HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY. - 223

CHAPTER III.

THE MIAMI AND MAD RIVER VALLEYS-INCENTIVES TO IMMIGRATION - THE COURSE OF EMPIRE - SETTLEMENTS WITHIN THE LIMITS OF LOGAN COUNTY-ORGANIZATION OF CIVIL DIVISIONS-INSTITUTION OF GOVERNMENTAL FUNCTIONS-PUBLIC BUILDINGS-POLITICAL.

To the early colonist, Ohio was the land of promise. The reports of the early explorers who had been sent to spy out the land were such as to stimulate the rapacity of greedy adventurers to the highest pitch. and Ohio became at once the center of attraction, not only to that class, but also to the pioneer settlements of the east. The spirit of land speculation was fostered by the system of royal charters and favoritism, and colonial officials were rapidly acquiring titles to large tracts of the fertile lands of the northwest. George Washington, it is said, owned 50,000 acres in Ohio, and Lord Dunmore, who represented the crown in Virginia, had made arrangements to secure a lame portion of this territory, which were only frustrated by the precipitation of the revolutionary struggle. In all these operations the rights or interests of the Indians were ignored. Might was the measure of the white man's right, and in the face of formal treaties very favorable to the whites, the lands reserved to the natives were shamelessly bought and sold. Titles thus secured were obviously of no value if the integrity of solemn treaties were to be respected, but so generally had the public mind been corrupted by the greed for gain, that this consideration offered no hindrance whatever to this sort of traffic in land titles. It could hardly be expected that a policy so shamelessly pursued and openly avowed would long escape the jealous observation of the Indians; whose very existence was thus threatened. It was not long before any such illusion that may have existed, was cruelly dispelled by the terrible war that was opened all along the frontier. The savages sought to make the Ohio river the boundary of the white settlements, and for years delayed the advance of immigration. The story of this struggle, with all its attending barbarities, is an oft told tale. The line of settlements firmly established along the Ohio from Pittsburg to the Falls began to advance, and with every step slowly but surely pressed back the Indian race to extinction. The main lines of this advance were up the valleys of the Muskingum and Miami. Rivers, forcing the savages into the northwestern corner of the State, where on the headwaters of the Miamis, the Maumee and the Scioto they made their last desperate struggle for their " altars and their fires." In this dernier ressort the Shawanoes, the head and front of the Indian opposition, dwelt on the Mad rivet and in the adjacent valley of the Miami. Against the villages of this nation were projected most of the expeditions that made up the military operations of the whites for some forty years. Through these expeditions, made up principally of volunteers from the frontier settlements of Virginia and Kentucky, the knowledge of these valleys, abounding in magnificent situations and teeming with prodigal abundance, became wide-spread, and gave rise to a flood of immigration that was only held in check by the savage vigilance of the lords of this land. But the "anointed children of education proved too powerful for the

224 - HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

tribes of the ignorant," and in 1795 the Indians signed away their birth-right.

The pacification of the Indians and their settlement upon well-defined reservations at once removed the only harrier to the tide of immigration that was pressing up the valleys toward this Indian paradise. Seventeen days after the treaty of Wayne, arrangements were made for two settlements on the Mad river, and before the close of the following year there were the requisite 5,000 inhabitants in the "Northwest," which entitled it to representation in the National Congress.

In 1802 the people under the enabling of Congress took necessary steps for organizing a State Government, and on February 19, 1803,* the State of Ohio was admitted into the Union. The counties formed at the birth of the State, and recognized in the Constitution, were Washington, Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson, Ross, Clermont, Fairfield, Trumbull and Belmont. This was Ohio in the early part of 1803. One of the first acts of the first Legislature, however, was the erection of seven new counties-Gallia, Scioto, Geauga, Butler,

* There has been considerable discrepancy in the dates assigned by different writers, as the one on which Ohio was admitted to the Union. Seven early publications give seven different dates, varying from April 28, 1802, to March 2, 1803. In the annual report of the Secretary of State for 1879, President I. W. Andrews, of Marietta College, very satisfactorily points out the errors in these dates, and settles the question in favor of the date in the teat. After disposing of ell but two dates, the article continues as follows:

"The question of date of admission in the case of Ohio is between November 29, 1802, and February 19, 1803. The first is the day of adjournment of the Convention that formed the Constitution, and the second is the day when was passed the first act of Congress in any way recognizing the State. In the case of every other State, Congress has either passed a distinct and definite act of admission, dating from the day of enactment or from a future day named, or has provided for an admission on the issue of a proclamation by the President. Ohio, then, forms a case by itself, belonging to neither of these classes. "After discussing the proposition thus laid down, he concludes as follows: "In view of all the facts, we seem shut. up to the conclusion that the State of Ohio was not admitted into the Union on the 29th day of November, 1802, when the Constitution was formed, but on the 19th of February, 1803, when Ohio was first recognized as e State by Congress. It is proper to state, also, that a few months since I made inquiry at the State Department, at Washington, and received the following memorandum: 'Enabling act of Congress for formation of the State of Ohio, was approved April 30,1802. See Statutes at Large; Vol. 2, p. 43. An act to provide for the due execution of the laws of the United States, within the State of Ohio, was approved February 19, 1803. $y this act Ohio was admitted to the Union. Statutes at Large, Vol. 2, p. 201.' We may infer, then, that the Department of State of the General Government recognizes the 19th of February, 1803, as the date of the admission of Ohio into the Union."

Warren, Green and Montgomery. The growth of the State during this period was very rapid, and two years later Champaign County was formed, including the territory now embraced by Clark, Logan and the present county of Champaign. In this year Urbana was laid out, and began to grow rap idly in importance. The "Mad River country" attracted the deepest interest everywhere. Those already on the ground wrote to their friends representing the valley as a "land flowing with milk and honey," and it was facetiously declared that "roasted pigs were running at large, with knives and forks stuck in their backs, squealing out ` come and eat."' It was hardly necessary to stimulate immigration with such stories, where the spirit of emigration seemed to have been born in the pioneers of Kentucky and Virginia. The result was a general "exodus" to this new land of plenty, that threatened to depopulate some of the older settlements. From one settlement in Trumbull County, not less than thirty families sacrificed their improvements and came to this section. This influx

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of immigration did much for the lower part of the Mad River valley, but the breaking out of hostilities among the Indians prevented its reaching the country now included in the limits of Logan county, and it was not until the general pacification at the end of the war of 1812, drat this county felt the influence of this tide of civilization.

Preceding this , influx of permanent settlement, however, was a class of pioneers which is found only :where the Indian erected his wigwam, and for the last time and made his last struggle for his lands. This class was the connecting link between the supremacy of the Indians and permanent settlement of the white-the adopted white children of the In dian tribes. Of these none gained such infamous notoriety as drat "hateful brood,'' McKee, Elliot and the Gertys. To the vindictive, remorseless butchery of the untutored savage, they brought a fiendish malignity, a cowardly, brutal insolence, that " out-Herods Herod," and only comes when the last drop of the milk of human kindness turns to gall. Logan county was, unfortunately, too often the scene of their operations. Alexander McKee was, perhaps, the least offensive and the least known of the three. He was early identified with the British interests, and had served as an agent for the authorities at Detroit among the Indians. Coming into the Lands of the Americans, he had been permitted to go at lame upon parole. Early in 1778, he escaped from the lines at Fort Pitt, and in company with a number of deserters made his way to Detroit, where he was again given service in connection with the Indians. Being of a thrifty turn of mind, he united with his character of "agent" the business of trader, and for some time about two miles out of the Indian town Wapatomica, in the southern part of the county. He was quite influential with the Shawanoes, attended their councils, and exhibited the most malignant hatred toward the colonial captives that were brought within the sphere of his influence. He wore the gold-laced uniform of the British service, and lost no opportunity to thwart any movement among the Indians for peace, in the interest of his employers. He was present at the different important battles between the Indians and the forces sent against them by the colonies, but always at a convenient distance from danger.

Matthew Elliot was an Irishman. "At the commencement of the Revolution he lived in Path Valley, Pennsylvania. A number of tories resided in his township, among whom Elliot was a leader. But, as hostilities increased, the place became too warm for him, as a large portion of the population was Whigs. Elliot fled to the West, where he was well known as an Indian trader. On the 12th of November, 1776, he made his appearance in one of the missionary establishments of the Moravians, upon the Muskingum, with a number of horse-loads of merchandise, a female Indian companion, and a hired man, on his way to the Shawanoese towns upon the Scioto. Elliot left the next day, but was followed by a party of six warriors from Sandusky, and made prisoner, his goods being distributed among the Indians. He would have been murdered but for the interposition of some Christian Indians who had followed the warriors, purposely to intercede for him.

