HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY. - 273

CHAPTER IV.

REMINISCENCES OP' THE EARLY SETTLEMENT OF THE WHETSTONE VALLEY.

BY CAPT. GEORGE BECKLEY.

ON the 12th day of October, 1821, my father, John Beckley, with my mother and eight children, of whom I was the eldest (not yet seventeen years old), after a weary drive of twenty-five days, via Circleville, from Northumberland County, Penn., arrived at Wyatt's Tavern, the last brick house on that road in Northwestern Ohio, a half-mile above Norton and about two miles south of the Greenville treaty line. Here had been Fort Morrow, of the war of 1812. Mr. Wyatt very kindly tendered us the use of one of the block-houses of the fort as a shelter until we could select a lot of land and build a cabin. The nest morning found us in our temporary home, without a bedstead, table, chair or any furniture; but in contrast with these privations, we were visited by many kind neighbors, who bade us welcome to our new home that was to be. Mr. Wyatt advised my father to go up the Whetstone, where his son Daniel lived (the town of Caledonia is on part of the land he owned), and where Thomas Van Horn, his son-in-law, had a cabin, about where Mr. Koch's barn now stands. Accordingly, he mounted his horse and wended his way through an almost trackless wilderness to Wyatt's, and then and there he made his first meal on corn bread; but it was not the last one, I assure you.

Meanwhile, we discovered what kind of society we were to have "up Wbetstone." Here came a half-dozen or more Wyandot Indians, going into the white settlements on a trading expedition. They had their ponies loaded with divers articles of merchandise, such as cranberries, honey, splint baskets, wooden butter ladles, moccasins, etc., for which they took in exchange sickataw (salt), koosh-koosh (pork), na-hah (meal), flour, or almost anything in the shape of clothing or implements. They were very curious and friendly, shaking hands with every one, and saying, " How-a-muttera." We took it for granted that these were no bad or profane words, as they seemed to feel pleasant and happy.

After enjoying the hospitality of Messrs. Wyatt and Van Horn, they settled the point that my father should enter the lot now owned by T. A. Anderson, where Philip Huff now lives. Jeremiah Coldern and Isaiah Mattix were employed to build a cabin, which was soon completed according to agreement. Then came Wyatt and Van Horn with another team, and assisted us to our new home. There being no roads then, we came on the old Sandusky road five miles, to where the old Rupp farm now is; then we did not see another house until we came to Tommy Van Horn's. We crossed Grave Creek near the old Kinnear farm; crossed Grape Run near where Mr. Fetter now lives; thence calm direct for T. Van Horn's: thence we had the Upper Sandusky and Owl Creek Indian trail direct for our cabin-for it stood on the trail.

Now for a description of that memorable pioneer cabin. It was composed of round logs, eighteen feet long, slightly scutched down on the in

274 - HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.

side; a door and two six-pane windows cut out and checked up; the floors were made of puncheons, split out of logs, the lower one roughly hewn, the upper one not hewn; an outside chimney, without a stone or brick in it, all made of mud and wood. We brought sash and glass from Delaware for the windows, and two ash boards from Norton, of which we made a door and table. Then we cut down a walnut tree, and cut and split out timber for bedsteads, chairs, frames and any other furniture we might choose to make. Now came to tug of war-a well to dig, and wall, without stone or brick. So we had to dig it square and wall it with timber, and that spoils the water terribly; but it must be endured for the present.

In less than a month after our arrival, there were seven more families on Section 36-three of the Parcell and four of the Packard families.

About that time, Daniel Worline had settled at the month of Grave Creek; Amasa Gleason where George Retterer now lives; Mr. Herrington on the Plotner farm, below the Claridon Township line; old Mr. Stuart, with several of his sons' families, a mile below Claridon; James Lambert near Claridon; Messrs. Dickson, Joseph Hornby and Robert Boulton above Claridon; Jacob and Henry Aye where Mrs. James Douce now lives; Mr. Gloyd and Mr. Gaylord on Muskrat Run, near the Nesbit Schoolhouse; Joseph Riley and John Roberts on the lauds now owned by T. W. Roberts. The next were old Mr. Allen, and Seth, John and Hiram on the John Thew lot, and Henry Parcell near where the Thew bridge is now. Mr. Parcell was a representative man in our settlement, and will have to bear a conspicuous part in our narrative. He soon after removed up near the mouth of Muddy Run. He had already built several cabins in the settlement. He had a widespread notoriety for his frequent removals. Ile once removed to Knox County, and in a year or two came back to the old farm again. He would not remove his well, but he knew a better way, and that was to dig and wall up another one. Another good trait he had was never to do things by halves, but always to make finished jobs. At one time, when he had removed his habitation to another part of the farm, he had a young orchard, which was beginning to bear, and, nut being willing to leave it behind, be dug the trees up, cut the tops off and gave them a new location. His boys said that the old gentleman sometimes had to call in the aid of his inventive genius as a substitute for a removal, and that was to change the beds, and make all other alterations, he could in the cabin " to make things look new."

Reader, you will please pardon us for allowing our boat to be driven so far to leeward by this little side-wind, but here we again resume our course up the Olentangy. The next house up was that of Nathan Clark, another conspicuous man in our settlement, and next, Daniel Wyatt and Tommie Van Horn, before alluded to. We also had a few settlers on the Middle Fork of Whetstone, as Jacob Rice, who yet resides where he first pitched his tent, without e'er a removal excepting from the old houses into the new ones, ever and anon drinking water from that clear and beautiful spring that still flows as freely as ever. A little below him lived Messrs. Arnold and Gordon, on the lot now owned by John A. Weber, and next above him lived Comfort Olds, where Harvey Coen now lives. He subsequently built a treadmill and still-house, made two removals, built a horse-mill each time and a still-house at one time, and lastly went to Pulaski County, Ind., built a water mill on the Tippecanoe River, and from thence "passed over to the other side." The next, last and uppermost man on that branch, that I know of, was old Benjamin Sharrock, where he yet lives, a mile above where Iberia is now. This about ends the catalogue of settlers living on these waters (that we now call to mind) who were here in the autumn of 1821.

