220 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE FIRST PIONEERS.

ELIAS HUGHES AND JOHN RATLIFF-HUGHES AS SCOUT AND INDIAN FIGHTER- THE SHOOTING OF A SQUAW BY MCLANE-ARRIVAL OF HUGHES AND RATLIFF ON THE BOWLING GREEN-THEIR SUBSISTENCE-THE SHOOTING OF THE INDIAN HORSE THIEVES-ERECTION OF A BLOCK-HOUSE-MR. BLAND-GREEN AND PIT7ER-JOHN VAN BUSKIRK -ISAAC AND JOHN STADDEN-FIRST MARRIAGE IN THE COUNTY ISAAC STADDEN'S DISCOVERY OF THE OLD FORT -STADDEN'S MEETING WITH THE FORDS AND BENJAMIN-FIRST ELECTION IN THE COUNTY-CAPTAIN SAMUEL ELLIOTT.

"Ask who of all our race have shown

The largest heart. the kindliest hand;

Ask who with lavish hands have strown,

Rich blessings over all the land;

Ask who has sown that we might reap,

The harvest, rich with seventy years;

And every heart and every voice

Make answer: Licking's Pioneers."

B. Clark.

IN the preceding chapter, a history of the white occupation of the territory embraced within the limits of Licking county, has been brought down to the year 1798, at which date the first permanent settlers, Hughes and Ratliff, arrived. It is necessary and proper here to give brief biographical sketches of a few of the most prominent of the early pioneers, whose lives are necessarily a part of the early history of this county.

The acts, achievements and exploits of individual character are history. This is pre-eminently true of the first settlers of a country-the pioneers. Especially is it true in such a country as this was, where the subjugation of the hostile tribes was the condition precedent to its permanent settlement. The pioneers of Licking county made its early history. Elias Hughes and John Ratliff remained here until their death, hence their names are as much interwoven in the history of Licking county, as is the name of George Washington with the history of the United States, or as are the names of General Grant and Abraham Lincoln with the history of the late Rebellion.

Elias Hughes was born near the south branch of the Potomac, a section of country which furnished Licking county with many of its first settlers and most useful citizens. His birth occurred sometime before Braddock's defeat in 1755.

Of his early life little is known until 1774, when he is found in the army of General Lewis, engaged in the battle of Point Pleasant.

General Lewis commanded the left wing of the army of Lord Dunmore, then governor of Virginia, and successfully fought the distinguished Shawnees chief, Cornstalk, who had a large force of Indians under his command. One-fifth of Lewis' command was killed or wounded, but Elias Hughes escaped unhurt in this hard-fought battle, which lasted an entire day. At the time of his death, which occurred more than seventy years after the battle, he was, and had been for years, the sole survivor of that sanguinary conflict.

Hughes is next found a resident of Harrison county, Virginia, where his chief employment during the twenty-one years that intervened between the battle of Point Pleasant, and the treaty of Greenville in 1795, was that of a scout or spy on the frontier settlements near to and bordering on the Ohio river. This service which, with him, was a labor of love, he rendered at the instance of his State, and of the border settlers who had been, for a long time, greatly harrassed by Indians. Hughes' father, and others of his kindred, and also a young woman to whom he was betrothed, were massacred by them. These acts of barbarity made him ever I after an unrelenting and merciless enemy of the Indians, and in retaliation for their numerous butcheries, his deadly rifle was brought to bear fatally upon many of them.

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HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 213

It is but an act of justice to the memory of this pioneer settler, who was well known as an Indian hater and an Indian slayer, that the provocation he had be clearly stated and properly understood. Born and reared on the frontier, among rude, unlettered people; untaught and wholly uncultivated as he was, it is not surprising that under all these circumstances of horrid aggravation, he should have given rather full play to strong and malignant passions, and that he should have cherished even to old age, the more harsh and somewhat malignant feelings of his nature. This he did full-, so long as the Indian tribes sustained a hostile attitude toward the whites.

A word here in reference to a matter well remembered by the old settlers. In 1820 an Indian squaw of the Stockbridge tribe was shot near the county line, between Utica and Martinsburgh. She was taken to Mt. Vernon where she died. One McLane shot her, and was sent to the penitentiary for it. He and four others named McDaniel, Evans, Chadwick and Hughes (not Elias), were engaged in chopping, when this squaw and others of the tribe came along and camped near them. The diabolical proposition was made and accepted, that they should play cards, and that the loser should shoot her. McLane was the loser, and did the shooting. His confederates, or at least some of them, were tried and acquitted. In Norton's history of Knox county it is stated that Hughes shot this squaw, simply to gratify his hatred of the Indian race." How an intelligent man, writing history could justify himself for making such a 'cross mistake, regarding a. natter on which he could easily- get correct information from a thousand residents of this county and of Knox, it is hard to conceive. Elias Hughes had neither part nor lot in the matter, directly or remotely; but condemned the outrage in unmeasured terms. He was not guilty, and this emphatic denial is deemed an act of simple justice to Mr. Hughes.

Indian hostilities were terminated by the treaty of Greenville in 1795, and Hughes' services as a scout were no longer required; he therefore surrendered his commission as captain of scouts, and directed his thoughts to more pacific pursuits. He had been commissioned by that distinguished frontiersman, Colonel Ben Wilson, the father of Daniel D. Wilson and Mrs. Dr. Brice, both of this county.

In 1796, Hughes entered, in the capacity of hunter, the service of a surveying party, who were about to engage in running the range lines of lands lying in what is now Licking county. This party was probably under the direction of John G. Jackson, deputy surveyor under General Rufus Putnam, surveyor general of the United States. The fine bottom lands on the Licking were thus brought to the notice of Hughes, and he resolved to leave his mountain home and "go west." Accordingly in the spring of 1797 he gathered together his effects, and with his wife and twelve children, made their way on foot and on pack-horses to the mouth of Licking. This point was made accessible to horse-back travelers and footmen by the location and opening, the year before, by Zane and others, the road from Wheeling to Maysville; and also of a road previously cut from Marietta up the river.

John Ratliff, a nephew of Hughes, with a wife and four children, came with him, in the same manner, to the mouth of the Licking. Here they remained one year, and in the spring of 1798, both families, numbering twenty-one persons, came in the same manner up the Licking and settled on what is called the "Bowling Green," on the banks of the Licking, four miles east of Newark, a short distance above the mouth of Bowling Green run. This was the first permanent white settlement within the present limits of Licking county.

They found the "Bowling Green," a level untimbered, green lawn or prairie, and they at once proceeded to raise a crop of corn. Whether the Bowling Green was a natural prairie, or had been cleared by the Indians, remains an unsettled question. Their nearest neighbors for two years, lived near Nashport, a. distance of ten miles. One of these was Philip Barrick, who in 1801 moved into this county.

This colony of twenty-one persons was subsisted mainly on the meat of wild animals, procured by the rifles of the settlers, although vegetables and a d considerable corn crop were raised the first season. For many years bear, deer, wild turkeys, and a great variety of smaller game were in such abundance as to supply the full demands of the settlers.

214 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

Fruits, berries, and other spontaneous productions of the earth, also contributed many years, in no inconsiderable degree to the subsistence of the settlers, as did, also, the fish in the streams.

Ratliff, in some particulars, was a different style of man from Hughes. He was much more inclined to the peaceful avocations of life, and for one reared on the frontier, had not been largely engaged in border warfare; though he as well as j Hughes, was considerably devoted to the chase, to fishing, trapping, bee-hunting, as well as to killing wild animals generally.

In 1801 two Indians came to the Bowling Green and stole four horses belonging to Hughes, Ratliff, Weedman, a recent immigrant, and a Mr. Bland, living at the mouth of the Licking, but who was, at this time, visiting Hughes. In the morning, finding their horses missing, the owners determined to pursue and kill the thieves, strongly suspecting the Indians. Hughes, Ratliff, and Bland armed themselves and started in pursuit. Weedman, for some reason, was not of the party. They were enabled to follow the trail, readily tracking them through the grass and weeds, and, overtaking them on the waters of Owl creek, shot them. Bland's flint did not strike fire, but Hughes' and Ratliff's did, and the Indians stole no more horses. When the Indians were overtaken, and it was evident the horses would be recovered, Bland and Ratliff relented, and suggested to Hughes to let the thieves escape with their lives, but the latter was not that kind of a man. He remonstrated in such emphatic terms, using such forcible expletives as to bring his associates to his way of thinking. When Hughes said a thing must be done, and he could do it or cause it to be done, it was done. In this case he had his way, and the Indian horse-thieves paid the forfeit. Hughes knew them, and believed them to have been engaged in stealing horses, and returning them to their owners for a compensation in skins and furs.

This sanguinary transaction necessitated th erection of a block-house on the Bowling Green as a protection against the friends of the horse thieves, who were greatly incensed against th white settlers for killing them; but it never became necessary to defend it.

Bland removed from Pendleton county, Virginia in 17 98, with a wife and four children, coming two hundred miles over the mountains on packhorses, to Marietta, following bridle paths and Indian trails a portion of the way. On reaching the mouth of the Licking he took refuge with his family in a sugar camp. Before he had time to erect a cabin, he had born to him in this sugar camp, a son, whom they rocked in a sugar trough, the only cradle .at hand. Mr. Silas Bland, one of the pioneers of Perry township, was this child of the sugar trough.

The elder Bland, no less than his fellow frontiersmen, Hughes and Ratliff, possessed all the constituent elements of a first class pioneer; and, after acting well his part, he died in Muskingum county.

In 1802 Elias Hughes was elected captain of the first company of militia raised within the present limits of the county. This company he commanded a number of years. The drills of the battalion, to which this company belonged were held at Lancaster.

Hughes had four children born to him on the Bowling Green, making the whole number sixteen, only one of whom, Jonathan, yet remains in the county.

Ratliffs wife died to 1802, and, probably, was the second adult white Person,* and the first white settler to die within the present limits .of this county; the only probable exception being that of Mrs. Jones, who died about the same time on the farm afterward owned by General Munson, in Granville township, four miles west of Newark. Her husband, John Jones, had erected the first cabin in that township, being the one in which she died. Ratliff married again, his second wife being the daughter of a pioneer by the name of Stateler, who lived near the mouth of Rocky fork. He also raised quite a family, but none of them now live-if living at all-in this county. He had a son in the war of 1812, who, after his return from the army, removed to Louisiana. Ratliff finally moved to the south side of the Licking, near the mouth of the Brushy- fork, where he died about the year 1811. Neither he nor Hughes ; seem to have had much success in acquiring prop-

* See chapter on "First White Men," for first death in county.

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erty-there is no evidence that either of them had much ambition in that direction.

Elias Hughes, on all other subjects except Indian warfare, was regarded as of a silent, taciturn disposition, but he was fond of relating his exploits and successes as a scout, and would sometimes sit up whole nights to relate, to willing listeners, his hair-breadth escapes and adventures, the thrilling stories and heroic acts and deeds of renown, in which he had borne a part. He was unassuming, generally mild-mannered, unpretending, unambitious, but firm, determined, unyielding; and when he resolved on a certain line of conduct, he generally pursued it to success or failed only after vigorous effort. Fond of adventure, he displayed in border warfare, in battle, in the pursuit of Indians, the energy, bravery, and self-sacrificing and heroic virtues that belonged so pre-eminently to the early pioneers of the great west.

In the war of 1812, notwithstanding his age, being about sixty years old, he volunteered for the defense of Fort Meigs. On the formation of a company in Newark, he was selected to conduct the men to headquarters, at Worthington, for organization. At the election of company ofcers he was made lieutenant, while the late General John Spencer was elected captain. Three of his sons were also engaged in the war of 1812, one of whom contracted a disease from which he died.

Mr. Hughes lived many years on the North fork, a few miles above Newark, and also several years at Clinton, in Knox county, from whence he removed to Monroe township, near Johnstown.

In 1827 his wife died, and most of his children having married and -moved from the county, he became an inmate of the house of his son Jonathan, who is yet living in the county at the age of eighty-four. Jonathan was born in Virginia in 1796, and was a mere infant when his father reached the mouth of Licking (1797). When, in 1798, the family removed to Bowling Green, he was put into one end of a. salt sack, with an opening for his head, and his brother, David, two years older, in the other end. The sack was, on their daily march, slung across a pack-saddle, and in thi manner the only survivor of the twenty-one mad his advent at the Bowling Green.

For many years Elias Hughes was a pensioner, regularly receiving from a beneficent government an amount of money that enabled him to spend his declining years in the full enjoyment of all the necessaries of life, kindly ministered unto by his son and family, with whom he spent the last seventeen years of his life in the quiet village of Utica.

His life was filled with experiences more diversified than usually falls to the lot of man. He always met adversity, and the stern realities of life uncomplainingly and like a man. Enduring, as he did, for the last sixteen years of his life, the terrible affliction of total blindness, he was deprived of much enjoyment, but he was resigned and patient, thus exhibiting his courage and manhood to the last. His mind turned upon religious matters in these latter years, and he cherished hopes of a happy future.

He died in December, 1844, and was buried with military honors and other demonstrations of respect.

His age is not certainly known, but it is supposed that he was more than ninety years old.