"Elliot was taken to Detroit, where he soon succeeded in convincing the commandant out of his Tory proclivities, who gave him a commission as captain, and sent him back to Pittsburg as a spy. He remained some time, and finally in company with McKee and a number of deserters, fled to the Indian country, and as an officer of the Indian Department, at Detroit, he served during the Revolution, vibrating between that post and the country of the Ohio Indians, as his service seemed to be needed. In 1782, he was in full

228 - HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

command of the allied Indians, assembled to resist the march of Crawford's expedition, and it is said on good authority, was present at the burning of that gallant soldier.

"At the close of the war, we find him at Detroit; and on the 9th of November, 1785, Hamilton, who was that year governor of Canada, issued an order that no one should disturb him in possession of a lot near the dockyard by the water side, without producing titles. When the Indian war of the Northwest was renewed in 1790. Elliot, who was married to a squaw, took sides with the savages. He was present at St. Clair's defeat, but kept himself at a respectable distance from danger. He was owner at this tune, in conjunction with McKee, of a considerable tract of land cleared ready for cultivation, on which were several houses on the east, or Canada side, of the Detroit river, just above its mouth.

"He took part in the last war with Great Britain on the side of the English, holding a Colonel's commission. He was then an old man, and his hair was very white He had much of the savage look, notwithstanding his age. He probably died soon after in Canada, holding at the time the position of agent of Indian affairs by appointment from the British government. Elliot was an uncle, by his father's side, to Commodore Elliot, of the United States navy, and had a son killed on the Maumee, in the war of 1812."* Of the Girty brothers, there is no lack of record upon the pages of the history of the pioneer times in Ohio. The foremost of these in all villainy, Simon, was born in northwestern Pennsylvania. His father was an Irishman, and a beastly, intemperate man. "His sottishness (the quotation is from the same authority cited above) turned his wife's affections. Ready for seduction, she yielded her heart to a neighboring rustic, who, to remove all

• Butterfield's "Crawford's Campaign."

obstacles to their wishes, knocked Girty on the bead, and bore off the trophy of his prowess. There were four children at the time of the father's death-Thomas, Simon, George and James. During the Old French War, the three latter were taken prisoners by the Indians. Simon was adopted by the Senecas, and became an expert hunter. His Indian name was Katepacomen. It must be passed to his credit that his early training as a. savage was compulsory, not voluntary, as has generally been supposed. His tribe roamed the wilderness northwest of the Ohio; and when the expedition under Colonel Bouquet, at the close of Pontiac's war in 1764, marched into the western wilderness to punish the Ohio Indians, one of the hostages delivered to that commander by the latter was Girty. He escaped, however, soon after, and returned to savage life. But as one of the conditions of peace was the yielding up by the Senecas of all captives willing or unwilling, Girty was compelled to return to the settlements, making his home in the vicinity of Pittsburg.

"Girty took Dart in Dunmore's war in 1774, on the side of Virginia, during which time he was the bosom friend and companion of Simon Kenton. He was intimately acquainted with Col. Crawford. On the 22nd of February, 1775, he was commissioned an officer of the militia at Pittsburg, taking the test and other necessary oaths upon that occasion. He aspired to a captaincy' in the regular army, but in this was disappointed, which, it. seems, was the reason of his deserting to the enemy, early in the year 1778. It is probable, however, that his early education among the Senecas had much to do with his desire and resolution again to return to the wilderness.

"The greatest consternation was produced at Pittsburg when the event became known, as with him went a squad of twelve soldiers and the notorious Elliot and McKee. The now

HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY. - 229

assured hostility of this ignoble trio of desperadoes to the Government of the United States. Girty, Elliot, and McKee-made at this time a dark outlook from the border across the Ohio. Their evil designs might be calculated on with certainty. After attempting to seduce the friendly Delawares from their allegiance to the Americans, Girty started for Detroit. On his way thither he was captured by the Wyandots. Recognized, however, by some Senecas, the latter demanded him as their prisoner. He soon succeeded in convincing his captors of his loyalty to the king and his cause, and was thereupon set at liberty.

"Arriving at Detroit, Girty was welcomed by Hamilton, the commandant of the post, very cordially, and immediately employed in the Indian department, at sixteen Fork shillings a day, and sent back to the Sandusky to assist the savages in their warfare upon the border. He took up his residence; with the Wyandots. His influence soon began to be felt in the Indian confederacy sometimes with the Shawanoes, and again with the Wyandots, on their murderous forays into the border settlements, with whom he was always a leader. His name because a household terror all along the border from Pittsburg to the Falls of the Ohio. With it was associated everything cruel and fiendish. To the wornen and children in particular, nothing was more terrifying than the name of Simon Girty. Although he called himself " Capt. Girty," yet whether he ever received a commission from the British Government, as did his associate, Elliot, is a mooted question.

"Girty now began his wild career against the border settlements. His headquarters were at Sandusky, where he exercised great influence over the Half King, head chief of the Wyandots. He was frequently at Detroit; and DePeyster, the commandant, who had succeeded Hamilton, found him ready for any undertaking, either against the Americans or the missionaries (Moravians) and their converts upon the Muskingum, as his hostility to the latter scented as unbounded as to the former. His career throes bout the revolution is chiefly known by his cruel visitations of the frontier, and his bitter persecution of the Moravian missionaries and their Indian charges. For some years after the close of this war he remained in the Indian country trading, and was prompt with his baleful influence in inciting the Indians to renewed hostility in 1790. In the resistance to Harmer of that year, to St. Clair, in 1791, and to Wayne, in 1794, Girty was prominent omens the Indians with his power unimpaired. After St. Clair's defeat, a grand council was held at the confluence of the Maumee and the Anglaize, by nearly all the Northwestern tribes, to take into consideration the situation of affairs. Simon Girty was the only white man permitted to he present. His voice was for a continuance of the war. Another conference was held in 1793, and it was determined, mainly through the exertions of Girty, to continue hostilities.

"After the treaty at Greenville in 1795, Girty removed to Canada, where he settled on a farm just below Malden, on the Detroit river. He married in 'the neighborhood and raised a family. In vain he tried to become a decent citizen, and command some decree of respect. The depravity of his untamed and undisciplined mature was too apparent. He was abhorred by all his neighbors. In the war of 1812, Girty, being then nearly blind, was incapable of active service: After the capture of the British fleet on Lake Erie, in 1813, and upon the invasion of Canada immediately after, he followed the British army ore their retreat, leaving his family at home. He fixed his residence at a Mohawk village on Grand River, Canada, until the proclamation of peace, when he returned to his farm below Malden, where he died in 1818, aged over

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seventy years. The last time I saw Girty, writes William Walker, was in the summer of 1813. From my recollection of his person, he was in height five feet six or seven inches; broad across the chest; strong, round, com pact limbs, and of fair complexion. Spencer, a prisoner among the Indians, who saw Girty before he left the Indian country, was not favorably impressed with his visage. His dark, shaggy hair; his low forehead; his brows contracted, and meeting above his short, flat nose; his gray, sunken eyes, averting the ingenuous gaze; his lips thin and compressed, and the dark and sinister expression of his countenance, to me seemed the very picture of a villain.

"No other country or age ever produced, perhaps, so brutal, depraved, and wicked a wretch as Simon Girty. He was sagacious and brave, but his sagacity and bravery only made him a greater monster of cruelty. All of the vices of civilization seemed to center in him, and by him were ingrafted upon those of the savage state, without the usual redeeming qualities of either. He moved about Through the Indian country during the war of the Revolution and the Indian war which followed, a dark whirlwind of fury, desperation and barbarity. In the refinements of torture inflicted on helpless prisoners, and in treachery, he stood unrivaled." But one recorded fact stands out in strange contrast with his consistent record of villainy. That occurred soon after his desertion to the Indian country, and was in connection with Simon Kenton. The latter lived many years, on what is called the Old Sandusky Road, about four miles north of Zanesfield. Here he owned a farm where be died, April 29, 1836, at the age of eighty one years. His remains, after lying here some years, were removed by a deputation of citizens from Urbana, and buried in the cemetery of that place.

Simon Kenton was a native of Culpepper County, Virginia, and in 1771, having seriously injured a man in an altercation, fled to Kentucky, making his home at the frontier stations of Boone and Logan. He was then only sixteen years of age, of an active nature, fearing no danger, and of such mental powers as in maturer years to command the confidence and respect of the wisest and ablest of his time. For such a character the " troublous times" on the border afforded abundant opportunities for the full display of his genius, and he was prominent in all the border warfare from that time to the general pacification in 1795. His first intimate acquaintance with what is now Logan County, however, was made under rather unpleasant circumstances, which, while only one instance in a long experience of thrilling adventure, is especially. appropriate to this chapter on Logan County.