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Our localities were not then described by political geography, with towns and villages, as they now Are. They were then called "settlements." Ours was usually known as " Muddy Run settlement;" then "Beadle's setment," named after old David Beadle, where Bucyrus is now; then " Hosford's " or " Loverick's settlement," where Galion now is; "Sharrock's settlement," where old Benjamin Sharrock yet lives, about a mile above Iberia; " Harding's settlement," near Blooming Grove; " Mosier's, " or the "Quaker settlement," above Cardington; "Norton settlement," at Norton, which was our nearest post office, and that or Mansfield was the nearest post office to Beadle's settlement; the next in order was the " Radnor settlement," below Middletown, and lastly " Kirby's " or " Welsh's settlement," in Grand Prairie Township, on the Indian trail from Owl Creek to Upper Sandusky, through where Caledonia now is. This Indian trail was all the road we had anywhere through this region, yet all through the winter and early spring emigrants were alighting down for settlement like Colorados on a potato patch. We must have roads from one settlement to the other, and more especially east and south to the old settlements, for flour and corn-meal. As for meat, milk, butter and vegetables, our settlements were soon self-sustaining. The modus operandi we will endeavor to give further on.

Our method of locating and opening roads was very simple. No petitions, no County Commissioners, no Viewers, no Surveyor and no thirty days' notice. But one or two professional hunters, who had chased the deer, the turkey and the raccoon all over and over the proposed route for said road, would take an ax or two and start on a clear day, when they could be guided by the sun-for they had no compass-and take their course over the highest and driest ground, marking the trees as they proceeded, avoiding swamps and other obstructions as much as possible, and cutting and removing the underbrush as they go. Now you have a road ready for horsemen and footmen. After this, the first man who fell under the dire necessity of going through with a team-which usually was a young pair of steers, not very well "broke," made fast to the tongue of a two-wheeled wagon-took one or two men (the more the better) with axes, to remove small trees. bushes, logs or other obstructions; and once through, our teamsters usually had the courage to think they could return by the same road.

Bridges over streams of water, or causeways over mud-holes between here and Mosier's mill, or the " big road," where Waldo now is, were wholly unknown for many months after our arrival here. We had but one remedy for that evil, and that was, when any one started out for the Owl Creek settlement, or down toward Columbus or Lancaster, the usual places to procure flour or meal, especially in a wet time, he must not forget his ax; and when he saw a bad-looking mud-hole, especially with a few pole lying in it, that was to hire conclusive evidence that they had been used by some misguided teamster for the purpose of lifting his wheels out of the mud. The cautious driver now stops his ox-team, which is usually a very easy thing to do; he scans the woody for a new route; he seizes his ax, and vigorously betakes himself to opening another track around the mud-hole. He goes back to his wagon, takes up his whip, says " Gee , Buck," and is past the mud hole, not knowing, or wishing to know, how soon he may see the next one.

Another feature of those pioneer roads through the beach woods was that the wagon seemed to be continually jolting over the high roots near the trees; indeed, in some places, where there was much booth timber, it would seem as if their roots were nearly all above ground.

276 - HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.

In the autumn or early spring of 1821, Col. James Kilbourn, of Worthington, a gentleman well-known by the pioneers of Northern Ohio as a land surveyor; a writer of poetry and a ballad singer, came up the Olentangy to a point a few miles east of the center of Marion County, laid out a town in the woods, near the west bank of the above-namod river, in Canaan Township, as it was then called, naming this village "Claridon," not forgetting to compose a beautiful song about " Sweet Claridon," wherein the charming and enchanting beauties of nature were most eloquently and vividly described. Several settlers were living near this point, as it was expected that the county seat must be located not many miles " from this very spot," among whom were Amos Earl, Joseph Hornby, Joshua B. Bearse, James Lambert and others; and the prospect of the county seat soon attracted immigrants to this new village. A commodious hotel was soon erected. It was a long cabin, with one or two log partitions, and doorways sawed out and checked up. They were usually made of round logs; then, after they were up, the bark, and sometimes a little of the wood on the inside of the wall, scutched off with a broad-ax. In a few instances, we have known them to hew the outside in the same way. But whether this cabin was hewn on the outside we do not remember. George Shippy was the enterprising host of this pioneer hotel, and simultaneously came Ansel Matoon, a blacksmith, from Worthington; Mr. Broman, a cabinet-maker, and before a twelvemonth passed he had received several orders for coffins. And here, also, came Mr. Norton, a tanner, who commenced a thriving business; but the good man, in a few short months, had to succumb to the pale monster.

In the succeeding spring, a committee was sent from headquarters to select a site for our county seat. Jeremiah McLand (McLene?), at that time a prominent man in our State Government, was one of that committee. After viewing the localities claimed by the different parties to be the most suitable, they set their post on the Sandusky road, near " Jacob's Well," as it was then called. We heard some say it was at a place where there was "neither wood, water nor chips." Then, in consequence of the county seat going to Marion, and the frightful sickness and death during the two autumns of 1822 and 1823, the village of Claridon was nearly depopulated.

At about the same time, Col. Kilbourn laid out the town of Bucyrus; he made another song, and could sing it on all proper occasions.

In the spring of 1821, our branch of Whetstone overflowed its banks several times, and I do not think there was a bridge over that stream from its source to its confluence with the Scioto. After the waters had subsided, the settlers resolved that a bridge must be built over the Olentangy. Henry Parcell was understood to be the architect and engineer in chief of this great enterprise. Accordingly, at the next cabin-raising (of which we usually had several every week), due notice was given of the time and place, and all hands were to be on the ground early, some with their teams (oxen, of course) and log chain, others with axes, mauls and iron wedges. shovels and hoes. Now mind, no allowances were made for delinquencies, other than absolute necessities. "Uncle Henry," as he was familiarly called, was on hand betimes, with all his available force, his four elder sons, John, Dan, Jim and Henry, and two suns-in-law, Nathan and Martin. The Packard connection came up in about equal force. There were old Joshua, an old soldier of the Revolution, Bruce Alanson, Phin. Resh, J. Gearson, Sol Wilkinson, Alonzo and Con Bacon. These were the Parcell

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and Packard tribes. Some were detailed with shovels and hoes, leveling the foundations for the abutments, others chopping the logs for same, and right here were the oxen looking at the logs, and ready to drag them up as soon as they were chopped off. Then there were other men ready to fit and build both abutments without delay, and yet other parties were at work with their mauls and wedges, splitting the puncheons to be laid down as soon as the timbers should be placed on the abutments, and before night we had a bridge over the Olentangy that withstood that turbulent stream for many long years.

