CHAPTER VII

RIDGE TOWNSHIP

Settlement of the Township—Incidents of Life Among the Pioneers—Two Large Trees—An Irishman Scares Away a Wolf—A Wild Cat Hunt—Early Elections—An Indian Tragedy—Indian Method of Writing—Experiences With Indians—Indian Remains—"Johnny Appleseed"—Some Recollections of the Gilliland Family and Early Day Anecdotes—The Gilliland and McCoy Families—Smith Hill--The Ridge and Gilliland Methodist Episcopal Churches—The First Sunday-School.

Ridge Township was settled in 1835-by Smith Hill and John Mark in May; by James Gordan Gilliland in July ; and by Thomas Adam, Robert and Hugh Gilliland and Peter Mills in October. William Priddy and his sons —Foster, Archelaus, Thomas D., John and William—settled here in the spring of 1836; also William and John Hill.

The general government had given the State a strip of land five miles wide along the proposed line of the canal for canal purposes, which could not be sold for less than $2.50 per acre, or twice what government land could be had for. Then there were some other land outside of this strip that had been selected Ili lieu of lands that had been previously entered in that strip along the canal before the grant was made, some of the land being located on the ridge west of the canal strip, thus making the land, that was held out of the market by reason of the additional price, a strip between six or seven miles wide lying between the settlement in Allen County and the available land for entry in Van Wert County. This was a barrier almost impassable the greater part of the year.

In 1837 Alexander and David W. McCoy and Daniel Beard settled in the south part of Ridge township. In 1839 Samuel S. Brown moved to the township.

INCIDENTS OF LIFE AMONG THE PIONEERS.

Shortly after settling in Ridge township. Smith Hill and John Mark, Methodists, and James G. Gilliland formed what they called a class and had prayer and class meetings on Sundays. On one Sunday, James G. Gilliland and his wife started to go to Hill's; after they had gone a short distance, Mrs. Gilliland said, "Hadn't you better go back and hide your money (several hundred dollars)—some one might steal it." He went back, took the money out of the chest where he had kept it and, lifting a puncheon in the floor, threw the money under. When they returned in the evening

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they found that the chest had been broken open. Not finding the money, the would be thief had searched the house pretty thoroughly, even looking up the chimney to see if it had been placed on the back wall of the chimney ; in doing this he had set his foot in the ashes, ,leaving a plain print of his shoe there. As the shoe had a home-made half-sole of peculiar shape, it was no trouble for Mr. Gilliland to remember it. A short time afterward he helped to raise a house in the neighborhood and when the men were lying on the ground at noon resting he found that the shoe with the peculiar half-sole belonged to one of his neighbors. While he never told any one but his brothers, it was noticeable that he never had any dealings with this man after the occurrence, although for 20 years or more they lived within two miles of each other and were considered near neighbors.

James G. Gilliland spent a considerable time showing land to parties wishing to enter. The land office issued plats showing what lands were vacant—these Mr. Gilliland would show to prospective buyers. At one time he started out with four men, all strangers to each other. Before they started, Mrs. Gilliland noticed one of the men crawl under bed and put his saddle-bags back in the farthest corner. The men were gone three days in the western part of the county. On their return this man, as soon as he came into the house (there was only one room in the house), crawled under the bed, got out his saddle-bags and explained that there was $2,000 in gold in them. Mr. Gilliland gave the man a good talking to for endangering the lives of his family, and said that he would not have gone away from home had he known that the money was in the house. At another time, five or six men who had been out several clays, concluded they wanted to go out on Sunday. After some objections they started. Night overtook them before they returned and the dog that was with the party treed a coon, which they endeavored to shoot, as it was a moonlight night. After shooting four or five times each, they noticed that one man's gun would not go off, and they accordingly accused him of not having it loaded, which he denied. After they had killed the coon, they examined his gun and found it was not loaded. Some of the men told Mr. Gilliland that the man was a class leader in the church at home.

Smith Hill was a great bee hunter, and while he was a large man, weighing nearly 200 pounds, he would climb the tallest tree and cut out the honey. He climbed a tree on the Jacob Balyeat farm in Ridge township 104 feet high. At another time he climbed an ash tree, where the bees were in a limb that ran straight out from the tree; he was standing up on the limb to chop, and had only struck one or two strokes, when the limb broke off and fell, leaving only a strip of wood about six inches wide that extended past his feet a foot or two. At one time he had found a bee tree north of the ridge and with one or two of his nephews went to get the honey. For some reason they did not take a gun. The dogs began barking and when Hill and his nephews came up they found a bear backed up against a tree fighting the dogs. Mr. Hill approached the bear with his axe, and the dogs, being encouraged by his presence, made a more furious attack; the bear's attention being thus attracted by the onslaught of its canine foes, Hill hit it, burying the bit of the axe nearly to the handle in the side of its head. At another time, when he and some of his nephews were starting out coon hunting in the snow, the dogs began barking at something in a treetop and Mr. Hill went up close, supposing it was a porcupine, as that was about the only thing the dogs would not tackle. When he got up pretty close, a very large bear made at him. In at-

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tempting to back out, his foot caught in a limb and he fell. When he regained his feet, the bear was almost upon him and he split its head open with an axe.