It was about the 1st of September, 1778, that in company with Alexander Montgomery and George Clark, Kenton set out from Boone's station for the purpose of obtaining horses from the hostile Ohio Indians. Their object was to cautiously approach the Indian village of Chillicothe, situated in what is now Ross County, and, picking up a number of the ponies, hurry them off into Kentucky.

Their plans succeeded well so far as to reach the vicinity of the town undiscovered, and in finding a fine drove of horses grazing in the prairies. After considerable difficulty they succeeded in securing seven animals, and set off on their return with great speed. On reaching the Ohio river at a point in Brown County, they found that river lashed into a fury by a wind that almost blew a hurricane. The dashing waves, though proving no terror to the intrepid scouts, so frightened the horses that all efforts to get them across failed, and they were obliged to hobble them and wait for the wind to subside. It was not until the following day that matters so mended as to warrant another attempt, but the

HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY. - 231

horses retained such a vivid remembrance of the fright of the day before that they could not be induced to enter the water. Certain that they were pursued by the savages, they abandoned the attempt to cross, and each selecting one of the best ponies in the collection, mounted. and started for the Falls of the Ohio, where there were a few men stationed. \o sooner had the rest of the horses been loosed and permitted to stray away at some distance than their greed for gain got the better of their judgment, and they separated to hunt them up again, to take them on their proposed route. Kenton went towards the river, and soon heard a whoop from where they had made the attempt to force the horses in the river. Dismounting and proceeding cautiously to reconnoiter the ground in the direction of the signal, he gained an eminence just in time to meet a party of warriors so near at hand that further concealment was impossible. He at once conceived a desperate plan, and, deliberately taking aim, fired at the foremost Indian. His gun flashed in the pan. He at once attempted to escape, retreating through a piece of fallen timber which gave him some advantage over his mounted enemies, but their numbers allowed them to surround the spot, and on Kenton's emerging into the open timber he was met by a savage who at once rushed upon him with uplifted tomakawk. Engaged with his assailant in front, Kenton did not hear the approach of the enemy in his rear, and just as he had clubbed his gun for a fearful blow at the savage before him, he was seized from behind and overpowered by numbers. He was soon a captive in fetters. Montgomery was soon slain, and his scalp shaken in the face of his captured companion. Clark escaped in safety to Logan's station.

The Indian, were delighted at the summary vengeance that they had been able to inflict upon the marauders, and set about returning with their captive with the wildest manifestations of fiendish joy. Kenton was tied, Mazeppa-like, to one of the wildest of their horses, his hands being covered with moccasins to prevent his shielding his face from the brush. The horse, being set free, behaved in the wildest manner for a time, kicking, rearing and plunging, until wearied out with his futile efforts, he followed the cavalcade as peace ably as his rider. At Chillicothe he was made to run the gauntlet. Having learned that if he could break through the lines and reach the Council House he would not be forced to repeat the trial, he made the effort, and was so far successful as to reach the vicinity of his goal, when he was captured by Indians in the village, and severely treated by the savage crowd that had been cheated of their share in the regularly planned amusement. After recovering from his wounds sufficiently to eat. food was brought to him, after which he was taken to the Council House, where his fate was quickly decided by a large majority voting for his death. "After a long debate, the vote was taken, when it was resolved that the place of his execution should be Wapatomica (now Zanesfield, Logan County). The nest day he was hurried away to the place destined for his execution. From Chillicothe to Wapatomica they had to pass through two other Indian towns, Pickaway and Mackachack. At both towns he was compelled to run the gauntlet, and severely j was he whipped through the course. Nothing worse than death could follow, and here he made a bold push for life and freedom. Being unconfined, he broke and ran, and soon cleared himself out of sight of pursuers. After thus distancing his pursuers, and leaving the town some two miles behind, he accidentally fell in with some mounted Indians, who gave chase and drove him back to town:" * This occurred at Mackachack, and shortly }love's Historical Collections of Ohio.

232 - HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

afterward he was removed to his final destination. At Wapatomica the Indians, young and old, crowded around the prisoner, viewing him with a good deal of curious interest, as his fame was not unknown among the natives. Among others who came to see him was Simon Girty. Kenton, blacked according to the custom of Indians in case of one condemned to death, was not readily recognized, and it was not until, at the end of a series of questions, he gave Girty his name as Simon Butler-a name he had forsaken when he fled from Virginia. Girty, who, it will 1 be remembered, was a companion and friend of Kenton during the Dunmore war, was greatly overcome by the situation in which he found his friend, and threw himself into Kenton's arms, weeping aloud. At a council that was immediately convened at the request of Girty, the renegade made a powerful speech in behalf of his friend, and succeeded in securing a remission of the death sentence, and receiving his friend into his own care and custody. Girty's friendship was by no means halfhearted. Taking Kenton to the British trading-post at the village, he provided him with a complete suit of clothes and a horse and saddle. Kenton was now free, riding with his benefactor from one Indian town to another, and it is probable, had this treatment continued, he might have cast in his lot permanently with the savages. It was not long, however, when a gloomy change came over his prospects. A party of savages, returning from an unsuccessful foray, haying suffered the loss of several of their number, demanded the sacrifice of Kenton, and a messenger was accordingly sent to Girty, requiring him to attend a council at Wapatomica, bringing his charge with him. The reception of Kenton by the assembled Indians was ominous. After being seated, the chief of the defeated party addressed the assembly in a vehement speech, stirring his hearers with sentiments of summary vengeance to be taken on the most available object. Girty replied, recounting the risks he had run in their service; the fealty with which he had served their cause; the fact that he had never asked them to spare one of their foes before; the nearness of this friend to him, for whom he felt the tenderness of a parent for a son, and finally pledged himself never to ask for the protection of another American. His appeal, however, proved unavailing, and, after a prolonged debate, Kenton's death was resolved upon by an overwhelming vote of the savages present.

Girty, having enlisted in the service of his friend, did not easily yield to defeat, and as a last resort persuaded the Indians to convey their prisoner to Sandusky, where the tribes assembled in large cumbers to- receive their presents from the British Government, that the assembled tribes might witness the solemn scene of death. To this the Indians assented, and on their way to that point, soon after the party passed through the village where the celebrated Mingo chief, Logan, resided. Here the party were detained a day while Logan dispatched two runners to speak a good word for Kenton. On arriving at Upper Sandusky he was compelled again to run the gauntlet, and brought before a fourth council to be disposed of. As soon as this council was organized, Peter Druyer, a captain in the English service, an interpreter and prominent in the Indian department, and, therefore, a man of great consideration among the savages, asked permission to address the assembly. The adroitness of his address, together with a. seductive offer of a liberal allowance of rum and tobacco, readily won their consent to Kenton's removal to Detroit, where he was confined as prisoner of war.. He afterward escaped, and in about the year 1802 settled in Urbana. He was elected a. Brigadier General of the militia, and in the war of 1812 Lore

HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY. - 233

a conspicuous part under Gen. Harrison. About 1820, he moved into Logan Co., a few years after which, through the exertions of Judge Burnet and Gov. Vance, he received a pension of $20 per month. Col. John McDonald, his biographer, thus describes the man: "Gen. Kenton was of fair complexion, six feet one inch in height. He stood and walked very erect, and in the prime of life weighed about 190 pounds. He never was inclined to .be corpulent, although of sufficient fullness to form a graceful person. He had a soft, tremulous voice, very pleasing to the hearer. He had laughing gray eyes, which appeared to fascinate the beholder. He was pleasant, good humored, and an obliging companion. When excited, or provoked to anger (which was seldom the case), the fiery glance of his eye would almost curdle the blood of those with whom he came in contact. His rage, when aroused, was a tornado. In his dealing, he was perfectly honest; his- confidence in man, and his credulity, were such that the same man might cheat him twenty times; and if he professed friendship, he might cheat him still."

More appropriately belonging to this class - "the connecting link between the supremacy of the Indians and the permanent settlements of the whites "-were Isaac Zane and James McPherson. The former was born about the year 1753, on the south branch of the Potomac, in Virginia, and at the age of nine years was taken prisoner by the Wyandots, and carried to Detroit. He was reared and nurtured in the customs and traditions of his captors until manhood, when he refused to leave them. He married a Wyandot woman, of half French blood, from Canada, and took no part in the war of the revolution. After the treaty of Greenville, he bought a tract of 1,800 acres on the site of Zanesfield, where he lived until his death in 1816. It was here that an important Wyandot village was located, taking its name from him, and later transmitting it to the township. He was related to the Zane family, so prominent in the pioneer history of the eastern frontier of Ohio, and left a large family, whose descendants are now represented in some of the best families in Logan County. The descendants have maintained their kinship to the Wyandot nation until recently, when they sold their rights, under the treaties with that tribe, to the Government for a given sum.