A brief outline of the way we made use of our time during the first winter we passed in our new homes in the then far West: As you will readily understand, very few could bring any household furniture with them, especially when a family of from four to eight or ten members came four or five hundred miles on a wagon drawn by a yoke of oxen or span of horses, much of the way over a very bad road; and many of our immigrants came here just in that way. The first thing to do was to drive your team near a large, fallen tree, near where the cabin was to be built. Now all is in motion; a temporary shelter is quickly constructed; logs must be cut to build the cabin; some of the neighbors (in some places several miles distant) come to see the new-comers, and, if desired, might on the morrow be seen, some with axes, a cross-cut saw and a frow, coming, and before the sun is down a large tree has been cut, sawed and riven into clapboards enough for the roof. Notice having been circulated, in a day or two the cabin is raised and the roof put on, always on the same day, and we often finished the task by 2 or 3 o'clock, and played a few games at townball afterward; next the puncheons were to be split and hewn for the floors, then a wooden foundation for the chimney, well lined with mud and topped out with sticks and mud; next in order they were to be chinked and daubed. Daubed was an appropriate name for that exercise. After the mud was well mixed for the jambs, back wall, chimney and wall-that for the chimney and walls was usually put on by sleight of hands-for the walls a large double-handful of this mud would be taken up by the " mud smith," thrown into the aperture among the chinking, and then nicely and smoothly troweled on. Doors, tables and cupboards were mostly made of clapboards, nicely split and shaved, as we had several draw-knives in the settlement, and but very few glass windows; but we had a substitute, and that well smeared with oil. Here permit us to relate an incident: One day we heard Aunt Susy Purcell bemoaning the loss of their pet sheep. Yet, after all, she said, "she could hardly see where it was more of a loss than a gain to them; the wool,"said she, " will make several pairs of stockings, the hide we converted into a window, and we saved a large cake of tallow; so, you see, we will have stockings, we have a window, to keep the wind from blowing in and give us light by day, and the candles will give us light by night." Thus verifying the proverb that a sheep never dies in debt to its owner.

Our cabin is up and our goods stowed away as best we could, and for the night our beds must be spread on the floor. Now we must go to work and make our furniture. For bedsteads, we had several styles; but the most primitive and simple kind was that with but one post, on this wise: First, bore a hole in the wall, about the height you wish for your bed, about four feet from !he corner; bore another hole into the other wall, about six feet from the same corner. Now take a stick of wood, of any desirable size, round, square or of any shape, for your post; bore two holes,

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at right angles, about the height of those in the walls; get two poles, one four and a half and the other six and a half feet long, drive the end of one into each wall, and the other ends into your post. Now fasten two more poles near the walls, or lay clapboards on the front rail, and the other end on the logs in the wall, and your bedstead is complete. Of course we had chairs, tables, bedsteads and other furniture of many patterns, fashions and styles-all made of green lumber--some of round poles, others would split them out of large trees and dress them out. And tools were not easily obtained. Perhaps A had an inch auger, B had a saw, C had some nails, etc., and all must lend and borrow more or less. A large portion of the men followed bunting, many of whom would enjoy their evenings at dressing deer skins. It took two buckskins to make a pair of pants, and two fawn skins to make a pair for a boy. We saw two little girls who wore dresses made of fawn skins. They were of a purple color, were neatly made and looked well. They both grew up to be ladies of respectability. The oldest has long since passed over to the other side: the younger sister yet resides in this county, but whether she remembers her nice little fawnskin dress I could not say, but I do think if she could remember how tidy they looked, she would feel proud of this memorial of those days of her childhood.

But in connection with dressing deer skins, we had all the hickory-nuts, hazel-nuts, walnuts and butternuts that we could dispose of. Hogs kept fat all the winter on the mast, of which there was an abundance for several successive seasons. When the, soft-shelled hickory-nuts were plenty, the deer would chiefly subsist on them.

Not only were wild game and bees plenty here, but hogs also. No matter how tame they were when brought here, as soon as the mast began to fall they would stray off and become wild by being constantly frightened and harassed by men who were bunting their pigs. Every person having cattle or pigs had his peculiar ear-mark recorded by the Township Clerk. To-day you have a dozen or more fine, fat hogs, which have been about home every day of their lives, to-morrow they don't come, and you never hear of them again.

This compelled parties who had lost their hogs to offer a large premium for their recovery, and that was no less than one-half, which was freely given. This fine prospect for gain brought numbers of hog-hunters into the field, but, strange to tell, quite a large number of tbose benevolent pighunters either forgot or were otherwise prevented from returning to the owners their half, but quietly and carefully salted them all down, asking no questions.

We will now bring to your view another scene, contrasting joy with sorrow, hope with despair and disappointment. Every family was here in the wild woods on their first trial to raise food for future support. No one had so much as a potato patch until he cleared a field in the green woods; and it was a bard task to get from three to five acres of ground ready for the plow in proper season for our spring crops. All the trees over eighteen inches in diameter were usually left standing, and deadened by chopping a girdle through the bark and sapwood of each tree.

After our corn-field, of four or five acres (and but few had more than that), was cleared, the plowing was commenced among the trees, stumps and roots, and with such plows! all with wooden mold-boards. Many farmers made their own plows, for the very good reason that there was not a mechanic of that kind within twenty miles of here that we knew of. As

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the corn is planted, here are all sorts of birds and squirrels, black squirrels, gray squirrels, red squirrels and ground squirrels, digging after it; but fortunately potatoes, beans and other vegetables were not molested. As soon as the corn began to have ears, all these pests came down, and many fields were nearly or totally consumed by them, excepting what was consumed by the families before the grain was ripe. We continued shooting them until there was no more ammunition to be had either in Delaware or Mansfield, our nearest stores; then Daniel Parcell and I attacked them in Indian style, with bows and arrows, and succeeded tolerably well even in that way. Our whole population was compelled to depend upon the old settlements for their breadstuffs for another year at least, and but few having either money or means to buy with, left no other way but for the most able-bodied member of the household to go where he could obtain grain for work, and in this way procure bread for his family.

This scarcity of grain was another cause of our hogs straying off and becoming wild. There was no corn to winter them on, consequently they must go to the woods and procure their own subsistence, and when we wanted a piece of pork we had to seek, but were not always sure to find, but when we did find them they were usually fat enough to kill at any time of the year.

Our cattle usually came through the winter on wild hay in tolerable condition, if it was well put up, and we gave them plenty of it.