It was customary for Smith Hill, James G. Gilliland and Elihu Ireland to go hunting every fall in the north woods, either, in the northern part of this county or in Paulding county. One fall they camped on Prairie Creek. While the others were fixing camp, Mr. Gilliland started out to get some meat for supper. He had gone some distance when he shot a very large buck, which fell in its tracks. He set down his gun, took hold of the deer's horns, and drew its head back to cut its throat, when the deer came to and with its hair all turned forward, as is customary with deer when angry, began to struggle. Mr. Gilliland knew it was a death struggle for one or the other. After going around in a circle for some time, he succeeded in getting the deer's neck against a small sapuling. The deer would go around about as fast as Mr. Gilliland could, but at last when it ceased to struggle for an instant Mr. Gilliland let go the horn with one hand and drawing his hunting knife plunged it into the deer's throat, There was no time until then when Mr. Gilliland would not have been glad to have let the deer go if he could only have escaped. After examining the deer, it was found that when he shot it he only creased it scarcely the thickness of the ball.

During the same trip there was a heavy fall of snow, while the leaves were still on, and many trees were broken and bent ; when the snow was going off the next day there was a great crackling of timber, resembling the report of a discharge of a gun. When Mr. Gilliland was about a mile from camp, eight deer came close to him ; he shot the leader and when it fell the others commenced to play around it; Ile continued to load and discharge his gun asfast as he could and shot five, when the dog that they made stay at the camp, hearing the shots, ran in and scared the other three away. Hill and Ireland soon came running, thinking there had some accident happened. The five deer that he had killed lay in a space less than 30, feet square. Smith Hill found 13 bee trees,. Mr. Gilliland had killed eight deer, while Mr. Ireland had not had a shot at a deer, although he was as good a hunter in general as either of the others.

Shortly after the canal was built, two of the Gilliland brothers went to Delphos to mill. A man coming in with a sled-load of hogs for sale with their heads cut off (hogs were marked by cutting pieces out of their ears), they hollered "hog thief" at him. The next day an officer came with a warrant for them, but unfortunately for his case he had the names of two of the other brothers in the warrant. These two brothers secured their witnesses, made up a big sled-load from the neighborhood and town, went to Delphos and stood trial, and of course proved an alibi. As it was necessary to stay all night, they were gathered in Hollister, & Bliss' store for the evening and a party of them were playing cards, the most of the games being won by a Mr. Evans. James G. Gilliland, who had been looking on, remarked that he did not think that Mr. Evans won the games as much by his good playing as by the others' bad playing. Mr. Evans then said he would play Mr. Gilliland three games of "old sledge," his warehouse against Mr,. Gilliland's farm. Mr. Gilliland won all three games. The word spread all over the county in a short time and people would "holler" at Mr. Gilliland and ask him if he bought grain at his warehouse.

A man named Levi Rowland living on the edge of what was called the "Long Prairie" had a dream one night of having a fight with

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a wolf. The next morning when hunting his cows he heard their, bells across the prairie; when he came to the edge of the tall grass, he he recalled his dream and went back to the woods and cut him a heavy club. He had gone only a short distance when he ran onto a wolf ; the wolf showed fight and Mr. Rowland killed it with his club.

At that early day there were no mills nearer than Piqua or Fort Wayne, but there was a horse-mill in the southeast part of Ridge township owned by one Pool, where people could get their corn ground by furnishing a horse and driving. The burrs were upstairs and the horse went around down below, the meal came down a spout from above to the ground floor. They could grind two bushels of corn in a little less than a day. Jack Ireland tells that he went there once' with a bag of corn and along in the afternoon he noticed that there was no meal coming down the spout, although he was hurrying the horse all he could. He went upstairs and there stood two half-starved hounds that were eating the meal as fast as it came from the burrs.  .

In nearly every neighborhood there would be a family that possessed a hand-mill, where meal could be ground a little faster than the family could eat it. The Gillilands had one. One of the burrs was lost in a peculiar manner : Clarissa Gleason was teaching school in an old house that had belonged to Robert and Hugh Gilliland, where one of the burrs of the hand-mill was utilized as a dunce block. For some infraction of the rules, one of the pupils, Nancy Scott, had been seated on it, but the young lady's beau, a lad named James Mewhirter, in loyalty to his sweetweart climbed in the win-down, took the burr and threw it in the well.

Samuel S. Brown moved to Ridge township in 1839, and carried the mail between Van

Wert and Greenville. His wife could use an axe or gun equal to any of the men of the day and did a large part of the first clearing. It was not an uncommon thing to see her come in with half a dozen squirrels or a turkey.

James M. Young moved into the township at an early day and settled on the farm now owned by Mr. Baxter, Marion List and Mr. Steman. His wife, who was a good singer, had a strong, clear voice and could be heard distinctly a mile on a still evening.