James McPherson, or Squa-la-ka-ke, "the red-faced man," was a native of Carlisle, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. He was taken prisoner by the Indians on the Ohio, at or near the mouth of the Big Miami, in Longry's defeat. He was engaged for some years in the British Indian department, under Elliot and McKee. He married a fellow prisoner, and after the conquest of the Indians, in 1 1795, 95, came into the service of the United States, being placed in charge of the Senecas and Shawanoes on the Lewistown reservation until 1830. He owned large property, given him by the Indians, in what is now Harrison township. . He was very influential during the troubles preceding and during the war of 1812, and had much to do in maintaining a friendly feeling among the reservation Indians toward the American Government. He kept a trading-past, and was probably the first storekeeper in the county. A blockhouse was built near his place early in 1812, where the families of the friendly Indians were gathered for protection.

Another of the adopted children of the savages was Jonathan Alder. He was born in New Jersey, about eight miles from Philadelphia, September 17, 1773. When about the age of eight his parents moved to Wythe County, Virginia. In the succeeding March, 1782, he was captured by a party of Mingoes, and taken to a Mingo village, situated on the north side of the Mad River, within the limits

234 - HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

of what is now Logan County. After running a gauntlet of Indian children, armed with switches-an ordeal he passed with little or no injury-he was adopted into an Indian family. "His Indian mother thoroughly washed him with soap and warm water, with herbs in it, previous to dressing him in the Indian costume, consisting of a calico shirt, breech clout, leggins and moccasins: "* His new-found father was Succohanos, a chief of the Mingoes. After becoming fitted to his strange surroundings, and mastering the language, lie became quite contented. In his narrative he says: "I would have lived very happy if I could have had my health; but for three or four years I was subject to very severe attacks of fever and ague. Their diet went very hard with me for a long time. Their chief living was meat and hominy; but we rarely had bread, and very little salt, which was extremely scarce and dear, as well as milk and butter. Honey and sugar were plentiful, and used a great deal in their cooking, as well as on their food." Alder was dwelling at the Mackachack towns when they were destroyed by Logan in 1786. He was in the attack on Fort Recovery in 1794, and went. with several of the Indian expeditions into Kentucky in quest of horses. Although taking an active part in all the life and activities of the savages, he seems never to have lost his regard for the whites. After the treaty of 1795, Alder gives expression to his feelings in his peculiar situation, when he says in his manuscript: "I could now lie down without fear, and rise up and shake hauls with both the Indian and the white man:' After the peace of Greenville he went out to the "Darby Plains" to live. Here, with the Indian woman he had taken as wife, he commenced to farm like the whites. He kept hogs, cows and horses; sold milk and butter to the Indians, horses and pork to the

• Antrim's History of Logan and Champaign Counties.

whites, and accumulated considerable property. Two of the settlers had kindly taught him to speak English, and becoming dissatisfied with his squaw, he desired to put her aside and get a wife froth the settlers. Here he met a friendly surveyor, who became interested in his history, and made efforts which were successful in discovering his mother and others of his family. He at once prepared to go to see them. His first step was to get rid of his Indian wife. There was some difficulty in satisfying her in the division of the property, but he at length gave her all the cows, fourteen in number, worth $20 each; seven horses, and much other property, reserving to himself only two horses and the swine. Be-sides these, there. was a small box, grout six inches long, four wide and four deep, filled with silver. amounting probably to $200, which he intended to take to make an equal division. But to this she objected, saying the box was hers before marriage, and she would not only have it, but all it contained. Alder says: "I saw I could not get it without making a fuss, and probably having a fight, and told her if she would promise never to trouble nor come back to me, she might have it; to which she agreed"

In marked contrast to the early characters just reviewed, was one who knew no foe, and whose only protection where murder and rapine possessed the land, was the "gospel of peace." This was Johnny Appleseed. The territory now embraced within the limits of Logan County was in the lice of his travels, and the remains of several orchards in the county still exist to " point the moral " of his life. He was frequently in this county about 1809, and planted several nurseries here. Mr. Antrim, in his work, locates one on the farm owned by Alonzo and Allen West in 1872, "on Mill Branch, about six hundred yards west of their residence."* Waller Marshall

* Antrim's History.

HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY. - 235

and Joshua Ballenger are stated by the same writer to possess trees in their orchard from this nursery, that were bearing good fruit. mother orchard or nursery is said to be somewhere on Stony Creek.

But little is known of this strange character. His proper name was Jonathan Chap-man, and he was, it is supposed, a native of New En gland. He was a Swedenborgian in religious faith, and, it seems, became demented on this subject, his eccentricity consisting in a peculiar gentleness toward all living creatures, and the planting of apple-seeds on the frontier far in advance of the white settlements. It was his custom to go into Pennsylvania at the time of making cider, and, carefully gathering a peck or more of appleseeds from the pomace, place them in a bag and start on foot for the western wilds. He was familiar with all the trails, and seemed as welcome with the Indians as with the whites. Whenever, in his wanderings, he found a fit opening, he would plant his seed, sometimes in the villa es of the natives, sometimes in the villages of the whites, but more often in some loamy land along the hank of a stream where an open space gave promise of their growing. These plantings he frequently visited to insure their triumph over the choking influence of grass and underbrush. The traditions of his operations are found from Wayne County in Ohio, to Fort Wayne, Ind., a space of some two hundred miles long, and fifty or sixty miles wide, which formed the principal scene of his labors.

The first reliable trace of this character in the territory of Ohio is in 1801. At that time he canto with a horse-load of apple seed, which he planted in various places along the Licking Creek, the first orchard originated by him being on the farm of Isaac Stauden, in Licking County. He is next heard of on a pleasant day in the spring of 1806. A pioneer settler in Jefferson County, Ohio, noticed a peculiar craft, with a remarkable occupant and a curious cargo slowly dropping down with the current of the Ohio River. With two canoes lashed together, he was transporting a load of apple seeds to the western frontier. With his canoes he passed down the Ohio to Marietta, where he entered the Muskingum, ascending the stream of that river until he reached the mouth of the Walhonding, or White Woman Creek, and still onward, up the Mohican into the Black Fork, to the head of navigation, in the region now known as Ashland and Richland Counties, in Ohio.

He was quite as earnest in the propagation of his religious views as of his apple-trees. Wherever he went, he carried and distributed books relating to his sect's peculiar tenet, and when his stock ran low he would tear a hook in two, giving each part to a different person. His aim was to follow the life of the primitive Christians, taking no thought for the morrow, and leading a moral, blameless life. "His personal appearance was as singular as his character. He was a small, `chunked' man, quick and restless in his motions and conversation. His beard and hair were long and dark, and his eye black and sparkling." This is hardly the picture of him remembered at the present day in Logan" County, but it may be accounted for by the fact that age had probably "dimmed the fire of his eye" before the firing generation knew him. He lived the roughest hind of a life, sleeping a large part of the year in the woods with such accommodations as the bare ground or a hollow log afforded. During the most severe weather of the winter, he usually spent his time in the white settlements, but even then, though barefooted, the rigor of the weather could not restrain him from taking short journeys here and there. In the matter of dress, he carried his eccentricity to the farthest extreme. He exchanged his seedlings for old garments, and donned them without regard to their size or

236 - HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

design, and frequently had nothing but an inverted coffee-sack, through which he thrust his head and arms, for an outer garment. In the matter of head covering, he was especially careless. As times, he wore a cap fashioned from the skin of some animal or cloth, and frequently a cast-off tin can did service in preserving his head from exposure to the elements.

