himself particularly to Benjamin Whiteman, one of the Associate Judges, said, "Well, Ben, I've whipped that d-d horse- thief-what's to pay ?" and threw down on the table a buckskin purse contain- ing $8 or $10, from which "pay" was to be taken, and added, for the ben- efit of His Honor, "Yes, Ben, and if you'd steal a hog, d-n you, I'd whip you too."

The grand jury examined seventeen witnesses, and found nine bills of in- dictment-all for affrays committed after the court was organized. All parties. engaged pleaded guilty and were fined, Davis' share in the transactions of the day costing him $8. The incident is characteristic of the times, and illustrates subordination to the civil authority, while exercising the right to settle private disputes in their own way, without the "law's delay." Joseph C. Vance, one

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of the grand jurors at the court named, was an expert surveyor and "laid out" the town of Xenia. When Champaign was partitioned from Greene and Frank- lin, he removed to Champaign, and, in his capacity as surveyor, laid out the town of Urbana, and was appointed the first Clerk of the Court for the new county.

By the third section of the act which fixed the limits of the county, the house of George Fithian, in Springfield, was made the temporary seat of justice, at which place the first term of the Court of Common Pleas was held. The officers of the court were Francis Dunlevy, President Judge; John Reynolds, Samuel Mccullough and John Runyan, Associate Judges ; Arthur St. Clair, Prosecuting Attorney ; John Dougherty, Sheriff; Joseph C. Vance, Clerk. The first grand jury was composed of Joseph Layton, Adam McPherson, Jonathan Daniels, John Humphreys, John Reed, Daniel Mckinnon, Thomas Davis, William Powell, Justis Jones, Christopher Wood, Caleb Carter, William Chapman, John Clark, John Lafferty, Robert Rennick. Among the first petit jurors were Paul Huston, Charles Rector, Jacob Minturn, James Reed, James Bishop and Abel Crawford.

At the May term of 1809, the names of Frederick Ambrose, Simon Ken- ton and John Guthridge appear in the panel of grand jurors. Edward W. Pearce was a resident attorney, and supposed to have been the first. Moses B. Corwin, Henry Bacon and James Cooley were among the early attorneys. Most of these men were conspicuous in the future growth of the county, and the de- scendants of many of them may be still recognized in the politics and industries of the county.

The first trial at the first term of the court, September, 1805, was the case of the State against one Taylor for threatening to burn the barn of Griffith Foos, of Springfield. At the first session of the Supreme Court, held in 1805, the Judges were Samuel Huntington, Chief Justice, and William Sprigg and Daniel Symmes, Associate Judges. The first case tried was the State against Isaac Bracken, Archibald Dowden and Robert Rennick, for assault on an In- dian named Kanawa Tuckow. The defendants pleading "not guilty," and taking issue " for plea, put themselves upon God and their country." The jury was composed of William McDonald, Sampson Talbott, Justis Jones, George Croft and others, and the accused were defended by Joshua Collett, who after- ward was one of the Judges of the Supreme Court. The merits of the case are not recorded, but the fact that at that day an Indian could seek for redress- of grievances before the Supreme Court shows that his white neighbors were willing to do him justice. The defendants were acquitted. Since that date, not only the Supreme Court of Ohio has taken a step forward in the trial of causes, but the Indian is an anomaly-neither a person nor a chattel !

Col. William Ward, who held a patent for Section 23, laid out, the same year, the town, which he called Urbana, Joseph C. Vance being surveyor. A square in the center of the town was donated for public uses. In the mean time, a log house on Lot No. 174, on East Court street, was made the seat of justice, and used as a court house until 1814, when a brick building was erected in the center of the public square. The lot was afterward the property and residence of Mr. Duncan McDonald, and to-day is occupied by the extensive livery stable of Mr. Samuel H. Marvin.

