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 31
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HISTORY OF DARKE COUNTY.
stood, not less than a quarter-section could be entered. The price of the public land was $2 an acre, and the purchaser was required to pay $80, or one-fourth, down, one-fourth in two years, and the balance in two equal annual installments, with interest ; altogether, $320. If not paid within the time specified. the lands, with whatever had been paid of the installments, were forfeited, and a great many were unable to pay for their lands as required, and so, being placed at the mercy of the Government, they remained as occupants by sufferance. Forfeiture was not declared, and, in March, 1820, an act was passed by Congress. extending the time for payments to entries until March 31, 1821. This legislation simply allowed the settler to reside on his land another year, but this gave no aid. He was as nable to pay at the end of the year as at the beginning. At length. a bill was introduced which provided that the holder of any legal certificate of purchase might file a relinquishment in writing, at the land office, on or before September 30, 1821 ; and if such person had paid but one-fourth of the first cost of the entry, he could pay the rest in eight equal annual installments ; if he had paid one-half, the bal- ance could be paid in six annual payments ; if three-fourths, the rest could have four equal yearly installments ; and if the whole amount could be paid by the last of September, 1822, a deduction of three-eighths would be made on payments yet to be made. March 21, 1821, the bill passed, but Darke County was remote, and news of this relief measure came when it was too late to make it available. The time, too, had nearly gone by before the district land officers had received orders from the proper department, and few had any benefit from the enactment. An act was passed March 3, 1823, continuing the provisions of the law of 1821 to Septem- ber 30, 1823. Congress, however, contained many men who felt a deep interest in the development of the West, and who were earnest in their efforts to aid the moneyless settler. Soon an act was passed, authorizing the sale of public lands in one-eighth sections, and reducing the price to $1.25 per acre. Still another law was passed, legalizing land sales in one-sixteenth of a section, or forty-acre tracts. and permitting such as had entered lands under the first act to relinquish them, and to apply whatever they had paid to the payment of one-half the lands entered, or any other tract they might choose. The beneficial influence of this legislation was apparent, in securing as permanent settlers a number of families that otherwise would have been deprived of their homes, after losing both payments and labor. The land was low, wet, wooded and hard to clear up. About each cabin were a few acres in crop, and these pioneers raised no surplus. They were satisfied to bide their time if they had sufficient food to take them through to the next harvest. When supplies were necessitated, hauling had to be done great distances, upon roads almost impassable for wagons, and the greater part of such provisions was mainly corn meal and bacon, which were placed, generally, upon horses, and so brought home. Journeys through the woods on foot were as little regarded, at such times, as trips equal distances now are by the railway.
Clearing was the labor of the day, and its method is little known by the favored descendants of the present. In 1820, intelligence directing physical strength was excellent, but courage and bodily power were imperative. and the weakly were out of place, while idlers were held in contempt. Opprobious epi- thets were freely applied to him who shunned labor, and his punishment came home with force when neighbors refused to attend his calls.
The settler, ax in hand, prepared to commence a spot of clearing. felled his trees with scientific skill in double windrows inward, piling and interlacing limbs and tops ; then, when the summer's heat had evaporated the moisture and all was dry as tinder, a chosen time found favorable winds which drove the fires enkin- died with waves of flame and furnace heat from end to end, and left the charred and blackened trunks for future disposal. The practice of girdling was frequently a resort, and a tract whereon the trees stood leafless and decaying was aptly termed a deadening. These trees were cut in time, and used for fencing and for firewood, the latter use from readiness to burn, not disposition to economize the
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timber. The choicest timber found no exemption, the walnut, cherry and poplar, with the beech, the ash and the maple, were alike " in one red burial blent."
