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 26
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On the morning of January 21, 1840, there was found on the premises of the Broadway House, a dead infant that had come into the world at some time of the preceding night. The mother was soon ascertained to be a young woman in the employ of the landlord. Charles Hutchins was then the Coroner, and in obedience to his warrant a jury was called, who by their finding made the charge of infanticide against the mother, and she, as soon as her condition per- mitted, was removed to the county jail. After several months she was brought to trial. She was defended by Judge Crane, who discharged that duty by order of the court, without fee or reward. At that day, lawyers discharged the duty of defending the indigent accused, when thereto assigned by the court, upon and for the honor of their profession ; and the practice of shysters haunting county jails in search of jobs at the cost of the county had not yet been inaugurated. On the trial, the woman was acquitted. That death had been occasioned by violence was established by the post-mortem investigation, but whether that violence was the result of purpose or accident was never known. The mother had been entirely alone in her hours of agony. No defense of insanity was set up ; that plea, as an offcome for murder, was then scarcely known in criminal procedure. Now the conduct and character of the manslayer and his ancestry, to the third and fourth generation, are sought out to establish hereditary insanity, and as scarce any one who in his pedigree but must make mention of fools as well as madmen, the defense of mental alienation is generally made ont.
In 1794, a criminal in Wayne's garrison was by a military court tried, con- victed and sentenced, and pursuant thereto was hanged. Since that day, the sentence to death as the penalty of a broken law has been but once pronounced by a court of justice in Darke County, and that sentence is not at this present writing executed. Whether it ever will be, is in the uncertainty of the future.
The uproar on the streets reminds the writer that this is "show day ;" there is to be exhibited a menagerie of animals and a circus. The first show in Green- ville was of a similar character, though on a smaller scale, in June, 1829. But then as now, the institution was accompanied by a band of counterfeiters and thieves. On the next morning, Jim Craig had amongst his assets $22 in counter- feit money, coin and bank notes. Howell had $17, and other townsmen had lesser amounts. Two men had their pocket-books stolen, three others their pockets cut and purses taken, and there were outside thefts in the county amounting in the aggre- gate to $200 or $300. But then as now, men and their families who had neither meat nor meal, salt nor whisky in their dwellings, came to town and spent their last dime to " see the show."
Of the rise and progress of religious organizations in the town and township. the writer has not yet made mention, and, like many other matters of early years,
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there is obscurity and doubt. As early as 1817 or 1818, Elder Nathan Worley, from Montgomery County, a man who could not read one word in the Bible, but by his people regarded as an apostle, belonging to the body who called themselves " Christians," and commonly called " New Lights," who utterly abhorred any other appellation or name of denomination or sect; and David Purviance, who had been a party in the revolt from the Presbyterian body at Cane Ridge, in Ken- tucky, about 1799 or 1800, and who, about 1809 or 1810, had removed with a number of like faith to the vicinity of New Paris, Preble County, the one illiter- ate as the fishermen of Galilee, the other like Paul or Timothy, "learned in the Scriptures from his youth," at intervals, few and far between, held religious services in the town or vicinity. About 1818, Greenville became a point in a circuit of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and John P. Durbin, a D. D. of after years, and a man whose praise is yet in all the churches, although he has gone hence to his reward, was the first itinerant circuit-rider. About the same time or near it, the town and township became a missionary field of the Presbyterian Church, and was visited first by Nicholas Pittenger, and subsequently by John Ross of that denomination, who held services in the town and neighborhood. From 1819 or 1820, services of the Baptist Church were held at long intervals, by Childers and Wintermole, ministers of that denomination, who yet, after the lapse of sixty years, have a quasi-organization, although no regular stated service or house of worship in the town or township.