At a time when there was no physician nearer than Lima, Charles Gilliland in felling a small tree broke his leg. His father sent for James G. Gilliland, his older brother, who set the limb, whittled splints out of hickory to keep the bones in place and made a box to keep the leg in place. It proved to be a good job and never gave Charles the least of trouble.

When coming to Van Wert County, James G. Gilliland brought with him his family, consisting of his wife and three children—Mrs. M. H. McCoy, the late Mrs. James Montgomery and Thaddeus S. He stopped at Bucyrus and left his family, while he selected and entered land in Ridge township. He traded one of his horses for a yoke of oxen at Bucyrus and reached Van Wert County in July, 1835. One of the oxen that he secured by this trade had the "trembles" (milk sickness) and whenever heated would fall down and tremble so that he was of little value. It took three days to come from the Big Auglaize to Smith Hill's camp, west of where the County Infirmary is now located. With the assistance of Smith Hill and Adam Gilliland, he built a log house, into which he moved and commenced clearing a farm. It was frequently necessary to take the clog into the house at night to protect the animal from the wolves, that often prowled around the house after (lark. Bears were very destruc-

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tive on the hogs and cornfields, at one time taking a good-sized shoat out of the pen in the yard.

When the writer was a boy, he had to walk around the corn field all clay with the dog and a rattle-trap, by some termed a horse-fiddle, to scare the squirrels away and at night the coons and bears would destroy nearly as. much as the squirrels did in daylight. At one time his father told some men in Van Wert that he would furnish the ammunition if they would come out and shoot squirrels. Four of them came out and killed 240 squirrels. The writer and two of the neighbor's boys carried home what they desired and left the rest. This was all clone around one field and in a short time the squirrels seemed to be as plentiful as ever. The family had a dog that would only go to the field when Mr. Gilliland was at home. The writer recollects that one night his father came home and had scarcely got in the house, when he heard a coon squall. He went out and killed it and threw it in the smoke house, but had scarcely got in the house until he heard another and this was repeated until he had killed nine. He went to bed while another was squalling, for he was tired out. The next morning when he went out he found that the dog had killed his coon, had laid it against the front door and lay there watching it. That year Mr. Gilliland sold over $100 worth of pelts, consisting of coon, bear and deer skins. Three buyers came from Fort Wayne and bid on them; each one took a chip and made his figures and the highest bidder, Mr. Ewing, got the pelts. Mr. Gilliland and Smith Hill bought fur for Ewing that year and took two wagon-loads to Fort Wayne in the spring, two yoke of oxen drawing each wagon. The pelts were loaded on hayracks and each load was as large as a ton of hay.

At one time M. H. McCoy caught a she wolf in a trap and dragged it home. That night three of her pups followed the trail to the house. It is said that wolves can't howl unless they sit down on their hind parts. That night these three young wolves sat clown in the dust in the road and set up a most dismal howl. The dog tried to jump through the window into the house, he was so badly scared. At another time McCoy heard a turkey gobble. Taking his gun, he went out into the woods and, secreting himself in a treetop that had fallen in such a manner that he would be screened from whichever way the turkey would come, commenced calling. He could hear the turkey coming, but just as it came in sight he heard a twig break behind him and turning around saw a wolf within to feet of him. He shot at it as it ran and wounded it, but was too badly scared to make as good a shot as he otherwise would have made.

M. H. McCoy bought the west half of the northwest quarter of section 16 in Ridge town-ship about 1855 for $9 an acre, and about two or three years afterward sold over $200 worth of walnut and ash timber off of two acres of the land.

TWO LARGE TREES.

A large white ash tree stood on the M. H. McCoy farm. When McCoy started out one morning, he told his wife that about noon she would feel the earth tremble but it was just sundown when the tree fell. It was seven feet across the stump; the first log, 12 feet long, made 1,266 feet of lumber and the tree 6,666 feet. A man by the name of C. Hotchkiss sawed the lumber and Dr. William Smith furnished the oxen and mud-boat to haul the logs on the snow.

There was a walnut tree on the Gilliland farm that measured 25 feet around, two feet above the ground. Wirt cut the tree. It made

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five logs, each 12 feet long to the first limb and a good log above that; and a log two feet thick out of the first limb. After trying in every way he could to haul it to the sawmill, as a last resort he split it into quarters with powder.

AN IRISHMAN SCARES AWAY A WOLF.

A wolf had run down a large buck and the deer made for Peter Will's house for protection; the deer would run around the house and the family within could hear it strike its horns against the house in the night. In the morning Mrs. Wills slipped out and went to her brother, J. G. Gilliland, for him to come and shoot the wolf. An Irishman happened to be at Gilliland's and he was told to stay at the house or he would scare the wolf. Just as the wolf was seen by Mr. Gilliland, the Irishman "hollered," "There he is, shoot the baste." That was warning enough for the wolf, which immediately left for. tall timber, leaving behind a very angry man (Gilliland) and a disappointed Irishman.

A WILD CAT HUNT.