For a time, it is said, Johnny Appleseed wore an old military chapeau, which some officer had given him, and, thus accoutered, he came suddenly upon a Dutchman, who had just moved into the country. The sides were ripped, and the loose ends flopping in the wind, made it seem a thing of evil. Decked with this fantastic head-gear, Johnny came noiselessly upon the pioneer, and, without uttering a word, thrust his face, completely covered with a wilderness of black hair, out of which peered the unnatural light of his dark eves, into the astonished man's presence. The backwoodsman, suddenly confronted by such an apparition, would not have been more disconcerted had he met a painted savage in the act of appropriating his hair, and he never ceased to relate what a scare he got from Johnny, standing with bare feet and "one tam muscle-shell cocked on his head." His tenderness for all of " God's .creatures " was as proverbial, and many incidents in this connection are related. In the "Historical Collections of Ohio " is found the following: " On one cool, autumnal night, while lying by his camp-fire in the woods, he observed that the mosquitoes Sew into the blaze and were burnt. Johnny, who wore on his head a tin utensil, which answered both as cap and mush-pot, filled it with water and quenched the fire, and afterward remarked, ' God forbid that I should build a fire for my comfort, that should be the means of destroying any of His creatures.' Another time, he made his campfire at the end of a hollow log in which he intended to pass the night, but finding it occupied by a bear and her cubs, he removed his fire to the other end, and slept on the snow in the open air rather than to disturb the bear. On one occasion, while on a prairie, a rattlesnake attacked him. Some time after, a friend inquired of him about the matter. He drew a long sigh, and replied, ' Poor fellow! he only just touched me, when I, in an ungodly passion, put the heel of my scythe upon him and went home. Some time after I went there for my scythe, and there lay the poor fellow, dead."'

He was a zealous Christian, and was always to be found where religious services were held, if in the neighborhood. At one time, when be was at Mansfield, an itinerant preacher held an out-door service, and Johnny was enjoying the sermon, lying on his back upon a piece of timber. The minister was describing the Christian's way of trial, on his journey to the better land, and had described the tedious journey of a barefooted man through the wilderness. Pausing in his description of such physical difficulties, he cried out, in an elevated tone, " Where is the barefooted Christian traveling to heaven?'' Throwing his feet high in the air, Johnny responded, " Here he is !" It was not quite what the speaker expected, but the audience, doubtless, recognized the fitness of the response. Speaking of his bare feet, it is related that by constant exposure, and the roughness of his way through the wilderness, his feet became incredibly tough and insensible to cold. It appears to have been almost a matter of principle with him not to wear shoes, as he was seldom without money to dispense in charitable ways. A writer relates that on one occasion, on an unusually cold day in early winter, while traveling along the muddy thoroughfare, his bare feet exposed to the bleak air and colder snow mixed with the "slush," a kindly settler, possessing a pair

HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY. - 237

of shoes too small for his own comfort, gave them to Johnny Appleseed. A few days afterward, the donor met him plodding along as usual, barefooted and half frozen. He at once took him to task for not wearing the shoes presented a short time before, when Johnny confessed that he overtook a poor family moving west; and their need of clothing so moved upon his sympathies, that he gave them the shoes. At another time, he attempted to cross Lake Erie barefooted on the ice in company with another man. N fight overtook them before they had completed the journey, and, in the bitter coldness of the night, his companion froze to death. Johnny, by rolling violently about the ice, kept warm, and in after times appeared none the worse for his trying adventure.

In the early part of the war of 1812, he was very active in Richland and Knox Counties, carrying the news of approaching danger to the whites settled along the river courses in these counties. He did not seem to have any fear of personal violence to himself, and often in the dead of night a settler would arouse his neighbors with the announcement that Johnny Appleseed had brought news of the approach of danger. His word was never doubted, and no further confirmation of the tidings was asked. His form of announcing approaching dangers was dramatic in the extreme, and those who remember his solemn utterances speak of the thrill that they sent through his awe-stricken auditors. His usual announcement was, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and he hath anointed me to blow the trumpet in the wilderness, and sound an alarm in the forest; for, behold, the tribes of the heathen are round about your doors, and a devouring flame followeth after them."

He was faithful to his trusts, and his word was as good as his bond. Norton, in his History of Knox County, relates that, " in 1819, Isaiah Roberts, then on his way to Missouri, finding no boat at Zanesville ready to start on the trip down the river, footed it to Marietta, and on the road met Johnny Appleseed, who promised to call at his father's in Knox County, and tell him when he parted with him, etc. Shortly afterward, Johnny made his appearance one night about dark, and was cheerfully received. He then had on an old tattered coat and slouch hat, with hair and beard uncut and uncombed, and barefooted. After eating some supper, he espied a copy of Ballou on the Atonement, which he took and read for some time by candle light, thinking at first it was good Swedenborg doctrine, and desired to take it with him, but after reading further, and finding the kind of doctrine it inculcated, he threw it down, expressing his disappointment, and, in a few moments after, stretched himself out and went to sleep."

It was his custom, when he had been hospitably received into some cabin after a weary day's journey, to take his favorite position, stretched out on the floor, and after asking his entertainers if they would hear " some news right fresh from heaven," produce a tattered New Testament and read and expound its pages until, carried away with his earnestness, the settlers looked upon him with reverence due a prophet.

About 1830, he left this region and went to the newer portion of the West. "The last time he was in this country," says Norton, " He took Joseph Mahaffey aside, and pointed out to him two lots of land at the lower end of Main street, Mount Vernon, west side, about where Morey's soap factory was carried on, which he said belonged to him, and some time he might come back to them. The tail-race of the Clinton Mill Company passed along there, and some of the ground has since been washed away by the water, and upon another portion stands the Mount Vernon Woolen Factory building." In the same

238 - HISTORY OP LOGAN COUNTY.

work, it is said that the Rev. John Mitchell, when traveling on the. Plymouth circuit in 1837, met Johnny wending his way along the road on foot and in his shirt sleeves. He told him then he was living "out West:"

Johnny's mission was to prepare the wilds for the approach of civilization ; he was " the voice of one in the wilderness, crying, prepare ye the way." But the accelerated advance of the white settlements began to overtake him. For nearly forty years he had been able, single-handed, to carry on his self-appointed mission in advance of the "star of empire," but now he found the church and schoolhouse on every hand ; towns were springing up like mushroom growths, and the busy hum of villages and the echo of the stave-horn warned him that he must make a long stride to the west if he was to lead the advancing hosts. It was with this feeling that he visited the cabins where he had been a frequent and welcome guest. With parting words of admonition, mingled with words of oracular prophesy he took his way to the frontier. This was about 1837, and during the succeeding decade he pursued his work on the western borders of Ohio and in Indiana, pushing his journey at times far into the wilds of Illinois and Iowa. "In the summer of 1847, when his labors had literally borne fruit over a hundred thousand square miles of territory, at the close of a warm day, after traveling twenty miles, he entered the house of a settler in Allen county, Indiana, and was, as usual, warmly welcomed. He declined to eat with the family, but accepted some bread and milk, which he partook of sitting on the door-step and gazing on the setting sun. Later in the evening, he delivered his " news fresh from heaven," by reading the beatitudes. Declining other accommodation, he slept as usual on the floor, and in the early morning he was found with his features all aglow with a supernal light, and his body so near death that his tongue refused its office. The physician who was hastily summoned pronounced him dying, but added that he had never seen a man in so placid a state at the approach of death. At seventy-two years of age, he ripened into death as naturally and beautifully as the seeds of his own planting had grown into fibre, and bud and blossom, and the matured fruit." '

So passed away this self-denying benefactor of his race, whose memory will linger in the hearts of the present generation for years to come, and their children will learn to revere the decaying monuments of his industry. as the memorial of one whose mind, though seemingly unbalanced, swayed to the brighter side of human nature.

Mr. Joshua Antrim is authority; for the statement that "the first white settler in Logan County was Job Sharp." He was born in New Jersey and vent early in life; to Virginia, where the fame of the Mad River valley induced him again to strike his tent and seek fairer fields. He arrived in what is now Zane Township on December 25, 1801, with his wife, three children and his brother- in-law, Carlisle Haines. Here, in mid winter, surrounded by all the circumstances of savage life; unaided and alone, they reared their "three-faced camp." They ware Quakers, and nature seemed to respond to their peaceful sentiments by revealing her stores unsolicited. On the very day of their arrival, a thin. coating of snow revealed, by the dead bees on its surface, the presence of four large; trees stored with honey. With the characteristic vigor and prudence of this sect, Mr. Sharp, in the following spring, set out the first apple orchard, containing about four acres, the remains of which are still pointed out. A pear tree, standing by the door of the house, sprang from the riding switch which Mrs. Sharp brought from Chillicothe. "Here, too," says Mr. Antrim, "in 1805, was built the first grist-mill. It was run by the water

HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY. - 239

that came from two fine springs on the premises, which were united near the head-gate, the traces of the ditch still being visible. Though built simply for the use of the family, the mill soon attracted custom from a long distance about, and was kept busy serving the public of that day. Here, too, the first respectable hewed log house was erected in 1808. It had a shingle roof, two stories-three rooms and a cellar below, and two bedrooms above, and is still doing service. The first roof, it is said, was put on with wooden pins, and the lumber was all sawed with a whip-saw. During the four years succeeding Mr. Sharp's advent, a number of his relatives and acquaintances settled about him, and, most of them being Quakers, in 1807 built a meeting-house." In this community the first birth was in 1804, a sea, David, to Thomas and Esther Antrim.

