USA > Ohio > Darke County > The history of Darke County, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its cities, towns, etc.; general and local statistics; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; > Part 23
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Nothing has yet been said about what might be called the civil history of the town and township of Greenville, or the county of Darke.
The laying-out of the town of Greenville, as we have seen, occurred anterior to the creation of the county of Darke, and both events, so far as now known. preceded any organization of town, township or county, as a " body politic." At what period elections were first held for civil officers. might probably be ascer- tained from a search in the office of the Secretary of State, at the Capital, if they were not irretrievably lost in the removal of the seat of government from Zanes- ville to Chillicothe, when public records and documents disappeared, and in all
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probability went down the flood of the Hocking into the Ohio, and thence, by way of the Ohio, past New Orleans, to the Gulf of Mexico.
The most ancient memorial relating to civil or criminal procedure is the judgment of Enos Terry, rendered as a Justice of the Peace, against a stray negro who was arrested, arraigned and tried before him for stealing a brass watch from a soldier of the Greenville garrison, in 1812. On the conviction of the negro, a sentence was pronounced by Terry unknown to the books, and not set down or nominated in the statutes. The negro was required to submit to one of two pen- alties, at his own option. Either to bear the infliction of the Mosaic forty lashes, save one, or be stripped stark naked and climb a thorny honey locust before Terry's door. Abe Scribner, who was present when the trial came off and sentence was pronounced, made a lifelong enemy of Terry, by suggesting to him that his two daughters, one of whom afterward married John Mooney, and the other Bill Scott, that in case the negro took to thorns, should assist him up the locust.
Subsequently, John Purviance, David Briggs and Terry were Justices of the Peace of Greenville Township, which, as yet, was co-extensive with the entire county, no other divisions being made until after the organization of the county, pursuant to an act of the General Assembly of December 14, 1816. At a later period, Samuel McClure, who lived on Whitewater, and Jacob Carlaugh, who resided at Stillwater, were commissioned Justices.
To pursue the civil history of the township of Greenville whilst it embraced the entire county and remained as a mere appanage of Miami County, and to know who were trustees or constables, would but little interest the reader of these pages, and for that reason the further reference to that matter is omitted. But it may as well be stated here as elsewhere, that from the first setting-up of a civil polity in Greenville Township, when it was co-extensive with the county, until a county organization took place under the act of December, 1816, no dismember- ment took place, and until a cutting-up under the authority created and set in motion by that act, it remained entire. On perfecting the new county organization, its dimensions were considerably reduced, and subsequent changes in its limits were made from time to time until 1828, since which time its boundaries have been unchanged.
After the defeat of Tecumseh and Proctor in the fall of 1813, the Indian allies of Great Britain were desirous for peace, as well as in want of other things, which they could only have by making peace, and overtures to that end from the hostile tribes were made to the representatives of the United States Government. The chiefs and head men were invited to a conference and council at Greenville, early in the spring of 1814; some of the tribes were tardy in responding to the invitation, being no doubt, to some considerable extent hindered and delayed through English influence, but about the middle or latter end of June some three or four thousand Indians, representing a number of the tribes, were encamped around Greenville and its vicinity. The United States was represented by Gens. Harrison and Cass, historic names in our annals, and the conference commenced. The negotiation, accelerated or delayed as outside influences prevailed, for even at that early day whisky and money were factors to be used, considered and disposed of, as the exigencies of statecraft required, was protracted for some weeks, until on the 20th of August, 1814, all differences were reconciled and the second treaty of Greenville was duly signed.