Bill Parent, Sam Engleright and half a dozen Van Wert men went out to the cat swamp on the McMillen and McCoy farms, where they started several wild cats, which would run the length of the thicket, then cross the road into the other and go the whole length of that and then cross over. After the hunters had run one until the hounds were getting tired, they went to McCoy's home and asked McCoy if he would hold his bulldog in the road and when the cat crossed the road have the dog catch it and hold it until the hounds came up. They would then take the bull dog off and let the hounds and the cat fight. When the wild cat came out of the brush, it started through the clearing with the clog after it. They came to a large log which both jumped at the same time.

The dog then turned around, stood with his fore feet on the log and looked at the men, who upon their arrival 30 seconds later found that the cat was dead. The bull dog had caught it back of the shoulder as it went over the log and crushed it. They told McCoy to take his clog home, as he was spoiling the fun. Later in the day one of the hounds and a wild cat met in McCoy's back yard. The cat and hound both reared up, clinched and rolled on the ground together and the hound would have soon been torn to pieces had not two other hounds come to his relief. As it was he was in a sorry plight. Four wild cats killed was the result of the clay's hunt.

EARLY ELECTIONS.

The following is a copy of the first election poll book in Ridge township :

Poll book of an election held iii Ridge township, Van Wert County, Ohio, on the 24th day of June, 1837. John Hill, James G. Gilliland, and Adam Gilliland, judges; and William Nuttle and Robert Gilliland, clerks of said election.

ROBERT GILLILAND,

WILLIAM NUTTLE, Clerks.

JOHN HILL,

JAMES G. GILLILAND,. Judges.

ADAM GILLILAND,

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It seems that of the judges and clerks, only John Hill voted at this election.

At an election held on the loth day of October, 1837, Thomas Gilliland was elected justice of the peace. His commission was dated October 21, 1837.

The next election was held on the and day of April, 1838; David King, William Priddy and John Hill served as judges, and Robert Gilliland and Oliver Stacy as clerks. Nathan Davis and David McCoy were elected trustees, Oliver Stacy, clerk, and Robert Gilliland, treasurer.

AN INDIAN TRAGEDY.

About the time of the first settling of the county, a party of Indians were camped on the bank of Dog Creek, east of where the County Infirmary now is, and were sitting around their camp-fires, when all at once two young Indians sprang to their feet and plunged their knives into each other's hearts, both falling dead at the same time. The trouble was about their sweetheart. There is another version to this story, which is given elsewhere. They were buried side by side in the same grave; a pen of small poles was built over it and covered in the same manner, and a small hole about over their hearts was made between two poles by cutting a little notch in each pole. This as long as the Wyandots were here was every year stained red with pokeberry juice. As long as William Martin owned the farm, he respected their resting place, and would not allow it to be farmed over; but since then all trace of the grave has been obliterated.

INDIAN METHOD OF WRITING.

Mr. Gilliland was coining home from town when he saw an Indian standing by a beech tree looking with very much interest at a pictureof a deer, that had been lately cut in the bark. He explained to Mr. Gilliland what the picture meant. He said that a number of Indians were hunting on Prairie Creek, that they had killed a certain number of deer and that deer were very plenty. He pointed to the different parts of the picture as he explained what each meant.

EXPERIENCES WITH INDIANS.

Once, while the Wyandot Indians were still here Elmyra Gilliland (now Mrs. M. H. McCoy) and her cousin, Elizabeth Gilliland, were hunting the cows about a mile from home, when they came across an Indian camp and saw smoke coming out of one of the huts. Elizabeth became so frightened that she ran away in terror, lost her bonnet and would not stop to pick it up. Elmyra, who was more inquisitive, went up and threw down one of the slabs of which the huts were constructed, looked in and then drove her cows home. They were not aware that there were any Indians near until then.

Many of the Indians were very friendly and would frequently stay all night at the writer's father's house, and would talk quite freely if there were none but the family present, but if any strangers were about it was difficult to get them to say a word. Of one Indian in particular, whose name was Half John, the writer was quite fond. His hair was so long that it reached down to the seat on which he sat, and the writer used to slip up, pull his hair and then run away. He used to say that he wanted his venison cooked so that when he was eating it the blood would run out of each .. side of his mouth.

John Lake and Spike Buck were also well-known Indians at that time. In visiting the old Mission Church at Upper Sandusky in August last (1905) , the writer noticed a tomb-

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stone at the grave of one of the sons of Spike Buck; also of several of the Solomons, the American name for Tawohesackwaugh. An Indian of this name was tried for murder at Van \Vert in 1840.

In 1839 Samuel S. Brown moved his family into Ridge township, settling on the property now known as the Snodgrass farm. He was away from home much of the time, carrying the mail between Greenville to Van Wert. One evening three drunken Indians came to the cabin and ordered Mrs. Brown to get them supper, which she did. After eating their supper, they danced and yelled and then left without doing any harm. After that, if Indians were seen approaching, the latch string was pulled in, which was then the method of locking the doors.

At one time two drunken Indians rode up to the Gilliland home, one being so drunk that he fell off his pony. They came to the door, but the men being away they were not admitted. They then went to the window and tried to trade a cake of sugar weighing five or six pounds for their breakfast. They would take bites from it to show that it was not poison. Finding they could not make the trade, they got on their ponies, after several falls, and rode out of the lane as fast as the ponies could run.

