The history of Montgomery county, Ohio, containing a history of the county, Part 31

Author: W.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago, W. H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1214

USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > The history of Montgomery county, Ohio, containing a history of the county > Part 31

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In 1798, several prospectors, who afterward became pioneers of Randolph Township, came, horseback, across the country, from their homes in Randolph County, N. C., in search of new lands, and to this end explored the Stillwater Valley as far as the falls, selecting lands, which they entered in 1801, and, with their families, settled upon in 1802. These first settlers in Randolph Township were David Mast, wife and son; Daniel Hoover and family, and his nephew, Daniel Hoover, with his family, and David Hoover and family. They cut the road through the woods to their lands, on the banks of Stillwater, in the north- east corner of the township.

The bottoms along Stillwater were the choice lands of Butler Township, and therefore were the first taken up by settlers. When the land office, at Cincinnati was opened, in 1801, most of the rich lowlands along the river, had been "blazed" for entry; and the southwest corner of the township soon be- came a bustling little settlement. A few years later, flat-boats were regularly loaded there for the Ohio River and Mississippi markets. Henry Yount, Thomas Newman, George Sinks and John Quillan were the first settlers to im- prove their lands.

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Clay was not one of the earlier settled townships; certainly there were no squatters in that part of the county, and the cold clay lands were not in de- nand until in 1803. In 1804, John Rohrer, with his family, settled a little hortheast of the center of the township. Then came John Spitler, and in 1805 the township began to fill up.

If there were any settlers in Perry Township prior to 1805, they became dissatisfied and sought elsewhere for richer, better-drained lands. But in 1806, is the more desirable locations on Twin Creek, to the west, and on Stillwater, o the east, were taken up, then settlers began to locate on the flat, beach lands of Perry Township.

In 1799, the whole valley, as far north as the Indian Line, was dotted with cabins, and at Loramie's Station there was quite a busy little trading-post. The progress of the settlement of Miami Valley was never checked; settlements increased steadily in numbers, and gradually spread over the hilly lands, yet there was always an uneasiness about the Indians, that caused precaution against outbreaks. Stockades were built, in 1799, in different parts of this county, and many times the people were assembled for mutual protection. In 1806, and in 1810, there was great alarm; then, during the exciting war times -1811 to 1814-special guard was necessary.

FARMING.

The yield of crops in the bottom lands soon developed the good judgment shown in their selection, although at first they were very wet. The implements used in farming were few and simple. Plows were made of jack-oak sticks, shaped and sharpened somewhat like a shovel-plow, and the first improvement was a curved branch of a tree pointed with a piece of iron. Axes were often used to cut out the sod, and between roots and stumps, to make holes in which to drop the grain, or to plant potatoes; planting was all done by hand, the big weeds were pulled out by hand or clubbed down. Seed was covered by drag- ging a tree-top behind a pair of bullocks. Sickles were first used, then the handles were lengthened, then the blades, then fingers were added, and that made the cradle that was used until modern machinery came in. In handling hay and other crops, wooden forks, made from forked brush-wood, were used; there were no barns for storing unthrashed grain, and the newly-cut crops were therefore stacked. Grain was thrashed with flails, or tramped out with horses; corn was gathered and shelled by hand; potato-digging was accomplished with pointed sticks or paddles.

FOOD.

The truck-patch supplied vegetables in plenty for the table. Mush, corn- pone and hominy were, for the first few years, the only bread used in the cab- ins. Mush and milk was a standard dish, Milk was a great item in the sup- port of the families; and one of the first things a settler did was to buy, trade or work, to own a cow; where there was a herd, one cow would wear a bell which could be heard a great distance through the woods. One of the first du- ties in the morning, was to listen for the bell, the tone of which was as famil- iar as the voice of any of the family. When, for want of pasture, the milk supply was short, hominy and mush were cooked in sweetened water, bear's oil, or the grease from fried meat. Eggs were in fair supply from the nests of wild turkeys, geese and ducks; and the tables could be provided with venison and bear meat. The desirable locations for the cabins were near springs, branches and never-failing streams; wells were not dug until the farms were fairly started, then the old familiar well-sweep was to be found in some shady spot near the improvement.

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

CABIN AFFAIRS.