Since that day, no Indian war has troubled Ohio or Indiana, although in 1824, a cowardly and brutal murder of a family of Indians migrating from the State of New York to the West, by some white outlaws. in the vicinity of what were known as the Delaware towns, in Indiana, well-nigh occasioned an ontbreak that might have equaled that to which Fish, by his brutal and cowardly conduct, gave rise twelve years before. David Conner, who but a few years before had established himself as an Indian trader, on the Mississinewa, near what was known
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as "Llewellyn's," and who had an influence over the Miamis and Pottawatomies superior to their native chiefs, exerted himself to prevent the lifting of the toma- hawk, and was successful. The murderers, two in number, whose names are now forgotten by the writer, but may be found in the criminal records of Madison County, in Indiana, were arrested, indicted, tried, convicted and hanged. Conner, by his efficiency in securing justice, and his wise counsels preventing war, so won the good will and esteem of the Indians of the Miami tribe, that in solemn council he was made a chief of the tribe and with all proper rites and ceremonies duly inaugurated and installed into his office. It may not here be amiss to relate an incident of Conner's life that occurred some years previous. He had estab- lished himself as an Indian trader at Recovery, very soon after the execution of the treaty of 1814, and in effecting that treaty his influence with the Indians had been exerted, and by his exertions he had made some enemies amongst not only white men but Indians. One evening, several of the latter waited upon him at his trading-house, and deliberately notified him that the object of their visit was to take his life. He by his answer to them apparently acquiesced, but asked a few minutes' respite to put things in order so that others might not suffer loss by his taking-off. This was granted, and they took their seats to enable him to prop- erly fix up things. He deliberately spread a deerskin on the floor and emptied a keg of powder on it; and while they wondered what he would do next, he sprang to the fire and seized a brand and swore in good strong Miami that he and they would all go to hell together. The Indians stood not upon the order of their going, but went in what was unusual to an Indian, "very much hurry." In speak- ing of the matter afterward, one of the Indians who took part in the transaction told the writer that "Conner one devil of a man, he care no more for an Indian than he did for himself." He was never again molested by them. It may as well be stated here that Conner came to Greenville late in 1811 or early in 1812, and opened a small store and trading-house; and with him came David Thompson and purchased and settled upon the quarter-section south of Greenville, where David Studabaker now resides. Thompson had been a soldier in Wayne's army at Greenville, and with him at Rouge de Bout; he remained a resident of the county until his decease, about 1840, when he had attained the age of more than eighty years ; his wife died a few years later, and his oldest daughter, the widow of the late Judge Beers, his only surviving child of eight-four sons and four daughters-resides about a mile north of the town, and has attained an age of about eighty years.
There was in attendance at Greenville during the time of the negotiations preceding the treaty and until it was signed, a large concourse of white men as well as Indians. Men were here from Cincinnati, Dayton, Hamilton, Chillicothe, and various other places in Ohio ; Maysville, Lexington, Frankfort, and other places in Kentucky ; from points on the Ohio River, and even from Maryland and Pennsyl- vania. Many of these came to look at the country with a view to a settlement in it if they were pleased with it, and the Indian question so settled that they could emigrate to it and be freed from Indian disturbances ; others to look out lands that it would be safe to buy as an investment of their surplus money ; others to see what was to be seen, and make money if they could out of either Indians or white men as opportunity should offer, and many came with no defined object. Between the time of the treaty and the opening of the year 1816, many entries of land in Darke County were made at the Land Office in Cincinnati. The lands were sold by the Government on a credit of one-eighth down and the residue in seven annual installments. A number of tracts in the vicinity of Greenville were taken up on speculation that did not change hands for many years, and were kept unimproved. Among those who thus purchased, and probably never again saw the lands they bought, were Gen. James Taylor, of Newport; Gen. James But- ler, of Frankfort, Ky .; George P. Torrence, David K. Este, David Wade and William Burke, of Cincinnati ; Nathan Richardson, of Warren County ; Joseph
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Hough, of Chillicothe : Talbot Iddings, Andrew Hood and John Devor, of Mont- gomery County, and some others, whose purchases many of them long remained an eyesore, withheld from improvement. in the vicinity of Greenville. Many of these tracts, none of which were less than a quarter-section. remained in first hands from twenty to forty years, brought in the end but little more than the pur- chase money and interest to those who had purchased them, and added proof. if proof were necessary, that the well-being and progress of society in this nation demands that the title of the soil, vested in the National Government or the States, should not be transferred save to actual settlers.
Many other purchases were made on credit, by men who failed to pay out, and were compelled in the end to relinquish part to save the residue, or entirely forfeit their purchases. The United States was. in the end, under the pressure of the debt entailed by the war of 1812 and other causes, compelled to abandon the system of selling the national demand upon credit.