It was customary to cut logs in lengths, and then give notice of a logging bee, when all turned out to roll the logs in heaps ready for burning. Changing works was the rule, which had no exception. Many a settler, having risen early, traveled miles through the woods to take part in a logging, and has, on his return home, passed much of the night in kindling and keeping up his log-heap fires. There being a small spot cleared for home site and truck patch, it was customary to chop during winter for a spring crop of corn. The brush was burned where it lay, and if there was rank vegetation and the fire swept the field, it was in all the better condition for the crop. The matted roots of vegetable growth and the lay- ers of decaying leaves contributed to fertilize the ground. In the early spring days, the busy settlers fired their log heaps or their windrows, and the woods were darkened and travelers confused and blinded by the dense clouds of smoke. The darkness of night was intensified by the fires. Lurid flames, casting strange shadows upon the surrounding forest, lent a weird, uncanny aspect to this mid- night holocaust of noble timber-the wreck and ruin of unchecked centuries of growth. There were pillars, too, of fire in these clearings where the flames had crept.as if in stealth insidiously upward along the hollow of some tall dead tree, till, issuing fiercely exultant at the top, they waved their victory from this wood- walled furnace. And on these clearings were seen the many fires burning, as if the night had come again after the massacre of November 4, and the savages were repeating in pantomime their infernal tortures on their hapless captives. Here is seen a heap just lighted, where burns a lively flame, there red embers, glowing in heat, mark the sites of piles of logs consumed. Those who were with- out team and plow, or all, if the season was far advanced, planted their corn, pumpkins, turnips and potatoes irregularly among the stumps, amid the mold- mingled ashes. The pest of weeds, which came later to strive for dominance was unknown, and settlers had need only to guard their crops from depredation , and to go through the fields to pull or cut the fire-wood, which grew rank and luxuri- ant from questioned germ, upon these newly cleared fields. It was soon exter- minated, to be succeeded by others less thrifty and more obnoxious. In cropping, each settler followed his own desire ; some sowed wheat and rye upon the ground after cutting the corn, in wide rows of stooks, while others sowed a piece of ground prepared for the purpose during the summer, and, one way with another, managed to harrow it under.
The farmer of sixty years ago was poorly supplied with poor tools. There was no kind of machinery used in agriculture, as then there was none to use. Hoes, drags and brush were used to cover seed. A broken tool was not easily repaired, for the blacksmith's shop was generally some distance away, and, in con- sequence, tools were made strong and unwieldy. The drag was made by the set- tler or his more handy neighbor. Two round or hewed sticks were joined ; the one was longer than the other, and, projecting, was made the place for attachment for the chain, and both were braced apart by a cross-piece. Seven heavy iron teeth were set in, four upon the longer piece, three on the other. Not unfre- quently, necessity supplied the harrows with wooden teeth. Fields were cultivated several seasons mainly with the hoe, to allow time for the decay of roots. For breaking up land, two kinds of plows were used-the bar shear, which had a long, flat shear, a coulter or cutter placed on the point of the shear, and extending up through the beam, and a wooden mold-board. The beam and handle extended about ten feet. The other was known as the " Bull plow," and was brought into the country by immigrants from New York and New Jersey. One of the first employed in breaking in Darke County had but one handle and a wooden mold- board. The first improvement made upon this plow was the addition of another handle. It was the best plow then in use, clumsy and heavy to handle as it was. The earliest introduced patented plow was known as the " Peacock." The great
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improvement on the old bar shear consisted in the change of the material of the moldboard from wood to cast iron. These served to stir up the surface of the soil. but the plowman of to-day, throwing the soil clean from the furrow, has little thought of the effort made to drag one of those plows through the land. the adherence of soil to the plow, the failure to " scour," and the poor work possible with such a tool.
CLIMATE.