Next year, our prospects began to look much brighter. We had now more than double the acreage of cleared lands, and most of the last year's corn-fields had been sown to wheat, which looked promising for a bountiful harvest. Our good people determined on making an attempt at curtailing the ravages of the squirrqls on our incoming crops, and for this purpose a squirrel hunt was proposed, and a committee appointed to make the necessary arrangement. A subscription paper was circulated, and each one subscribed as many bushels of corn as he thought proper, to be paid the next fall; then the prizes were arranged accordingly. The man who produced the largest number of squirrel scalps took the highest prize, and so oil, the hunting to continue two days. On the afternoon of the second day, the scalps were to be counted and the several prizes awarded. It also came to pass that this committee, or some other committee, had provided a full supply of whisky, maple sugar and eggs; whereupon another committee was appointed to mix, mingle and commingle those three ingredients into a fluid which they called egg-nogg. It was a time long to be remembered; and it has often been said that there was but one man who left that place sober, and that was Daniel Purcell, who had never been known to take a dram.

This summer brought us our first wheat harvest, and it did not come before it was needed, as flour and corn meal had become scarce. We cut some sheaves, threshed them, winnowed the chaff out, boiled the wheat and ate it with milk. We lived on that kind of food while we cut and stacked nearly all of our first crop. Now, as soon as the wheat was dry enough to grind, there were other things to be learned. The first was to make a threshing-floor. This was done by shoveling off the surface of the ground, throwing some water on, and tramping it down as smooth as possible. Some would thresh it out with flails, others would yoke up one or two yoke of oxen, chain them together and have them tramp it out. Now the threshing was completed, the wheat with the chaff heaped up, and the floor swept, but no fanning mill, perhaps, within twenty miles of us. Here was another dilemma; but the inventive genius of man again came to our

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aid. With a heavy linen sheet, one man at each side rolls his side in about a quarter or half a yard; now they observe which way the wind blows, take their positions accordingly and commence flapping the winnowing-sheet rapidly, producing a strong current of air near the ground, while the third man, with a scoop or some other vessel, scatters the wheat and chaff before this winnowing-sbeet, blowing the chaff out, and doing it tolerably well, too. But flapping the sheet is very fatiguing work, often producing blisters on the fingers in a few moments. After the wheat was cleaned, the next thing to be done was to yoke the oxen, hitch to a cart or pair of wheels, load up and start for Mount Vernon, to mill; and there would be plenty of our good neighbors impatiently awaiting our return in order to borrow some flour.

After the death of Mr. Norton, the tanner, at Claridon, the settlers. were much in need of a tanner, as leather was a cash article, and no stores, as yet, nearer than Mansfield and Delaware, until Mr. A. Holmes brought a few goods to Marion, and E. B. & Charles Merriman commenced with a small shop in Bucyrus. Most of their goods were then brought from Pittsburg on wagons, and after a two-horse wagon-load of goods, wares and merchandise were piled up and exposed to the view of customers, it was a rare sight. But not many years after it sometimes so happened that a five or six horse team would be driven up to the door of a store-room in Marion or Bucyrus, which had been laden at Baltimore or Philadelphia and brought all the way over rivers, mountains and valleys without change, right fresh from headquarters, in less than four weeks, " cheaper than the cheapest!" (No middle men in the case.) Sole leather, 37 1/2 cents per pound; bar iron, 11 cents; nails, 12 1/2 cents; muslins and prints, 25 to 37 1/2 cents a yard, etc.

The pioneers of Marion County did not suffer from chills and fevers alone; but another form of disease, more to be dreaded than the fevers, was that fearful scourge, the milk-sickness, which was most fatal in the rich valleys of the Cuquaw and Grave Creeks, where there were but few families which did not experience more or less of the fearful effects of this terrible disease either on man or beast. But few of the people being acquainted with its effects, its cure or preventive, and having but few physicians (and at first none, that I remember of), and when the first ones came here they were mostly unacquainted with it, a large per cent of these cases proved fatal. Some parents would go or send to Mount Vernon, Delaware, Mansfield, Columbus or Lancaster, and provide a supply of jalap, calomel, " tartar mattix," etc., and doctor their families and neighbors; others would boil a kettleful of butternut bark and make up a batch of butternut pills, or dig up a quantity of blue flag, Culver, May-apple or blood-root, pulverize and swallow them, or take them in pills or decoction, just as might suit the fancy of the giver or receiver. But this state of things did not long continue. We soon had plenty of doctors traversing the highways and byways, so much that any one who wished to be doctored could be so treated to his heart's content.

The next year, 1824, Dr. Lee, from Mount Vernon, came to our relief. He brought his family, and resided in the Vanhorn cabin before mentioned.rom that time on we were not unusually afflicted with sickness.

About this time, Amariah and John Thorp built a saw mill, about four miles above where Caledonia nowis, and still further up the stream another was put in operation by Mr. Eberhart, and several others were built on the Middle Fork by Jacob Rice, William Shafer, Benjamin Masters, John McKinstry, Benjamin Sharrock and others. All the above-named mills were

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driven by water-power, and consequently there was not enough water in those streams to keep them in operation during more than half the year, thereby causing our enterprising fellow-citizens to erect another class of flouring mills, to be propelled by horse-powor, Of these there were two kinds; one was by hitching four horses to the arms of the master wheel, similar to the horse-powers used at the present day; the other kind was by the tread-wheel. The first mills of this kind we remember of were Adams', below Bucyrus, Snyder's and Adrian's, northwest of where Galion now is, and in a few years there were plenty of them throughout the "region round about;" and usually, when we took a grist to one of them, and it was ground and the toll taken out. it transpired that. there was not much left for the poor customer to take home, and that not Superfine XXX; but that was better than the hominy-block or the hand mill.

In the autumn of 1823 or 1824, our good old sires conceived the idea of inaugurating an English school. The site of the "schoolhouse" was in Mr. Charles Larrabee's field, about ten rods southwest of where Mr. Sullivan S. Place's house now stands.

The nest move was a day appointed to commence the structure. The logs were twentyfour feet long. The foundation was laid the first day and several rounds of logs notched down, and in a few days we had the model schoolhouse for all the "region round about." It was composed of round logs, but the logs on the inside were slightly hewn down with a broad-ax. The floors were of puncheons, split out of logs and hewn, leaving a fire-place in the center of the room, with a chimney in the shape of an inverted funnel over it. The upper floor was made of the same kind of plank as the lower one, the only difference being that the joints in the upper flour were filled and besmeared with mud, making the room very warm and comfortable.

We had three windows, two of paper and one of glass. They were arranged in this wise: On the east and west sides a lug was cut out of the wall, and small sticks of wood set in about ten inches apart, and paper pasted to the logs and to those sticks, serving in the place of window-sash. The paper was then well smeared with raccoon's oil, through which the light would penetrate much better than without the oil. Then we had a six pane window in the north side, filled with glass. Next in order was one, school furniture. For this we cut a straight grained linden, about two feet in diameter and near the length of the room, split it into four planks and hewed one face on each; the two widest ones, resting on large pins driven into the wall, served as desks, and the other two we made into long benches to sit upon. Other seats were made in the same way, with never a piece to rest our backs against.