One day in 1839 Sarah Gilliland was teaching school in the McCoy and Beard neighbor-hood, when a drunken Indian, by the name of Snakehead, came in and scared the teacher and scholars very badly. About half the scholars were red-headed, and the Indians never liked red-headed people. Snakehead would pat Daniel Norman on the head and say "Nice Papoose," then he would take M. H. McCoy by the hair and pull him around, give a big whoop and run his knife around and say, "Indian scalp him." Mrs. Beard saw that there was was something wrong and arming herself witha handspike drove Snakehead away. He went off muttering "Brave squaw. Brave squaw." He then went to David McCoy's, where he was told that if he would give up his knife and tomahawk he might stay all night. He curled clown on the hearth and slept until morning. In the morning he was duly sober and sorry for what he had done. He said, "All Cook whisky." Daniel Cook sold whisky to who-ever had money to pay for it, although it was against the law to sell whisky to Indians.

INDIAN REMAINS.

The following information was contributed by L. D. Moore, of Ridge township. "Sometime in the fall of 1897, as late I think as November, while digging for sand to be used in building our County Infirmary, the laborers struck with their spades what upon examination proved to be a human skull. All fell at once to carefully exhuming the remains, which were rather. in a decayed condition, having had practically no protection save the soil and earth surrounding it. The skull held intact, however, for some time, and was a matter of curiosity to hundreds of people. Several physicians made examinations and all seemed to agree that it was the remains of a white man, as the cavity in the jaw had neatly shrunk where the molars had been extracted.

"No other evidence could be found other than two small arrow-heads, possibly in the pockets at the time of burial. The skeleton seemed to occupy rather a sitting or cramped position and was not deeper than two feet below the surface. It was on a plot of ground that had possibly been cleared for three quarters of a century and in continuous cultivation. The location is in Ridge township on the south side of the Ridge road and but three rods southeast of the site formerly occupied by the first Meth-

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odist church ever erected in Van Wert County, on land now occupied by L. D. Moore. The general verdict at that time was that of murder or at least death and burial under mysterious circumstances.

"To my personal knowledge the skeletons of three Indians have been unearthed in this vicinity within recent years. One was found while grading for piking on the line between Ridge and Washington townships, a stone's throw south of the residence of B. F. Johnson; and the other two on the land formerly owned by an old pioneer, William Martin, the old nurseryman. Tradition has it that those two lost their lives in a duel fought over a squaw as a love affair, the parties lashing their left wrists together and fighting to the death with the dirk. The exact location of the graves of these two chiefs was well known to many of the older residents of the neighborhood, and the time was when the spot was surrounded by a rude pole fence, but as time can smooth the wrinkled brow of care, so possibly the last remaining vestige of the evidence of that noble race has been blotted from the present limits of our county.

"On a bright Sabbath morning the community awakened to the fact that those graves had given up their dead. Some ghoul in human form had stolen the remains from among us and had left as a token only a few teeth, some Indian trinkets and a pipe."

"JOHNNY APPLESEED."

John Chapman, or as he was better known "Johnny Appleseed," was an eccentric, character who came originally from New England. He had imbibed the idea that he could do the most for his fellowmen by planting and rearing apple trees from the seed. He was first heard of in Ohio, when he left Western Pennsylvania and descended the Ohio River in his canoe, which was well laden with bags of apple seed. He always kept on the outskirts of civilization. He would enter a new settlement, clear and fence a small piece of ground, plant it in apple seed and then pass on to the next settlement and would not be seen again until the trees were ready to transplant, when he would notify the settlers to come and get their trees. He would sell them for anything the settlers had to give in exchange. If any were too poor to buy, they got their trees all the same. An old hat, coat, pair of pants, shirt or Fair of shoes was current with him and the love of humanity, his religion.

In 1839 he came to the home of Alexander McCoy, then just moved into Ridge township, and asked for a piece of ground in which to plant apple seed. McCoy told him that he had no ground cleared that he could fence to protect the trees, but informed Johnny that Daniel M. Beard, who lived about a mile farther south, had been in the locality longer than he and had more cleared land. He stood near the fire, where they were burning brush, and seemed to hate to leave the warmth. He was thinly clothed, his pantaloons were much too short and he wore an old pair of. shoes without stockings. He went on to Beard's where he was furnished a piece of ground, properly fenced with a good log and brush fence. He planted the seed carefully and went on to the next place. He never came back to Beard's to look after his trees. Mr. Beard grafted many of them and supplied many of the neighbors with the first trees for their. orchards.

The orchard on the Samuel S. Brown farm was started from "Johnny Appelseed's" nursery, and many of the apples were equal to the Lest grafted fruit. He planted a nursery on the farm known as the Evers farm, west of Van Wert. He also furnished apple trees for

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William Johns to plant. The writer believes he was an uncle to Mrs. Johns. He asked Mrs. Gilliland to raise her oldest girl (later Mrs. M. H. McCoy) for him for a wife, and seemed to be in real earnest. She told him that he ought to get a wife nearer his own age. He said, "No, she might have loved some one else first." Continuing, he said, "Won't you raise her for. for me." Mrs. Gilliland replied that he ought not to have asked such a thing. He seemed to take it to heart and never came to the house afterward.