Congress, however, in a year or two after the forfeiture, authorized the issue of what was termed land scrip, to those who had lost their purchases, equal in amount to what they had paid, which, being receivable at any Government land office in payment for the lands of the United States, became for some years a part in some measure of the business currency of the country, as the scrip could pass from hand to hand until it was canceled at the land office.
The emigration to the town, township and county, from the time of the "stampede " on the breaking-out of the Indian troubles, and until after the treat- ies between the United States and both the Indians and England, was scarcely noticeable. Although many people came here, they did not come to stay, and were here for transient purposes only, and the population of the town, township and county. after the departure of the crowd who were here at the treaty, and after the withdrawal of the garrison at Greenville and from the other small stock- ades erected for protection in the evil days at Fort Nesbitt, Fort Black and Fort Briar, was little, if any, greater than in the spring of 1812.
It may not be amiss here to recapitulate, as well as can now be done, who were as residents within the limits of the township of Greenville after the treaty was signed in 1814, and by the term limits of the township confine the enumera- tion to the bounds of what is now Greenville Township, and not, as then, the whole county of Darke. In the town were Moses Scott, Azor Scribner, David Connor and John Loring, and the wife of the murdered John Stoner and his orphaned children. With these, as boarders or employes off and on, were Abra- ham Scribner, James Cloyd, Philder G. Lanham, Silas Atchison, and probably some others, whose residence cannot be definitely stated. North of the town, in Ireland, dwelt Enos Terry, Joe Wilson, Old Billy Wilson, Little Billy Wilson, Asa Spencer, and in their families as dependents and hangers-on, John Mooney, Joe Gass, and probably others not now remembered. Down the creek, below the town. and within a mile of it. was David Briggs, with whom resided his brother Thomas. Up Greenville Creek, Aaron and Matthias Dean had commenced the erection of the mill in many years afterward designated Dean's Mill. but, on the murder of Rush, the work ceased, and they left for the Miami. near Middletown, and did not return and complete it until after the war. Up Mud Creek, on the west side, were Thomas McGinnis, Barney Burns, Henry and James Rush. The widow of Andrew Rush, with her two children, the oldest of whom was born November 28. 1809, lived on the West Branch where it was crossed by the " Squaw Road." David Miles was on the knoll where Mr. Griffin now resides, about half a mile southwest of the mouth of Mnd Creek. On the east side of Mud Creek were Abraham Miller and John Studabaker, and just above the last, but outside the present township boundary. Zadok Reagan had located in the edge of the prairie, at what was known in after years as the " Burnt Cabin." On Bridge Creek were David Thompson and George Freshour. Charles Sumption, the " waxworks," lived in divers places, sometimes in Greenville, others on Bridge
R. R. Holland,
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Creek and on Mud Creek. He moved so often that his locality at any given date, after the lapse of nearly seventy years, cannot be stated with certainty. In his family at times were found Overfield and Low. who became his sons-in-law, and it may as well be stated here as elsewhere, that the marriage of one of Sumption's family-either his son Charles to a daughter of Mrs. Barney Burns, or one of his girls, Jemima or Sarah, who previous to the treaty became the wives of Overfield and Low-was, in all probability, the first rite of that character solemnized in the county. There may have been others than those named resident in the township at that early day, but the writer, who in his early years was personally acquainted with nearly all of them, cannot now speak with certainty, nor depend upon the accuracy of his memory of their statements to him, of the dates of their removal to the locality from which now all are gone.