All were on a social equality; rich and poor dressed alike-the men wear- ing hunting-shirt, buckskin pants, moccasins and fur caps; and the women dressed in coarse garments, made with their own hands. Almost every house contained a loom, and almost every woman was a weaver. Almost every family tanned their own leather. The tan-vat was a large trough, sunk in the ground; bark was easily obtained and pounded up. The leather was coarse but durable. Rosy-oheeked lassies, in linsey-woolsey dresses, were wooed and wedded by the hardy pioneers clad in these buckskin garments.

There were no roads through the woods, but the trees were blazed to show the route to the cabins; soon bridle-paths were worn that were finally cut out for roads. In this way, the roads to Springfield, Xenia, Waynesville, German- town, Eaton and Greenville were located. Without calenders, time was reck- oned accurately enough for all pioneer purposes; years were remembered by events that had occurred, such as floods, fires, continued snow or rain, hot spells, weddings, sickness and deaths. The seasons were reckoned by the routine of farm life-corn-planting, corn-plowing, harvest, corn-husking, seeding-time and frost. Time of day was designated by the hours, from sunup, midday, and the hours until sundown. Signs and traditions had very great influence over the people.

STOCK.

Horses and cattle were brought to the county by many of the pioneer par- ties that came; but both cattle and horses were small, and were not much im- proved until after 1820. In February, of 1799, there were continued deep snows and very cold weather, causing great suffering among the live stock through the valley, as there were no barns and but little other protection for them.

D. C. Cooper raised the first hogs in the county, in 1799, on his farm, in Van Buren Township, a mile south of Dayton. They were the old-time, long- legged, slab-sided, ugly, savage "elm-peelers." It was said, if an "elm-peeler " heard, a hundred yards away, an acorn rattling, as it dropped through the leaves, he could run and catch it on the first bounce every time. They increased wonderfully in numbers, were marked by their owners and turned loose to feed and fatten; then, in the fall, when butchering time came, the settlers would hunt them up in the forest and shoot them with the rifle. The mast of 1801 and 1802 brought in wild turkeys in such numbers that they became a nuisance to the settlement, as well as destructive to the growing corn, and to save the crop it was gathered early. The hogs fattened on the great crops of acorns and, beachnuts, and did not suffer much from the attacks of wolves, as they had learned as a matter of defense to go in droves, and when threatened, would form a circle around the young pigs, and when a wolf approached too near, they became aggressive, and would tear him to pieces with their tusks. Sheep were brought to the colony in the spring of the year 1800, but for many years after- ward, wolves were a great drawback to sheep raising. It was not safe, at any time, to allow them to graze on the hills without the most careful watching, and it was necessary to keep them in strong pens at night. Wool was carded by hand, spun in the cabins, dyed, woven and made into clothing by the women. In later years, horses and cattle were branded; hogs and sheep were marked by' slitting, cropping, or cutting the ears, so that each farmer could tell his own stock, and each peculiar mark was registered with the Township Clerk.

SUGAR-MAKING.

The spring of 1797 was favorable for sugar-making, and each year, as the number of settlers increased, greater quantities of "tree-sugar" were made. Al-

JAMES H. MUNGER. WASHINGTON TP.

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

though kettles were scarce, camps were rigged up, and the boiling continued as long as the sap would run. Troughs were made of bark sewed together at the ends with elm-bark strings; a stick across the center held the bulge. Split strips or elder quills were driven into a split in the tree to run the sap into the troughs.

The old camp, with its primitive appliances, is no more; the kettle has been superseded by the pan, and the trough has become a mass of crumbling decay. The women and children are kept at home, and no longer know the old- time delights of " sugaring-off," though in the past their services were not de- spised, and the whole household set up its abode in the woods. In that way sugar was made, and when the sap flowed profusely the operations were contin- ued through the night, and the fires cast strange shadows in the woods. But, instead of a hut of logs, a permanent sugar-house is now built, and furnished with many elaborate devices to prevent waste and deterioration. One change has certainly not been for the better, and that is the abandonment of the social life of the old camps, which made sugar-time a grand frolic.

MILLS.