About the year 1833, a Methodist Church was erected on the site of the present edifice ; it was a frame building, and of dimensions capable of seating an audience of one hundred to one hundred and fifty. The building was removed in after years across the street to make way for the present house. Near the same period, the Baptists took possession of the ground where the old log schoolhouse had been demolished, and erected a small frame structure to serve them as a place of worship. In 1836 or 1837, the existing Episcopal Church was erected on the ground where it yet stands ; its position has been changed and the house enlarged. Either the same year or the year previous, the Christian Church erected a brick building on Third street, between Broadway and Walnut street, which was taken down about thirty years since on an exchange of lots, the church obtaining the site of the present edifice. These four buildings were the only structures for ecclesiastical uses in town or township in 1840. Services of other denominations were held either in some of these buildings after their erection or in the court house. It should, however, be stated here, that at the Catholic cemetery, two miles northeast of the town, a log house yet standing was erected, and in it at dis- tant intervals religious services were held, when a priest came to look after the lambs of that flock who had strayed into the wilderness. This old building was probably erected in 1839 or 1840.
H.A. Frenner
ARCANUM
HISTORY OF DARKE COUNTY.
BY PROF. W. H. MCINTOSH.
Those who bore the burden and heat of the early day,
Who suffered loss and privation uncomplaining-where are they ?
They wrought with strong endurance, through discouragement and ill ; Has the great All-Reaper spared them ? Do they dwell among us still ? Ah, no, they rest from their labors, and little to-day appears To remind us of the hardships endured by the pioneers. Their noble lives have drifted beyond the shores of time,
But the blessed works that follow are enduring and sublime.
Yet the past is soon forgotten, as an idle story told,
The New is a strong young giant that slays and devours the Old.
Who walks the streets of our cities where the tides of commerce flow,
And thinks of the sloughs and brushwood there fifty years ago ? Who, seeing the classic facades of our mansions grand and fair, Remembers the buckeye cabins and the half-faced camps once there ? In the palace cars that bear us over the iron track.
Leaving the wind to follow, who panses and looks back
To the time when the sole conveyance for human freight and goods, Was a stanch old four-horse wagon, creeping along through the woods ? Who sits in our splendid churches, with their fretted and frescoed walls, Where the light. through painted windows, like a broken rainbow falls, And thinks of the band of settlers who paid to God their vows On the wild grass sod of the forest under the maple boughs. Ah, the past is soon forgotten when its pulsing heart grows cold- The New is a strong young giant that slays and devours the Old. -S. T. Bolton.
INTRODUCTION.
T THE history of Darke County is a record of military strife and civil progress. It presents, in striking contrast, the terrible cruelties of savage warfare with the happy and harmonious developments of peace. It builds the forts which sheltered armies and, later, founds cities upon their sites. It shows to us a wild waste of forest and swamp, broken by stretches of prairie, and irrigated by bridgeless streams, transformed to fields productive, pastures pleasant, homes comfortable and cities growing, populous and flourishing. It presents to view the dwellers of the wood, the Shawnee, Miami and other tribes at home. The energy of France, the power of England and the dominant persistence of Americans found here full play. It conducts from beyond the Alleghanies and beyond the ocean to find the fatherland of the race now dwelling in its townships.
The savage is seen to vanish beyond the Mississippi, the pioneer becomes the settler and commencement is made of a civilization whose manifest destiny is the highest happiness and power of a free people. Owners of the lands they till, makers of the laws they obey, themselves the projectors and builders of house and church, turnpike and drain, and all the improvements apparent to the eye of the interested observer. Persevering industry is seen to have rescued a region of swamp wherein miasma bred and floated, poisoning the atmosphere and endanger- ing life, to become the most fertile of farms and healthful of lands.
C
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HISTORY OF DARKE COUNTY.
Ohio is a noble State, and Darke County, emerging from obscurity, has advanced to prominence as one of her most productive counties. The history of Darke includes the origin of its founders, their progress in improving its lands and the results of their unwearied industry.
Could material reward our research, and unwritten truths be rescued from oblivion, much of what woukl fill these chapters would prove a valuable addition to our knowledge. There is the inception of courts, the crude attempts at agricult- ure, schooling, manufacture and mechanism, the projectors of the turnpike and the men who originated and carved through the railroads. There is the progress of education, the mutations of the press, the growth of religion and the strife of opinion-noble themes, worthy of labored study. The historian is desirous yet reluctant to attempt the task. Consulting the press, he finds its columns mainly replete with pleasing tales and political tirades. The pioneers have listened to able addresses, but these have not been placed on file. A Wharry, an Arnold, a Hiller and a Harper have gathered fragments and done a priceless service, but the records of Darke are meager and deficient. and their combination as lessons for present entertainment and future reference and instruction is a difficult and impor- tant task.
