USA > Ohio > Clinton County > The history of Clinton County, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its townships, cities, towns, etc.; general and local statistics; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; history of the Northwest territory, Volume 1 > Part 29
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Some years ago, the following article was published in the Clinton Repub- lican, at Wilmington, and is considered of sufficient interest to deserve a place in this history; its title was "Pioneers and Pioneer Life in Clinton County:"
" The year 1805 brought few, if any, emigrants to the neighborhood, but in the fall of 1806, Ezekiel Frazeir, William Shields and their families arrived from the same part of Tennessee, traveling in the same manner and driving their stock before them as the others had done. The only persons now living
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of that little colony aro Moses Fraizer and Betsey Ballard. (The former of these two is now deceased.) One little incident on their journey or at their arrival is, porhaps, worth relating. They camped the night before they reached the end of their journey on the banks of Caesar's Creek. Centre meet- ing had been established previous to that timo, and their arrival happened to bo on meeting day. Robecca Ballard, mother of Benajah, John and Jordan Ballard, and daughter of Ezekiel Fraizer and his wife, Rebecca Thomas, had preceded the rost of her father's family to the West about three years, and was . attending meeting at Centre. While those people were meditating, perhaps, on the goodness of God, and this daughter and sistor breathing a silent prayer for a blessing on those loved ones far away, sho listened and thought she heard in the distance a familiar sound; sho listonod again, and, as the sound grow more distinct, sho thought she could not be mistaken. Sho loft tho meeting and in the distance saw a party of omigrants approaching, and soon discovered that the familiar sound proceeded from the old cow-bell that had many a time gladdonod her in her father's herd in Tonnosseo. She ran and met her father, mother, brothers and sisters, and, with tears of gratitude, welcomed them to her wilderness home. That cow-boll, minus the clapper, is now in possession of Jonathan Bailey, and should be kept as a relic of those early days. Their arrival provod quite an addition to the neighborhood, for they brought a set of blacksmith's tools and Ezekiel was a blacksmith. Prior to this, if they wanted a horse shod or a plow sharpened, they had to go to Waynesville, a distance of fifteen miles. They made their settlement on part of the farm now occupied by Jonathan Bailey. By close application, the settlers would prepare from four to six acres for corn the first season aftor their arrival, the women often burning the brush, while the men would chop the trees and roll the logs. The woods affordod pasture in abundance for their stock, but wild onions were so plentiful, and the cattle croppod them to such an extent with the grass, that the settlers would often have to gather thom for their tables to destroy the onion flavor in the milk and butter. Emigrants now began to arrive fromn other parts of the country-the Dillons, Hodgsons and Fishers, from North Carolina, others from Pennsylvania and Virginia -- until the lands wore nearly all occupied, and they began to look around, and found they were destitute of schools and churchos. But before I begin to give a fow incidents of their moro civilized life, I will relate a few of their hunting adventures:
" Alexander Fraizer, brother to our old and respected fellow-citizen, Moses Fraizer, had, when he arrived in this country, a passion for coon-hunting. One night whilo engaged in his favorite amusement, his dog came dashing toward him and crouched between his feet; immediately, some other animal came tear- ing through the bushos aftor the dog, but, on sight of the human form, stopped, and Fraizer's eyes rested on those of a hugo panther. He was unarmed, ex- cept an ax, but had presence of mind enough to know that if he looked the monstor stoadily in the eyes it would not leap upon him; and so, steadily all through the night, he looked that hungry panther in the oyes, with the dog trembling between his feet. When the first gray stroaks of morning began to show in the east, the animal bounded away, and the hunter returned to his homo, complotoly cured of his fondness for coon-hunting. Mahlon Haworth and his brother James, although no great hunters, always in passing through the woods took the precaution to carry their guns with them. On one occa- sion, when in search of their horses that had strayed away, old 'Maje,' the trusty dog, treed a bear. James told his brother to stand aside and see him shoot him (the bear) in the head. So he raised his gun, but a film came over his eyes and a tremor soized his hands, and when he fired he missed his game. Now, Mahlon tried his luck; he did better; the game was wounded and came