Between the signing of the treaty of 1814 and the organization of the county in the spring of 1817, under the law of the preceding winter, the emigration to the township, as well as to the residne of the county, taking into view the sorry pros- pect of making a living in it, had increased the population more than threefold. In these two and a half years, George, Peter, John, Moses and Aaron Rush, broth- ers of the three who came in 1810. Henry Hardy and Archibald Bryson, who had married their sisters, came to the county ; James Bryson, who married the widow of Henry Rush, came, and John Hiller returned from Miami County, to which he had fled three years before on Indian account. Some of these parties settled out- side of Greenville Township. and others remained but for a brief period. On the West Branch and Greenville Creek were settled John McFarland, Daniel Potter, David Williamson, Joseph Huffman and Isaac Dunn. With Williamson came his brothers, James and John, who remained but for a brief period ; one went to But- ler County, and the other returned to his father's house in Greene County to die of consumption. On the south of Greenville, between town and Abraham Miller's, Henry House, an old soldier of Wayne's army, with a family of sons and daugh- ters, was located. In the southeast, was located on Bridge Creek Nathan Popejoy ; between him and David Thompson was settled William Arnold. and south of Thompson, now came Abraham Studabaker from his first location below Gettys- burg. Down the creek were located William, George, Jacob, Andrew and Joel Westfall, on the north side ; and William Hays, Sr., and William Hays, Jr., on the south side. Ebenezer Byram first settled up Greenville Creek above Dean's mill, which, on their return, was completed in a year or about that after the war, but soon removed out of the township down the creek to New Harrison, as his place is now termed, but which had no existence until years after his death. To Ireland came David Douglass, James Stephenson, or Stinson, as the name was usually pronounced, and Robert Barnett. Over the creek, on the Recovery trace, was located David Irwin, and southwest of him, on the creek, David Ullery. East of Terry's place was located Alexander Smith, the first temporary Sheriff of the county, Justice of the Peace of Greenville Township for several years, and once, for a few days, owing to the non-receipt of election returns from some locality between Greenville and Maumee Bay, had a seat in the State Legislature, from which he was ejected on a contest with the far-famed Capt. Riley, who, a few years previous, had been a prisoner riding a camel from Timbuctoo to Mogadore across the desert of Sahara. in Africa, Smith was afterward a candidate for the Lower House of the State Legislature, but was defeated by Gen. James Mills. Riley also again was before the people of the district, which then included nine or ten coun- ties of Northwest Ohio, for a seat in the House of Representatives, but failed. Subsequently, becoming more ambitious. he ran for Congress, but was badly beaten by William McLean, a brother of the late Judge McLean, of the United States Supreme Court. Archibald Bryson settled on the east side of the West Branch, above and south of the Squaw road, and east of him, toward Mud Creek, were located John Whitacre, John Embree, who was better known by the nickname of " Swift," and David Marsh, the first peddler of " wall-sweep" clocks in the county.
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HISTORY OF DARKE COUNTY.
The lots in the town of Greenville were yet the joint property, so far as the legal title was concerned, of John Devor and the heirs of the deceased Mrs. Arm- strong ; prior to her death, contracts for several of them had been made with part- ies who had paid for and were now living on them, but as yet had no paper title. Devor, soon after the treaty, moved up to Greenville from Montgomery County ; he had now purchased two additional sections, twelve hundred and eighty acres or more of land, part near to, and other portions more remote from, Greenville, and for the advancement of the town it was necessary not only to perfect to the pur- chasers the title of the lots already bargained, but to dispose of the residue. as well as secure to the county the title of the one-third given as an indueement to secure the location of the county seat. Legal proceedings to accomplish the desired ends were instituted in the Court of Common Pleas of Miami County, to which Darke, not yet organized, was attached. Under these proceedings the selec- tion of the lots for Darke County was made, decrees for title of those contracted away taken, and the proper conveyances executed and an appraisal of the residue of the lots, as well as adjacent lands of the half-section, was made, and a sale by the Sheriff of Miami County ordered. A public sale by the Sheriff was had at Greenville on the 11th day of June, 1816, when more than fifty lots were sold to purchasers on the usual terms of partition sales, part cash and part in deferred installments. One tract of the adjoining land was sold, but the residue, some two hundred acres, was bid in by Devor to prevent what he considered a sacrifice, and some years afterward became the subject of another suit in partition in the court of Darke County.
It may be as well here to take note of who in the period between the treaty and the county organization, had come to Greenville, and what was going on.