Traveling her railroads, traveling her turnpikes, and walking the streets of towns and cities, the county shows free traces of its recent growth, and the thoughtful are anxious to learn the story. To know the acts of our ancestors. to asertain the rank of the county, to rehearse examples of heroism, and to exhibit the results of untiring and well-applied industry, are considered well worthy of patient investigation. The brief outline of State history centering within the bounds of Darke, the perilous settlements before the war. the roll of pioneers, the rapid changes wrought by labor, are themes to dwell upon. Aided by recollec- tions of aged pioneers, annals and manuscripts, attempt is made to delineate the customs of the early day, to note the characters of primitive settlement and the influence on their health and habits of a residence in a region remote from travel and dense with the growth of centuries. There was seen here what is now going on in the Far West. The woods abounded in game, the lands were offered at low rates, and villages and towns would somewhere be laid out, and we shall see that these circumstances attract the roving trapper, the reckless speculator and the permanent settler.
Few are left to-day, in Darke, of those who rendered her citizens such incal- culable service in making the county habitable. They have perished, but their work remains the basis of present and future prosperity. Pioneer life is made prominent because, from its impress, the future was determined. His legacy to posterity was an example of rare courage and ceaseless energy. A generation, springing from blended nations, has stamped its character upon a worthy succes- sor. Peoples have clung to mountain side, or island home, because of life associa- tions, but citizens of Darke are proud of the historic interest attached to her cities, the number and perfection of her pikes, and the attractions of a beautiful and diversified scenery.
Undulating plains, platted with farms and dotted by habitations, stretch away on either hand. Many streams unite their waters, and irrigating the lands, drain the soil of surplus moisture ; groves of timber alternate with cleared fields, while town and city reveal their site by court-house tower and spire of church.
Seventy-four years ago, the first white man established within the limits of Darke County, by his rude cabin, an ontpost of permanent occupation in the Indian country. Traders had been here and trappers had followed the traces years before, ' but the trails of armies had been overgrown with vegetation, and the Indians, cowed and sullen, were still at home in their rude camps along meandering streams.
Three-fourths of a century have transformed a savage paradise to an abode of the highest civilization. In vain disease and danger, privation and poverty,
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HISTORY OF DARKE COUNTY.
were leagued against the pioneers ; clearings increased in number and enlarged in area ; tradesmen and professional men gathered in the towns. Along Wayne's road they trooped and turned aside upon their entered lands. Later came the railroads, enhancing values and accelerating transportation. The perfect mechan- ism of the age is here in use, on farm, in town and city, and agriculture stands prominent in volume and character of its products.
Nor were education and religion ignored-those sterling agencies which ele- vate and ennoble while they direct and stimulate exertion. These testimonials of the past are pledges of like recognition of eminent services in the present, and give direction to the future. It is with interest we seek to trace the history of Darke, and from the most disheartening commencement discern the growth of present proud pre-eminence among her sister counties in elements of stable and enduring prosperity.
LINE OF ORGANIZATION-CONCURRENT EVENTS.