Such was the life, briefly sketched, of one of the most remarkable of the pioneers of this county. It was a life full of privation, adventure, hardship, toil, exposure and excitement, preserved through all to an unusual length.

The two families of Hughes and Ratliff, and that of a man named John Carpenter, of which little or nothing is known, were the sole occupants of the territory now constituting this county, at the close of the last century. Early in the spring of the opening year (1800) of the present century, three more families, Greens, Pitzers and Van Buskirks were added to the number. In August, Isaac Stadden and family came, making the seventh; and in September, Captain Samuel Elliott and family arrived, constituting the eighth. The marriage of Colonel John Stadden and Betsey,

daughter of the aforesaid Green, which took place on Christmas day, 1800, made the ninth family, which was the whole number in this territory when the year closed.

In the spring of 1799, Benjamin Green, a revolutionary soldier, and his son-in-law, Richard Pitzer, left Alleghany county, Maryland, to settle in the Northwest Territory. On reaching the neigh-

216 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

borhood of Marietta, they decided to remain there a year and raise a crop, thus postponing, for a brief period, their removal further westward.

Early in the spring of 1800 they removed their families to Shawnee run, locating about two miles east of the junction of the North and South forks of the Licking, on the farm once owned by Hon. Wm. O'Bannon. Here they remained two years, when they purchased land upon Hog run, within the present limits of Licking township, and removed to this land. (A full account of these two pioneers will be found in a history of that township, as their lives, and that of their families, were mostly spent there. Mr. Pitzer died therein 1819.)

The Greens had a family of fourteen children, eleven of whom were born before their arrival at Shawnee run. John Green, one of the sons, was an extensive contractor on the Ohio canal, and removed to Ottawa, Illinois. He led an active, industrious life, and acquired a large fortune. Isaac, another son, was a man of much intelligence and worth, who represented Licking county several terms in the legislature-being elected in 1841 and 1842. Richard died in 1872, aged eighty-seven, having been seventy-two years a resident of this county. He was the canoe-boy of the Muskingum in 1800, and lived here a longer time than any other person, except Colonel Jonathan Hughes, the salt-sack boy of 1798.

In the spring of 1800, probably not a week after the advent of Green and Pitzer at Shawnee run, John Van Buskirk arrived and entered upon a tract of land of thirty-one hundred acres, on the South fork, in what is now Union township, He had previously purchased it, and at once began erecting buildings, clearing land and raising crops. Mr. Van Buskirk was born in New Jersey, and came with his father's family in 1780 to Brooke county, Virginia, where he grey to manhood, and where, also, he married and lived until his removal to the South fork, as above stated. He was a man o liberal means, being pecuniarily in more independent circumstances than most of the pioneers.

He came to his new home in the wilderness by way of "Zane's trail," as far as Brush creek, in Fairfield county; bringing with him a full supply of wagons and domestic animals, and made the sixth settler within the present limits of the county.

Mr. Van Buskirk was a stout, active, resolute man, a woodsman of the first order, frequently accompanying such chieftains as Captain Samuel Brady and John McCulloch in their expeditions against the Indians. He acted well his part as a faithful, ever ready, efficient pioneer on the frontier of Virginia, in giving protection to the settlers that were endeavoring to establish . themselves in permanent homes on both sides of the Ohio, during the twenty years of Indian warfare ; his residence being at, or near, the mouth of Buffalo creek, in Brooke county, Virginia. Those were years of fierce conflict, murderous warfare, barbarity, blood and carnage.

He remained on his farm at the South fork until 1804, when he removed to Newark and rebuilt the Petticord and Belt mills, which he run persistently, much more to the benefit of the public"than himself, until near his death.

He died on the last day of December, 1840, at the age of almost eight-five years. He was, in the early part of his eventful life, a man of great enterprise and force of character, and while living on the frontier, in common with his fellow frontiersmen, endured many hardships, and had many hair-breadth escapes from marauding Indians in his conflicts with them. As a spy, he was invaluable, and scouted extensively between the Ohio and Tuscarawas rivers. Courage and patriotism were his distinguishing characteristics. His family were the first to enter the territory of this county- from the southeast in a wagon. He left the "Zane trail," east of Lancaster, cutting a road from there to his land on the South fork, in the spring of 1800.

Isaac Stadden and Colonel John Stadden were also pioneer settlers in the Licking valley this year (1800). They came from Northumberland county, Pennsylvania. John was a widower, and had been in the service of some surveying party, this, probably, being the means of bringing to his notice the beautiful valley of the Licking. It was, probably, the same part to which he was attached as axeman, or chain-carrier, that Captain Elias Hughes served as hunter. Isaac Stadden had a wife and two children.

In the spring of 1800, these veteran pioneers came up the Licking valley, entered some bottom

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 217

land, partially cleared, a mile below Newark, now on the Jones farm, built a cabin, prepared some ground and put in a crop.

At the same time the Elliotts were raising corn below them, on the Davis farm, and Green and Pitzer doing the same thing on Shawnee run, on the O'Bannon farm, while near the mouth of Bowling Green run, Hughes and Ratliff were similarly employed. That was all the farming that was being done on the Licking in 1800, between the junction of the North and South forks and the line of Muskingum county.

The pioneers in the sparsely settled Northwest Territory were not then favored with mail facilities, and no communication passed between Mr. Stadden and his wife, during all those weary months that he was engaged in erecting a cabin, clearing land and raising corn, from early spring until late in the summer. A mail was occasionally brought to Zanesville, then the nearest post-office to the settlers on the Licking, but little reliance was placed on it. If letters came through at all from the old settlements, the pioneers were lucky, even if they were a long time on the way. They were subject to high postage-about eight times the present rate.

In September, 1800, Isaac Stadden removed his family from Pennsylvania into the cabin he had erected for them. His was the second wagon that came up the Licking valley. Meanwhile John Stadden, having made the acquaintance of Betsey Green, daughter of Benjamin, became enamored of the fair maid of Shawnee run, and after an honest courtship, of reasonable length for pioneer times, they were married; this being the .first marriage within the territory now embraced in Licking county.

This pioneer marriage was to take place on December 10, 1800, but was not consummated until Christmas of that year. There was not a preacher or squire nearer than Zanesville, and when the late judge Henry Smith, who was then acting magistrate of the Northwest Territory, living at the mouth of Licking, was invited to perform the marriage ceremony in this case, on the tenth of December, he informed Mr. Stadden that the territorial laws required that written notice of the intention of the parties be posted up at three conspicuous places for fifteen days before the wedding, and if that had been done, he would be there. Mr. Stadden's ignorance of territorial law suddenly brought him to anchor. He came home, put up the notices as quickly as possible, and submitted with some disappointment and despondency to the inexorable law of the land-hence the marriage occurred on Christmas instead of December 10th. Squire Smith came up to Mr. Green's, and made John and Betsey one. A child born to them in the latter half of 1801, was the second birth in what is now Licking county, and its decease, before the close of that year, was the second death.

Mrs. Isaac Stadden related to Hon. Isaac Smucker that late in October, 1800, her husband went into Cherry valley to hunt deer, that being better hunting ground than the Licking valley; and that he came home in the evening greatly excited, having discovered the "Old Fort," of which he had not before heard. The next morning they mounted their horses, and took a good look at this great curiosity, riding all around it on the top of the embankment. So far as known, they were the first white persons who saw this great work of antiquity.

During the early years of Mr. Stadden's residence here, Indians were more or less numerous, but were pacifically disposed. Mrs. Stadden once gave a humorous account of the attempt of one of them, who came along frequently, to buy her of her husband, by the offer of a considerable number of skins of wild animals. The offer was made in good faith, and somewhat pressed, but Mr.. Stadden was not much in a trafficking mood on that occasion.

In November, or early in December, 1800, Mr. Stadden went out to hunt deer above the "Old Fort," on Ramp creek. There, toward evening, in a dense forest, he met John Jones, Phineas Ford, Frederick Ford, Benoni Benjamin and a Mr. Denner. Jones and the Fords were married to the sisters of Benjamin. Jones was of Welsh extraction, born in New Jersey, but had lived in the same neighborhood with Mr. Stadden in Pennsylvania, where they had been schoolmates. Neither knew that the other was in the Northwest Territory. Neither had seen the other for many years, and had known nothing of their intervening histories, or

218 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

whereabouts. The romantic interest of such a meeting under such circumstances may be imagined. The Fords were Yankees, and Benjamin, a Pennsylvanian, and all became prominent pioneer settlers.

When met at their camp-fire by Stadden, they were exploring with a view to settlement, and did settle a few months afterward-Mr. Jones on the Munson farm, and the Fords and Benjamin on Ramp creek. Denner became a day- laborer for McCauly, who located near the mouth of Ramp j creek early in 1801. The company accepted Mr. Stadden's invitation to visit him at his cabin, and did so shortly after. Jones raised a crop of corn in the Licking bottoms, near Stadden's cabin in the summer of 1801.

John Stadden moved to Hog run in 1802, and in 1808 was elected the first sheriff of Licking county, in which office he served two years. He was also, for some years, collector of taxes, and held various positions of honor and trust in civil and military life. His son Richard was sheriff of the county from 1834 to 1838, and was, in the last named year, elected a member of the Ohio senate.

Colonel John Stadden was a man of integrity, uprightness, and a fair degree of intelligence. Late in life he removed with his wife to Illinois, where they died. They were honored and highly esteemed while living, and died leaving a reputation untarnished. He and his wife were anions the original members of the first Methodist society formed in the county, by Rev. Asa Shinn, in 1804.

Mr. Isaac Stadden was a carpenter by trade, and brought his tools when he came to the county, which he used to the great convenience of the neighborhood. Especially was he useful in making all the cofns needed by the early settlers, for a number of years. The coffin for Mrs. Ratliff, who died in 1802, was made by him, and so were inany others. They were at first made out of puncheons split out, then hewed and planed.

Isaac Stadden built a "hand-mill" during the winter after he came, for the purpose of grinding the corn grists of a few neighbors, as well as for his own accommodation. This was the first effort at mill building, with the possible exception of one, a "make shift," previously erected by Elias Hughes He raised a crop in 1801, and in the spring of 1802 moved upon land he had purchased further down the valley, upon which he lived until his death, which occurred in 1841. His wife continued to reside upon the same place until she died, July, 1870, at the ripe age of ninety years.

The township of Licking, including the whole of what is now Licking county, except the Refugee lands, and a portion of Knox, was organized in 1801: and in January, 1802, at an election held at the cabin of Elias Hughes, Isaac Stadden was elected justice of the peace the first in the territory now comprising Licking county. Probably Mr. Jane, Maxwell was elected constable at this same election. In a year or two John Warden was elected the successor of Mr. Stadden. He resigned in a short time and William Wright, of Newark, succeeded to the office.

A short time after Isaac Stadden moved upon his own land he formed a partnership with a Mr. John Goldthwaite for the purpose of starting a nursery of fruit trees. This project was a success; and from this nursery came many of the orchard, in this section of the State. Johnny Appleseed had a nursery on what was known as the "Scotland farm," about three miles northeast of Newark, but it did not ainount to much, as it was not enclosed, and the young trees were eaten off by cattle. When she. left her home in Pennsylvania, in 1800, Mrs. Stadden took up and placed in her "chist" three small apple trees, which she planted with her own hands here. One of these trees is yet living. and bearing. Three sons of Isaac Stadden are yet living in this county.

A few days after the Staddens located in Licking valley, Captain Samuel Elliott caine, locating one and a half mile: below the junction of the North and South forks, in September, 1800. In the spring of this year he and his two sons left his mountain home in Allegheny county, Maryland, and came to this valley, where they erected a cabin, planted corn and potatoes. then returned for the family. This cabin was built near the large spring, on the farm now owned by T. J. Davis. He was probably drawn to this point to be near Messrs. Green and Pitzer, who were from his neighborhood in Maryland. In autumn Captain Elliott returned with his wife and twelve children, took possession of their cabin, and harvested the crop.

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Elliott's family constituted the eighth then within the limits of the county, and the colony was not further increased during the year 1800. The marriage of Colonel Stadden and Betsey Green, however, created another family, so that nine families occupied the territory now embraced within the limits of Licking county at the closing of the first year of this century.

While Captain Elliott lived here he entertained, several days, Rev. McDonald, a missionary of the Presbyterian church, who preached the first sermon ever delivered in the territory of Licking county. It was late in 1801, or early in 1802.

The manufacture of a web of twenty yards of nettle-cloth by the wife and daughters of Captain Elliott, while they resided here, was one of the events of the day. In the absence of flax it was the best they could do. Such were the expedients necessity compelled the pioneers to resort to.

Captain Elliott was born near Ballymena, county Antrim, province of Ulster, Ireland, in 1751. On his arrival in America, to 1771, he settled in the colony of Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. Here he lived during the dawning era of the Revolution, and, when the contest commenced, took sides with the struggling colonists. Toward the close of the war he married in Northampton county, Pennsylvania, from where he emigrated to western Maryland, remaining there until his removal to the Licking valley.