Now, it may not be amiss to give a list of the householders in this school district, namely, Henry Parcel], Josiah B. Packard Jason Gleason, Jolm Humphrey, Solomon S. Wilkinson, William Shaffor, Samuel Spurdion, Noah Lee, John Lindsay, Adam Hipsher, John Beckley, James Larrabee, Joseph W. Larrabee, William Van Buskirk, John Lee (Beech), William Garberson, Daniel Wyatt, Natban Clark, Jacob Rice and Benjamin Bell.

I believe I had the honor of teaching the first school in the little village of Letimberville. A list of the householders of this district may be of interest, for comparison with the present settlers, to wit: henry Parcell, Peter Weyand, Christian Long, James McCauley, James Young, John Foos, Jesse Foos, Samuel J. Hill, Seth Knowles Job McCumber, Peter Spyhor, Joseph Lykins, Thomas Monnett, Martin McGowen, John Reeder, Thomas F. Johnston, Constant Bowen, Charles Wilson, Mrs. Smith, Jackson Dow-

284 - HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.

ling, John Vanworst, Daniel Hipsher and William Quay. Charles Wilson kept a store and tavern; Jackson and David Dowling, carpenters; Alexander Kirkpatrick, blacksmith; Thomas M. Smith, shoe-maker, etc.

I taught school at Judge Idleman's cross-roads in the winters of 1829, 1830 and 1831, at $10 per month and "board around." The School Committee urged the propriety of having their school taught at low wages in consideration of being promptly paid on the last day of the term. That promise was kept to the letter. At that time there was but a small portion of the tuition fund raised by taxationabout from one-third to one-halfand the balance was to be paid by the householder according to the number of days each one sent; and verily, on the afternoon of the last day of the term, after notice had been given, those householders presented. themselves at the Captain's office, and paid each one his apportionment. The names of the householders, that I remember of, were Jacob ldleman, William Pontius, Philip Felter, Jacob Kepnor, John James, Jr., Abraham Hardin, George Rupp, Joseph Boyd, James Johnson, John Myers, William David, Cyrus Brown, Mrs. Carpenter, John Jones, Sr., and Hiram Wilcox.

We also had other experiences on the banks of this Olentangy River. One was on a contract with William Sinith, above King's mill, for a threeyear-old colt which he valued pit, $30, for which I agreed to clear seven acres of bottom land, namely, to grub it, as it was termed, and chop all the trees up to eighteen inches in diameter, chop all the old logs, all linn trees of all sizes, trim and chop the same, as all the balance of the logs, about fourteen feet long, suitable to roll up in heaps for burning; also to burn the brush, thus to make it ready for rolling. I was terribly deceived in the amount of labor it would take to clear away those linn trees, and there were many of them on the seven acres.

We also had the pleasure of clearing several other fields, further up the creek, on Section 16, one the farm now owned by Mr. George Retterer, then owned by John Gilson, also for Aunt Amelia Rogers, Amasa GleasonI Josiah Williams, Daniel Gilson and others. All cleared much after the same style as that for Billy Smith, excepting " all the linn." But we could afford to be a little more charitable toward him, as he was very piousmuch more so than those chaps above him were.

Once upon a time, I was down the Whetstone on secular business, when at nightfall I applied at Mr. George Retterer's for lodging, which was readily complied with, and in the morning, after a sumptuous breakfast, I tendered him the needful for his hospitality, which was promptly refused, saying he would take no pay from the man who cleared the first trees from the land upon which he was then raising his bread. Long live George Retterer, and may his shadow never grow less!

At an early period of our history, Mr. William Shaffer, then living on the farm now owned by Mr. Samuel Hill, in Scott Township, conceived the idea of erecting a mill, to be driven by horse-power, but before it was completed he sold his lands to George Hoshaur, and bought the land now owned by Mr. John Pittman, on the Middle Fork of the Wbptstone Creek, where he soon had a small grist mill in operation, and subsequently a small distillery was thereunto annexed, thereby enabling his customers to mitigate both hunger and thirst. He afterward sold to Jacob Kistler. He next built a saw mill on Thorn Run, afterward known as Bockoven's mill. Mr. Kistler sold his mill and still to Abraham Krisely; the next owner was David Rettick, and lastly it came into possession of Jacob Rice. About this time, Hiram Morse, the next neighbor above the mill, commenced a

HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY. - 285

prosecution against Mr. Rice for damages, resulting in a vexatious and protracted law-suit, and the mill was abandoned.

About the time this mill was built, Messrs. Apt and Strawman, formerly from Switzerland, settled on Thorn Run, and were soon afterward joined by Messrs. Glathart and Glause; also from Switzerland.

About 1828, came Elder John Parcell, from Knox County; who failed not to make his mark in the advancement of our community. He was a master mechanic at the carpenter and joiner business, and had been a Baptist minister. From him several of us learned how to construct frame buildings. His method was first to make his mortises and tenons, bore the pin-holes through the mortises, put his frame together, mark his draw- bore on the tenons, take them out far enough to bore them through, then put them together and tack them with hook pins. Square your work by the 6, 8 and 10 problem in order to scribe his braces, then his work was laid out. But about that time we heard several reports of a Yankee, down East somewhere, who could frame a building without trying any of his work until ho was ready to put it up, and it would all come together complete. But our carpenters would believe no such thing, until they saw some crazy Yankee demonstrate the problem, when they had to " gove him up."

About 1830, Mr. Parcell bought the eighty-acre lot of Manning Richardson, and forty acres of Daniel Wyatt, on which the original town plat of Caledonia was laid out a year or two after this time. He commenced erecting a frame house for a store room on the Boham lot, and after the house was finished Mr. L. Van Buskirk joined with him as a partner, or assistant, but think he was a partner. They obtained their stock of goods of Daniel S. Norton, of Mount Vernon. This little store, small though it was, saved us many a weary trip to Bucyrus or Marion.

Soon after the store was in operation, Mr. Parcell commenced building a saw mill, succeeded by a grist mill, where F. Fisher's mill now is. He also contemplated the laying out of a town plat there, whereupon several cabins were built on the contemplated town site, but the town was not legal ly laid out and recorded until after Mr. Purcell had sold the tract of land from the center of Marion street north to the half-section line to W. S. Farrington and C. H. Weed, and the south part to Richard Wilson and G. P. Cherry. These gentlemen had the town plat surveyed by Samuel Holmes, named it Caledonia and recorded it on the 11th day of April, 1834.