A powerful element of no slight importance, relating to the past and present of Darke County, and one beyond the considerations of fertility and prospective or actual capacity, was that of climate. It was generally believed, with good show of reason, the land being cleared, this county would excel in the salubrity of its climate. Since the early settlement of Darke County, occurring changes have greatly modified the climate, and to a less extent this is still in progress. The original forest, together with the undergrowth, shut out the sun from the soil and impeded atmospheric circulation. The almost monotonous level of the sur- face receiving the winter snows and spring rains retained the water through the summer on account of driftwood, vegetation and other obstructions. Evaporation proceeded slowly during summer, and thereby caused a moist, cool air. The for- ests broke the sweep of the cold northwest winds of winter, and the freezing of large, partially submerged tracts, gave off a sufficient amount of heat to sensibly mitigate the cold incident to the season. The soil, bedded in leaves and vegeta- tion, was greatly protected from the frost, and the warm air of spring speedily awakened the dormant germs of vegetation. It also happened that the surface protected by overhanging foliage from the heat of summer, more readily experi- enced the influences of wind and frosts, and hastened winter. The forests being gradually cut down to make room for cultivation, the land being thoroughly drained, these conditions have correspondingly changed. The earth now receives the sun-rays unobstructed ; the air has free circulation. The tilled lands have been underdrained with tile and open ditches, thereby carrying away at once the melting snows of winter and the rains of spring, leaving little moisture to affect the climate by evaporation. The effect of this denuding and draining of the soil is seen in the great depth to which the summer's sun-rays penetrate, and as these rays are given off. the arrival of winter is proportionally delayed. But when the reserve of heat is exhausted. the unprotected earth is deeply frozen, and from these conditions come later springs, warmer summers and delayed but more severe winters. An analysis of the climate of Darke, according to the previous description, requires a consideration, also, of the situation of its land and the direc- tion and character of its winds. Located about midway between the Alleghany Mountains and the Mississippi River, there is observable a prevalence of westerly winds. This is explained by the enormous area of level lowlands whereon the atmosphere is influenced by the earth's rotary motion, causing it to move in west- erly currents toward or from the equator. The west and northwest winds are mainly dry-air currents, so that although the annual rainfall is considerable, vet under their action the moisture is rapidly absorbed. Such conditions would inure to the productiveness of most soils, but in a good, rich soil such as Darke County occupies, there is almost a certainty of ample and abundant crops.
The averages in the various seasons are, approximately, 31° for winter. 57º for spring, 74° for summer and 52º for autumn. The winter is long, and there are sudden changes from the mildness of spring to the most intense cold. These cold spells are rarely more than seven or eight days' duration, and are generally pre- ceded by storms of rain or snow. Rain falls almost nightly and for a day or so at a time during spring, and the temperature fluctuates from the chill of winter to the warmth of summer. Following one of these changes. summer comes and is throughout of a tropical character. As fall draws near, the atmospheric conditions approach uniformity, and at this period Darke County is seen to the greatest
John Brush
HARRISON TP.
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HISTORY OF DARKE COUNTY.
advantage. Breathing an agreeable atmosphere, surrounded by healthful condi- tions, the beholder looks with pleasure upon the fields, the orchards and the gar- dens. Turning to the woodlands, he sees the maples, elms and oaks in holiday attire, preparing for their period of rest. There is there every hue and all shades of color. The winds toy with the branches ; the sunlight is all about them ; some are darkened as in shadow, others are brilliant in the glow of light, and all about there are seen bluish, smokelike mists, completing nature's finest portraiture of the forest in the falltime arrayed in splendor.
The health of the settler and of the later residents has been subjected to the mutations affecting the climate. In the low swamps, miasma prevailed ; the action of the sun upon the decaying vegetation opened by the clearing and stirred by the plow, induced fevers and chills, and there were few that did not, at times, succumb to these disorders. The healthy and hearty entered into the struggle with nature courageously and joyously. Labor had its zest, and food and sleep were most refreshing ; but there were many who struggled on under the depression and hindrances of sickness. As settlers came in and clearing took greater sweep, sickness became more general, or, at least, more apparent, and when Drs. Perrine and Briggs came to Greenville, they found constant employment in attending to the calls of the sick. Fever and ague prevailed, and few, if any, families but had some sick members. Not then, as now, was quinine available-not even known- and the popular remedies were dogwood and wild-cherry bark steeped in native whisky. Slow progress was made for a time, as men became disheartened, left the county and circulated reports that were not only true but sadly true, of an irre- claimable wilderness of morass and swamp, the haunt of pestiferous agnes and consuming fevers. It is a fact that very few of the pioneers of Darke held on through all vicissitudes.