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tumbling to the ground; the dog rushed upon him, and the bear would soon have dispatched him, but the men advanced, when he turned upon them, and, as he reared to give his hug, they placed the gun against his breast, fired and dispatched him. On the same day, they wounded a deor which came bounding past their dwelling and plunged into Todd's Fork. Mary Haworth, afterward Bailey, happened to be passing near, saw the deer become entangled in some brush, so she waded in, caught it and killed it with a stone. My informant remarked, 'Then we had venison and bear fat to cook it in.' Moses Fraizer, whose tottering form we saw on our streets on last election day to vote for President for the fifteenth timo, is also the hero of a bear story. On the first spring after his arrival hero, and in about his fifteenth year, while he was plowing in the field, a neighbor came by and reported three bears in the woods close at hand. Leaving his plow in the furrow, he ran to the house for his dog and gun, and was soon in hot pursuit of an old bear and two cubs. The old one soon treed; the others dashed on through the woods. Without dream- ing of the danger of attacking an old bear when with her cubs, he raised his gun and fired and old bruin came tumbling down, but only wounded. Fortu- nately, she ran from him; the dog pursuing, soon caused the animal to tree again, but when the hunter came up she was foaming with wrath, and gnash- ing her huge teeth until the sound would echo through the forest; undaunted by fear, he raised his gun and fired again. This time, the trusty rifle had done its work well, and the bear fell dead at the feet of the young hunter. He now returned to his work and soon heard a call in the woods, saying so dis- tinctly, 'come here,' that he thought some neighbor's child must be lost, and was calling for help, but, on going to the spot, he found one of the cubs pite- ously calling for its mother. He returned for his gun and soon dispatched him.
"One other bear story, and I will quit: A man whose name I have lost, and, for want of a better one, I will call him Snyder, was in the woods hunt- ing, and, by chance, came upon a bear. He raised his gun and fired and the first shot proved fatal. A neighbor was attracted to the spot by the report of . the gun, and found him in great complacency viewing the monster he had slain, and soliloquizing thus: 'Well, Snyder did kill a bear, and the people all over the neighborhood will soon say, Snyder killed a bear .. And that's not all, for the people way back in North Carolina will soon say, Snyder killed a bear.' ",
Some time in the fall of 1826 (the reader is referred also to the chapter devoted to the history of the press), the Wilmington Argus published an item upon mammoth fruit, which stated that "an apple was lately picked from the orchard of Nathan Linton, of this vicinity, weighing twenty-nine ounces and a pear weighing twenty-six ounces. A turnip was recently taken from the patch of Moses Hoskin, of this county, which weighed twelve pounds." The Western Star and Lebanon Gazette, of December 2, 1826, commented as fol- lows upon the item: "Whon wo saw the above article and recollected the ac- count of the seven-foot cucumber raised this summer in some of our northern counties, wo were ready to exclaim, 'Ohio against the Union!' but soon after noticing the following account of a radish, we concluded that our citizens must make another trial for victory. Our friend Hoskin's turnip is beat all hollow by the Dutchman's radish, whose dimensions will be found below: 'Beat This Who Can !- Was raised in the garden of Mr. Jacob Hummel, of Middle Creek, Union Co., Penn., last summer, and is now in the possession of Philip See- bold, Esq., of this place, a radish weighing twenty-seven pounds, measuring twenty-eight inches in circumference and its length thirty inches .- Times.'"
Those articles would have made the average committee on premiums at a
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fair of the present day clap its hands in an ecstacy of delight and dream of mammoth agricultural wonders for a year afterward. Yet there were truthful people in those days as well as now.
The following interesting old letters, with others from the same person bearing upon different subjects. were published several years ago, and we thought it best to insert them in this work for preservation. The writer be- came an honored citizen of Clinton County, and the letters came to us from beneath the dust of years as souvenirs of the pioneer days. They are from Samuel Linton to his friends, Abal and Joseph Saterthwaite, of Philadelphia, Penn., and are as here given:
WAYNESVILLE, the 5th of ye 5th mo., 1801.
FRIENDS SATERTHWAITES-I am about to visit you with another letter, and in- form yon it is fine growing weather here at this date, after a cold, snowy winter ; the northeast wind, about the 20th of the 1st month, made its way round the north bluff of the mountain, and found us and blowed us up a big snow, abont eighteen inches deep-a thing unprecedented in this country-and also that we are in good health and have not as yet become French citizens. The handbill announcing the cession of Louisiana, printed the 1st of last July, at Philadelphia, was reprinted at Cincin- nati, and in circulation at Waynesville the 20th of the same month ; and now the United States is in the peaceable possession of that vast country (as our President phrases it), so extensive and so fertile, and there don't at present appear anything to interrupt the peace and happiness of these settlements in this part of the world.