In the first year, also, the county was subdivided into Springfield, Salem and Madison Townships, which continued, with other subdivisions, until 1817, when Clarke and Logan Counties were organized. The other subdivisions were

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Bethel and Zane, in 1806; Harmony, 1807; Union, 1810; Moorfield, Con- cord, Wayne, Urbana and Lake, 1811; Pleasant, German and Boston, 1812; Jefferson, 1813 ; Miami, 1814; Goshen, Jackson and Harrison in 1815, and Pike in 1816. The present boundaries of the county were established in 1817, making, from the townships then created, Johnson in 1821, Adams in 1827, and Rush in 1828-in all, the twelve townships which now comprise the county. The township of Boston, now in Clarke County, contained the site of an Indian village called Piqua, and claimed to have been the birthplace of Tecumseh. Some log cabins were built, and the place called Boston, with the expectation of building up a town ; but the cabins have disappeared and the sloping hill is · covered with a growth of Indian corn.

DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY.

Champaign County lies on the fortieth parallel of latitude, south of the mid- dle of the west half of the State. It is bounded on the north by Logan and Union Counties, on the east by Union and Madison, on the south by Clarke, and on the west by Miami and Shelby. The boundaries are, for the most part, sec- tional lines. The general shape is that of a rectangle, about twenty-three miles in length, east and west, by an average width of fifteen and one-half miles, north and south, including an area of 356} square miles, or 228,160 acres.

The name is significant of the general character of the country. In a few places in the county it is hilly, with occasional undulations or rolling hills ; but as a whole the surface is level, covered at an early day with timber, and made up of plains and prairies. The county is well watered and drained by perma- nent streams. The greater part is drained by Mad River, which rises among the hills in the castern portion of Logan, and, crossing the northern line of Champaign, at nearly the middle point, flows, in almost a straight course, south- ward, crossing the southern boundary at a point about two miles further west than the point of crossing the northern boundary. The stream is ordinarily a quiet-running creek, where boys cast their hooks for sunfish and minnows; but occasionally, after heavy rains, it rises suddenly, and, with a mad and foaming current, overtops its banks and asserts the propriety of its name. The settle- ment and drainage of the country have diminished the volume of water and the full flow, which at the first characterized all the water-courses of the country ; yet its tributaries keep a steady supply, and numerous flouring-mills and mill- sites mark its banks.

Mack-a-cheek, the Indian name for the Indian towns of that locality, rising in Logan County, flows almost parallel with Mad River for several miles, and makes a junction with the latter about a mile below the northern line of Con- cord Township.

King's Creek, which is understood to have taken its name from the death of an unknown Indian, who was killed on the banks of the stream, not far from where Kingston stands, and whose appearance gave indications of being a · chief-rises in the northeastern part of the county, two miles southward from Mack-a-cheek, and flows about one and a half miles north of the middle of the county.

The eastern edge of the county, through the Darby and smaller tributaries, drains into the Scioto on the east, and the waters of a still narrower strip, on the western border, flow into the smaller branches of the Great Miami. The

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largest tributaries of Mad River on the west are Glady, Muddy, Nettle and Spring Creeks, which, with their innumerable branches, cover Harrison, Con- cord and Mad River Townships with a net-work of smaller streams. The south- eastern townships drain into Buck Creek, which, though rising in Madison County, flows across the southeast corner of Champaign into Clarke County, emptying into Mad River.

The general form of the surface of the county is that of a broad, shallow trough, lying north and south, Mad River flowing through the middle, draining the main body of the land, while the edges shed their waters eastward to the Scioto and westward to the Miami. The western border is table-land, cut by tributaries of the Mad River and Miami. In the southeast, prairie predomi- nates, and the highest and roughest lands are found in Wayne and Rush Town- ships.

In the higher lands, the soil is composed of drift-clays and gravel ; in the bottoms, gravel, deep under-alluvium and peaty matter.

Sugar, beech, oak and hickory give character to the forest. In the north- western townships and Mad River bottoms, formerly poplar trees, in great num- bers, abounded, which have been almost exterminated, and, from the demands for black walnut for distant markets, this timber is also being rapidly destroyed. The white cedar of the swamps and the red cedar of the hills are the only coni- fers native to the county. In the southeast part of Mad River Township is a large tract known as the " Cedar Swamp," once a favorite resort for botanists and others on holiday excursions. The tangled brakes and the treacherous ground are being changed by a system of drainage, and the indications are that in a few years the last vestige of the cedar, like the poplar and walnut, will be destroyed.