As families with pardonable pride trace their descent from a long line of hon- ored ancestry, so may Darke seek out her origin from the counties first formed in the Northwestern Territory. Hamilton was the second county established in the Territory, and was organized by proclamation of Gov. St. Clair, on January 20, 1790, with the following boundary: Beginning on the Ohio River at the conflu- ence of the Little Miami, and down said Ohio to the mouth of the Big Miami, and up said Miami to the standing stone forks or branch of said river, and thence with a line to be drawn due east to the Little Miami, and down said Little Miami River to the place of beginning. The condition of the pioneers of this county was deserving of commendation. For them to advance out into the wilderness seemed certain death, and to remain was to run the risk of starvation. Pioneers the best circumstanced found subsistence hard to get, and the poorer class were almost destitute. Game, fish, and what could be raised on small patches of ground in the settlements were the dependence for food. Having endured these privations for a time, some, the more resolute, determined to move out and occupy lands. There were several families which united to go, and for common safety block-houses were erected near their cabins. While at work by day a lookout was on the watch, and at sunset all retired within the pickets. So they labored on till improvements had been increased to a size sufficient to provide subsistence for their families. These stations became points of refuge for safety and food, and also drew upon them the attention of their foes. Perpetual vigilance, hardship and peril were the lot of the pioneer, and the block-house became the approved recourse of all settlers far up the rivers of Ohio. So scarce and dear was food at this time, that the lit- tle flour that could be afforded by families was saved away to be used only in case of sickness, or for the entertainment of friends, and game was songht as a neces- sity. Ross County was formed on August 20, 1798, by proclamation, as Hamilton had been, and likewise had very extensive limits. After Wayne's treaty, Col. Nathaniel Massie and others formed a company to make a settlement in the county. In August, 1796, Chillicothe was laid out by Col. Massie, and a lot given to each settler. Many of Wayne's soldiers and camp-followers settled here, and the society was much akin to what has been asserted of our Western towns of Deadwood and Leadville. Chillicothe was the point from which the valley settlements spread and advanced ; it was a place of considerable business, and in 1800 became the seat of government of the Territory. Later, the honor of being capital fell to Zanes- ville, and finally to Columbus. Montgomery County was created from Hamilton and Ross on May 1, 1803, and the seat of justice was appointed to be at the vil- lage of Dayton, and, on January 16, four years later, Miami was formed from Montgomery, and Staunton. now a wretched hamlet near Troy, was made the county seat, and, finally, on January 3, 1809, Darke County was formed from Miami by act of the Legislature. It derived its name from the gallant Col. Darke, of whom honorable mention has been made in the successive campaigns of Harmar, St.
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HISTORY OF DARKE COUNTY.
Clair and Wayne. The eastern, western and southern boundaries coincide with the original, but when formed, the county extended northward to the Indian bound- ary line fixed by Wayne's treaty, and therefore included a portion of the territory now belonging to Mercer County. As originally bounded, Fort Recovery stood on the northern line of the county. The original survey was made by Ludlow and his party early in the century, and the division into sections was the later work of Judge John Wharry, of Greenville. The field-notes of the original survey give dolorous accounts of the condition of the county, which seems to have been dis- mal with swamps and marshes and far from attractive to the most resolute pioneer. Less than a dozen men comprised the population of Miami County from 1797 to 1799, and in 1800 a few families moved in. Then immigrants began to come in from all parts of the country. From the coon to the buckskin embraced the cir- culating medinm. Merchandise was first obtained from Cincinnati, then Dayton, and finally a man named Peter Felix established an Indian trafficking post at Staun- ton. Ten years had now gone by since Wayne had retired from Greenville, and Darke County still formed part of the Indian Territory beyond the frontiers. Its lands were traversed as yet only by the savage, the adventurous hunter, the wily trapper and by the Ludlows, Cooper, Nelson and Chambers, surveyors in Govern- ment employ, accompanied by their field hands. From June, 1799, to January, 1802, these venturing forerunners of occupation ran their lines in the face of the greatest natural obstacles with almost marvelous fidelity, and, returning, left their work to be made useful when the rising tide of settlement should flow in upon their forbidding, yet fertile tracts. Onward the settlements were sweeping as they have continued to sweep, till beating upon the far Pacific, there has come a return, and now in Kansas, Nebraska and other States there is still proceeding, under the potent influences of inventive genius, a continuation of that occupation which expands power, increases wealth and supplies homes for thousands.