There have sundry changes taken place since I have been in this land besides our taking rank among our sister States. Our meeting, some months ago, was or- ganized into a monthly meeting, with full powers to practice the discipline of the church. William Saterthwaite, a valuable friend, and Samuel Cope, another-the one from Redstone, in Pennsylvania, the other from Concord Monthly Meeting, in this State-by the appointment of the quarterly meeting were present at the opening of our second meeting; and Ann Taylor, she who lately visited your parts, and Chris- tian Hall, women Friends, were also present, all of whom I had the happiness to en - tertain part of the time they were in this neighborhood. We had asitting in my fam- ily, and Ann gave good counsel to my young generation.
As I live in a thick settlement of Friends, they soon found out I understood how to use the pen pretty well, and, not knowing that John Brown, to please Moses Comfort, gave me a " measurable certificate," they have made much use of my pen in the management of meeting business.
Another change is, we now have good land enough of our own. I believe I did not answer the question in my last letter respecting the title of lands in this State ; I will now do it : There seems to be three descriptions ; first, the greatest part of the lands are purchased at our land offices for that purpose, at $2 per acre, or otherwise they are put up at public sale at 82 per acre, and such as are not bid higher than $2, during the three weeks of the vendue, are purchased at the land office for $2 per acre. According to the law, lately new modeled, of the last session of Congress, the purchaser may pay at four different annnal payments, and if he will make payment punctually at the stated time, he will be excused from paying inter- est. When payment is complete, he is by law entitled to a patent, and his title is in- disputable. Secondly, the land between the Little Miami and Scioto Rivers, com- monly called the military lands, is land that was reserved to reward the soldiers of the Revolutionary war, and is, much of it, very fertile or rich land. There is an office on purpose for the management of said land, called the war office. Said land is obtain- able by warrants granted to such as are entitled to them by law. The following fact will illustrate the matter : There were 12,500 acres allotted to Gen. Gates ; said Gates sold his right to Dr. James Murray ; said Murray, according to law, obtained a patent to said land, executed by George Washington, President, with the national seal affixed to it ; the titles to said lands are good. The aforesaid James Murray, the last fall, sent his son Daniel, with full power of attorney, to sell part of said land, and I have bought 500 acres of him at seven quarter-dollars per acre, and paid him the money, and he executed to me a warrantee deed. There is on my tract good spring water, and above one hundred acres of that sort of land that but little timber grows upon it, and what little there is is chiefly walnut and ash ; the ground is much overrun with pea-vine and spice-wood (sometimes called baby-wood). Such lands are too strong for wheat in their first culture, but excellent for corn, hemp, potatoes, pumpkins, tobacco, etc. Said Murray has sold various other people land. It is sev- eral miles from this town, on a branch of the Little Miami, called Todd's Fork. As there is likely to be a large settlement of Friends there, Dr. Murray has generously made us a present of fifteen acres of land for meeting and school use, for the Society
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of Friends, and made a deed to trustees, of which number Nathan Linton is one, and has got the deed recorded, and has it in keeping. Said Murray, late in the fall, returned to his father's in Maryland, and James Murray has sent Nathan a power of attorney, duly recorded, to survey and sell more of his lands. Daniel Murray is a young officer belonging to the navy department, and he has lately sent ns word that he is ordered on board, to sail to the Mediterranean, to help revenge the wrong done to the ship Philadelphia, by the Tripolitans.
Third. John Cleves Symes (commonly called Judge Symes), a number of years ago, perhaps near fifteen, contracted with the powers of government for one million of acres lying between the two Miami Rivers at two-thirds of a dollar per acre ; so Symes obtained a patent for about one-third of the million acres before Gen. St. Clair's defeat by the Indians ; but St. Clair's army being destroyed, and the Indians very hostile, things carried a very gloomy appearance in this country. At that time Symes gave up the power of his patented lands into the hands of Congress (the titles of his patented lands are good), but a new army being raised, and Gen Wayne at their head, and gave the Indians battle and totally defeated them, and then held a treaty with them, called the treaty of Greenville, and purchased some hundreds of miles of their lands, as the property of the United States ; and Jay's treaty coming for- ward, the English garrison (the root of evil), retired to the other side of the lakes, matters here assumed a favorable aspect, Symes resumes his right to the unpatented lands ; as the lands would sell for two or three times as much as they would before these late changes took place, and he actually sold quantities of the unpatented lands before attention was paid to the defect in his title, and those who purchased those unpatented lands of Symes have to purchase it over again at the land office at Cincin- nati, and get their money back from Symes as they can. We are not much disturbed with deficient titles this side of the Ohio, except this conduct of Symes ; on the other side of the Ohio, in th State of Kentucky, things have not been so regularly managed ; their title to lands is like their waters-uncertain. But by looking over the laws of the late session, I find Congress has been very indulgent to those who are in the hobble with Symes-they are allowed until the beginning of 1806 before any payment will be demanded, and after 1806, they are allowed six years to pay the re- mainder, in six annual payments. If they are industrious and managing, they may make the money off their lands in that time.