Mr. Farrington brought a stock of goods here in the spring of 1833, and occupied the old store room until he built a new one on the corner now occupied by H. Hunter. About the same time, Messrs. House and L. Van Buskirk opened as a new firm on the east side of the street. Isaac Cherry built the house now occupied by J. R. Riley; Josiah Boyce built a hotel at Cross' corner; Samuel Littlefield had a chair factory on the bank of the creek, but soon afterward died, and was succeeded in the business by Garry Clark, who had his turning lathe driven by dogs on a tread-wheel. Among the other pioneer mechanics were John W. Dexter and Robert McBride, shoe-makers; Joseph and Charles Wooley, blacksmiths, and G. P. Cherry, tanner and currier.

Waldo, Iberia and Letimberville were all inaugurated at about the same time. Waldo being situated on the west bank of Whetstone, on the old Columbus & Lower Sandusky road, where the Columbus & Sandusky Turnpike separates from this old road. in a rich and fertile district of country, was then thought to be a favorable site for a thriving country village, about midway between Delaware and Marion, and perhaps would have been

286 - HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.

if there never had been a railroad built; but all points cannot expect to be especially favored by those institutions.

There existed about that time, round about Letimberville, a few specimens of the genus home that were a caution to all honest men. They seemed to be properly organized and drilled for any task. It was riot unusual for a fat hog, a heifer, bee hive or any other kind of "goods and chattels" to mysteriously disappear and never more be heard from, One instance: William Quay, after he had butchered his winter's meat made a large quantity of sausage (for a large family), and hung then up in an outhouse to dry. On the next morning, Mrs. Quay went into the old house to get a nice mess of sausage for breakfast, when lo! to her horror and to the horror of the whole family, not an ounce of sausage was to be found, and never was heard of until Harvey Larrabee obtained the particulars of the whole transaction from one of the members of this organized gang of marauders in Texas. Such cases were transpiring in the neighborhood monthly or weekly, without any case ever having been detected that we remember of.

The Columbus & Sandusky Turnpike was made by a company, and or. ganized by a few speculators in and abut Columbus, who obtained a charter and a grant of every alternate section or tier of sections where it went through Government lands. It was obtained about the year 1828. Col. James Kilbourn was one of the master spirits in this great enterprise for the benefit of the growing West. George Ulsh lives on a tier of turnpike lands; next in order was where Joshua Sachet lives; next, where Capt. Knowles and the Walton farm is; next, Thomas F. Johnston's and Henry Johnston's. These alternate tiers, through this county, were usually several miles wide-wide enough to make up for losses where the Government lands had been bought. The whole distance from Columbus to Sandusky by this road was about one hundred and six miles. By the terms of this charter, said road was to be made of "good and substantial material," wall drained and kept in good repair. But instead, it was made of only such material as could be plowed and scraped in, composed of sods, muck and clay. I do not remember of seeing even one wagon-load of stone or gravel that had been-hauled on it from one end to the other; vet this company, after having received all these Government lands, had the bold hardihood to put up toll-gates and collect the same rates of toll for traveling on their " clay pike," " mud pike," or whatever they might call it, as was charged on good ones. You may imagine what kind of a road it was in a wet season. We have often known teamsters to be compelled to call upon their neighbors to bring their teams and help them haul their wagons out of mud-holes near the toll-gates, where they were compelled to pay toll before they were allowed to go through. This grievance having been endured a dozen or more years we had petitions printed and circulated from one end of this road to the other, which were signed by nearly every man to whom they were presented, and were sent to the care of George Sharp, of Delaware, Representative in the Legislature from this district, who had the matter investigated, which disclosed the fact that the Columbus & Sandusky Turnpike Company had perpetrated a gigantic fraud upon the good people all along the vicinity of this road. About this time, the teamsters began to demolish the toll-gates, whereupon the company promptly instituted. legal proceedings against the offenders, but they were signally vanquished, and down went all the tollgate,9; and that was about the last we ever head of that turnpike company.

HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY. - 287

In 1847 or 1848, the Mad River Railroad, connecting Sandusky City with Cincinnati, was put in operation. Next in order was the Clevelaud, Columbus & Cincinnati Railroad, completed in 1851, and the Bellefontaine & Indiana Railway in 1853.

Lands soon advanced from $8 to $40 per acre; horses from $60 to $150 per head, with other farm products in about the same proportion. On the contrary, commodities of importation, such as iron, cottons, sugar, salt, etc., became cheaper, thus proving a decided benefit to the farmer.

This unprecedented advance in the value of property stimulated our enterprising people to construct public roads, bridges, expensive public buildings and private improvements of all sorts.

The first reaper I ever saw was near Bucyrus, in A. D. 1848. It was a rude looking apology, compared with those now in use. About the same time, the first corn-planters and wheat drills were invented. Our farmers were very tardy in purchasing wheat drills when they were first introduced, until offers were made to let any farmer have a drill for the difference of a crop sown by drill or broadcast on twenty-five acres. The difference, in several instances, was so great, in favor of the drill, as to be about double the common price of them. Almost simultaneously came the corn plows, single and double, with many other improvements for the benefit of the farmers. So it was in every branch of mechanical and manufacturing industries.

In our first remembrance, there was no such thing known as a shoe closed up with pegs. Then, after they came into use, every shoe-maker had to learn to whittle his pegs out with his shoe-knife; but not many months after that, Mr. Yankee had his machine in operation for making pegs. He was able to measure any size of his pegs out to his customers by the bushel, which produced an entire revolution in that branch of business.

So it was with common farm implements. When Mr. Farmer wanted a new ax, a hammer, a draw-knife, a chisel, a fork of any kind, or a hoe, all he had to do was to go to the nearest blacksmith shop and have them made. Our young men cannot imagine what clumsy kind of tools their " granddads" had to work with. The vast improvement that has been made in the mode and manner of manufacturing iron from the ore to a cambric needle, a razor, ship anchor, or the most gigantic steam engine is almost incomprehensible! Go into whatever department you may choose, and you will see one man with a horse or two and a simple machine of some kind, perform with ease the amount of labor which would have required ten men half century ago.

BY WILLIAM LARUE, MARCH, 1872.

"I moved into Marion Township in the fall of 1823. I first lived in a cabin built by Marcus Briggs, in the northwest corner of the township, on a farm since owned by Southwicks. I rented that farm and a part of the farm belonging to Elder Dudley, raised a crop and wintered there.