In 1802 Captain Elliott erected the first hewed log house in Newark. It stood on East Main street, on Mrs. Fullerton's lot. He moved into it during the same year, and was one of Newark's earliest inhabitants. He soon purchased of General Schenck, one of the proprietors of Newark, some lands lying about a mile west of the village, upon which he settled in 1804, and where he remained until his death, which occurred May 24, 1831.

The death of Mrs. Elliott took place on the same farm, May 19, 1822. Her age was sixty-four years. She was a woman of rare excellence of character, and ruled her household wisely and well, her children becoming useful members of society. She died in communion with the Presbyterian church, and her pastor, Rev. S. S. Miles, commemorated her virtues in an appreciative obituary sketch, published in the Newark Advocate, May 23, 1822, then conducted by Mr. Benjamin Briggs.

Upon the organization of Licking county, in 1808, Captain Elliott became coroner, serving many years in that office, and was succeeded by his son, Alexander, who served many years.

In religion the Elliotts were Presbyterians; and in character, were upright, industrious and highly esteemed in all the relations of life. Three of the boys were engaged in the war of 1812; two of the grandsons, David Taylor and Alexander Elliott, served with honor in the Mexican war, and two, William and Jonathan Taylor, served long and faithfully in the Union army during the late war. William encountered a fatal rebel bullet at Arkansas Post; Jonathan survived the "march to the sea" with Sherman's army. Reuben Lunceford, and a number of other great grandsons, also fought the rebels, including two young Elliotts, who lost their lives in the service. Lieutenant Reuben Harris, a grandson, was long a gallant officer in the navy, and died in the service.

One of the daughters married Dr. Noah Harris, who came to Newark to practice his profession about the year 1808, and had a successful professional career of twenty-five years. He left a number of children who were educated by their mother, who lived to the age of seventy-three, dying at Newark August 16, 1863.

The late Hon. Horatio J. Harris, was a son of Doctor Harris, and a grandson of the pioneer, Captain Elliott. He attained to high position in public life, and may be regarded as a successful politician, who was not without a good share of ability. He was a native of Newark, but removed in early life to Indiana; where he served respectively in the offices of clerk of the senate, State senator, and auditor of State. During General Taylor's' presidential term he was appointed district attorney of Mississippi, having previously moved to that State. Ill health compelled him to resign his position; he came to Newark on a visit to his relatives, where he died, having scarcely reached middle life. He was a young man of much promise.

Sarah, the youngest daughter of Captain Elliott, died in Newark May 13, 1872, aged seventy-four years. She married in 1821, the late General Jonathan Taylor. Mr. Taylor represented this county

220 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

in the general assembly, and was elected to Congress in 1838. He led a very active life and was a commanding character in the community. At the time of his death, his oldest son, David, was a soldier in Mexico, and died shortly after his return. Another son lost his life in the great rebellion. Mrs. Taylor had a fine intellect and excellent judgment. She was a model pioneer woman, who practiced all the matronly virtues, led an industrious, useful life, and died regretted by her many friends.

This closes a sketch of the early pioneers of Licking county, up to the beginning of the year 1801. Of the family of Carpenter, who probably came to the Licking valley in 1800, or before, nothing whatever is known, as before stated; and it is even doubted whether he brought his-family with him. Without including this, the number of families within this territory at the beginning of 1801, was eight, all settlers in Licking valley, and all, except Van Buskirk, within the present limits of 'Madison township. The Fords, Jones and Benjamin, the party mentioned as having been found by Stadden in Raccoon valley late in the fall of 1800, were not settlers of that year; they were here to "prospect" and enter land, and were settlers early in the spring of 1801, when they came with their families. Biographical sketches of them, and other early pioneers will be found in the history of the township in which each settled.

CHAPTER XXV.

PIONEER WOMEN OF THE COUNTY.

SARAH TAYLOR-CATHARINE STADDEN-SARAH DAVIS-MRS. HARRIS-MARY KEMPER-MRS. HENRY SMITH-JEMIMA THRAP-MRS. BENNETT-NANCY SUTTON- MRS. PERKINS-SARAH JEFFRIES-NAOMI TEDRICK-ALMENA ROSE BANCROFT-MRS. MOTHER SPACY-SARRA EVERETT-SARAH DUKE: SARAH E. DORSEY-REBECCA WALCOTT-ELIZABETH SEYMOUR- MRS. MUNSON-MARY MYERS-MARGARET WILSON-HANNAH HORN-LOVINA HUGHES-MINA ADELIA HOWE-MRS. HOSKINSON-ELEANOR DONIVAN-MARY CULLY--HANNAH HARRIS-ELIZABETH SHAFFER.-ELIZABETH MOORE-SARAH HARRIS-RACHEI- YOUNG-MRS. JACOB SPERRY-SARAH ROBERTSON-MRS. COLEMAN ELIZABETH SMOOTZ-MRS. HENRY- SARAH TAYLOR-MARGARET WINEGARNER-MARY SWIGART-SARAH MILLER ELIZABETH ENGLISH-MATILDA COULTER-CATHARINE WILKIN--ABGAIL ROWE- SARAH CONINE-MARGARET WEAVER-SUSAN FRY- MRS. COLVILLE-MRS. ASHBROOK-MRS. BRAKERILL-MRS. PRIEST- MRS. STANBERY - MRS. MAHOLM- ELIZABETH PYLE-RACHEL ABBOTT-MRS. MCMULLEN-MRS. HENTHORN-SARAH KINDLE-MRS. SPELLMAN-HANNAH SARGENT ROWELL-HANNAH REEVES.

"Look where we may, the wide earth o'er,

Those lighted faces smile no more.

We tread the paths their feet have worn.

We sit beneath their orchard trees,

We hear, like them, the hum of bees

And rustle of the bladed corn;

We turn the pages that they read.

Their written words we linger o'er,

But in the sun they cast no shade,

No voice is heard, no sign is made,

No step is on the conscious floor."- Whittier.

THE history of any territory- would be incomplete without some notice of the pioneer women, who, by reason of sex and their limited sphere of action, could not become conspicuous in the great drama of pioneer life, but whose busy hands and feet, and conscientious regard of duty made them great factors in the establishment of the solid foundation upon which the society of to-day rests. The people of to-day hardly realize or appreciate what they owe to the large-hearted pioneer mothers, who braved with their husbands and children the perils of the wilderness; who reared their families in the fear of God, and implanted within them all the virtues necessary to the welfare of humanity, and passed away, leaving to them an inheritance that is invaluable and that should ever be cherished and kept in sacred remembrance.

It is a little thing to preserve their names in the pages of history; yet it is about all that is left to do. These sketches must necessarily be brief;

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 221

their lives were much alike; they met the stern necessities of the hour, and were content in the consciousness of duty nobly done.

Mrs. Sarah Taylor, widow of the late General Jonathan Taylor, was one of these. She was a daughter of Captain Samuel Elliott, the youngest of twelve children, and came from Maryland with her father, who settled in the Licking valley in 1800, when but half dozen families were to be found within the present limits of Licking county. Her husband was a member of the State legislature, and of the Congress of the United States. She was born May 2, 1798, and died May 13, 1872, having been a resident of this county seventy-two years. She had a fine intellect, sound judge ment, good sense, and had, by observation, intercourse with the world and much reading, acquired a large fund of information. She cherished the Christian faith, and had been for more than forty years prior to her death in communion with the Presbyterian church.

Mrs. Catharine Stadden was born in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, in June, 1780. Her father, Mr. Kleiber was a German by birth. She and her husband, Isaac Stadden, were also pioneers of the Licking valley in 1800, arriving shortly before Mr. Samuel Elliott, and locating about a mile below where Newark was laid out two years after their arrival. Mrs. Stadden lived here seventy years, nearly all the years of her adult life, and they were eventful years-eventful in her own life, eventful in the history of the west, and the history of the world. She died July 3, 1870, in the ninety-first year of her age. She was one of the best of the pioneer mothers; a woman of rare frankness and candor; of integrity of character and fidelity to her convictions, and one whose aim it was to discharge her duty in all the varied relations of life. She cherished the Christian religion during the last sixty years of her life, adopting views known as Socinian, during the latter half of her life, and to which she adhered until her death. Her memory was always well stored with history and incidents of pioneer life, much of which has found its way into other parts of this work.

Mrs. Sarah Davis belonged to the first pioneer family of this county-that of Captain Elias Hughes. She was born in 1790, and came with her father to the Licking valley in 1798, being one of twelve children whom that noted pioneer brought to the Bowling Green, four miles below Newark. In 1808 she married Samuel Davis, who died in 1837. Mrs. Davis survived her husband thirty-two years, dying in 1869, in the eightieth year of her age.

Mrs. Doctor Harris was a pioneer of 1800, being also a daughter of Captain Samuel Elliott, above mentioned. Mrs. Harris was eight years older than her. sister, Mrs. Taylor, and retained a vivid impression of their settlement in the wilderness, being eight years of age at the time. She remained in this vicinity during her long life of seventy-three years, and was the mother of a large family of children. She possessed in an eminent degree those social and domestic virtues which so adorned the pioneer mothers. She died, August 16, 1863

One of the pioneer women of 1803, was Mrs. Mary Kemper, a daughter of Major Anthony Pitzer, who came with her father to Hog run, in Licking township, when she was five years of age. After her marriage she removed to Perry county, near Thornville, and in 1863, to Hamilton county, Indiana, where she died, April 22, 1876, aged seventy-eight years.

Among the pioneer women of 1804 in this county were Mrs. Henry Smith, Mrs. Jemima Thrap, Mrs. Bennett, Mrs. Nancy Sutton, Mrs. Perkins, Mrs. Sarah Jeffries, and Mrs. Naomi Tedrick.

Mrs. Henry Sinith was a prominent and important actor in the pioneer settlement of this county, and spent all of her early life on the frontier. She. was born in 1770, near Hagerstown, Maryland, and settled, at an early period of her life, in the Kanawha country, while the Indians were still making marauding excursions into western Virginia, and on one occasion assisted in defending a block-house against the attacks of the savages. Some time before the close of the last century, she married the late Judge Henry Smith and removed with him to the mouth of the Licking, where, in 1800, he was an acting territorial magistrate. It was he who came up to Shawnee run, twenty-five miles distant, on Christmas day, 1800, to perform the marriage ceremony for Mr. John Stadden and

222 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

Betsy Green, the first couple married in this county. In 1804, she, with her husband and family, settled permanently in Madison township, where she died, October 25, 1866, at the age of ninety-seven.

Mrs. Jemima Thrap was a neighbor of Mrs. Smith in the Licking valley, and came there in the same year. She was born on Ten Mile creek, Washington county, Pennsylvania, near the town of Amity, in January, 1782. When she was three years of age, her parents settled on land near Morgantown, where she grew from childhood to maturity amid all the well known scenes and circumstances of pioneer life. She became a member of the Methodist church in 1802, and in 1803, was united in marriage to Joseph Thrap. In 1805 or 1806 the second Methodist church in this county was organized at the cabin of Joseph Thrap in the Licking valley, and Mrs. Thrap's name was the second one on the list of this class, that of her husband being first; making her the first of her sex to unite with the second organized church in this county. The Thrap cabin was a preaching place many years, and "Mother Tharp," as she was generally called, was noted for her kindness of heart and benevolence; entertaining for years all the itinerant Methodist ministers that came into the valley. She maintained to the end of her life an unblemished moral and religious character, being noted for zeal in the cause of Christianity. She died suddenly July 25, 1867, in the eighty-fifth year of her age.

Mrs. Bennett was one of the oldest children of that noted pioneer hunter, Mr. John Channel, and was also a settler in the Licking valley. She died in Muskingum county at the age of, probably, nearly four score years.

Mrs. Nancy Sutton was born in Fayette county,, Pennsylvania, in 1777, entering into the marriage relation with Jehu Sutton about the beginning of the present century. They settled in Licking township, where they passed the remainder of their lives. Both were consistent members of the Hog Run Baptist church. Mrs. Sutton died June 7, 1874, in her ninety-eighth year.

Mrs. Perkins was a daughter of Mr. Robert Church, a pioneer of Licking valley, and was born in Fairfax county, Virginia, in the year 1791. She died in Newark, May 9, 1880, aged eighty-nine years.

Mrs. Sarah Jeffries was born in Virginia in 1795, and accompanied her father, Mr. Deweese, to the vicinity of Newark in 1804, where she lived the remainder of her life, dying, at the ripe age of eighty-two years.

Mrs. Naomi Tedrick, the last of those above mentioned as pioneers of 1804, was the daughter of one of the Suttons who settled in Licking township, and who came from Fayette county, Pennsylvania. She married Captain John Tedrick, a well known pioneer settler, and was an intelligent woman, a member. of the Baptist church, and much esteemed. She died May 13,1877, at the advanced age of ninety-one.

A few of the pioneer women of 1805, in this county, were Mr,. Almena Rose Bancroft, Mrs. Motherspaw, Mrs. Everett, Mrs. Duke, Mrs. Dorsev, Mrs. Walcott, Mrs. Seymour, Mrs. Munson and Mrs. Myers. The first was one of the original Granville colony, settling in that place in 1805. She died November 4, 1874, aged seventy-three years.