At the close of the Greenville treaty, the county to the westward was a wil- derness ; but, in addition to the Indian traces leading from the Miami to the Mau- mee. and threading their devious way to other savage villages, there were the broad trails cut by pioneers, trodden by horsemen and footmen, and marking the route of armies and the forays of detachments. The soldier was also the citizen and the settler, and his quick, appreciative glance took in the possibilities of the countries he had traveled. For him the woods of Darke had no charm. The con- ditions elsewhere were here wanting. Contrast the statement made concerning the Miami settlement to the east with the actual condition of the lands of this county. There the country was attractive all about the settlement. Nature pre- sented her most lovely appearance ; the rich soil, mellow as an ash-heap, excelled in the exuberance of its vegetation. Cattle were lost from excessive feeding, and care was required to preserve them from this danger. Over the bottom grew the sweet annis, the wild nettle, the rye and the pea vine, in rich abundance, where the cattle were subsisted without labor, and these, with nutritions roots, were eaten by swine with the greatest avidity. In Darke lands there were found the woods, the endless variety of vine and shrub, impassable swamps, lack of roadway, and the great difficulty of making passable roads. Nor were the forests the only or most formidable barrier to early settlement. We have seen the woods to be filled with Indians. Their principal town was at Piqua, distant but eighteen miles ; their camps were along the creeks. In the neighborhood of larger settlements they were treated roughly, and are entitled to little consideration, and it was known from bitter experience that lone families were in constant danger of the sudden wrath of the savage. We have spoken of Tecumseh's brother. the Prophet. As the lat- ter appealed to credulity and superstition. so did the former to a slumbering sense of the wrongs to be redressed, and by far more was the warrior to be dreaded for the native eloquence and subtle scheming with which he gradually fanned the sparks of discontent into the flames of open warfare. It is said that he built a cabin at the point near Greenville, and by others it is denied ; it matters not,
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HISTORY OF DARKE COUNTY.
but the Shawnee brothers gathered about them dark retainers, who had no kindly impulses to the persons who might presume to pioneer the settlement of the country. Some portions of the county abounded in game, and among those timid and harmless animals were found those fierce and dangerous, as might be judged from the names of creek and locality. Still this might be regarded more as an annoyance than as a dread, and, later, premiums for scalps of wolf and panther supplied the settler with means of paying tax or buying necessaries. There existed a still more potent influence debarring occupation, and this was ill reports of health and climate. The men of that day were little afraid of labor; they knew the Indian must give way, but they were peculiarly influenced by whatever partook of the mysterious, and Rumor's many voices soon changed the natural to the marvelous, and Darke County was shunned as the haunt of a plague, desig- nated "milk sickness." Some implicitly believe in its prevalence to this day, while others assert that it is a myth, undeserving of credence. Endeavors to find a case have always proved futile. It is heard of "just over in the next township," but, going thither, report placed it further on in the next township, or perhaps in the one just left, and the phantom always places the breadth of a township between its locality and the curious investigator. But whether a myth or a reality,. the report spread along the Miami and beyond; the settlers believed it, and, what was worse, regarded it with dread. Even the Indians asserted that certain districts were infected with an air freighted with the odors of disease, and gravely told the whites, "Not live much here-too much belly sick ;" and, whatever the cause, there was sickness where they gave this word of warning. It will . thus be seen that the territory which afterward became Darke County had won an unenviable reputation, and land titles were held at low rates, with few bidders. These things undoubtedly delayed settlement and caused a tardy growth, while they gave in compensation a class of men possessed of pluck and energy, well qualified to leave their impress on the soil.
In the settlement of Darke County, which for eight years was a dependency of Miami, two classes of land occupants were recognized-the transient and the permanent. The historian called to do justice to the worthy class finds but few of their descendants resident citizens of the county, and it is not till 1816 and later, that families came to stay and make their fortune blend with that of their future home.
Coming up the army roads, striking across the country, eligible locations caught the eye, and established the hunter at a creek-side home, while an unusual hard time in sickness and losses impelled the intended resident to move away. Thus there were conversions from one class to another, and all shared in a certain degree of restlessness while in search of a home, but a strongly marked distine- tion between the two divisions existed. There was seen to be here, as elsewhere, a border class of trapper and hunter affiliating with the savages, only endured by genuine settlers and hanging upon the outmost fringe of advancing occupation. It matters little who they were, these openers or beginners, who held aloof from neighbors, occupied miserable huts, raised small patches of corn, and left when the elearings became too numerous. Many poor men came into the county, put up small log cabins, cleared somewhat of ground, then, disheartened by privation, sickness and inability to make payments, gave way to others, who built with bet- ter success upon their broken fortunes. An old Darke County settler, located not far from Greenville, thus speaks of the actual pioneers as a class : "The place for the squatter is not quite among the Indians, for that is too savage, nor yet among good farmers, who are too jealous and selfish, but in the woods, partly for clearing it up and partly for hunting." The histories of townships, dealing with the first settlers, often speak of the unknown squatter, whose abandoned claims gave brief home to the settler, and whose ill-cleared vegetable patch, growing up to weeds and bush, made the spot seem yet more wild than the woods surrounding.
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