"In the spring of 1825, I moved to my present residence in Mongomery Township, then known as Grand Township the voting place for which was at Marseilles, then called `Burlington.' I chopped off five acres of timber land that spring, trimmed and burned the brush, and planted corn among the logs as they lay, and raised a very good crop. There was no road, and to get here I had to cut one through the woods, for about four miles. It was quite an undertaking then to go to mill. I used to go over my road, cut through the woods from here to Scott Town, then along the county road between Montgomery and Grand Townships, to the old Belle-

288 - HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.

fontaine road in Hardin County, then down to West Liberty, in Logan County. We generally spent three or four days on the trip. The nearest mill was at Claridon, where I sometimes went; and afterward we occasionally patronized Caleb Johnson's horse mill in Big Island.

"Game was plenty in the Scioto bottoms as long ago as 1825-26. One night, I shot five deer by candle-tight and got back home by 11 o'clock. This was done from a canoe. `Jerked venison' was a very common food in those days; was very good then, and I should even like to try some now. At another time, I stood in the nettles as high as my head, and shot eleven turkeys as fast as I could load and shoot. They kept screaming, `Quit! quit!' but I kept on all the same. Coons were so plenty as to be a nuisance. They were very troublesome about corn-fields, and, of course, were fat. I caught and tried out enough, one season, to make twenty-one gallons of oil, which I sold for 50 cents a gallon, to Sears, in Big Island, and with a part of the proceeds bought a tremendous pair of andirons-the first we had. One day in February I don't remember the year-I went out with my dog and caught thirteen coons. When I got home, a fur dealer was at my house to stay over night. Next morning I sold him the thirteen coons for $13, and was very well satisfied with my day's work.

"In a new country, as this was then, every man's house and services were at the call of his neighbors. My house was, of necessity, a stopping place for all that passed that way, and the common charge, if any was made, was 50 cents for keeping a man and horse over night.

"The Scioto then was bridged by only an occasional `drift,' and the ferriage was done by a canoe. I had a large one, and whenever a man appeared on either bank and ' halloed,' I left my work and ferried him over. If he had a horse, we made it swim beside the canoe; if a wagon, we either tools it over in pieces or ran it astride the canoe and paddled it all over at once. For this, we sometimes got a `Thank you, sir,' and sometimes not.

"The first settlers of the county were Joshua Cope and Jacob Croy. Cope settled in Big Island Township, on the old Messenger farm, and Croy on the site of the Pleasant Hill Church, in the same township.

"Many incidents of pioneer life, often ludicrous, sometimes serious, happened during our long residence here; but being rather of a personal than public character, we omit them for the present."

BY DANIEL S. DRAKE.

"My father, Capt. William S. Drake, came to Marlboro, now Waldo Township, Marion County, in the year 1807, and entered 160 acres of land at $2.50 per acre, paying one-third down and the balance in one and two year payments. He and his son, Uriah, cleared a small patch the first year, and put in a crop of corn, pumpkins and potatoes. He then returned to New York for his family, leaving Uriah to cultivate the crop. He returned in 1808, with a family consisting of his wife and seven children. They traveled the entire distance in an old rickety twohorse wagon. drawn by two poor plugs of horses. The amount of cash left on their arrival was 25 cents!

"The Indians were very numerous at that time, and inclined to be hostile to the white settlers. This hostility was fostered by British spies and traders, until war was finally declared in 1812. Apprehending hostilities, Gov. Meigs appointed William S. Drake Indian Agent for the following tribes: Delawares, Wyandots, Pottawatomies and Senecas, then residing in the northwest part of Ohio. He made his headquarters at what was

HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY. - 289

then known as `Negrotown,' now in Wyandot County. As soon as war was declared, the Indians became very uneasy. They were uncertain about what to do. The Canadians were using all their arts to induce them to join the British, while Gov. Meigs desired to have them remain neutral or join the forces of the United States. The Governor ordered Capt. Drake to remove the Indians to a place called Zanesfield, in what is now Logan County. This occurred in 1811. The Indians met him in council, concerning the matter, and sat in deep consultation about forty hours without leaving their seats. They finally agreed to go, and in two hours were on their way. They numbered about six hundred. They remained at Zanesfield a few months, but becoming dissatisfied, returned to Upper Sandusky. A chief by the name of Zarbe, or Crane, seemed to have great influence among the Wyandots. He was regarded as being friendly to the United States. After their return, the Governor appointed two Commissioners Solomon Smith and Moses Bixby, of Delaware-to meet the headchiefs at Upper Sandusky, to obtain a grant for a new road from Lower Sandusky to the old Greenville boundary line, in the southern part of Marion County. The chiefs granted the request, and the road was to be sixty feet wide. The Governor then appointed :three Commissioners, Bell, Bair and Van Clief, to run and open the road. The chain-carriers and blazers were Capt. William S. Drake, Maj. John Bush and Jacob Foos, This road passed through what is now Marion Village, and was known as the ` war road.' " [Described elsewhere.]

BY HENRY PETERS.

"April 1, 1820, I left Fairfield County, to find a home in Sandusky Plains, where land was said to be cheap. On the third or fourth day, I arrived at D. Drake's, on the boundary line. The first family I found on the road was Jacob Idleman, tented at Slab Camp, and he was alone, putting up a small cabin. Neat was Van Horn; then David Tipton; Alex Berry, just south of where Marion now stands; James Murray, just south of the fork of the road a mile north of Marion; Hugh O'Harra, just north of that fork; Daniel Fickle, south of Rocky Fork; Mr. Caldwell; Mr. Swinnerton, who had just arrived where the family (January, 1878) now lives; Mr. Hackathorn; Jacob Coon; Vedersforth, just south of where Little Sandusky now is; Mr. Armstrong, opposite where T. Reber now lives, then the blockhouse at Upper Sandusky. Here James Whittaker kept a tavern, with plenty of Indians all around. I stayed here two days, and found that I had passed through the New Purchase-the land here was a reservation. I then returned to Caldwell's, who was erecting a blacksmith shop as I went up. I worked for him one month and then returned to Fairfield, to wait for the land sale in August.

"In the spring of 1820, the New Purchase was one township, attached to Delaware County.

"The first election was held at the house of James Murray, a mile north of where Marion now stands. He and David Tipton were the two Justices of the Peace. Daniel Fickle, John Green and James Lambert were the Trustees. At this election we gave forty-eight votes.