Mrs. Motherspaw was the wife of the late Daniel Motherspaw, and a daughter of John Feasel, who settled in Clay Lick valley in 1805. 805. She was born in 1787, in Shenandoah valley, Virginia, and died at her residence in. Franklin township, April to, 1875. Seventy years of her life were passed in this county. She was a devoted member of the Lutheran church, and a model"pioneer woman.

Mrs. Sabra Everett, daughter of Hiram and Sabra Rose, and wife of Revel Everett, of Hartford township, was born in Granville, Massachusetts, June 22, 1797, and came with her parents to Granville in this county, in the fall of 1805. August 21, 1817, she was married; lived a Christian life of seventy-two years, dying October 30, 1869.

Mrs. Sarah Duke, wife of David Duke, and daughter of the late Nathan Collard, died at her residence in Liberty township September 20, 1877, in the seventy-second year of her age. She was born in Fairfield county, (now Knox county), December 24, 1805, but lived from her infancy in this county. She was a member of the Methodist church from childhood; married Mr. Duke March 1, 1827, and raised a family, of seven sons and one daughter.

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 223

Mrs. Susan E. Dorsey, a daughter of Rufus Enyart, was a much esteemed pioneer woman She came with her father from Miami valley to what is now Hanover township, in 1805, when she was two years old, remaining there until her death, July 12, 1878. September 21, 1826, she married Henry H. Tiebout, who died in 1847, and, in 1849, she married Mr. Owen Dorsey, who died in 1876. She was a member of the Protestant Methodist church forty years.

Mrs. Rebecca Walcott belonged to the original Granville colony, few of whom are probably living at the present time. She was a daughter of Deacon Silas Winchell, and was born in Granville, Massachusetts, February 9, 1805, and was nine months old when the colony reached Granville township. This was an intelligent colony of pioneer, and although means of education were scarce in the wilderness, they looked well to the education of their children. Rebecca Winchell was not only carefully trained in all domestic work, but fairly educated, and was employed in teaching prior to her marriage. She married Horace Walcott April 13, 1829, by whom she had four sons and four daughters. Three of her sons were actively engaged in the late war. She died in May, 1879.

Mrs. Elizabeth Seymour, wife of Adam Seymour, and daughter of John Channel, was born .in Virginia, December 8, 1789, and came with her father to Madison township, where she was married April 14, 1808. She was the mother of nine children: was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and greatly beloved by all who knew her. She died at the age of seventy-eight years.

Mrs. Munson was the wife of General Augustine Munson, a prominent man in the Granville colony and in the county. They were married in 1807, and lived upon the farm, where she died, more than sixty years. She was seventy-six at the date of her death, and was an excellent and intelligent New England woman.

Mrs. Mary Myers was born in New Jersey, January 29, 1780. She accompanied her parents to Brooke county, Virginia, where she married John Myers in 1798. In 1805, with her husband and four children, she settled in Union township, this county, on land Mr. Myers purchased of John Van Buskirk. Their neighbors were Cornelius Elliott and Richard Wells, who had preceded them two years. She raised a large family and died July 12, 1870, in her ninetieth year. Hers was a life of much toil and hardship, though prolonged to an unusual length.

The year 1806 brought with it many additional pioneers to this county, among whom were Mrs. Margaret Wilson, Mrs. Horn, and Mrs. Lovina Hughes.

The first was a native of Frederick county, Virginia, and was born in 1792. She was a resident of Newark forty-five years, and died March 8, 1869. She was long a devoted member of the Presbyterian church.

Mrs. Hannah Horn was born in Loudoun county, Virginia, May 25, 1785, and married Henry Horn in 1804. They settled in Union township, where Mrs. Horn died at the venerable age of ninety-one years.

Mrs. Lovina Hughes was one of the earliest residents and oldest pioneers of the county. She was the wife of the venerable Colonel Jonathan Hughes (a son of the first settler, Elias Hughes, and who is yet living in Washington township), whom she married in June, 1817. She was born in Hardy county, Virginia, June 14, 1800, and came with her father, Joseph Davis, to Newark. In 1810 Mr. Davis settled in Washington township, on the farm where Mrs. Hughes died, in her seventy-seventh year, having resided more than. seventy years in the county. For the last forty years of her life she was a member of the Episcopal church of Utica. A husband, five children, twenty grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren survive her. It was one of the greatest pleasures of her declining years, as it was of all the pioneer mothers, to call her children and grandchildren about her and tell them the thrilling stories of pioneer life-a picture so beautifully portrayed by Whittier "

Shut in from all the world without,

We sat the clean-winged hearth about,

Content to let the north wind roar, ,

In baffled rage at pane and door,

While the red logs before us beat

The frost-line back with tropic heat;

And ever, when a louder blast

Shook beam and rafter as it passed,

The merrier up its roaring draught

The great throat of the chimney laughed,

The house-dog on his paws outspread,

224 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

Laid to the fire his drowsy head,

And, for the winter fireside meet,

Between the andirons' straddling feet,

The mug of cider simmered slow,

The apples sputtered in a row,

And close at hand, the basket stood

With nuts from brown October's wood.

Our mother, while she turned her wheel

Or run the new-knit stocking-heel,

Told how the Indian hordes came down

At midnight on Cocheco town;

And how her own great uncle bore

His cruel scalp-mark to fourscore."

Among the pioneer mothers of 1807, were Mrs. Howe and Mrs. Hoskinson.

Mrs. Mina Adelia Howe was born in Granville, Massachusetts, January 18, 1799, and came with her father's family to Granville, in this county, in 1807, where she lived seventy years, dying February 27, 1877, in her seventy-eighth year. She was the daughter of Arunah and Mindwell Clark, and married Daniel Howe at the age of twenty. Mrs. Hoskinson became a resident of Franklin township in 1807, and there passed her long life of eighty-seven years, dying June 24, 1880.

Mrs. Eleanor Donivan was a pioneer of 18o8. She was born in 1792, in Virginia, and died near Chatham, in this county, at the age of eighty-one.

Mrs. Mary Cully, was also a pioneer of 18o8, being a daughter of the veteran pioneer, Thomas Taylor. She died May 2, 1875, in her sixty-seventh year.

Another pioneer of 18o8, was firs. Hannah Harris, a daughter of Mr. Jacob Pugh, a revolutionary soldier. She was born in Hardy county, Virginia, May 10, 1776. She and her husband first settled on the Clear fork, but in 1810, removed to Burlington township, where Mr. Harris purchased and cleared up a farm. Her husband died in 1844; she surviving him thirty-two years, dying December 7, 1872, in her ninety-seventh year.

Mrs. Elizabeth Shaffer was among the pioneers of 1810; was a daughter of Phillip Peters, and was born in Hampshire county, Virginia, September 22, 1790. She married in 18io, and removed to a farm two miles northeast of Newark, where she died in her eighty-sixth year.

Three notable pioneer women of 1812 were Mrs Elizabeth Moore, Mrs. Sarah Harris and Mrs. Rachel Young. These all died within the same decade, and all here more than eighty years of age at the time of death; the first being eighty-three, the second eighty-six, and the third eighty-seven. Mrs. Moore, a native of Adams county, Pennsylvania, was born September 19, 1787; Mrs. Harris came from Ontario county, New York, and Airs. Young from Virginia.

Mrs. Jacob Sperry, Mrs. Sarah Robertson and Mrs. Benjamin F. Coleman were pioneers of 1813. Mrs. Sperry belonged to the extensive family of Wilsons, who were prominent pioneers of the count-. She was accidently killed at the age of eighty-two, near her home in the vicinity of Utica.

Mrs. Robertson was born near Chambersburgh. Franklin county, Pennsylvania, June 24,1791: was married to Major William Robertson, January 28, 1813. They removed to Washington township, and settled near the present site of Utica, where Mrs. Robertson died in her eight-seventh year.

Mrs. Coleman was a native of Rhode Island. and was born in Newport, September 9, 1790. She was a resident of Newark sixty-six years; a member of the Episcopal church, and was nearly eighty-nine at the time of her death.

Mrs: Elizabeth Smoots, Mrs. Sarah M. Henry and Mrs. Sarah Taylor were among; the pioneers of 1815.

Mrs. Smoots resided in Washington township sixty-three years, and died August 7, 1879, aged eighty-seven. She was from Shenandoah county, Virginia.

Mrs. Henry was from Frederick county, Mary land; carne with her parents to Circleville, Ohio, in 1811; married John W. Henry in 1812: removed to Granville township in 1815; to the vicinity of Newark in 1833, where she died in 1877, aged eighty-four.

Mrs. Sarah Taylor was born in Kentucky, and after the death of her husband, the late judge William Taylor, lived some rears with her brother, Stephen McDougal, in Newark, where she died November 8, 1868, in her seventieth year. She was for many years a consistent member of the Presbyterian church of Newark.

Mrs. Margaret Winegarner was born in Loudoun county, Virginia, February 4, 1775, and was re-

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 225

markable for her length of life, being ninety-eight at the time of her death, November 3, 1873. She belonged to along-lived family, one of her ancestors living more than one hundred years. She was a resident of Hopewell township, and one of the first members of Gratiot Baptist church, organized in 1821. She settled in this county in 1816, as did also Mrs. Mary Swigart, who was born in that place, well known in history, as Gettysburgh, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Swigart was long a resident of Newark, but died in Seneca county, Ohio, at the age of eighty-five.

Among the later pioneers of Licking may be mentioned the following: Mrs. Sarah Miller, 1817; Mrs. Elizabeth English, 1817 ; Mrs. Matilda Coul ter, 1817; Mrs. Catharine Wilkin, 181g; Mrs. Abigail Rowe, 1820; Mrs. Sarah Conine, 1821; Mrs. Margaret Weaver, 1823: Mrs. Susan Fry, 1827; :firs. Colville, 1829; Mrs. Eli Ashbrook and Mrs. Brakebill, in 1830.

Mrs. Miller was born in Hardy county, Virginia, January 17, 1795, and died in this count- January 16, 1877.

Mrs. Elizabeth Cook English was born in Greensburgh, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, December 13. 1800, and died in Newark, in September, 1878.

Mrs. Coulter was the daughter of Caleb Pumphrey, and was born in Ohio county, Virginia, November 9, 1797. Upon their removal to this western wilderness, her mother rode the entire distance on horseback, and the children walked most of the way, and assisted in driving the cows, though the journey was made in March, and while the snow yet covered the ground. Her father was an earnest, energetic Methodist preacher, and much devoted to the interests of his religion, his family and his neighbors. She married John Coulter in 1817, and settled near Chatham; in 1821 she removed to the Clay lick valley, where she died December 12, 1872, aged seventy-five years.

Mrs. Wilkin was born in Shenandoah county, Virginia, March 15, 1802; was married to Jacob Wilkin in 1822, and died November 28, 1875.

Mrs. Rowe was a native of Maryland, and died at her residence in East Newark, December 6, 1875, aged almost seventy-nine years.

Mrs. Conine came from New Jersey; married Richard Conine in 1805, and died near Pataskala, October 7, 1875, at 'the great age of ninety-two years.

Mrs. Weaver, wife of John Weaver, was born in Hampshire county, Virginia, December 29, 1790; was married in 1811, and settled near Homer in 1823, where she died July 10, 1873.

Mrs. Fry was born in Loudoun county, Virginia, September 18, 1790; married Daniel Fry in 1821, and died April 1, 1879, aged eighty-two.

Mrs. Colville died April 3, 1870, in her seventy-ninth year.

Mrs. Ashbrook was the wife of Rev. Eli Ashbrook, and died in Monroe township, aged more than eighty years.

Mrs. Brakebill was a resident of Newark more than sixty years, and died at the great age of ninety.

Mrs. Priest was remarkable for her great age, being, when she died, over one hundred years. She was born in Culpepper county, Virginia, in 1766, where she continued to reside until near the close of the last century, when she came with her husband and six children to the Muskingum and settled near the mouth of Licking. Subsequently her husband died and she removed to this county, settling on Rocky fork, and afterwards moved to Madison township, where she passed the remainder of her days. As evidence of her vigor and strength, it may be stated that she walked every mile of the distance from Culpepper to the Muskingum, the distance being about four hundred miles, and carried an infant child. Her mind was a storehouse of Revolutionary and-pioneer incidents. During the last sixty years of her life she was a member of the Baptist church.

Mrs. Stanbery, wife of Hon. William Stanbery, ' was a lady of much intelligence and force of character, and a resident of this county from 1809 to her death, which took place at "Oakland," Madison township, March 17, 1873, when .she was eighty-seven.

Mrs. Maholm, long a resident of this county, died in her eightieth year.

Mrs. Elizabeth Pyle was from Rockingham county, Virginia, and died May 26, 1874, at Vanattaburgh, in the ninetieth year of her age.

Mrs. Rachel Abbott was born in Frederick

226 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

county, Virginia, August 10, 1782, was married in 1806, came to Ohio in 1812, and died in this county, February 16, 1874, at the advanced age of more than ninety-one years.

Mrs. Hugh McMullen was a daughter of the late David Gillespie, and died in Chicago, Illinois, February 17, 1876, aged sixty-three years.

Mrs. Henthorn, of McKean township, died in June, 1875, at the great age of ninety-six years.