Every expedient was resorted to to get corn cracked into meal. The "hominy- block" was unsatisfactory, and grating by hand was worse. The stump-mortar was made by burning a round hole in the top of a stump; a spring pole was rigged over it, with a stone pestle attached. Hominy was first made by hulling corn, soaking the grains in weak lye, then cracking in the "hominy-block," or in the improved "stump-mortar." The hand-mill, although hard, slow work, was a welcome improvement, and soon one stood in the chimney-corner of every cabin. The stones were about four inches thick, and were broken down as nearly round as possible to about twenty inches in diameter. On top of the upper stone, near the edge, one end of a pole was fixed, the other end working in a socket in a piece of timber on the floor overhead. One person turned the stone by hand, while another fed the corn into the eye. It took two hours to grind enough meal to supply one person for a day, the operators often changing places in the work. Before the cabins were all supplied with these hand-mills, neighbors sometimes shouldered a peck or half bushel of corn, and carried it five miles to the cabin of a settler who had one, grind his corn, and return with the meal.

Flour was very scarce, and, at this time, was all brought from Cincinnati, and, as we have said, was very expensive. Most of the settlers kept a small quantity laid by for use only in case of sickness. Those who could afford it had biscuit for breakfast on Sunday morning, baked in a spider before the fire. Corn-pone, dodgers and flap-jacks, supplied them for the rest of the week. Those. who could not afford to buy flour would run the wheat three or four times through these hand-mills.

The next advance made was when these little mills were rigged to run by horse power, by fastening a pole across the stone, hitching the horse to the end of the pole, and driving him round and round a circle. The next im- provement was made in running a single pair of stones by water-power. The wheel was a simple paddle wheel, run by the natural current of the stream. and, although not reliable, was good enough to grind all the wheat and corn that the settlement needed.

The first mill built anywhere in the Miami Valley, north of the fourth range of townships, was a small tub-mill, built by William Hamer, to grind corn. It stood where Water street is now located in Dayton, just east of, and near to, the canal bridge. The water was brought across from the mouth of Mad River by a small race, and the tail race ran down the present course of the canal.

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

In the fall of the year 1799, D. C. Cooper started a small distillery on his farm, two miles south of Dayton, on Rubicon Creek, Van Buren Township, and between the pike and canal as now located; and shortly afterward he built a saw-mill and "corn-cracker," each run by water-power. The saw-mill power was a paddle-wheel; the "corn-cracker" was a tub-mill. He had four posts set in the ground, about four feet apart, two on each side of the creek, forming a square; the posts stood four feet above ground, and on top of them was a puncheon floor, and on that a small pair of buhrs were set. To the perpendicular shaft the "runner" was attached, the shaft passed through the bed-stone, and at the lower end was the horizontal tub-wheel. Four forks were planted to hold the poles, on which were laid the clapboard roof, to keep the rain out of the hop- per. The sides of the mill were not inclosed. This little mill had most of the trade from the upper Miami country, and from up Mad River as far as Spring- field. Soon after that, possibly in the year 1800, a small overshot mill was built on McConnell Creek, just south of where the C., C., C. & I. R. R. now crosses the Springfield pike, in Mad River Townhsip.

Settlers, in coming to the Cooper mill, would sometimes bring pack-horses loaded with sacks of corn, following the narrow trails through the forest. They came equipped to camp along the way. Rifle, ammunition, an ax, com- pass, blankets and bells, were necessary. Halting to camp at night, the horses were unloaded, bells fastened around their necks, and they were turned loose to graze. The fire being built, supper was cooked and eaten, after which the lonely traveler spread his bear-skin for a comfortable sleep; then breakfast and an early start next morning for the mill. After such a journey, the pioneer would often have to wait a day or two for his turn.

With the increase in population, water-wheels and mill machinery were rap- idly improved after the year 1800. The mill-dams were usually made of brush, and were often washed away by spring freshets. Millers made their own buhrs out of limestone or granite bowlders; "raccoon buhrs" were a later improvement.

WINTER WORK AND RECREATIONS.

Log-rolling, house-raising, quilting-parties, corn-huskings and shooting- matches brought the men, women and children together for a frolic. Frequent- ly they came twenty miles distance to participate. All hands, after performing their share of the work, enjoyed a big dinner; the younger people dancing all night till broad daylight, to go home for breakfast in the morning.