There will be henceforward, for those who can raise a little money, great op- portunities to buy good plantations. There is at this time much land to be sold in the military tract by those who monopolized by buying soldiers' rights, and the re- served sections between the Miami Rivers, will be sold next September in quarter- sections, and there is some excellent good lands among them ; and when matters can be got in readiness, that vast tract called the Indiana, that temperate and surpass- ingly fertile country, almost surrounded by the boatable waters of the Wabash, the Ohno, the Mississippi and the Illinois Rivers, will be sold : such as is not sold at the different vendues may be bought at the land offices for $2 per acre, and the title as good as any government can make titles.
The emigration into this country is so prodigious that, notwithstanding the fertility of the soil, there is scarce enough raised to supply their immediate wants at this time (without our exporting company sending it away), which makes produce high at the present ; wheat, two-thirds of a dollar ; corn half a dollar ; bacon, 8 cents per pound, etc.
Our crops of wheat, oats and flax, last year (1803), were generally much damaged by being lodged by a shower of rain a little time before harvest ; crops of corn were generally good ; we were allowed to plant abont eight or nine acres that lay handy to us, for new setting and, extending the fence and putting the ground in better order ; we had above four hundred bushels of corn-plenty for our use and some to spare to hungry and starved new-comers.
We have been informed varions ways, both verbally and in print, that on your side of the mountains the drought prevailed in many places last year, and occasioned very seanty erops of grain and grass. The Virginians say in their country many of their springs of water were dried up, and the late winter many creatures died for want of provender. Newspaper says, at Frederickstown, Md., there were forty days and no rain, and the herbage withered, and in the Genesee country ninety days and no rain. What disturbs M. Comfort's peace now, that he wants to go to the Genesee ? Don't he like his new neighbors as well as his old ones? Perhaps he won't bring so favorable. an account of that county as C. Brown did. Perhaps he will like his plantation five hundred pounds better, like he did when he came from Maryland. Land begins to be dull sale in the old settlements in many places, I hear.
I commiserate you on account of the loss of your preacher, Jolm Comfort, and the damage the hailstorm did you after you had hurried him under ground. IIas Charles Brown got his windows repaired yet? If you had lived in as humble houses
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as we do, you would not have lost so much window-glass. The loss of Oliver Hongh is a serions loss to the Falls Monthly Meeting. We have three preachers belonging to our monthly meeting, and likely to have the fourth before many years. Our meet- ing-house is too little for onr greatly increasing numbers, and we are about to build a new meeting-house, thirty feet square, and that, it appears to me, will be too small ' before many years. I think I see four monthly meetings here away before a great while-the Miami Monthly Meeting ; one at Stillwater, over the Big Miami ; one at Todd's Fork, and one at Lee's Creek. It is not unlikely that times to come will see as prodigal edifices at the above places as those that constitute Buck's Quarter.
I live a sort of public life at present. I have many visitors, both foreign and domestic, among others Benjamin White and Benjamin Gillingham, from Buck's Quarter. Tell all whom it may concern, and Benjamin Pahner in particular, I had the honor lately to entertain his son Richard. The matter stands thus: The Little Turtle and other Indians about Fort Wayne (above a hundred miles to the north of us,) sent a message to Baltimore Yearly Meeting, requesting their assistance to instruct them in the arts of civil life, and how to use the husbandry and other tools they had sent them; upon which the Committee on Indian Affairs appointed George Ellicot and Jarrard Hopkins (the yearly meeting's Clerk), to visit them, and give them such counsel as they should think expedient when among them ; and also Philip Thomas, to assist them in their farming the ensuing season; and the War Department sent David Jinkinson, carpenter, and Richard Palmer, blacksmith, to reside and work with them; all of which, in a company, came to my house in the forepart of the day, and stayed with me until about that time next day, to refresh themselves and horses, and then proceeded on their journey. Unfortunately, Nathan and David were not at home; they were at work on our 500-acre plantation, where we propose to raise a crop the ensuing summer-farm some here and some there until we can get ready to move there. George Ellicot gave it as his opinion there is more rich, fertile land in the State of Ohio, than in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey all put together. Remember, the State of Ohio is but a small proportion of the land con- tained between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers; and Richard Palmer says he will never go over the mountains again to live, and that it would be better if some of his brothers would come here, and not stay there getting nothing. He desired I would send word about him in a letter to his old acquaintances.