Mrs. Sarah Kindle was more remarkable for age than any other pioneer woman of the county, being one hundred and five years old at the date of her death, which occurred in Union county, December 28, 1870. She was from Virginia, and lived many years on the Flint ridge.

Mrs: Spellman was an early settler of Granville township, and died June 6, 1880, at the age of eighty-one.

Mrs. Hannah Sargent Rowell was born in Pennsylvania in 1783, and died in this county, August 12, 1880, at the great age or ninety--seven years.

It is proper before closing this chapter to mention Mrs. Hannah Reeves, a noted pioneer preacher, who though not a resident of this county, frequently visited it in the prosecution of her work. Mrs. Reeves was a daughter of James and Mary Pearce, and was born in Devonshire, England, January 30, 1800. She united with the Methodist church December 18, 1818, under the preaching of Rev. James Thorn, and immediately began preaching, following itinerant ministry in England until 1831, when she came to America. July 6, 1831, she married Rev. William Reeves at Zanesville, Ohio, but continued her preaching, becoming well known and much respected through this portion of the State. She was a woman of much ability, force and eloquence; very zealous in her labors, making many converts, and attracting large audiences wherever she went. She died at New Brighton, Pennsylvania, November 13, 1869.

"Rest from all bitter thoughts and things!

How many a poor one's blessing went

With thee beneath the low green tent

Whose curtain never outward swings!"

CHAPTER -XXVI.

PIONEER TIMES.

INTRODUCTORY-WHERE THE PIONEERS OF LICKING CAME FROM-THE ABUNDANCE OF FOOD IN THE FOREST-THE TRUCK PATCH-THE GRATER AND HOMINY BLOCK-THE MILLS-THE DIFFICULTIES OF MILLING-THE INDIAN PONE AND JOHNNY CAKE-THE CULTIVATION OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS-BEARS VERSUS PIGS-TAMING WILD TURKEYS-WHISKEY-SHIPPING TO NEW ORLEANS- CLOTHING-THE SPINNING WHEELS AND LOOM-FLAX AND WOOL-NANCY CLARK'S COAT-WHIPPING THE CAT-WOLF VERSUS SHEEP-KICKING FROLICS-WOMAN'S DRESS-HOW THE GIRLS PUT ON STYLE IN FLAX DRESSES-WHITE KID SLIPPERS-A COMPARISON-THE LOG CABIN-NAILS-THE FURNITURE OF THE CABIN-PIGS THE FAVORITE CURRENCY-GOING TO SCHOOL- THE BOOKS, AND HOW THE CHILDREN WERE TAUGHT-THE SPELLING SCHOOLS-THE HOOSIER'S NEST

"So the sun climbs up, and on, and over,

And the days go out and the tide conies in,

And the pale moon rubs on the purple cover

Till worn as thin and as bright as tin;

But the ways are dark and the days are dreary,

And the dreams of youth are but dust in age,

And the heatt gets harden'd and the hands grow weary

Holding them up for their heritage."

Joaquin Miller.

PIONEER days for Licking county and the State of Ohio are gone forever; the wolf, bear, deer, Indian and all associations and reminiscences of those "good old days" have long since faded from sight if not from memory, and the pioneers, most of them, are gone too-

"How few, all weak and withered of their force,

Wait on the verge of dark eternity."

It remains to write their history, and the history of the times in which they lived, as of another race of beings; and, if possible, to impress the best of it upon the character of the present and future generations; for it is a history worthy of imitation

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 227

and preservation. A study of the characteristics of the pioneer fathers and mothers is calculated to ennoble the mind and strengthen the hand for the battle of life.

It would require a volume to tell of their habits and customs; of their trapping and hunting; of their solitary lives in the great woods, surrounded by wild animals and wilder men; of their dress, manners, and peculiar nays; of their cabins and furniture; of the long winter evenings by the log heap fire upon which

We piled, with care, our nightly stack Of wood against the chimney-back-The oaken log, green, huge, and thick, And on its top the stout back-stick; The knotty fore-stick laid apart, And filled between with curious art The ragged brush; then hovering near, We watched the first red blaze appear, Heard the sharp crackle, caught the gleam On whitewashed Nvall and sagging beam, Until the old rude-furnished room Burst flower-like into rosy bloom."

It was a free, happy, independent life; full of hardships, indeed, but sweetened with innocence and peace; with alternations of labor, pleasure and rest.

The pioneers of Licking were largely from New England, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, who sought to better their condition by making permanent homes in the wilderness west of the Ohio river. They came largely on foot over the Alleghany mountains, many of them having a single horse and wagon; or a two-horse wagon, in which their worldly possessions were carried, and in which the very old or very young, only, were allowed to ride. When once settled and his cabin erected, it was not only a home and shelter for himself and family, but for every stranger who passed that way, "without money and without price." The latch string was always out, for these pioneers were great hearted people, and no man, be he white, black or red, was turned away empty. Their cabins, often not more than fifteen or twenty feet square, made of rough beech logs, with the bark still adhering to them, were frequently occupied by a dozen or even a score of people for a night, and no complaints made for want of room; genuine hospitality always finds room enough and never apologizes for lack of more; and when breakfast time came there was no apology for the scarcity of knives, forks and spoons, for "fingers were made before any of these." The fare was homely, but generally abundant. What to eat drink and wear were questions not, perhaps, difficult of solution in those days. The first was the easiest to solve. The deer, the bear, the wild turkey, the rabbit, the squirrel, all started up and said, or seemed to say "eat me." These had been prepared for the red men of the forest, and were equally abundant for the pioneer. The forest was full of game, the streams full of fish, and wild fruits were abundant. To get bread required both patience and labor ; the staff of life was one of the articles that must be earned "by the sweat of the brow;" it could not be gathered from the bushes, fished from the streams, or brought down with the rifle. Every backwoodsman once a year added to his clearing, at least, a "truck patch." This was the hope and stay of the family; the receptacle of corn, beans, melons, potatoes, squashes, pumpkins, turnips, etc., each variety more perfectly developed and delicious because it grew in virgin soil. The corn and beans planted in May brought roasting ears and succotash in August. Potatoes came with the corn, and the cellar, built in the side of a convenient cliff or hill, and filled with the contents of the truck patch, secured the family against want. When the corn grew too hard for roasting ears, and was yet too soft to grind in the mill, it was reduced to meal by a grater, and whether stirred into mush or baked into Johnny-cake, it made, for people with keen appetites and good stomachs, excellent food. Place before one of those brawny backwoodsmen a square foot of Johnny-cake and a venison steak broiled on hickory coals, and no art of civilization could produce a more satisfactory meal.

Next to the grater comes the hominy block, an article in common use among the pioneers. It consisted simply of a block of wood--a section of a tree, perhaps-with a hole burned, or dug, into it a foot deep, in which corn was pulverized with a pestle. Sometimes this block was inside the cabin, where it served as a seat for the bashful young buck skinned backwoodsman while "sparking" a girl; sometimes a convenient stump in front of the cabin door was prepared for, and made of the best of hominy blocks. When pic-

228 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

raised, the natural relation between pork and beaten corn suggested the grand old idea of "hog and hominy."

Hominy blocks did not last long, for mills came quite early and superseded them, yet these mills were often so far apart that in stormy weather, or for want of transportation, the pioneer was compelled to resort to his hominy block, or go without bread. In winter, the mills were frozen up nearly all the time, and when a thaw came and the ice broke, if the mill was not swept away entirely b3 the floods, it was so thronged with pioneers, each with his sack of corn, that some of them were often compelled to camp out near the mill and wait several days for their turn. When the grist was ground, if they were so fortunate as to possess an ox, a horse, or mule, for the purpose of transportation, they were happy. It was not unusual to go from ten to twenty miles to mill, through the pathless, unbroken forest, and to be benighted on the journey, and chased, or treed by wolves. A majority of the pioneers, however, settled in the vicinity of a stream, upon which mills were rapidly erected. These mills were very primitive affairs-mere "corn crackers''-but they were an improvement on the hominy block. They merely ground the corn, the pioneer must do his own bolting wire sieve was then one of the most important articles of household furniture. It always hung in its place, on a wooden peg, just under the ladder that reached to the loft. The meal was sifted and the finest used for bread. How delicious was that "Indian pone," baked in a large deep skillet, which was placed upon coals raked from the fire-place to the hearth. Fresh coals were continually placed under it and upon the iron lid until the loaf, five or six inches thick, was done through. This was a different thing from johnny-cake ; it was better, and could not always be had, for to make it good, a little wheat flour was needed, and wheat flour was a precious thing in those very early days.

A road cut through the forest to the mill, and a wagon for hauling the grist, were great advantages, the latter especially was often a seven day's wonder to the children of a neighborhood, and the happy owner of one often did, for years, the milling for whole neighborhood. About once a month this good neighbor, who was in exceptionally good circumstances, because able to own a wagon, would go about through the neighborhood, gather up the grists and take them to mill, often spending several days in the operation, and never think of charging for his time and trouble.

The cultivation of domestic animals, both beasts and fowls, for the purposes of food, began early. Cows for milk, butter, beef, and leather, and swine for pork, were bred, ear marked and turned into the woods to browse. "Root hog or die," was the law for man and beast, but the woods were prolific and the hogs grew fat. The young pigs were exceptionally a sweet morsel for the bear. Bruin always singled out these young animals in preference to any other meat; but the pigs were often successfully defended by the older hogs, who, upon the least signs of distress from one of their number, would go boldly to the rescue, and fiercely attack the foe, however formidable; often the pig was released and bruin, or the panther, compelled to ascend a tree for safety.

The boys often found wild turkeys nests in the woods, and would bring home the eggs, and place them, to be hatched, under a trusty old hen, in an outside chimney corner, where they could assist the hen in defending the eggs and brood from the opossum or hawk. A flock of turkeys sometimes originated in this way, but more often, as they grew to maturity, they would fly away into the woods and never reappear. This grandest of birds is identical in civilized and savage life, and is the peculiar production of America. The wild ones were always a dark brown, like the leaves of their native woods, but when tamed, or "civilized," the diversity of color becomes endless.

When corn-bread and milk were eaten for breakfast, hog and hominy for dinner and mush and milk for supper, there was little room for tea and coffee; and at a time when one bushel of wheat for a pound of coffee and four bushels for a pound of tea, were considered a fair exchange, but little of these very expensive articles was used.

Next to water, the drink of the pioneers was whiskey-com or rye whiskey. Everybody drank it. It was supposed to be indispensable to health, and a protection against the morning fogs. It was supposed to be indispensable to strength and endurance during the labors of the day, and to

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 229

sleep at night. It was supposed to be absolutely indispensable to warmth and animation in cold, chilly winter weather. It was the sacrament of . friendship and hospitality; it was in universal use yet there was probably less drunkenness in those days than at present. The whiskey was absolutely pure: it was not drugged, doctored and poisoned as it is to-dill, and, although enough of it would bring drunkenness, it did not bring delirium-tremens, or leave the system prostrated, and the victim with a head-ache upon "sobering up." It was the first thing in demand as an article of commerce Stills for its manufacture sprang up everywhere, all along the stream. Pioneers soon found a market at these stills for their corn, hence corn became the great crop, and whisker the great article of commerce. It was the only thing that would bring money, and money they must have to pay taxes. Whiskey could be purchased for twelve or fifteen cents per gallon and paid for in corn, and the barrel of whiskey in the cellar, was as common as the barrel of cider was later. The whiskey that was not consumed at home was shipped on flat-boats or pirogues* on the Muskingum, Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans and sold for Spanish gold. The rebellion against the government of the United States, commonly called the whiskey insurrection, had its growth out of the hardship of the conch-Irish of western Pennsylvania, who in the mother country had learned to love whiskey and hate gaugers : and this population gave tone and character to the first settlers of eastern Ohio. There was this apology for the production of whiskey, that it was the only means of disposing of surplus crops, or bringing money into the country.

The hardy pioneers, after disposing of their cargo of whiskey in New Orleans, would set out for home a distance of say fifteen hundred miles. Think of it, ye who ride in palace coaches at the rate of forty miles an hour while reclining in cushioned seats, smoking your cigar, and reading in your morning paper the happenings of yesterday in Europe and America. While apologizing some what for those whiskey days, it may be well to say the whiskey was not probably of any special benefit, was not to be compared to the pure water of

*A canoe dug out of a log, or two canoes lashed together.

their springs, and that too many of 'the pioneers drank too much of it, and that too often it made their eyes and noses red, their children ragged and their wives wretched, as it does to-day.