When giving out his trees to the settlers, he seemed to derive the greatest satisfaction from it. He delighted in it as the passion of his life.

His personal appearance was as singular as his character. He was quick and restless in his motions and conversation. His beard and hair were long and dark and his eyes black and sparkling. He lived the roughest of lives and often slept in the woods. His clothing was .mostly old cast-off articles given to him in exchange for apple trees. He went barefoot in the summer and often until late in the fall. In doctrine he was a follower of Swedenborg and led a moral, blameless life, likening himself to the primitive Christians, literally taking no thought for the morrow. Wherever he went, he circulated Swedenborgian literature, and if short of them he would tear a book in two and give each part to different persons. He was careful not to injure any person and thought hunting was morally wrong. He would not eat meat, as it was necessary to kill one of God's creatures to obtain it. He was everywhere welcome among the settlers and was treated with great kindness by the Indians.

It is said that one cool night, while lying by his campfire in the woods, he noticed that the mosquitoes flew into the fire and were burned. Johnny, who wore on his head a tin utensil, which answered both as a cap and a mush-pot,filled it with water and quenched the fire. Afterward he remarked, "God forbid that I should build a fire for my comfort that should be the means of destroying any of His creatures."

At another time he built a fire at the end of a hollow log in which he intended to pass the night, but finding it occupied by a she bear and her cubs, he removed the fire to the other end of the tree and slept on the snow in the open air rather than disturb the bear. He was one morning mowing on a prairie when a rattle-snake bit him. Sometime afterward a friend asked him about the circumstance. 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 on his head and went home. Sometime afterward I went 'there for my scythe and there the poor fellow lay dead." He bought a coffee sack, cut a hole in the bottom, through which he thrust his head, and wore the sack as a cloak, saying that it was as good as anything.

An itinerant preacher was holding forth in the Public Square at Mansfield and exclaimed, "Where is the barefooted Christian traveling to Heaven." Johnny, who was lying on his back on some timber, taking the question in its literal sense, raised his bare feet in the air and said, "Here he is."

John Chapman was born near Springfield, Massachusetts, in the year 1775, and came to Ohio in 1801 with his half brother. Soon after, Johnny located in Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh, and began the nursery business, which he continued on West. In 1839, after calling on his old friends in the eastern part of the State, he resolved to go farther West. Villages were springing up, stage coaches were laden with passengers, schools were everywhere, and frame and brick houses were taking the place of the cabins that had extended a welcome shelter in

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the early days. Johnny went around among his friends to bid them farewell. The young people that had welcomed him in the early day: were now heads of families. His work was done and he rejoiced in the fruits of his labor but was not ready to rest from his labor. There was still work on the frontier, and thither he directed his footsteps. He died March 11, 1845 in Saint Joseph township, Allen County, Indiana, at the house of William Worth, and was buried two and a half miles north of Fort Wayne.

His bruised and bleeding feet now walk the golden-paved streets of the New Jerusalem. A life full of labor, pain and unselfishness, humble unto self-abnegation ; his memory glowing in the hearts of his friends; while his deeds live anew every springtime in the fragrance of the apple blossoms he loved so well.

The following bit of a poem, from the pen of Mrs. F. S. Dill, of Wyoming, Hamilton county, Ohio, is worth recording here :

Grandpa stopped and from the grass at our feet

Picked up an apple, large, juicy, and sweet.

Then took out his jackknife and, cutting a slice,

Said, as he ate it, "Isn't it nice

To have such apples to eat and enjoy.

Well, there weren't very many when I was a boy,

For the country was new, e'en food was scant,

We had hardly enough to keep us from want.

And this good man as he went around,

Oft eating and sleeping upon the ground,

Always carried and planted apple seeds.

Not for himself but for other's needs.

The apple seeds grew and we today

Eat of the fruit planted by the way.

While Johnny, bless him, is under the sod.

His body is—ah ! he is with God.

For child, though it seemed a trifling deed,

For a man just to plant an apple seed,

The apple-trees' shade, the flowers, the fruit,

Have proved a blessing to man and to brute.

Look at the orchards throughout the land,

All of them planted by old Johnny's hand.

He will forever remembered be

I wish to have all so think of me."

SOME RECOLLECTIONS OF THE GILLILAND FAM-
ILY AND EARLY DAY ANECDOTES.

(Given by T. S. Gilliland at the family reunion on the
27th of October, 1904).

The Gilliland family came from County Down, in the North of Ireland. They were Scotch-Irish. There were seven sons and four daughters, their names as follows : James, Thomas, Hugh, Adam, Andrew, Robert and John ; Jane, Mary, Sarah and Catherine. The family came up to the Roosevelt idea, as most of the Gilliland families do. Three of the brothers came to America in advance of the rest. of the family.