Two Kentuckians traveled through this neighborhood and made the following remarks: " That the State of Ohio would decidedly have the advantage of Kentucky, for the following reasons: First, the climate is more friendly to the growth of wheat; and, secondly, the streams of water are constant and steady, not swelled into floods by winter rains, nor dried up by summer droughts, but in many places mills can go constantly all the year; when, on the other hand, in Kentucky, when they should be manufacturing their wheat for market, their mills can't go for want of water." The mill before our door-grist and saw-mill-with all the fertile land belonging to it, near one hundred acres, has been bought up by a wealthy Quaker, who is able to pay for it. Another wealthy Quaker, near the Big Miami, has a grist-mill, a saw-mill and a fulling-mill, and many hundred acres of capital land, and a sweet daughter about seventeen or eighteen years old, who gains the praises af all who have the hap- piness to be acquainted with her.
We have four head of horses, old and young, and thirteen head of cattle, old and young. It begins to be time to enlarge our borders. I have got a weaving shop, and weaving tackling. I have woven a number of pieces, and made out bravely, but. the worst difficulty is I am run over with custom.
If Mr. Comfort was to see our lands in this country, I am apprehensive that when he returned to his own plantation he would like it £500 worse, instead of £500 better, as he expressed himself when he returned from Maryland.
A straight-coated Friend (a millwright) is about purchasing some hundreds of acres of land adjoining my plantation, and intends to have a grist-mill running in less than a year from now on his land. He has a sweet, pretty daughter, just cleverly merchantable. There is a fine chance for young men in this country-good land, and pretty girls plenty ; there were six fair ones passed my door this morning in a troop. But, setting aside nonsense, although true, I request that when thee has read this letter, to convey it to Joseph Saterthwaite, and Joseph to make the interesting parts of it as public as may be among my old acquaintances for their information.
SAMUEL LINTON.
TOD'S SETTLEMENT, WARREN COUNTY, STATE } OF OHIO, YE 10TH OF THE 5THI MO., 1806. 1.
RESPECTED FRIEND, ABEL SATERTHWAITE-I received thy letter, dated 10th mo., 1805, from Waynesville Post Office, some time ago, and it is agreeable to me to keep up a correspondence as opportunities may present.
*This condition of affairs, if it existed then, has been subjected to a wonderful change, for the opposite is certainly true at the present day.
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Thee informs me this is the best country to send people to, as they cannot ascend the river to get back again; the bearer of my letters last year found a way to get back again, as well as sundry others, an I return and bring more with them. The immigration to these parts is prodigious; it is supposed that not less than one thou- sand new members were incorporated in the Miami Monthly Meeting in the year 1805, and that the members of the Miami monthly meeting are more numerous than any other monthly meeting in the United States. As to trade, it is but a short time we have had the command of the Mississippi River, and (to carry on the joke) does : thee not observe what a loss your grain monopolies have already sustained ? You may spend thousands after thousands of dollars in improving your roads to Pitts- burgh, but you wagoners cannot afford to transport goods from your cities to Pitts- burgh for three pence per pound. I have been informed the boatmen plying between New Orleans and Cincinnati bring goods from New Orleans to Cincinnati for three pence per pound in this early stage of their practice, and when they become more improved in the use of sails perhaps they can afford to do it cheaper, as the current is in their favor going down, and the wind, three-fourths of the time, in their favor coming up stream. Thee informs me your traders are in better credit at foreign ports than New Orleans merchants; but when New Orleans has had time to estab- lish itself under the Goverment of the United States, its credit may appreciate. so advantageous a stand will certainly tempt wealthy merchants there when matters become better regulated and prejudices overcome.
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