The wealth of the county consists in the productive capacity of its soil. Grass and grain are grown with equal facility and abundance, and have given to the county a mixed husbandry, to be found successfully employed on almost every farm. Statistics, to be hereafter given, will indicate the variety of prod- ucts and the fatness of the soil.

EARLY CONDITION AND PROGRESS.

Prior to the settlement of the county by the whites, the Indians had undis- puted possession, and Champaign was the common hunting-ground of the Otta- was, Shawnees, Wyandots, Senecas and other tribes, many of whom, long after farms had been opened, made their annual visits to their former haunts. On the waters of the creeks, farmers still point out the places of wigwams of Tecum- seh, Capt. Lewis, Capt. Johnny, Cornstalk, Logan, Molunkee, La-wil-a-pie, Capt. Gray Eyes, Dr. John, Big Turtle, Little Turtle, Jocco, Beattise, Lump- on-the-Head and others, some of whom took a conspicuous part in subsequent troubles. A white woman, called Mollie Kiser, who had been captured in childhood, usually accompanied some of them in their trading expeditions, and was said to be a most excellent interpreter. The first settlement followed up the water-courses, for the same reasons, probably, that led the Indians along the . same course. In the valleys and along the water-courses, were to be found their favorite hunting-grounds. Portions of the county were a dense forest, while other parts, other than the low, flat prairies, were clear of trees, excepting occa- sionally a clump of jack-oaks. These were called "the barrens," and were found in various parts of the county. Some of them have since been covered

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with a growth of black and red oaks, which in turn are dying out, and, if not molested, will probably make way for some other species of timber. The tim- bered lands in the vicinity of the streams were in many places wet and marshy, and the woods abounded in ponds. Cooper, in his Leather Stocking Tales, gives currency to the thought that the treeless portions of the country were " cursed " and barren, and the notion prevailed to a considerable extent that these places were unproductive, a notion confirmed to a degree by the peaty character of the soil in the low prairies. A wide extent of these comparatively dry and untim- bered lands was found in Salem, the eastern portion of Urbana and the south- ern section of Union Township. In Salem, the land still is known as "the barrens," but is to-day considered by resident farmers as comprising the gar- den spot of the county. The "settling-up " and cultivation of the country interfered with the annual burnings of the grass, a common practice both with the Indians and the first settlers. This practice kept down the growth of young timber, which took a vigorous growth as soon as the fires ceased to be kindled, which, with the second growth of timber where trees had been removed or pros- trated by storms, was called the "fallen timber." Mr. Abram Powell, one of the early residents of Champaign, thinks there is now more timber in the county than there was in 1805. Judge William Patrick, no mean authority on all questions of fact from that day to this, is of opinion that the forests have been materially diminished.

It is in dispute whether Pierre Dugan or William Owens was the first set- tler. Dugan was a Canadian Frenchman, who adopted a savage life, married a squaw, and followed hunting and trading. He lived in a cabin at the head of the prairie, still called " Dugan," not far from the homestead of the late James Long. He is known to have lived there prior to 1800. William Owens set- tled in Mad River Township in the year 1797, on what was afterward known as Owen's Creek, about two miles south of where Westville now stands. The farm on which the late Henry Blose lived comprised most of his lands. Capt. Abner Barrett settled on what is known as Ruffin's Ridge, but subsequently moved to a cabin in Union Township, on the ridge bordering the lower section of Dugan Prai- rie, the corner of his land being within a few rods of the Ludlow line. The farm now belongs to and is occupied by James Young. The Captain was a tall, active and muscular man, with a stentorian voice, and was fond of telling the fright given to a six-foot Kentuckian, who had stopped with him for the night, by the unexpected entrance of Tecumseh, who, seeing the man's fears, patted him encouragingly on the shoulder, calling him a big baby. Later in life, he was injured in one leg by an accident in crossing a frozen stream, which com- pelled him to walk with a crutch or cane. He was an early riser, and his voice might have been heard any morning calling the hired hands and boys to work. The home of the Captain overlooked the stretch of beautiful prairie in which the town of Mutual is built. Along this prairie, and near and south of the town, John Runyon, John Lafferty, Jacob Minturn and Justis Jones settled, and not long after Henry and Jacob Van-Meter, Nathaniel Cartmill, Benjamin and William Cheney and William McLain settled farther down the valley, then and still called Buck Creek, near what is now Catawba, a station on the railroad connecting Springfield and Columbus. Parker Sullivan, John Pence, John Taylor, Nathan Fitch, Jacob Pence, Ezekiel Arrowsmith and William Kenton, a brother of Simon Kenton, settled along Mad River, west and northwest of Urbana. John Rey- nolds settled in the western part of Mad River Township about the year 1803. He afterward removed to Urbana, and for many years took an active part in all