"At the land sale, in August, at Delaware, I bought, the eighty acres of land on which Van Horn's cabin stood in October. I built my blacksmith shop, and took up my residence with Van Horn. Shortly afterward, he moved away, and in January, February and March the first school was taught in the cabin he had built. Fifteen scholars attended.

"In 1821, Big Rock Township was divided into three, four or five town-

290 - HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.

ships. I fell in Pleasant Township, then comprising the present Richland, Pleasant and Green Camp Townships. The first election was held at D. Worlen's for one Justice of the Peace. There being no candidates, I selected W. Crawford, and he selected me, and thus there was a tie. The Clerk of Delaware County cast lots, and drew for Crawford. He married the first couple that I know of.* The bridegroom was to make him 200 rails for saying the ceremony; but two or three weeks afterward the young man said he charged too much, and he might undo it. (This was probably the same chap who afterward `ran away owin' more than he could pay.')

"In the fall of 1821, David Tipton sold out and moved away, and the next spring Squire Crawford resigned. John Staley and I were elected Justices in their place.

"The first death that I know of was that of a Mr. Klinger, who had moved upon the marsh between Beerbower's and Staley's in the cold, wet spring of 1821, when no planting could be done until June. He ran out of money and provisions, and thinking we would all starve he drowned himself in the river, leaving a wife and five or six children.

"The first religious society formed on the New Purchase was started by Christian Saylery (Staley?) and Jacob Idleman, who also had come in the spring of 1820, the former settling on the Whetstone and the latter on the race at State Camp. Their meetings were held from house to house, and by fall the society numbered thirty or forty members.

"Our first minister was a Welshman named Stewart, I think, from Radnor, a local preacher. He was with us frequently until the fall of 1821, when he died. James Murray was our first regular minister, arriving in the fall of 1821. He organized us into a society, remaining but a few months, when he attended conference, and was sent to the Delaware Circuit. Andrew Kinnear, I think, came in the spring of 1822.

"In 1825, I moved to Marion, where the first minister I heard was Mr. Bradford, a Baptist. After preaching one day at Eber Baker's residence, he wished to know how many professors of religion were present. Only two arose.

"In the spring of 1826, the first Sunday school in the county was organized by a Presbyterian minister. We raised $40 for a library. It was a union school, and was kept for some time in the brick schoolhouse.

"The first religious society formed in Marion was the Methodist, comprising Henry Peters, Mr. Hillman, John Ashbaugh and Benjamin Williams, with their families, and Thomas Anderson and wife."

BY JOSEPH MORRIS.

"My great-grandfather, George Morris, was a Scotchman by birth. He, with other children, was kidnaped and brought to America about 1680, and settled in New Jersey, where he is believed to have left, at his death, a large family. My grandfather, Anthony Morris, had a family of fourteen children, the most of whom lived to mature age. He died in 1804 - the year I was born. Some of his brothers emigrated South, perhaps to Virginia or North Carolina. My parents, Joseph and Rachel Morris, had twelve children, eleven of whom lived to the age of men and women. At present, only four are left. My parents removed with their family from New Jersey to Ohio in 1821, settling in Columbiana County, then comparatively new, building their cabin in the woods, amid bears, deer and wolves. My father died a few years afterward.

* Orrin (Owen?) Moore and Zubie (Azubah?) Wilcox.

HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY. - 291

"In 1828, I married Jane Warrington, and in 1837, we moved with our little family of three children to Richland Township, this county, settling upon the land where we now reside, which was entered at Bucyrus three years before, at $1.25 per acre. We have now seven children-one in Iowa, two in Tennessee and the rest near home.

"Our means of support whilst clearing the farm were limited, but wild game was plentiful, especially turkeys and deer. I remember to have trapped, in rail pens, twenty-six turkeys in one winter, a portion of which we salted and dried; this the Indians called `jerk.' These advantages, together with the liberal kindness of our few neighbors, made our situation quite comfortable. One evening, these lines came up in my mind with peculiar force:

"We are here on Marion soil,

Far from our kind relations;

The hope of rest makes light our toil

And lessens some privations.

"On another evening, a German man, of respectable appearance, came to me as I was chopping wood, having heard the sound of the ax. He was lost, and had wandered in the twilight of the evening, hunting some trail by which he might find his way home. Not being acquainted with each other's language, we were unable to converse. We entertained him at our house over night, making use of signs for language. After breakfast next morning, I learned from him what neighborhood he was from, and I went home with him. He has ever since been my neighbor, and a first-class Christian one, too. He died recently, aged about ninety years, leaving an aged, noble Christian woman. As an agent, .I sold him the 160-acre tract which is now a fine farm in the possession of his son Frederick.

"One evening, on the way to a neighbor's, by a dim moonlight I discovered some wild animal in the path before me, which I determined to kill. It turned upon me before I know what it was, and before I was fully prepared to meet it. I seized a club, and then noticed that I had a porcupine to contend with. I killed it, but afterward suffered considerably from the quills it thrust into my ankles, over my shoe-tops. Porcupines were common in those days, but they mostly perished during the cold winter of 1856.

"As money was scarce when we settled here, and we needed groceries, iron, leather, etc we exchanged field ashes at 5 cents a bushel for the necessaries, which teas a great convenience.

"When we first arrived here, we temporarily lived in an abandoned cabin until we could build our own, and thus we had for our nearest neighbors a family whose acquaintance we dreaded. We had been cautioned to avoid them under all circumstances. In a few days, the dreaded man brought us a pitcher of new milk, saying that he had noticed we had small children and no cow. A day or two afterward, he brought a plate of nice fish. For twenty-five years afterward-until their death-this family proved kind neighbors.

"In the absence of doctors-for whom, indeed, we had but little need -we used lobelia and white ash and white walnut bark, the two latter as cathartics.

"Hugh Alexander, au elderly man, who followed making shingles anal resided with a friend near the West Fork of the Whetstone, was missed ono spell of cold weather, and I do not remember that any search was made far him. Two or three years afterward, his rifle and some of his bones were

292 - HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.

0found within a half-mile of my house. He had probably frozen to death. He was an invalid, on account of having once frozen his feet.

Since 1843, I have followed the nursery business, in which I have been greatly encouraged by kind individuals in Marion, Upper Sandusky, Marysville and elsewhere, recommending me. And here I desire, also, to say that our township, Richland, is up with the best in respect to farms, roads, schools, character of the people, etc., and our County Infirmary, now under the Superintendence of Daniel Lawrence and wife, is in the care of those whose excellence of management cannot be over-estimated.