When the mother and father came, as they were about to sail, one of the daughters, Catherine, left the vessel and married, contrary to the wishes of the family, and it is said her name was never mentioned in the family thereafter. It is said that when the mother met the three boys she was much shocked at the color of their teeth—they had learned to chew tobacco.

Jinnie Jordan, an old Irish woman, used to say that every Sabbath, the father and mother first, then the two oldest children, then the next two, and so on to the youngest, would go to church, and that was kept up after the older ones were men and women. They were Presbyterians.

The family settled in Maryland, near Hagerstown. John Gilliland, or Jack as he was familiarly called, and one of his brothers went up in the Northwestern part of Pennsylvania and took up a "tomahawk right" claim; that is, they blazed around a piece of land which gave them a title to it. On their return, the Indians pursued them for 30 miles, until within sight of Fort Duquesne, now Pittsburg. They were seldom out of sight of the Indians, for as they would ascend one hill they would see the Indians coming over the one behind. John Gilli-

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land killed a fine mare in the race and was so disgusted that he gave his claim to one of his brothers, who improved it. There is now a large settlement of the Gillilands in that part of the State, many of them wealthy farmers. Two of the brothers settled in Greenbrier county, Virginia, and later went to Eastern Tennessee. They married rich planters' daughters and became slaveholders. It was a source of regret to their mother that her boys held slaves. It is said of one of the boys that when quite a lad he hired out to neighboring farmers to drive a cart. It was noticed that when he met a neighboring squire in his carriage that he would drive out of the road and take off his hat till the squire passed. Someone asking- him what he did that for, he said, "Don't you have to do do that when you meet a squire?" They told him that a squire in this country was no better than any one else. The lad thought it over and concluded that he. would make the squire give the road the next time. It so happened that the next time they met it was on a narrow piece of road with a deep mire at the side. The lad stopped his cart and the squire his carriage. They eyed each other and finally the squire told the lad to drive out of the road. "No," said the lad, "you give the road this time," and enforced his command by pulling a stake out of his cart and swinging it in front of the squire and telling him to drive on. This the squire did, and mired down, while the lad mounted his cart and drove on, feeling that he had asserted his rights as an American citizen, much to the amusement of the bystanders, who were watching the performance. Two brothers moved to Virginia, and finally to Eastern Tennessee, as stated above; two to Northwestern Pennsylvania ; and two to Eastern Ohio, west of Pittsburg. The other brother, John, remained in Maryland. He married Jane Briggs and raised a large family as his father before him had done, the children being named as follows : James Gordon (named for Lord Gordon, of Ireland), John, Nancy (Mrs. Peter Wills), Thomas, Adam, Sarah (Mrs. George Guy), Robert, Jane (Mrs. Theophilus King), Hugh and William. The last named died when quite young. John Gilliland served .in the Continental Army, and was at the battle of Yorktown and at the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. He died in 1826 from injuries received in an explosion. James G. Gilliland was then 22 years old and on him depended the rearing of the family as John, the next younger, had married and moved away. The other boys were quite young. In 1833 James G. Gilliland and a Mr. Wise came West, walking from Gettysburg to Fort Wayne and back. In 1834 Peter Wills moved to near Tiffin and the rest of the Gilliland family moved to Bucyrus and remained there during the summer of 1835, raising a crop on the farm of a Mr. Shaffner.

The Gilliland family moved to Ridge town-ship in 1835, where James G. Gilliland entered 240 acres of land in section 9, 80 acres where the Infirmary is and 8o acres just east of the Infirmary, where John Johnson lives. This last mentioned tract he gave to his brothers for keeping their mother her lifetime. This they sold the same fall to the Parmleys for $1,000 and each of them was able to enter land for himself. When the family was at Bucyrus, two of the brothers went out limiting and got lost. An old Indian piloted them out of the woods and then told them he could tell them how they could go hunting and never get lost. They told him they wished he would. He said, "Go out all around the field and keep looking at the fence." At another time two of them were out hunting and were very hungry, when they came to an Indian wigwam. There was no one at home. They went in and found some jerked meat and were eating it when an Indian came

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in. He looked at them -a moment and asked, "White man like wolf meat?" That satisfied their appetite. The Indians had jerked the wolf meat for their dogs. To prepare jerked meat, the Indians used to build a big fire and let it burn down into a bed of coals. Then they would drive forks in the ground, lay poles in these forks, then smaller sticks across these about two foot above the coals, and on these sticks strips of meat, after being salted, were laid. In this way the meat would be partly cooked, partly smoked and thoroughly dried, and would keep for months. The writer has known his father, James G. Gilliland, to bring a whole grain sack full of jerked meat home from some of his hunting trips. Adam Gilliland married one of the daughters of Mr. Shaffner, on whose farm they were farming while at Bucyrus.