Devor, as already stated, had moved up, and with him came four sons and three daughters ; one daughter, married to Seribner had preceded his removal, and two others, one the widow of Robert Gray, were soon after married, the widow, Jane Gray, to Linus Baseom, and the other, Elizabeth, to David Irwin ; his remain- ing daughter, Mary Devor, died unmarried in 1820; John Devor died in July, 1828, and his aged widow some five or six years afterward ; all his children save one, Thomas Devor, a resident of Jay County, Ind .. are dead years since. Bascom had come here after the treaty, and with him Solomon Hamer, who, as partners. had a little store or trading ranch. The partnership was dissolved in ill- blood in a short time, each party charging the other with unfairness. Hamer left, and the last known of him Jack Douglass heard him preach in New Orleans ; he recognized Jack in the crowd of hearers, and as soon as the benediction was pro- nounced, made his way to him, and taking him aside begged him to keep shady, as he, Hamer, was doing a d-d fine business. In addition to the little stores of Connor, Scribner and Bascom & Hamer, Horatio G. Phillips, of Dayton. sent Eastin Morris to Greenville with a small stock of goods, about the close of 1815. Morris was not a success as a merchant, but afterward, in 1818, became Clerk of the Court, which position he held for ten years. On Seribner's emigration to the Maumee in 1822, the positions of County Recorder and Postmaster resigned by him fell to the hands of Morris. These several positions he held until about the close of the year 1828, when he resigned them all and went to Gallatin in Sumner County, Tenn., and engaged in the practice of law, and about 1840 removed to Burlington, Iowa, where he died in 1865 or 1866. After the treaty, Andrew Hood bought the quarter-section adjoining the town on the west, which included some fifteen acres east of Mud Creek and Greenville Creek, built a two-story log- house about half-way between Mud Creek bridge and the old ford, and started his sons Robert and William in the mercantile business in a small way. Some years later they emigrated to Fort Wayne.
Bascom, after his marriage, built a two-story log honse at the northwest side of the public square and commeneed keeping a tavern, dividing the business and drawing some of the custom from Moses Scott and Azor Scribner. A man by the
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HISTORY OF DARKE COUNTY.
name, real or assumed, of Daniel Routsong, came here, married Susie Creviston and sank some vats just outside the pickets of the fort, about twenty rods above Mnd Creek bridge. In a few weeks, it leaked out that he had a wife and children in Maryland. As soon as he was apprised that the fact was known, being certain if he escaped the penitentiary Henry Creviston would shoot him, he fled the country. Near the same time, John and James Williamson started a similar enterprise over the creek, about a hundred yards west of Porter's tannery. Neither tanyard ever amounted to " shucks." It cannot now be asserted that a side of leather was ever made at either, and not five persons in the county remember that they ever existed. Not far from this period came William Sipe from Greene County, and put up a kiln near the east corner of the town plat and started a pottery ; he also followed shoemaking a little, and hunting a great deal; in the latter employment he was not a success, for Dick Lyons put a spell on his gun that prevented him from kill- ing anything he shot at for several years, until Dick himself was "flabbergasted" by shooting a calf instead of a deer, when fire-hunting at night on the creek below the town. During the period between the treaty and the organization of the county, a number of unmarried men came to Greenville to grow up with the country, of whom as yet no mention has been made ; and some of them in after years became factors in making up the current history of the county. Among these were John and James Craig, John Armstrong, Henry D. and Robert N. Will- iams, David Buchanan, James Perry and some others. On the day succeeding the sale of the town lots by the Sheriff, came John Beers, and near the same time, John Talbot and Dr. Stephen Perrine, the first regularly educated physician who located in the place, followed shortly after by Dr. John Briggs, who for many years was a safe and successful practitioner. Beside these were two quacks, one a so-called Doctor Hopkins who went in on the "root and yarb " principles, who after swindling a number of credulous people, some of whom he had doctored from bad to worse, and others had lent him money, in a short time, with his bone- set, mullein and dog-fennel, departed hence and was not again heard of ; the other, a Jacob Myers, an itinerant vender of a specific which he carried about in a gallon jug, and issued to the ignorant as a preventive or remedy for the " fever 'n ager." A few years later, he narrowly escaped the gallows in Mercer County, for killing a patient with a decoction of buckeyes and white-walnut bark, administered as a cure for the chills.
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