Early to bed and early to rise, was the motto and practice of the pioneers. Winter evenings in the cabins would have been too long and tedious; there was, however, always some little work to be done, in which all of the family could engage, as they sat in the fire-light around the big comfortable log-fire. Some would shell corn, scrape turnips, grate pumpkins for bread, stem and twist tobacco, plait straw for hats and break flax, all to the music of the spin- ning-wheel. But little time was given to sports and indulgence in luxury, rich and poor alike being compelled to labor. Young folks would gather in the winter at some of the larger cabins for a dance. The music would begin early, and, as most of the boys could fiddle, they kept it up until daylight, mak- ing it merry on the puncheon floors, the dancers often having to stop to pull big splinters out of the heels and soles of their shoes. The dances were jigs, four- handed reels, double-shuffle, break-downs, scamper-downs and Western-swing. It was customary for the men folks to make a "stew " for all hands. After the dancing was in full glee, a big fire would be built out in the road; a big kettle was placed on the fire, in which to boil the stew that was made as follows: Sev- eral gallons each of water and whisky, sweetened with tree-sugar; allspice and butter were also used. Men and women would drink of it as they liked through the night, always, however, in decency and moderation.

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

WEDDINGS.

It was the custom among the pioneers to marry young. All were on a so- ial equality. Very little time was given to "keeping company;" the first im- ressions of love generally resulted in a wedding. The law permitted the marriage of "male persons of the age of eighteen years, female persons of the ge of fourteen years, and not nearer of kin than first cousins;" and required that notice should be given either in writing, posted at some conspicuous lace within the township where the female resided; or publicly declared on wo different days of public worship." Weddings were the grand occasions f the early times. The frolic was anticipated with the brightest expectations. The ceremony usually took place before noon, immediately upon the arrival of he groom and his friends. The gentlemen were dressed in linsey hunting- hirts, fur caps, leather breeches, leggings and moccasins; the ladies in linsey etticoats, heavy shoes, stockings, handkerchiefs and buckskin gloves. Any rnaments they had were relics of old times. Jokes were practiced on such oc- asions by the young bloods of the neighborhood. Grapevines were tied across he road to trip the horses, and an ambush was formed to frighten the girls nd the horses; trees were felled in the road and other tricks were played to xcite and annoy. The dinner after the ceremony was always generous. Bear heat and venison, potatoes, cabbage and turnips were served in wooden and ewter plates, on a split slab table. Dancing began immediately after dinner, nd lasted till the next morning. Reels, square dances and jigs, were in order. some of the jigs were called "cut out." When either of the couple got tired, he place was at once supplied from the company, and in this way the musi- ians were the first to be worried out. If any of the crowd hid away during he night for rest or a nap, they were hunted up and put on the floor. It was he custom for the young ladies to steal the bride away and put her to bed. 'hey had to climb the ladder from the lower floor to the loft. The guests would never let on that they were noticed. The young men, in the same way, onducted the groom to the bed of his bride, while the dance went on. Seats vere always scarce, and after every dance each young man would hold a girl in jis lap (a kneesy position). Toward morning, some one would suggest refresh- nents for the new couple, when as many of the party as there was room for, would go up the ladder with the bottle and lunch. The bride and groom were compelled to eat and drink.

To give the young people a start in life, it was customary for all hands to urn out and put them up a cabin. A day would be designated soon after the vedding for the neighbors to assemble. The party was divided into squads as hoppers, haulers and carpenters- a division to get out the puncheons, and an- ther to split the clapboards; four-corner men to place the logs and carry up he corners, and a squad to split the chimney sticks out of oak hearts. The sabin was built of round logs; a hole, six or eight feet wide, was left in one nd, in which to build the fire-place of bowlders or flat stones, laid in mud mor- ar, and kept in place by a pen of split logs built on the outside; the chimney was built on top of this, laid up in clay mud, and lined with mud. There vere jolly times at these raisings, sometimes taking three or four days to finish he cabin, and the whole affair would wind up with a house-warming and an- other all-night dance. Then the cabin was considered ready for the newly- married couple.

The first wedding in the Dayton settlement, of which there is a record, was the marriage of Benjamin Van Cleve to Mary Whitten, August 28, 1800, at her father's house, near Dayton. The bride was described as a likely girl, young, lively, industrious and ingenuous. Her marriage portion was a few household

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

and kitchen utensils a bed, a cow and a heifer, a ewe and two lambs, a sow and pigs, a saddle and spinning-wheel.

Another groom, with his bride, brought with them, on the wedding-day to their new home in the village, all of their worldly goods. He had gone ou' for her on horseback, and, after the ceremony, she was placed behind him or the horse, and thus they rode home. She carried two pewter plates, two cups, a knife and fork, and a small sack of meal; these, with the horse crittter, were all they had in the world.