From 1820 to 1840, the doctors were all kept busy attending to the sick, so prevalent were ague, flux and bilious fever at certain seasons of the year. The years 1836 and 1837 were comparatively healthy ; the year following was more sickly, and 1839 still more so, and from that time till 1850 there were more or less of bilious complaints every season. Since that date, both towns and county have been generally healthy. As an illustration of the desperation to which the medi- cal treatment subjected patients, we relate an incident in the practice of Dr. Gard, one of the veteran physicians of the early day. He was called in, as family physi- cian, to minister to the wants of a sick child. Cold water was forbidden, and cal- omel, as was usual, was administered. The doctor then retired, with promise of a return the next day. Cold water was barred ; the boy begged for a drink, but entreated in vain, as the doctor's orders were immutable law. He then resorted to strategy. Feigning a desire for rest and repose, the family retired to permit their indulgence. Soon heavy breathing announced that all were asleep, and the patient arose from bed, staggered to the water-bucket, and, to his dismay, found it empty. This discovery would have been hailed by imprecations that would have roused all in the house had not the necessity of the case demanded control. Water must be had, although the spring was at quite a distance. The coffee-pot was found, and the patient set out to assnage his consuming thirst. He rested several times in the wet grass, but finally arrived at the spring, drank heartily, and, undiscovered, returned to his bed, having placed the well-filled coffee-pot at the bedside. This was two-thirds emptied before this suicidal act was known, when the doctor was hurriedly summoned and soon stood with astonished and ominous look, awaiting serious results that did not happen. In a few days, the patient had recovered. Dr. Gard was as skillful as the best, and did his duty, but the practice of that day had its rigors. Vital statistics of Darke County for 1870 show that, out of a pop- ulation of 32,278, the deaths were, of males, 158; of females, 192, or a total of 350. There were, among the enumerated causes of deaths, the diseases of infants, typhoid, dysentery, spotted fever (or spinal meningitis), consumption, pneumonia and old age. The last named produced the greatest mortality. There died of
E
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spotted fever, 24 ; of consumption, 58; of pneumonia, 32, and of old age, 17. This gives a small fraction over 1 death yearly from cach 100 of population-a rate that will compare favorably with other localities and which demonstrates the present healthfulness of the climate.
Rich as the land was, it could not produce money, and this must be had to meet payments and taxes. Clearing, aside from small patches, had no stimulus. Of what avail were bins of corn and wheat, and droves of swine, without a purchaser or market, and of markets there were none. Having sufficient bread and meat, all were satisfied, and they shared freely with each other and with strangers. Wheat was worth about 2 shillings per bushel, and corn changed hands at about one- half that price. The current prices fluctuated with the supply, and it was a grat- ification when a newspaper for the first time made it appearance and obtained general circulation in the county. It was published at Eaton, Preble County, and subscription was paid in corn at 15 cents per bushel. Pork was sold, when it could be sold, at 2 and 3 cents a pound ; beef brought about the same price ; maple sugar was held at 6 and 8 cents per pound, and maple syrup at about 2 shillings a gallon. Wages ranged from 2 to 3 shillings a day, and this was regarded as an average of compensation. Had some wealthy man bought large tracts and taken steps to develop the capacity of the land, there were many who would gladly have offered their services, but improvement in wages, prices and health were yet far in the future ; and this border life between the civilized and the savage had few attractions such as society affords.
DARKE IN 1824.
Fifty-six years ago, and nine counties in Western Ohio, stretching from the State's south boundary to Lake Erie, had one representative in the State Legisla- ture and cast a vote of less than 700. Andrew Hiller took the census of Darke County in 1830, at which date the population entire was 6,204, and of Greenville 204, which was an increase of 2,487 in ten years. The condition of the country in 1824 has been described as follows : " At that time, the present townships of Mississinewa, Jackson, Allen, York, Patterson and Wabash, did not contain a single inhabitant. In Brown, there were three families; in Franklin, one; in Monroe, three; more than three-fourths of the townships of Wayne, Richland, Adams, Van Buren, Butler and Twin, were an unbroken wilderness, and in the most populous parts of the county, more than half the land yet belonged to the United States. The present fine valleys of East Fork, Mud Creek, West Branch and Bridge Creek, were dismal swamps, tangled morasses through which the intrepid surveyors under Ludlow forced their way ; at times waist-deep in water and resisted by briars, branches and tall grasses. Half the farms were fenceless ; cattle and swine ran half wild, and the latter were trapped and hunted with fero- cious dogs. In that year, there were four grist-mills in the county, all of which, together might have ground one hundred bushels of corn per day, if the condi- tions were favorable, that is. if there was water in the streams. the dam unbroken and the mill machinery in order. Much of the time, the settlers resorted to the inills of Jerry Cass, on Middle Fork ; Sheets and Razor, on the Stillwater ; Leh- man's, at Rowdy, and to those more certain, yet more distant upon the Miami River.