In clothing the pioneers conformed to the circumstances in which they were placed. The almost universal costume for the men was the linsey-woolsey hunting shirt, or wamus, blue, butternut, or red, according to the fancy of the wearer; buckskin pants and moccasins, and sometimes, in winter, a waist-coat of the skin of a panther, wild cat or spotted fawn. In summer, when it could be had, linen was made up into wearing apparel. The flax was grown in the summer, scutched in the fall, and during the long winter evenings was heard the, buzz of the little flax wheel, which had a place in every- cabin. Even those who are not pioneers can remember this flax wheel, for it was in use as late as 1850, or later. It stood in a corner, generally read- for use by having a large bundle of flax, wrapped around its forked stick. a thread reaching to the spindle, and a little gourd filled with water hanging conveniently at the bottom of the flax-stick, and whenever the good pioneer mother lead a little ,pare time from cooking for a dozen work-hand:, caring for a dozen children, milking a dozen cows, and taking care of the milk and butter, besides doing all the housework and keeping everything clean and neat as a pin, she would sit down to this wheel and with foot on the treadle and nimble fingers, pile. thread upon thread on the spindle, to be reeled off on a wooden reel that counted every yard with a snap, and then it was ready for the Great loom that occupied the loft. This loom was a wonder-it would be a wonder to-day, with its great beams, larger than any beams they put in the houses of to-day-its treadles, its shuttles, etc. Day after day could be heard the pounding of that loom, the treadles went up and down, the shuttles flew swiftly from one hand to the other through the labyrinth of warp, and yard after yard of cloth rolled upon the great roller.

And then this cloth was to be cut into little and big clothes and made up with the needle; and, remember, this and a great deal more than any one can think of was to be gone Through with every year. Wool went through about the same operation; only it was spun on the large wheel, colored with but-

230 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

ternut bark and other things, but woven on the loom and made up for winter clothing.

Judge William Johnson, in an address at a pioneer meeting, says regarding this matter of clothing:

"But innovations were soon made. My father had brought out a huge trunk full of coarse broadcloth, and this tempted the young men to have coats to be married in. They would bargain with my father for the cloth and trimmings, and with my mother for making the coat, and pay both bills by grubbing, making rails or clearing land. It may seem odd at this day that a woman of small stature, besides doing her own housework, should make two hundred rails a day with her needle and shears, and find time for reading and mental culture every day. I never think of my mothers tailoring skill, without being reminded of one instance. a young man had purchased the cloth for his wedding coat, and, as a measure of economy, employed one Nancy Clark to make it up. Nancy was an expert on hunting-shirts, buckskin breeches and 'sich', but had never cut a coat, so my mother cutout the coat. Nancy made it up, but on the eve of the wedding, when tried on, instead of allowing his arms to hang gracefully by his side as became a bridegroom, it turned him into a spread eagle with arms extended upward. The wedding day was at hand, and in his perplexity he brought the coat to my mother to diagnose its disorder, and if possible, administer the proper remedies. She found there was nothing more serious than that Nancy had sewed the right sleeve in the left side, and the left sleeve in the right, and put them upside down. As luxury and extravagance in dress increased, an old tailor with shears, goose and sleeve-board began to 'whip the cat' around the neighborhood, and my mother's occupation, except in her own family, was gone. The custom of whipping the cat, both for tailors and shoemakers, was in vogue many years after, and, like the schoolmaster boarding around, had this advantage, that if they received poor pay for their work, they were led and lodged while they were about it.

"But the material for winter clothing was hard to get. As the woolen goods wore out, my father bought sic sheep to commence with, and within the first week the wolves chased the old dog under the cabin floor, and killed two of them within a few . yards of the cabin door. On account of the scarcity of wool, many a night I sat up until midnight, with a pair of hand-cards mixing wool with rabbit' s fur, and carding them together, while my mother spun and knit them into mittens and stockings for her children to wear to school."

"Kicking frolics" were in vogue in those early times. This was after wool was more plenty, and it was carded, spun, and wove into cloth. Half a dozen young men and an equal number of young women (for the "fun of the thing" it was always necessary to preserve a balance of this kind) were invited to the kicking frolic. The cabin floor was cleared for action and half a dozen chairs, or stools, placed in a circle in the center and connected by a cord to prevent recoil. On these the six young men seated themselves with boots and stockings off, and pants rolled up above the knee. Just think of making love in that shape. The cloth was placed in the centre, wet with soap-suds and then the kicking commenced by measured steps driving the bundle of cloth round and round, the elderly lady with gourd in hand pouring do more soapsuds, and every now and then, with spectacles on nose and yard-stick in hand, measuring the goods until they were shrunk to the desired width, and then calling the lads to a dead halt. Then while the lads put on hose and boots the lasses, with sleeves rolled up above the elbow, rung out the cloth and put it out on the garden fence to dry. When this was done the cabin floor was again cleared and the supper spread, after which, with their numbers increased somewhat, perhaps, they danced the happy hours of the night away until midnight, to the music of a violin and the commands of some amateur cotillon caller, and were ready to attend another such frolic the following night.

The costume of the women deserves a passing notice. The pioneers proper, of course, brought with them something to wear like that in use where they came from; but this could not last always, and new apparel, such as the new country afforded, had to be provided. Besides, the little girls sprang up into womanhood with the rapidity of the native butter-weed, and they must be made both decent and attractive, and what is more, they were willing to aid in making themselves so. The flax patch, therefore, became a thing of as prime necessity as the truck patch. On the side next to the «-oods the flax grew tall, slender and delicate, and was carefully pulled by the girls and kept by itself to make finery of. The stronger growth did well enough for clothing for the men, and warp for the linsey-woolsey, and even every-day dresses for the women, but for Sundays, when everybody went to "meeting," the girls, especially, wanted something nice, just as they do to-day. This fine flax, therefore, was carefully pulled, carefully rotted, carefully broken, carefully scutched, carefully hackled, carefully spun, carefully dyed in divers colors, and carefully woven in cross-barred figures, tastefully diversified, straining a point to get Turkey-red enough to put a single thread between the duller colors to mark their outline like the circle around a dove's eye. Of such goods the

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 231

rustic beauty made her Sunday gown, and then with her vandyke of snow-white homespun linen, her snow-white home-knit stocking, and possibly white kid slippers, she was a sight for sore eyes and often for sore hearts. No paint or arsenic was needed, for active exercise in the open air under a sunbonnet, or a broad-brimmed hat, made by her mother out of rye straw, gave her cheek an honest, healthful glow, and to her eyes the brightness and beauty of a fawn's. Possibly those white kid slippers have caused a nod of skepticism. This is the way it was done. Her brother, or lover, shot six fine squirrels; she tanned the skins herself in a sugar trough, and had them made up at considerable expense and trouble to wear on Sundays and state occasions. Possibly it may be wondered how the slippers would look after walking five or ten miles through the mud to church, as was frequently done. There were ways of doing these things that were only whispered among the girls, but have leaked out; and the same process was indulged in more or less by young men, who were fortunate enough to own a pair of fine boots; and that was, to wear the every-day shoes or boots, or go barefoot to within a few- rods of the "meeting house," and then step into the woods and take the wraps from the precious shoes and put them on.

It is just barely possible there is a lady in today's society, who, with five pounds of colored hemp on the back of her head and thirty-five yards of silk velvet in her train, would be uncharitable enough to laugh at these pioneer mothers and daughters; if so, those whose opinions are worth anything fully understand that there . has more work and worth, more value to the world and the community in which she lived, in the little finger of one of these pioneers than in the whole body, train, hair and all, of the aforesaid "lady." By the testimony of all history, luxury tends to degeneracy. If the clothes of the pioneers were poor, they made up in brain and heart. The tables are turned-the vacuum of brain and heart is filled with fine clothes. Let it be remembered that the solidity and value of this beautiful structure called society, lies in the foundation-in the pioneer fathers and mothers, and it is only because of this solid foundation that the structure is able to stand at all.

The houses, or huts, in which these pioneers lived have been often described; their form and proportions, and general appearance have been repeatedly impressed upon the mind of the student of history. They were built of round logs with the bark on, outside chimneys of mud and sticks, puncheon floors, clapboard roof, with and without a loft or second floor, and all put together without a nail or particle of iron from top to bottom. These buildings stood many a year after the original inhabitant moved into better quarters. They served for stables, sheep pens, hay houses, pig pens, smith shops, hen houses, loom shops, school houses, etc. Some of them are yet standing in this county, and occupied, to some extent, in some portions of the county as dwellings.

A second grade of log cabin, built later, was quite an improvement on the first, being made of hewn logs, with sawed lumber for door and window frames and floors. Glass also took the place of paper windows of the old cabin; nails were also sparingly used in these better cabins. When nails were first used, for a few years a pound of them was exchanged for a bushel of wheat. They were a precious article, and were made by hand on a blacksmith's anvil, out of odds and ends of old wornout sickles, scythes, broken clevis pins, links of chains, broken horse-shoes, etc., all welded together to eke out the nail rods from which they were forged. The first cabins were erected ready for occupation in a single day. In an emergency, the pioneers collected together, often going eight or ten miles to a cabin-raising, and in the great woods, where not a tree had been felled or a stone turned, began with dawn the erection of a cabin. Three of four wise builders would set the corner-stones, lay on the square and level the first round of logs; two men with axes would cut the trees and logs; one with his team of oxen, a "lizzard" and a log-chain would "snake" them in; two more, with axes, cross-cut saw and frow would make; the clapboards; two more, with axes, cross-cut saw and broad-axe would hew out the puncheons and flatten the upper side of the sleepers and joists. Four skillful axemen would carry up the corners, and the remainder with skids and forks or hand-spikes would roll up the logs. As soon as the joists were laid on, the cross-cut saw was brought from the woods, and two men went to work cutting out the door and chim-

232 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

ney place: and while the corner men were building up the attic and putting on the roof, the carpenters and masons of the day were putting down the puncheons, laying the hearth and building the chimney high enough to keep out the beasts, wild or tame. In one corner, at a distance of six feet from one wall, and four from the other the bed post is placed only one being needed. A hole is bored in the puncheon floor for the purpose of setting this post (which is usually a stick with a crotch or fork in the upper end) in; or if any auger is not at hand, a hole is cut in the puncheon floor and the fork sharpened and driven into the around beneath: rails are laid from this fork to the wail, and usually nice, straight hickory poles form the bottom, upon which strait- or leaves are placed and the blanket put on. This makes a comfortable spring bed and is easily- changed and kept clean. Often the chinking and daubing of the walls, putting in windows and banging the door were left until fall or some leisure time after the corn crop and the contents of the truck patch were secured. Often the pioneer did not erect a cabin at all until a crop ryas secured-living, meanwhile, in their covered wagons, and cooking beside a log in the open air, or erecting a "pole cabin," or "brush cabin," mere temporary affairs, to shelter the family until time could be had for erecting a permanent one. The saving of the crop was of more importance during the summer season than shelter; but when the first frost carne, a sure indication of approaching winter, active preparations were made for the permanent cabin, arid the work was pushed forward until a snug cabin stood in the midst of the forest, with a clearing around it, made principally by cutting down the trees for the building. Every crack was chinked and daubed with ordinary- clay mixed with water, and when completed, and a fire of hickory logs in the -neat fire-place, no amount of cold could seriously- disturb the inmates. The heavy door ryas hung on wooden hinges, and all that was necessary to lock it at night was to pull the latch-string inside, and the strong wooden latch held it fast against wild animals or storms. Thieves there were none, and even had there been, there was nothing in the but of a settler to tempt their cupidity. Many of these cabins have no loft or second floor, but when this was added it ryas used as a sleeping room for the younger members of the family, and as a general store-room for the household goods, and often for the corn crop and the contents of the truck patch.

Regarding the furniture of these cabins, Judge Johnson says:

"The furniture of the backwoods matched the architecture well. There were a few quaint specimens of cabinet work dragged into the wilderness, but these were sporadic and not common. f can best describe it be what I saw in my father's house. First of alt a table had to be improvised, and there was no

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 233

cabinet-maker to make it, and no lumber to make it of. Our floor was laid with broad chestnut puncheons, well and smoothely hewn, for the obsolete art of hewing timber was then in its prime. Father took one of these puncheons, two feet and a half broad, putting two narrow ones in its place, bored four large augur holes and put in four legs, or round poles with the bark on. On this hospitable board many. a wholesome meal was spread, and many an honest man, and many a wayworn stranger ate his fill and was grateful.

"On great occasions, when an extension table was needed, the door was lifted off its hinges and added to the puncheon What we sat upon at first I cannot conjecture ; but I remember well when my father loaded his horses down with wheat and corn, and crossed the country a distance of eight or ten miles,. and brought home, in exchange, a set of oak splint-bottomed chairs, some of which are intact to this day. Huge band-boxes made of blue-ash bark, supplied the place of bureaus and wardrobes; and a large tea-chest, cut in two, and hung by strings in the comers, with the hollow- sides outward, constituted the bookcases. A respectable old bed-stead, still in the family, was lugged across from Red Stone. An old turner and wheelwright added a trundle-bed, and the rest were hewn and whittled out according to the fashion of the times, to serve their day and be supplanted by others as the civilization of the country advanced.

"But the grand flourish of furniture was the dresser. Here were spread out, in grand display, pewter dishes, pewter plates, pewter basins and pewter spoons, scoured as bright as silver, as who should say-'that woman's daughter will make you a good wife, my boy.'

"Money was scarce, but our fathers learned to live without it. All was barter. The preacher's stipend, the lawyer's fee, the schoolmaster's salary, the workman's wages, the shoemaker's account, the tailor's bill were all paid in barter.