During this period a sparse population spread pretty generally over the county, the location of the cabin being influenced considerably by the abandoned Indian improvements. A considerable portion of this earliest settlement was made by squatters. The character of the country at this time was very favorable to this class of people. Game was found here in great abundance, the Indian improvements were made fruitful at slight expense of labor, and there were no considerable settlements for a hundred miles about. A writer who was over this section of country, and observed this class of people, describes the squatter as follows: " The improvements of a backwoodsman are usually confined to building a rude log cabin, clearing and fencing a small piece of ground for raising Indian corn; a horse, a cow, a few hogs and some poultry, comprise his live stock; and his farther operations are performed with his wife. The formation of a settlement in his neighborhood is hurtful to the success of his favorite pursuit, and is the signal for removing into more remote parts of the wilderness. In case of his owning the land on which he is settled, he is content to sell at a low price, and his establishment, though trifling, adds much to the comfort of his successor.''* Of the succeeding class of settlers, who came in principally after the war of 1812, the same writer an English traveler-says: "The next class of settlers differs from the former, in having considerably less dependence on the killing of game, in remaining in the midst of a growing population, and in devoting themselves more to agriculture. A man of this class proceeds on small capital; he either enlarges the clearings began in the woods by his backwoodsman predecessor, or establishes himself on a new site. On his arrival is a settlement, the neighbors unite in assisting him to erect a cabin for the reception of his family; some of them cut down the trees, others drag them to the spot with oxen, and the rest build up the logs. In this way, a house is commonly reared in one day. For this well timed d assistance, no immediate payment is made, and he acquits himself by working for his neighbors. It is not in his power to hire laborers, and he must depend, therefore, upon his own exertions. If his family is numerous gad industrious, his progress is greatly accelerated. He does not clear away the forests by dint of labor, but girdles the trees. By the second summer after this operation is performed, the foliage is completely destroyed, and his crops are not injured by the shade. He plants an orchard which thrives abundantly under every sort of neglect. His live stock soon becomes much more numerous than that of his backwoods predecessor; but, as his cattle have to shift for themselves in the woods where grass is scanty, they are small and lean. He does not sow grass seed, to succeed his crops, so that his land, which ought to be pasturage, is

* Flint's letters from America, 1818

240 - HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

overgrown with weeds. The neglect of sowing grass seed deprives him of hay, and he has no fodder laid up except the blades of Indian corn, which are much withered and do not appear to be nutritious food. The poor animals are forced to range the forests in winter, where they can scarcely procure anything which is green, except the buds of the underwood, on which they browse. Trees are sometimes cut. down that the cattle may eat the buds. Want of shelter completes the sum of misery, Hogs suffer famine during the drought of summer and the frosts and snows of winter but they become fat by feeding on the acorns and beechnuts which strew the ground in autumn. Horses are not. exempted from their share in these common sufferings, with the addition of labor, which most of them are not able to undergo. * * The utensils used in agriculture are not numerous. The plough is short, clumsy, and is not calculated to make either deep or neat furrows. The harrow is triangular, and is yoked with one of its angles forward, that it may be less apt to take hold of stumps of trees in its way. Light articles are carried on horseback; heavy ones by a coarse sledge, by a cart or by a wagon. The smaller implements are the ax, the pick-ax, and the cradle-scythe-by far the most commendable of backwood apparatus. * * * Today I have seen a number of young women on horseback with packages of wool, going to or returning from the carding machine. At some of the houses, the loom stands under a small porch by the door.

The early population of Logan County was quite cosmopolitan in its character. The main avenue by which the tide of immigration reached this section of the country was up the valley of the Miami, in the trail of the various expeditions that had been sent against the hostile tribes. This line of travel proved most accessible to the older settlements of Kentucky and Virginia; the country was also best known to these people, who had made up the major part of the old invading forces, and it was those people who first came upon the ground as settlers. Later, Pennsylvania contributed a large element, composed of Germans and the old Quaker stock, and the Western Reserve, a large number of New England families. There seems to have been no regular advance northward in this counts, but, the natural restrictions having been removed, the eager emigrants rushed in, spreading here and there over the taunts, as their fancy and judgment moved them. A settlement was early formed in what is now Zane j Township ; Perry was invaded in 1804-5-6 ; Rush Creek about the same time ; Lake in 1806; Pleasant in 1809 ; Richland in 1810, and other parts of the county down to 1840. The Lewistown Reservation kept back the settlements in the northwest part of the county for a number of years, which accounts far the late settlement of parts of Stokes, Washington and Richland Townships. The following table of population shows the growth of the subdivisions of the county, as well as that of the whole

The enumeration the above table includes the whole township save in that of 1870 and

HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY. - 241

1880. In these years the villages of Logan County were enumerated as follows:

Towns. 1870 1880

West Mansfield.................................... 385

West. Rigdeway.....................100

Zanesfield...............................282 307

Bellefontaine........................3,182 4,001

West Liberty........................... 741 715

Huntsville................................ 322 436

Degraff.................................... 624 985

Quincy.................................... 320 440

West Liberty * ..................... . 196 225

Logansville.............................. 99

Bellecenter............................... 276 434

Rushylvania.............................. 310 467

Middleburg * .......................... 223

The population in the whole county in 1820 was 3,181; in 1830, 6,432; in 1840, 14,013.

The rapid increase of population after the close of the war of 1812 soon made Urbana at an inconvenient distance from the outlying portions of Champaign County, and, in 1817, an effort was made to divide it into three parts, Lo=an on the north and Clark on the south. This movement was successful, and on December 30, 1817, the act was passed erecting Loran County. The "Act to erect the county of Logan," is as follows :.

"Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of 'the State of Ohio, that so much of Champaign County as lies north of the lice, beginning on the east t line of Miami County, between Sections 33 and 34, in the third township, thirteenth range, and running east twelve miles, with the sectional fine between the third and fourth tier of sections, thence south one mile, thence with the sectional line between second and third tier of sections in said range. to the line between the United States land and the Virginia Military Land, and thence east to the line of Champaign County, thence north with said fine to the Italian boundary line; thence west to a point so that a line drawn from said point due south will strike the Indian boundary fine at the point where the line between the counties of Miami and Champaign strike said line: thence south with said line between the counties of Miami and Champaign to the place of beginning. And, also, including the United States Reservation at. the Rapids of

* Figures taken from 1860 ; no separate census given in 1870.

the Miami of the Lake: which shall be known by the name of Logan: Provided, that the jurisdiction of the said county of Logan shall extend over all that territory lying north of said county, and all crimes that shall be committed within the territory aforesaid, shall be considered as having been committed within the said county of Logan."

Section 6 provides, "That the courts of said county of Logan shall be holder at the house of Edwin Mathers, or some other convenient place in the town of Belleville, until the permanent seat of justice shall be established for the said county of Logan." It was further provided, that "this act shall commence and be in force from and after the first day of March next." It is signed by Duncan Mc Arthur, Speaker of the House of Representatives. and by Abraham Shepherd, Speaker of the Senate, and dated December 30, 181.

The territory oat of which Logan County was thus organized consisted of what was known as the Congress and Virginia Military Lands. The former was so-called because they were sold to purchasers by the immediate officers of the general government, conformably to such laws as were enacted by Congress. They are surveyed into townships of six miles square each, under authority, and at the expense of the National Government. The latter is the name given to a body of land between the Scioto and Little Miami Rivers, and bounded on the south by the Ohio River. The State of Virginia, from the indefinite and vague terms of expression in its original charter of territory from James L, King of England, in the year 1609, claimed all the continent north of the Ohio River, and of the north and south breadth of Virginia. After the war of the revolution, among the various territorial compromises, Virginia agreed to relinquish all her claims northwest of the Ohio River in favor of the General Government, upon condition of the lands referred to

242 - HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

being guaranteed to her. The State of Virginia then appropriated this body of land to satisfy the claims of her State troops employed in the continental line during the revolutionary war. This district was not surveyed in any regular form, but individuals holding military warrants against these lands located them when and in what shape they pleased within this district. The line between these lands passes in a northwesterly direction through the central part of the county, and below the Greenville treaty line is known as the "Ludlow line," or more recently a road having been laid out on this line, the "Ludlow road." Above the "treaty line," and starting out some distance west of where the "Ludow line'' touches the Indian boundary, the division is marked by the "Roberts line." The discrepancy between these lines occurred as follows: As the Little Miami extended but a short distance into the county from its junction with the Ohio, and the Scioto extends a good deal further, both in a northward and easterly direction, it was necessary to define this reservation, that a line be run from the head of the Miami to the head waters of the Scioto. This line was run by Israel Ludlow, and took his name as a designation. This line from the. head of the Miami bears north 20'' west, and was afterward discovered to have struck the Scioto several miles east of its most westerly point. To rectify this discrepancy, a. new line was run from the boundary line to the proper point on the Scioto, and is known as the Roberts line. The strip below the boundary line which properly belonged to the Virginia Military reservation, however, had been surveyed and sold by Congress, and this discovery threatened to eject all those who had bought property within this disputed territory. A shrewd speculator at once entered the land in this strip of territory and threatened to enforce his rights by the ejectment of those who held these lands by a purchase from the General Government. His title was bought by the General Government at an expense of about $100,000, and the original purchasers given a valid title.