Cotton check cost a buckskin per yard, and, as it took five yards for a dress pattern, the bride who could have one in her wedding outfit was counted one of the belles.

One of the pioneer fathers, when his daughter was married, gave her a load of bread, a piece of pork, some potatoes, and loaned her a frying-pan. This was all the young couple had to begin the world with the day they moved ntc their log cabin, twelve feet square. The groom made two wooden knives and forks to use at their first meal. When, in the spring, necessity required that he come to the village to trade pelts for a yard and a half of calico, in which to dress the baby, there was none to be had. In the emergency, his wife cut up a pair of his pants to make the first frock for the baby; and for a cradle, the baby was rocked in a buckeye trough.

This notice, copied from the Magistrate's docket, was displayed on a tree up near Staunton:

To all whom it may concern :- Know ye that Michael Carrer and Miss Lennon, daugh ter of the widow Lennon, both of Staunton, will be joined in the holy banns of matrimony on Wednesday, the 7th day of October, 1801, agreeably to a law of the Territory of the Northwest, providing for marriages. Given under my hand this 11th day of September, 1801.

D. C. COOPER, J. P. for the Territory.

5 c

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

CHAPTER VII.

THE COUNTY SEAT-COUNTY COURT-THE LOG JAIL-ELECTIONS OF 1803-FIRST COMMISSIONERS-TAX DUPLICATE 1804-1804-05-RANDOLPH TOWNSHIP- JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP-THE BRICK COURT HOUSE-SCHOOLS-DIVISION OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY-ROADS-FRUITS-WHISKY-INDIAN SUMMER-HUNTING AND TRAPPING-1808-MADISON TOWNSHIP-MILITIA-FIRST COUNTY CON- VENTION-WAYNE TOWNSHIP-1810-11-FIRST STONE JAIL-EARTHQUAKES- INFLUENTIAL MEN OF THE COUNTY-WAR TIMES.

THE COUNTY-SEAT.

D AYTON had been designated as the temporary seat of justice of Montgomery County, until the county seat should be located by Commissioners, to be ap- ointed by the Legislature for that purpose. April 5, 1803, Ichabod B. Halsey, 'laden Ashby, and William McClelland, were appointed, by joint resolution, as Commissioners, to select and locate the county seats, in the counties of Mont- omery and Greene. By such authority, Dayton was designated as the coun- y seat of Montgomery County, and Xenia as the county seat of Greene County.

COUNTY COURT.

The first court was held in the upper room of Newcom's Tavern, on July 7, 1803. Hon. Francis Dunlevy, President of the First Judicial District, pened the court with the following as Associate Judges: Benjamin Archer, of Centerville; Isaac Spinning, a farmer living four miles up Mad River; and John Ewing, of Washington Township. Benjamin Van Cleve was Clerk pro em .; Daniel Symmes, of Cincinnati, was Prosecutor; George Newcom, Sheriff; und James Miller, Coroner.

The ceremony of opening court was conducted in all dignity and form. When the Judges and other officers had taken their positions in the room, and he crowd had become somewhat quiet, the Sheriff, with a rap, commanded or- ler, and proclaimed: "Oh, yes, this court is declared open for the administra- ion of even-handed justice, without respect of persons; none to be punished without a trial by their peers, and in pursuance of the laws and evidence in the ;ase."

The Presiding Judge and State's Attorney instructed the Associate Judges, Sheriff, Clerk and Coroner, as to their duties; there being no other business to ransact, court adjourned the same day. Nearly the entire male population of he county were gathered for a frolic and to enjoy the opening of the court. Lawyers and Judges slept together in one room in the old log tavern. The next morning, Judge Dunlevy, with the State's Attorney and lawyers, mounted heir horses and rode to Xenia to open court in that county.

Judge and lawyers rode on horseback from court to court, through the for- ests, taking with them their papers and law books, and provisions for the trip, often being compelled to camp out by the roadside. The roads were few and cough. Sometimes it was preferable to follow the compass rather than the nar- cow, winding roads. Often when the waters were high, travelers were compelled to swim all streams on their route.

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The history of Montgomery county, Ohio, containing a history of the county, Part 31

Author: W.H. Beers & Co Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Chicago, W. H. Beers & co. Number of Pages: 1214

Author: W.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago, W. H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1214