"I have seen my father; when he had a surplus of grain and a deficit of pigs, fill two sacks of corn, and on the backs of two horses, carry it to a distant part of the neighborhood and exchange it for four shoats, and in each sack thrust one shoat tail foremost and another head foremost, tie up the mouths of the sacks, mount them on horseback, rip a hole in the seam of the sack for each snout to stick out, and bring them home to be fattened for next years pork. Here was a currency-a denomination of greenbacks which neither required the pen of the Chancellor of the Exchecquer to make it legal tender, nor the judgment of the Chief justice to declare it constitutional. The law of necessity governs in every case, and wise men may fret every hair off their heads without changing the .results."

At a little later time, say from 1820 to 1840, the pioneers were living a little easier. Their farms were partially cleared, many of them were living in hewed log houses and many in frame and even brick houses. Most of them had barns and innumerable out-houses. They generally had cattle, horses, sheep, hogs and poultry, and were living in comparative comfort. Their neighbors were near and always dear. Their schools and churches had improved somewhat, yet even at this late day there were hundreds of log school-houses and churches. About three months in a year was all the schooling a farmer's boy could get. He was sadly needed at home from the age of five years, to do all sorts of chores and work on the farm. He was wanted to drive the cows to water and to pasture; to feed the pigs and chickens and gather the eggs. His duties in the summer were multifarious; the men were at work in the field harvesting, and generally worked from early morning until late at night, and the boys were depended on to "do the chores;" hence it was. impossible to spare them to attend school in summer. There was no school in spring and fall. In winter they were given three months' schooling-a very poor article of schooling, too, generally. Their books were generally anything they happened to have about the house, and even as late as 1850, there was no system in the purchase of school books. Mr. Smucker says his first reading books at school were Patrick Gass' journal of the Lewis and Clark expedition to the mouth of the Columbia river in 1804-5-6; and Weem's Life of Washington. Parents of children bought whatever book pleased their fancy, or whatever the children desired them to purchase. A geography was a geography, and a grammar a grammar, regardless of who was the author. This great confusion in school books made trouble for the teacher, but that was of small moment. He was hired and paid to teach whatever branches, out of whatever books the parents thought was best. The branches generally taught in the early schools, however, were reading, writing, spelling and arithmetic, and, later, geography and grammar. Boys attending school but three months in a year made but little progress. They began at the beginning of their books every winter, and went as far as they could in three months; then forgot it all during the nine months out of school, commencing again the next winter just where they commenced the previous one. In this way they went over and over the same lessons every year under different teachers (for many of the teachers only taught one term in a place), often getting no further in arithmetic than "vulgar fractions" or the "rule of three," and in their old Webster's spelling books the first class probably got as far as "antiscorbutic" and may be through; while the second class would get as far as "cessation," and the third class

234 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

probably not through "baker," certainly not beyond "amity." There were always three or four classes in spelling, and this exercise was the last before school was dismissed in the evening. Their old books were conned over year after year until they were worn out and the children grew up to manhood and womanhood, and never knew, and perhaps do not know to this day, what was in the back part of them. That was the kind of a start many a great man had. These schools cannot be despised when it is remembered that the greatest and best of the nation, including such men as Abraham Lincoln, Edwin M. Stanton and Stephen A. Douglas, were among the boys who attended them.

There was always much competition in the spelling classes as to who should get the "head mark." In the later schools it was the custom that the best speller might stand at the head until he missed, when the one who spelled the word correctly should take his place, and he then stood next to the head; but they did things differently in the earlier schools, the head of the class once gained and held until , the last spelling at night, the head mark was received and the lucky scholar then took his place at the foot of the class, to again work his way gradually to the head. These classes sometimes contained thirty or forty scholars, and it was something of an undertaking to get from the foot to the head. Spelling-schools were the beauty and glory of school-days. The scholars were always coaxing the teacher to appoint a night for a spelling-school, and were usually gratified one or two nights in a month or oftener. A night was chosen when the moon shone, and the sleighing was good, and then the entire neighborhood and perhaps the adjoining neighborhood would turn out to the spellingschool; whole families came on the great two-horse sled, including the old lady and gentleman, all the children, little and big; even the baby and the dogs came. Schools in adjoining districts sent their best spellers to try and carry off the honors. The old log school-house was crowded, and the :great box stove, cast at the Diary Ann furnace, and which stood in the center of the room on a box o bricks, was red hot, and kept so during the entire evening. Two good spellers were designated by the teacher to choose sides, and everybody was chosen in one class or the other; then the spelling began, the words being given out by the teacher, first to one class then to the other, beginning at the head. A tally sheet was carefully kept to see who missed the most words. After recess the "spelling down" was indulged in; the two classes stood up, and whenever a word was missed the speller sat down, and the one who stood up after all had been spelled down, was the hero or heroine of the hour, and always chosen first in future contests. The result was that the participants usually became correct orthographers.

The following poem, originally published in the Cincinnati Chronicle in 1833, portrays so graphically life in a log cabin, that it is eminently worthy of preservation. Although written by a "Hoosier" and intended to portray Hoosier life, it applies equally well to log cabin life everywhere.

"Suppose, in riding through the West,

A stranger found a ' Hoosiers nest,'

In other words a buckeye cabin '

Just big enough to hold Queen Mab in;

Its situation low but airy,

Was on the borders of a prairie

And fearing he might be benighted,

He hailed the house and then alighted.

The 'Hoosier' met him at the dour,

Their salutations soon were o'er;

He took the stranger's horse aside

And to a sturdy sapling tied,

Then having stripped the saddle off,

He fed him in a sugar trough.

The stranger stooped to enter in,

The entrance closing with a pin.

And manifested a strong desire

To seat himself by the log-heap fire,

Where half a dozen Hoosieroons,

With mush and milk, tin-cups and spoons,

White heads, bar;. feet, and dirty faces,

Seemed much inclined to keep their places.

But madam anxious to display

Her rough and undisputed sway,

Her offspring to the ladder led

And cuffed the youngster up to bed.

Invited shortly, to partake

Of venison, milk and Johnny cake,

The stranger made a hearts meal,

And glances round the room would steal.

One side was lined with divers garments,

The other spread with skins of ' garments;'

Dried pumpkins overhead were strung,

Where venison hams in plenty hung;

Two rifles were placed above the door,

Three dogs lay stretched upon the floor-

In short. the domicile was rife

With specimens of Hoosier life.

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 235

The host, who centered his affections

On game, and range and quarter sections,

Discoursed his weary guest for hours,

Till Somnus' ever potent powers,

Of sublunary cares bereft 'em.

"No matter how the story ended

The application I intended

Is from the famous Scottish poet,

Who seemed to feel as well as know it,

That buirdly chiels and clever hizzies

Are bred in sic a way as this is."'

CHAPTER XXVII.

PIONEER SOCIETY.

CALL FOR A MEETING AT THE COURT HOUSE-ORGANIZATION OF THE SOCIETY-CONSTITUTION-FIRST ELECTION OF OFFICERS- MEETINGS-PIONEER PAPERS-MEMBERSHIP, ETC.

"And while in life's late afternoon,

Where cool and long the shadows grow,

I walk to meet the night that soon

Shall shape and shadow overflow."

-Whittier.

THE following notice appeared in the papers of Newark, of April 20, 1867

"The undersigned citizens of Licking. county are impressed with the importance of preserving accurate and full descriptions of the antiquities and ancient works of our county, many of which have already been partially or wholly obliterated; and they also deem it equally important to collect and preserve all the leading facts and incidents connected with the early settlement of the different sections of Licking county, by neighborhoods and townships. This work, if done at all, must be done largely by the present generation. If not clone, soon important facts in our history will Ix lost and we will have only. the unreliable vagueness of uncertain tradition instead of authenticated truthful history.

"\\'e, therefore, with a view to the accomplishment of these purposes, call upon all our fellow-citizens, of concurrent opinions, to meet with us at the court house on Wednesday evening, 'May 1st, at eight o'clock, then and there to consider and discuss the important matter herein presented.

William Stanberry,

Adam Seymour,

J. N. Wilson,

Isaac Smucker,

William Spencer,

Enoch Wilson,

Daniel Forry,

Joel M. Dennis,

T. J Anderson

Albert Sherwood,

John McMullen,

John Johnson

James Pittsford,

James R. Stanberry.

William Veach

John Cunningham,

Erasmus White,

Henry Smith.

NEWARK, April 20, 1867.

"Pursuant to the foregoing call a meeting of the pioneers was held at the court house, May 1, 1867. Hon. William Stanberry presided, and Isaac Smucker was appointed secretary. On motion, Dr. J. N. Wilson, Colonel William Spencer, and T. J. Anderson, were appointed a committee to prepare a constitution and by-laws for a pioneer, historical and antiquarian society, which the meeting had decided to organize. Said committee, after deliberation, presented a constitution which was adopted by the meeting, and the following officers were elected pursuant to its provisions

"President, Hon. William Stanberry; vice-presidents, Dr. J. N Wilson, Thomas J. Anderson, Daniel Forry; recording secretary, Isaac Smucker; corresponding secretary, Colonel William Spencer; Treasurer, Enoch Wilson.

"The foregoing, as far as they are living, have remained in office during the entire thirteen years of the existence of the society. Rev. P. N. O'Bannon was elected in place of Hon. William Stanberry, deceased, but he also died lately; Captain M. M. Munson has been serving as vice-president since the decease of Dr. Wilson, and Hon. C. B. Griffin has been corresponding secretary since the death of Colonel Spencer.

"The society met again May 13, 186'7, when many persons were appointed to write papers on subjects connected with our early history.

"This meeting was followed by another held in the O'Bannon grove, on the Fourth of July, when papers were read by Revs. C. Springer, and P. N. O'Bannon, and by the secretary.

"The next meetings were held August 27, and October 14, 1867 a number of historical papers were read at each of those meetings, which were held in Newark, and many names added to the list of members.

"Our nest meeting was held in Granville, on New Year's day, 1868, where also a number of papers were read, the principal one being by Captain Munson, giving a history of Granville town and township. The meetings that succeeded this during 1868, were held April 7th, May 20th July 4th, and October 15th. Historical papers were read at all of them.

"The meetings of 1869 were held on the seventh of April (when the history of our Welsh settlements was read); on the nineteenth of May, and on the fourth of July.

"There were but two meetings held in 1870-the first, May 18th, and the last, July 4th, which was the great pioneer camp meeting at Pataskala, where were present about three .thousand persons. Pioneer papers were read at both the foregoing meetings.

"Two meetings were held in 1871-the first, May 15th, at Alexandria, and the other, July 4th, at Utica. Pioneer papers

236 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

were read at both meetings. The local history of the county hating been so nearly completed by this time, it ryas found to be unnecessary to hold more than one meeting a year, which has been annually held on the fourth of July, since 1871, at all of which historical papers have been read. Down to the present time there have been written and published one hundred and fifteen pioneer papers and local historical sketches; also ten pamphlets, which combined, embrace all the incidents, facts and events connected with the local history, both early and late, that were deemed worth recording. They cover the entire historic period of the Licking valley, from 1751, when Christopher Gist and his associate, Montour, passed through it, as explorers, to the present day, not omitting descriptions of the elaborate works of the Mound Builders, and the Indian villages that existed here previous and subsequent to the settlement on the Bowling Green, of the Hughes and Ratliff colony, in 1798.

"Of the foregoing papers, one hundred and fifteen ht number, judge Scott, Judge Brumback, Rev. W. Bower, Mrs. Stadden, Rev. Mrs. Springer, Rev. S. P. Hildreth, D. D. Woods, Jacob Winter, William Knowles, Jacob F. Corvine, Governor Greiner, Dr. J. H. Coulter, Captain E. Z.. Clark, Colonel John Noble, Rev. Israel Thrap, Captain M. M. Munson, J. G. Brooke, Major Pratt, John White and M. L. Wilson, each prepared one; Captain Joseph M. Scott and Revel Everett, each wrote two; Rev. H. M. Hervey, Dr. J. N. Wilson and B. C. Woodward, each prepared three; Rev. T. W. Howe, General Rufus Putnam and A. B. Clark, each furnished four; William Wing and C. B. Griffin, each wrote five; Rev. C. Springer, our lately deceased chaplain, prepared and read seven, and the remainder were written by the secretary, Hon. Isaac Smucker. Of the pamphlets, Rev. H. M. Hervey furnished No. one; Jacob Winter wrote No. four; Samuel Park prepared Nos. five and six; Captain Joseph M. Scott is the author of No. eight; and Hon. Isaac Smucker is responsible for Nos. two, three, seven, nine and ten.

"The Licking County Pioneer, Historical and .antiquarian society has two hundred and eleven names on its list of members proper, of which eighty have deceased, leaving a membership of one hundred and thirty. The Antiquarian members have numbered forty-seven, of whom nine have died, leaving thirty-eight as the present number. The number of corresponding members on the list is one hundred and seventy-one, of whom twelve are dead, leaving the number, at present, one hundred and fifty-nine. The list of honorary members consists of ninety persons, of whom only seventy-eight are living.