On January 10, 1820, Union County was erected, and a strip three miles wide was taken from Logan County and attached to Union. On February 12 of the same year Hardin county was erected, and for many years prior to 1855 there had been a dispute between the officers of Logan and Hardin Counties as to the location of the true line between them.

Section 8 of the act erecting Union County provides "that so much of the territory lying north of the county of Logan as is contained within the following boundaries, to-wit: beginning at the northeast corner of Logan County, thence running north five miles, thence west to a point from which a south line will strike the southwest corner of said county, thence south to said corner, thence cast with the line to the beginning. shall be, and it is hereby attached to the county of Logan, and shall hereafter form a part of said county." The sources of dispute under this section were two, and are set forth ' in a written opinion delivered by Judge William L Lawrence, of Bellefontaine, as follows: "First. The statute requires the north line of Logan to run `west' from its northeast corner. The officers of Hardin County claimed this must be due west - a line at right angles with a true meridian-while the officers of Logan insisted it should be at right angles with a magnetic meridian, as it was when the act of January 10, 1820, took effect, which would make a line, after leaving the beginning point, farther north than if run at right angles to a true meridian. Second. The Greenville Treaty line runs north 80 ' east. The act of January 10, 1820, added new territory on the north end of what had been Logan County to run five miles north, beginning at the northeast

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HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY. - 245

corner of Logan County. The farther east this original corner could be located on the Greenville Treaty line, the farther north would the five miles extend.

The statute of April 9, 1852, provided a mode of settling these and other disputes of a similar character. The Commissioners of Hardin County accordingly filed their bill in chancery in the Court of Common Pleas of Logan County, and such proceedings were had that at the December Term; 1854, of the Supreme Court of Ohio, a decree was made: "That the true construction of the eighth section of the act entitled ` An act to erect the county of Union' passed on the 10th day of January, A. D. 1820, is that the line therein mentioned shall commence at the former northeast corner of Logan County, on the Greenville Treaty line and run thence north five miles with the rnagnetic meridian, as it was at the taking effect of said law. And thence. west at right angles to said lines so run, anti that a line so run at right angles as aforesaid is the true north line of .Logan County."

This question was brought before the court again in 1877; by Messrs. Riddle and Rutan, owning land upon this disputed territory, and which was listed and put upon the grand duplicates of both counties. The question is now (September, 1880) before the Supreme Court awaiting the action of that body. Although the opinion above quoted makes out a very strong case for the claim of Logan County, it also sets forth the difficulties which this claim will probably encounter. These are two: "First. That the decree of the court was intended to give to Logan County only five miles north of the Greenville Treaty line where it crosses the east line of the county, and, Second. The long acquiescence by Logan in the exercise of jurisdiction by Hardin County over this strip of 204 rods."*

* This strip of territory is 204 rods wide, extending clear

The first commissioners of the newly formed county held their first meeting at the house of Samuel Rewell, April 14, 1818. They found the territory of Logan County divided into six townships, and named as follows : Zane, Jefferson, Lake, Miami, Harrison and Waynesfield. In an address of Judge William Patrick, of Urbana, the approximate date of their erection, derived from the election returns in the Clerk of the Court's office, are given as follows : "The subdivisions of Champaign County, in the first year of its organization, were Springfield, Salem and Mad River Townships; but in the run of years up to 1817, the civil divisions were extended in the formation of townships in about this order : Bethel, 1806; Zane, 1806; Harmony, 1807; Union, 1810; Moorfield, 1811; Concord, 1811; Warner, 1811; Urbana, 1811; Lake, 1811; Pleasant, 1812; Boston, 1812; German, 1812; Jefferson, 1813; Miami, 1814; Goshen, 1815; Jackson, 1815; Harrison, 1816; Pike, 1816." In the italicized names will be recognized those of the original townships noted in the earliest records of the Logan County Commissioners, but what were their limits it is impossible now to determine, as the records of the Commissioners' Court of Champaign County, previous to 1819, are, unfortunately, misplaced or lost. The names of Union, Harrison and Pleasant are still found in the other parts that made up old Champaign, but so situated as to afford no clue as to the original township of these names. There is a tradition that what is now Logan County was at one time known as Zane Township; but nothing definite in regard to the matter is known. The history of Waynesfield Township is equally obscure. It is not found in Judge Patrick's list, and yet is found recognized as one of the original six across the northern end of Logan County, and has been under the undisputed jurisdiction of Hardin County since 1834 - a period of forty-three years at the time of the beginning of this action.

246 - HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

townships in the earliest record of the Commissioners of Logan County. Its disappearance from the geography of the county is equally unexplained. On September 25,1818, the Commissioners ordered " that all that tract of the state north (of the county) and west of the Miami of the Lake (Maumee) and within the County of Logan, be attached to Waynesfield Township." On November 22, 1819, the tax duplicate of this township is recorded at $104.65; but after this it is lost in the records, and no trace of it is to be found on the maps save the village of that name in the eastern hart of Auglaize County. The inference is that, as was generally the case with frontier counties, the unlimited jurisdiction of Logan County over the unorganized territory north of it was expressed by the organization or extension of this Township of Waynesfield. When Hardin County was organized, it passed out of sight in the various territorial changes that then took place.

On the 14th of August, 1818, the Commissioners found several fractional townships formed by the erection of a new county, and adjusted matters by reorganizing the whole county. It was ordered "that part of Logan County bounded by the Indian boundary line, its eastern, western and southern boundaries, be divided into four townships, as follows, viz.: That the Township of Miami be bounded on the west by the west boundary of said county; thence from the northwest corner of section 3, township 3, range 13, east to the northeast corner of section 33, township 4, range 13; thence north to the county line and west with it to the beginning. The Township of Lake to commence at the southeast corner of the said Township of Miami; thence eastwardly with the county line to the southeast corner of section 27, township 5. range 13; thence north to the county line; thence west with county line to northeast corner of Miami Township; thence south to the place of beginning. The Township of Jefferson running with the east boundary of Lake, and six miles wide. The Township of Zane to consist of the balance of the said County of Logan. " That the place for holding elections in the said townships Shall 1)l', for the Township of Zane, at their former place of holding elections for said township; for the Township of Jefferson, at the house of James M. Workman; for the 'Township of Lake, in the Town of Belleville; and for the Township of Miami, at the house of John Turner, Esq., until otherwise ordered."

From these original townships pave been formed the seventeen townships that make up the County of Logan. From the original territory of Miami come the present Townships of Pleasant, Bloomfield, Stakes and Washington; from Lake, the present Townships of Union, McArthur, Harrison, Liberty and Richland; from Jefferson, the present Townships of Monroe and hush Creek; and from "Lane, the present Townships of Perry and Bokes Creek. From the following table, among other information, may be gathered the fact that the growth of the county came from the southern portion of the county, the townships on the lower tier being first formed, and the others successively as the population increased northward:

At the first meeting of the Commissioners, the territorial limits of the newly formed county had been filed, but the whole ma chinery which was to enable it to become vital part of the State was to be constructed and put in motion. The permanent seat o justice had not yet been filed upon, and al that could be done was to make such temporary arrangements as would meet the present necessities, and await further developments. On the ;.23d of April, 1819, they appointed Martin Marmon Treasurer, and two day later appointed Thomas Thompson Recorder. On November 22, of the same year, the Commissioners arranged with "Thomas Wilson at $2.50 per each day,, for the accommodation of

* No. Plat.