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public enterprises and whatever concerned the interest and prosperity of the town and county. He early saw the importance of drainage, and to him is chiefly owing the construction of the water-course known as the "Dugan Ditch," which drains the middle and upper portions of Dugan, by a circuitous route, now through the western section of the city, then far beyond the city limits, into a branch known as Deer Creek. Mr. Reynolds built the first frame house in Urbana, on the corner of what is now the Weaver House. He afterward built the frame building in the southeast side of the public square, now occupied as a photograph-room and grocery store, in which he lived, and built on the west and adjoining to the same, a brick house on the corner, which he used for a store. This house has been greatly enlarged and improved, and now occupied by Messrs. Hitt, White & Mitchell.

Jacob Johnson and Matthew Stewart settled on King's Creek, and Arthur Thomas about four miles north of Urbana. The latter, who was a Captain in the war of 1812, was ordered, with his company, to guard the public store at Fort Findlay. On his return, having lost his horses, he and his son separated from the rest of the company to hunt for them. They encamped at the Big Spring, near Solomonstown, about five miles north of Bellefontaine, and the next morning were found killed and scalped. Their bodies were brought to. Urbana by a deputation of citizens.

John Thomas settled about three miles south of Urbana, about where Mrs. Newell now lives, and had, a distillery up the creek, between where the Newell and Donavan houses now stand. At this date it is impossible to obtain the names of all who settled in the county prior to 1805. Besides those already named were Felix Rock, John Logan, John Owen, John Dawson, John Guth- ridge, Jonathan Long, Bennet Taber, Nathan Fitch, Robert Norse, Jacob Pence and others.

Fabian Engle opened the first store on the Springfield road, about half way between the present Newell and Dallas farms.

The town, as was before stated, was laid out in 1805. The first house .erected was a log cabin built by Thomas Pearce, on Market space, immediately north of what was once the old market house, now the city hall building, and east of South Main street. This cabin was built before the town was laid out. He was the father of Mr. Harvey Pearce, of Urbana, who, in an active and vigorous old age, still manages the labor on a large farm. He afterward built a cabin on the knoll, about three hundred yards east of East Lawn street, which was subsequently used as a schoolhouse, being the first school, and taught by Peter Oliver and William Stephens. Hard by, Mr. Pearce cultivated a corn- field many years, which subsequently contained a race-track, where horses were shown and scrub-races run.

Among the first settlers of the village were Joseph C. Vance, George Fith- ian, Samuel McCord, Zephaniah Luse, William H. Fyffe, William and John Glenn, Frederick Ambrose, John Reynolds, Simon Kenton, Edward W. Pearce. Shortly after, were Anthony Patrick, William McDonald, John Hurd, James Dunlap, Daniel Helmick, John Miller, Henry Weaver, Bethuel Sample, Adam Mosgrove, Joseph Carter, William Smith and the Bells, who were distinguished, one from the other, by their several occupations.

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The history of Champaign county, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its cities, towns, etc.; general and local statistics; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; history of the Northwest territory etc, Part 21

Author: Ogden, J. W. (John W.); Beers (W.H.) & Co., pub Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago : W.H. Beers & co. Number of Pages: 926

Author: Ogden, J. W. (John W.); Beers (W.H.) & Co., pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : W.H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 926