"A recapitulation of memberships shows the following result at present:

Pioneer members proper .........................................130

Antiquarian members .............................................. 38

Corresponding members .........................................159

Honorary members .................................................. 68

Whole number of members now ............................. 395

"The library of the society consists of more than five hundred bound volumes and pamphlets, many of them valuable. It also possesses a large variety of relics and curiosities and numerous ancient manuscripts and coins; and the collection of Indian and Mound Builders' ornaments and implements is by no means inconsiderable. Mention might also be made of the numerous specimens of Continental and Confederate paper money and other issues of paper, intended to circulate as money. owned by the society. .The society has been, and continues to be from month to month, reasonably successful in accomplishing the object and purposes for which it was organized thirteen years ago.

"It is a matter worthy of congratulation that the commissioners have regarded the society as so much of a county organization as to dedicate to its use an admirable room on the lower floor of the court house. For that act of thoughtful consideration and kindness they have entitled themselves to the grateful regard of all the members of the society. It is certainly no small accommodation to be furnished with a room having ample facilities for the display and safekeeping of the library and collections, and of dimensions adequate to the demands of all business meetings it may be found necessary to hold. The considerate kindness of the commissioners puts the society in a position to appeal to the public with confidence for generous additions, from time to time, to the library and numismatic departments, as well as to the cabinet of fossils, relics, curiosities. geological specimens, petrifactions, and ancient manuscripts."

Mr. P. N. O'Bannon, for many years president of the society, died September 13, 1880, aged nearly seventy-four years. Mr. Isaac Smucker has been the secretary of the society since its organization. To his indefatigable labors is the accuracy of the society's reports due. In fact, no man in Ohio has done so much for the history of his own county and its preservation.

PAGE 237 - BLANK

PAGE 238 - PICTURE OF JOHNNY APPLESEED

HISTORY LICKING COUNTY - 239

CHAPTER XXVIII.

JOHNNY APPLESEED.

" Give fools their gold, and knaves their power;

Let fortune's bubbles rise and fall;

Who sows a field, or trains a flower,

Or plants a tree, is more than all. "--Whittier.

A HISTORY of Ohio and especially of Licking county, would be incomplete without some I account of this very eccentric individual, known as Johnny Appleseed, from the fact that he was the pioneer nursery than of Ohio.

Johnny Appleseed deserves a place in history among the heroes and martyrs, for he was both in his peculiar calling. His whole life was devoted to what he considered the public good, without regard to personal feeling, or hope of pecuniary reward. \ of once in a century is such a life of self-sacrifice for the good of others known. There has been but one Johnny Appleseed; it is hardly possible there will ever be another.

He was born, according to one or two authorities, in Massachusetts, about the year 1775: was first heard of in Ohio about the year 1801, and was known to have traversed Licking county soon then after, The date of his birth is shrouded in uncertainty. Mr. C. S. Coffinberry writes the following regarding this matter: "He was born in the State of Massachusetts, but at what period the writer never knew. As early as 1780, he was seen in the autumn, for two or three successive years, along the banks of the Potomac river, in eastern Virginia." If this be true, he must have been born some years before 1775. Why he left his native State and devoted his life to the planting of .apple-seeds in the west, is known only to himself. He may have been insane; he was generally so considered to a certain degree. He was certainly eccentric, as many people are who are not considered insane; it is hard to trace eccentricity to the point where insanity begins. He was certainly smart enough to keep his own counsel. Without doubt his was a ,very affectionate nature; every act of his life -reveals this most prominent characteristic. From this fact alone writers have reasoned, and with good ground, that. he was crossed in love in his native State, and thus they account for his eccentricity. . This is only supposition, however, as he was very reticent on the subject of his early life. He was conscientious in every act and thought, and a man of deep religious convictions. He was a rigid Swedenborgian, and maintained the doctrine that spiritual intercourse, could be held with departed spirits; indeed, was in frequent intercourse himself with two of these spirits of the female gender, who consoled him with the news that they were to be his wives in the future state, should he keep himself from all entangling alliances in this. So kind and simple was his heart that he was equally welcome with the Indians or pioneers, and even the wild animals of the woods seemed to have an understanding with Johnny and never molested him. He has been variously described, but all agree that he was rather below the medium height, wiry, quick in action and conversation, nervous and restless in his motions; eyes dark and sparkling; hair and beard generally long,, but occasionally cut short; dress scanty, and generally ragged and patched; generally barefooted and bareheaded, occasionally, however, wearing some old shoes, sandals or moccasins in very cold weather, and an old hat some one had cast off. It is said he was seen sometimes with a tin pan on his head, that served the double purpose of hat and mush-pot, at other times with a cap made by himself of paste-board, with a very broad visor to protect his eyes from the sun.

His diet was very simple, consisting of milk, when. he could get it, of which he was very fond; potatoes and other vegetables, fruits, and meats; but no veal, as he said this should be a land flow-

240 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

ing with milk and honey, and the calves should be spared. He would not touch tea, coffee or tobacco, as he felt that these were luxuries in which it was wicked and injurious to indulge. He was averse to taking the life of any animal or insect, and never indulged in hunting with a gun.

He thought himself "a messenger, sent into the wilderness to prepare the way for the people, as John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way for the coming of the Saviour." He gathered his apple seeds, little by little, from the cider presses of western Pennsylvania and putting them carefully in leather bags, he transported them, sometimes on his back, and sometimes on the back of a broken down horse or mule, to the Ohio river, where he usually secured a boat and brought. them to the mouth of the Muskingum, and up that river, planting them in wild, secluded spots all along its numerous tributaries. Later in life, he continued his operations further west. When his trees were ready for sale, he left them in charge of some one to sell for him. The price was low-"a fippenny-bit" apiece, rarely paid in money, and if people were too poor to purchase, the trees were given them. One of his nurseries was located on the farm of the late judge Wilson, in Mary Ann township. His residence in this vicinity covered the period of the war of 1812, and several years following it. He would occasionally make trips further west, and return again after an absence of two or three months. On these excursions he probably visited his sister, Persis Broom, who lived in Indiana.

Mr. C. S. Coffinberry, an early settler of Mansfield, Ohio, who was personally acquainted with him, writes thus: "Although I was but a mere child, I can remember as if it were but yesterday,, the warning cry of Johnny Appleseed, as he stood before my father's log cabin door on that night-the cabin stood where now stands the old North American in the city of Mansfield. I remember the precise language, the clear, loud voice, the deliberate exclamations, and the fearful thrill it awoke in my bosom. `Fly'. fly! for your lives! the Indians are murdering and scalping the Zimmers and Copuses.' These were his words. My father sprang to the door, but the messenger was gone, and midnight silence reigned without.

* * * Jonathan Chapman was a regularly constituted minister of the church of the New Jerusalem, according to the revelations of Emanuel Swedenborg. He was also a constituted missionary of that faith under the authority of the regular association in the city of Boston. The writer has seen and examined his credentials as to the latter of these." He always carried in his pockets books and tracts relating to his religion, and took great delight in reading them to others and scattering them about. When he did not have enough with him to go around, he would take the books apart and distribute them in pieces.

It does not appear that he operated as largely in this county as in those further north, and especially those immediately bordering on the Muskingum. In Knox, Ashland and Richland counties he was well known, and many old settlers yet remember him. He had nurseries near Mt. Vernon, and several in Richland county. He often visited Hon. William Stanberry, and always manifested his eccentricities by sleeping out on the porch. Being once interrogated as to his views about "hell," he replied that he thought it resembled Newark, except that it was on a larger scale. Mrs. Stadden, who knew him well, did not think much of him; however this might be, he did a great deal of good.

Besides the cultivation of apple-trees, he was extensively engaged in scattering the seeds of many wild vegetables, which he supposed possessed medicinal qualities, such as dog-fennel, penny-royal, mayapple, hoarhound, catnip, wintergreen, etc. His object was to equalize the distribution, so that every locality would have a variety. His operations in Indiana began about 1836, and were continued for ten years, In the spring of 1847, being within fifteen miles of one of his nurseries on the St. Joseph river, word was brought to him that cattle had broken into this nursery and were destroying his trees, and he started immediately for the place. When he arrived he was very much fatigued; being quite advanced in years, the journey, performed without intermission, exhausted his strength. He lay down that night never to rise again. A fever settled upon him, and, in a day or two after taking sick, he passed away. "We buried him," says Mr. Worth, "in David Archer's graveyard, two and a half miles north of Fort Wayne."

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY - 241

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE WELSH HILLS SETTLEMENTS.

THOMAS PHILLIPS A\D SONS-THEOPHILUS REES-OTHER EARLY WELSH EMIGRANTS-THEIR SETTLEMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA-THEIR PURCHASE OF LAND IN GRANVILLE TOWNSHIP-THEIR APPEARANCE JN THE WELSH HILLS-"JIMMY JOHNSON." THE LEWISES AND OTHERS-THE ADDITIONS TO THEIR NUMBERS- SAMUEL WHITE, SR. JONATHAN WHITE-SAMUEL WHITE, JR.-DR. THOMAS AND SONS- A FEW OF THE SETTLERS SUBSEQUENT TO 1810-THE BOUNDARIES OF THE WELSH SETTLEMENTS-ITS TOPOGRAPHY HARDSHIPS AND ADVENTURES OF THE EMIGRANTS-GRADUAL INTRODUCTION OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE-THEIR RELIGION-THEIR PATRIOTISM AND OBEDIENCE TO LAW AND ORDER-THEIR HONESTY A\D ADHERENCE TO THE PRINCIPLES OF JUSTICE-GRADUAL AMERICANIZATION.

"Lives of good men all remind us

We may make our lives sublime;

And departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time."

IN 1787 John H. Phillips and his two younger brothers, Thomas and Erasmus, sons of Thomas Phillips, a Welshman of large fortune. were students at a college in Wales. John H. was the reputed author of some seditious or treasonable literature, and, to avoid arrest and punishment, he decided to emigrate to America. Accordingly he sailed for Philadelphia, accompanied by his brothers, who were more or less implicated with him, ar riving in the above named year. They soon went to live in a Welsh settlement in Chester county, in the vicinity of Philadelphia. Here they met with Chaplain Jones, a Welsh minister, a sketch of whose life appears elsewhere. General Anthony Wayne was also a resident of Chester county, arid when he organized the expedition against the Indians in the Northwest territory, in 1792, through the influence of Chaplain Jones he appointed John H. Phillips a member of his staff.

These sons of Thomas Phillips succeeded, after much persuasion, in obtaining the consent of their father, who was a man of wealth, to close his business affairs and follow them to America.

Mr. Theophilus Rees, a neighbor and friend of Thomas Phillips, both residents of Carmarthenshire, in South Wales, who likewise was a man of liberal means, after a full consideration of the subject, also decided to try his fortune in the New World, and forthwith proceeded to make arrangements to that end.

They accordingly closed up their business, and, when that was accomplished, they bade adieu to their native hills in "Wild Walia," and sailed in the ship Amphion, Captain Williams, April 1, 1795 (or, as some accounts have it, 1796), for the United States, where they arrived after a passage of nine weeks.

Many of their old Welsh neighbors, by arrangement. through the kind generosity of Messrs. Rees and Phillips, came as emigrants in the same ship with them, though many of them were unable to pay their passage, but agreeing to do so upon earning money enough after their arrival here.

In October after their arrival, most of this colony removed to Big Valley, in Chester county, Pennsylvania, where there was a Welsh settlement. Messrs. Rees arid Phillips resided some time in or near Philadelphia; but both removed to the Welsh settlement in Chester county, Pennsylvania. Here, however, they did not remain long, but soon, probably in 1797, together with others who had crossed the Atlantic with them, removed to Bulah, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, where they formed a portion of a considerable Welsh settlement. In this community Mr. Phillips' son, Thomas, who came over in 1787, died in 1801. The other son, Erasmus, died in Philadelphia some years later.

In 1801, or earlier, when all this county constituted Licking township, Fairfield county, Thomas Phillips and Theopbilus Rees purchased two thous-

242 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

and acres of land situated in what is now the northeast quarter of Granville township. It bordered on the McKean township line and extended almost to Newark township. They purchased this land of Mr. Sampson Davis, a Welshman of Philadelphia, who was then an extensive dealer in western lands. The purchase was made upon condition that the land proved as represented, the purchasers not having seen it. Chaplain Jones, Morgan Rees, and Simon James were selected to view the land. They accepted the commission, discharged the duty assigned them, and, upon their report, the contract was ratified. Mr. Rees and ! his son-in-law, David Lewis, visited this purchase in 1801.

In 1801 David Lewis and David Thomas, left Bulah, Pennsylvania, to settle on the Welsh Hills. On arriving at Marietta they found stonemasons' work and remained until the spring of 1802; when they came up the Muskingum and during said year built cabins on the Welsh Hills. In the same year Mr. Theophilus Rees with his family, and ' Simon James without his family, left their homes in Bulah, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, for the purpose of permanently occupying and improving the Welsh Hills purchase.

Mr. James was to build a cabin on the Phillips tract, clear some land, then return to Cambria, which he did. He, however, removed, with his family, to the Welsh Hills settlement in 1804.

Upon the arrival of this colony of emigrants at or near Wheeling, they fell in with a frontiersman, hunter, scout and Indian fighter named Jimmy Johnson, who felt quite willing to be transferred to regions further west, as his bu