1 Established originally at Garwood Mills, March 27, 1826.

2 Established originally at Cherokee, and charged to Huntsville,

3 Called originally Douglass, and established April 24, 1826.

4 Established at Kendall, Nov. 10, 1818, and changed to New Richland on the above date. It will be proper to add that two offices were established: Muchinippi July 8, 1840, discontinued March 12, 1872; and Downingsville, July 13, 1839; discontinued Map 19, 1847.

the court, and Thomas Wilson agreed to furnish three rooms for the same, and the south room if wanted." The statement of the a Treasurer for this year was Receipts, licenses, $134.28 3/4; other receipts, $404.55 1/2; total, $538.84 1/4. Expenditures-by orders, $519.83 ; by commission at 4 per cent, $19.83; leaving a balance of $1.97 against the county. In the following year, however, the statement of the Treasurer closes with the "neat balance of $426.17 " in favor of the county. On s ; September 15,1819, the Commissioners spread the following upon their record: "Ordered, that James M. Workman be appointed to appropriate and lay out $30.00 on the Sandusky road, as follows: Commencing at the southern boundary of Logan County, from thence on as far and ending at the northern boundary." This was the first of the public road building that has continued, until the present time; Logan County has paid for and projected pikes to the amount of $850,000, and

248 - HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

possesses a system of improved highways inferior to no county in the State.

In the meanwhile, the Special Commissioners appointed to locate the seat of justice had examined a site on the Mad River, some two miles below Zanesfield, but, some doubts as to the validity of the titles of the lands arising, the choice of the Commissioners was filed on Bellefontaine. Accordingly, in February, 1820, the County Commissioners held their first session in the new county seat. Heretofore, the criminals of the county were confined in the Champaign County jail in Urbana, at considerable expense, and one of the first acts of the Commissioners at this session was to provide a jail. On the 19th of February, 1820, the contract for building the edifice was given to Vachel Blaylock, at $315. It. was located on the northeast corner of the public square, "fifteen feet back from the front., and the same number of feet back from the end." THe walls were of logs, hewn about fifteen inches square, neatly dovetailed at the corners. Outside of this was another wall all around, of the same material, and put up in the same manner, leaving a space between the two walls of about ten or twelve inches, which was filled up with loose stones. The floors above and below were of logs of the same size, but of only one thickness. Some few prisoners, it is said, were confined in this jail, even before it had a roof, save some loose planks laid upon poles. On January 15, 1822, a contract was entered into by the Commissioners with Blaylock & Houtz, to " raise a house, in front of the jail of this county, of hewn oak logs of equal length with said jail, fifteen feet wide; to put in sleepers and joists of white oak, cut one door in front of said house, and hang a door thereon with wooden hinges; to take the rafters off the jail, and roof it and the house now built under one, and with a good cabin roof, and put a good wooden chimney to one end, lined with stone, and lay the hearths with stone. In consideration whereof, the Commissioners agree to pay them by order on the County Treasurer sixty dollars, for the true performance whereof the parties bind themselves to each other in the penalty of two hundred dollars." To these specifications were added the condition that the contractors should but in "one window of 12 lights," and should " chink and daub the aforesaid house." This building was finished t and accepted March 4, 1822. On August 30 of the following year, the Commissioners proposed to make an addition to the jail, but, 'I for some reason, the proposition was not carried into effect. On June 8, 1824, the project was revived, and a contract entered into with John Workman for $740.50, to put up a building, in front of the jail, "twenty-two feet in width, and the same length of the jail." It was to be two stories high, "the upper one to extend over the jail;" "one stack of brick chimneys on stone foundations ;" "four twelve-light. windows in upper story, three fifteen-light windows below, " and "three bolting doors." This addition was to be completed by the first of the following December. It was not accepted, however, until the following May, and in the following October the Commissioners allowed the contractor $559.50 additional, on the testimony of experts that the work was taken too low, and could not be done for less than $1,300. This building supplied the demand of the county in this direction until about 1845, when the first brick jail was built on its site at a cost of several thousand dollars. In 1870 this structure was taken down, and the present one built east of the Public Square, on lot No. 159, at a total cost of $34,050. The principal contract was awarded to Rouser & Rouser, of Dayton, for $27,895.

The demand for a. Court House was felt from the first, but, until the county seat was

HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY. - 249

fixed, nothing could be done toward building, but in June, 1820, a plan was formed to build the temple of justice in connection with the jail, and the contract let to John Casebolt for $860. In the following August, however, this plan was abandoned and the contract annulled, and, a month later, a new plan was projected, contracted to John Tillis for $1,300, and on January 13, 1821, was abandoned, and the contract annulled for the second time. Finally, on June 4, 1821, it was decided to erect a. temporary building for the use of the Court of Common Pleas, and the contract let to William Laften for $1,294. The specifications required that the building should be 24x36 feet, two stories high, framed, and placed upon a stone foundation at least eighteen inches thick. The first story was to have one panel door, four twelve-light windows, one twenty-four light window, a flight of stairs, and to be ten feet high. The second story was to be eight feet high, and " to be divided into four convenient rooms, and an entry with one door into each room; one twelve-light window in each room, and one in the entry, all well glazed and with shutters." One stack of chimneys in the end of the building, brick or stone foundation; the whole to be completed by the first Monday in March, 1822. Laften does not seem to have made a success of his contract, and Vachel Blaylock, one of his securities for the performance of the contract, assumed the undertaking and completed. the building in the latter part of 1822. In December of that near, he contracted to furnish the Court room with a good, substantial bar for $60, and to make " three sets of jury boles, a table five feet square, and two smaller tables,'' by the first of the March following. On March 29, 1825, this building was sold to " Solomon McColloch " for $810, and afterwards became known as the old Union Hotel. It stood on lot No. 142, as the Commissioners did not care to encumber the Public Square with temporary buildings. On September 9, 1831, the contracts for the first permanent Court House were awarded-the stone and brick work to William Bull, for $900, to which was added $150 for a few courses of curbstone above ground, not put in the contract, and the wood work to John Wheeler and George Shuffleton, for $1,000. These contractors were all citizens of Bellefontaine at the time, and accomplished their work so that the Courts were held in the building in the latter part of 1833. In this year, two brick offices north and south of the Court House were built on contract by William Watson for $650. In 1870, these buildings, haying outlived their usefulness, were torn down to give place to the present imposing structure. Considerable good humored criticism has been passed upon the architectural style of the present building, but it proves a commodious and comfortable place for the offices and Courts of the county. The contracts awarded for its construction were as follows:1. The entire mason work to Rouser, Boren & Co., of Dayton, for the sum of $28,168.80. 2. The cut stone work to Webber &: Lehman, of Dayton, for $20,000. 3. The entire carpenter work (including tiling, clock and bell) to Harwood & Thomas, of Cincinnati, for $13,600. 4. The galvanized iron and tin work to W. F. Gebhart, of Dayton, for $7,644.60. 5. The entire wrought and cast iron work to D. S. Rankin & Co., of Cincinnati, for $23,000. 6. Painting and glazing to Wiseman & Hayes, of Cleveland, for $5,132.69. 7. Heating and ventilation to Peter Martin, of Cincinnati, for $6,507.80. 8. Plumbing and gas-fitting to Thomas A. Cosby, of Cleveland, for $1,419.09. Making the total cost $105,598.08.

The Commissioners did not take charge of the interests of the poor until 1849. On June 9th, of that year, it was "ordered that it is necessary, proper and advantageous, and will

250 - HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.

be so, to erect and establish a poor-house and to purchase a farm on which to erect the same for Logan County .'' There seems to have been little opposition on the part of the people to the proposition thus spread upon the record, and 164 35-100 acres were bought of Joseph Lawrence, in Harrison Township. On December 6, of this year, Joseph Lawrence, Jonathan Thomas and Arthur Linville were appointed by the Commissioners as Directors' of the County Infirmary. An old house was the only building on the place, which had neither well nor cistern suitable for the purposes of the county. January 6, 1851, the contract for the erection n of a suitable building was let; the stone and brick-work to William Watson for $1,142; the wood-work to David Niven for $1,200; and the plastering for $339, making a total on contracts of $2,681, which was swelled to $3,000 by other expenses. August 13, 1855, a contract for an Insane Hospital, 31x40 feet, was let to Matthew Anderson and George McElree, but at what price the records failed to state. There is being .added to this building during the present season an addition, Which adds twenty feet to the length of the building. Since the first purchase of land seventeen acres of woodland have been added, making one of the finest farms in Logan County. The main building is a good-sized two-story brick farm-house, and was a comfortable building for the time it was built, but does not compare favorably with the other county buildings of this county. This will doubtless he remedied as soon as the burden of building the free turnpikes is discharged. Joseph M. Porter is the present Superintendent, a position he has occupied for the past fifteen years.