There were also eight or ten saw-mills that, for three months in the year, could cut from 500 to 1,000 feet of lumber in a day and night's run. provided something was not broken or out of order ; for it was the exception and not the rule to find them in running condition. In one branch of business, the county has retrograded. There were then a dozen or less of petty distil- leries, whose united product fell far short of quenching the thirst of the peo- ple, and additional supplies were drawn from the establishments of McGrew, on Whitewater, and Sheets, Razor's and Robnock, on Stillwater. Those of Lehman
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HISTORY OF DARKE COUNTY.
& Rench were passed by, as the local demand left no surplus. To this was added the imported cognac, Jamaica, Scheidam, from Cincinnati, besides Madeira, sherry and port, so essential to preserve health, and so essential in sickness. T. Snell and J. Huffman coopered kegs for the products of the stills, and manufactured well buckets, kraut tubs and other vessels needed by the settlers. There were in the county six brick houses and thrice that number of frame buildings, the cost of construction of none having been in excess of $500. Every other human habita- tion was the log house, in its various phases, from the round-pole structure with bark covering, to the two-story hewed-log, with shingle roof and glazed windows. There were a number of schoolhouses, the best of which was not worth $15, and all of them together would have been dear at $100.
Two meeting-houses, one a Methodist and one a Hard-shell Baptist, built of hewed logs, and roofed with clapboard, composed the ecclesiastical structures of the county at that period. Religious services were held at long and irregular intervals, at various places, the court house, private dwellings, or, if the weather permitted, out of doors.
The roads of the county consisted of the old war traces of St. Clair and Wayne, cut more than thirty years before, the Indian path to the Miami on the east, and the Whitewater towns on the west and southwest, and some few other "traces," as they were called, cut out by the early settlers ; so that a wagon might possibly get along in the daytime, provided the driver had an ax along with him, to cut his way around trees, which had fallen across the road. A trip with a conveyance on wheels, to and from Piqua or Troy, to Lockey's Mills or Paris, under very favora- ble circumstances, might be made in from three to five days ; to Eaton, the Mississin- ewa or Recovery, in a much longer period. Nothing on wheels was ever attempted to be taken to St. Mary's or Loramie, and if anything of the kind ever went to Win- chester, it never returned.
There were not then over one hundred acres of cleared land in a body, in the county ; the proportion of cultivated to wild land cannot definitely be stated, but sixteen years later, 1840, the area of land utilized by civilization, by inclosure, and much of that still covered with timber and denominated " woods pasture," amounted to but little over 25 per cent.
It remains to revert to the general features of the county. At that time the lands subjected to cultivation were the more elevated portions of Green- ville, Washington, Harrison and Neaves Townships, with narrow belts along Still- water, Swamp Creek and Greenville Creek in the townships of Richland, Wayne and Adams ; on Miller's Fork in Twin, and at the head of Twin Creek in Butler. The Painter Creek and the swamps of Twin, reaching from Greenville Creek to the southern boundary of the county, and from the east side of Butler and Neaves Townships to the Miami County line, and including an area of more than a hundred square miles, now exhibiting a body of as good farming lands as any in the Miami Valley, and which are now as well-improved and productive as any in the county, were, fifty years ago, and for many years thereafter, a wilderness, heavily wooded and much the greater part under water, varying from one to five feet in depth, more than half the year. In a like condition, until quite a recent period, was more than half of the townships of Jackson, Brown, Allen, Wabash and Patterson. These regions have been entirely reclaimed to agricultural uses, and are now producing, some thirty, some sixty and some an hundred fold."
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