When James G. Gilliland moved to Ridge township he was four days coming from the Big Auglaize to Smith Hill's camp. The first home was built of poles and covered with him bark. Later in the fall a better one was built of round logs and covered with clapboards held in place with weight poles instead of nails. During the fall of 1835 three men stopped for a drink, and said that the family would soon have neighbors (the nearest ones then, except Hill and John Mark, being 15 miles away), as they were going to lay out a town about three miles west. The Gillilands afterward learned that these were Aughenbaugh, Riley and Marsh.

When provisions ran low Mr. Gilliland went to Allen County and bought hard roasting ears, which were brought home and grated on a grater made by him out of part of a tin bucket by punching holes in it with a nail.

Later in the season he went to Piqua to mill and paid $1 a bushel and had the grain ground. He tried to buy flour. but there was none for sale, although there was flour there to give away to those who were not able to buy. (It was sent from Zanesville.) They told Mr. Gilliland that if he would say he was in need and had no money they would give him a barrel, but this he refused to do. While there he saw a rich man from Mercer county get flour. Father asked how he managed to get it. "Well," he said, "I had nothing to eat at home and had nO money to buy, and they gave it to me." At that time he was worth five times as much as was Mr. Gilliland. It took two weeks to make the trip to Piqua and return with an ox team. The Gillilands went to Dayton for groceries, and to Sandusky City for salt. The writer once heard his Uncle Peter Mills say that he carried a sack of salt from Sandusky City on horseback. Mr. Gilliland once went to Kalida for crocks and on the way home lost the trail after night. He lay clown to wait for the moon to come up, and fell asleep. He was awakened by something putting its cold nose against his face. It ran away and set up a howl and then he knew it was a wolf. For several years some of the family would go to Piqua to mill with an ox team.

John Gilliland was a blacksmith by trade and had moved to Logansport, Indiana. His mother and brothers wanted him to move here on a farm, but 'to do so he would have had to come around by way of Piqua. So the brothers and Peter Wills cut the road from four miles west of Van Wert through to Fort Wayne. After that Fort Wayne was the milling point, being 35 miles distant instead of 72 to Piqua.

Once James G. Gilliland went to Fort Wayne to mill and found about two acres covered with wagons waiting for their grists. He unloaded his grain and then asked the miller how soon he could get his grinding, and was told that it would not be under two weeks. He said that his family would starve before that time as they did not have provisions to last that

148 - HISTORY OF VAN WERT COUNTY

long. Some of the men spoke up and said that he was no better than they were and they had been there two weeks. Mr. Gilliland chained his oxen to the wagon and fed them. As soon as it was dark he bought a gallon jug, had it filled with the best brandy and then took it up and hid it in the bran pile. He told the miller that he had hid something nice in the bran pile and that when the hopper was about empty he should go down stairs and he (Gilliland) would throw in his grain. The miller told him that the others would not let him grind it. Mr. Gilliland replied that he was a miller by trade and would grind it himself, and so it was arranged. First he stuffed some rags in the bell so it would not ring. He then untied his sacks and was ready when the hopper run empty. He had more than half his grain in the hopper before the others noticed what he was doing. Then they caught him and some of them held him while others hunted up the miller. The miller came up in a great rage, apparently, and a quarrel ensued. The miller threw off his coat and Mr. Gilliland did the same. The miller finally said, "Well, he is a fool, I won't grind his grist, and he will spoil his flour and we will be rid of him." Mr. Gilliland appeared to be disappointed because the miller would not grind the grist and began to beg the miller to grind it, but the miller went off, refusing to touch it. That partly pacified the others. Mr. Gilliland ground his grist and started home the next morning.

The first winter after the Gillilands came to Ridge township, his brother Hugh came to James G. Gilliland's place and wanted the latter to go coon hunting with him. James told him that he had never seen a coon track and would not know one if he should see it. Hugh said he had seen them in the mud at Bucyrus. So they started north and soon came to where there was a regular path between two trees.

They cut one of them down and put the family's little fiste (dog) in the top of the tree; he would come out at the bottom.. They did this several times and were about to give up when Hugh happened to look in the stump and there lay five coons apparently not disturbed by the falling of the tree. They killed 14 coons that day and Hugh was so proud of his share that he said he would carry them home that night. He carried them as far as where the James M. Young farm is and threw them down in the snow, to lie there until morning.

The first house built in Van Wert was the Court House, a double log cabin with a space between, which was used as a prison during court. It was covered with clapboards, and held in place with weight boards instead of nails. William Priddy had the contract to build it. At the raising, he brought ear corn to grate to make corn bread, and James G. Gilliland killed a deer about where the Third Ward schoolhouse is ; when they were bringing in the deer, Smith Hill found a bee tree near where the deer was killed, so they had corn bread, honey and venison. Some of the men to help raise the house came from Allen County.

The Gillilands' nearest neighbors, excepting Smith Hill and John Mark, were 15 miles away at Willshire and on the Big Auglaize, and north it was 40 miles without a house. There were plenty of Wyandot Indians here. One in particular used to stay all night at the Gilliland house. His hair was so long that when he sat down it would reach the chair. The writer remembers that he liked to slip up and pull the Indian's hair. Half John, John Lake and Spike Buck are Indian names that are familiar after 6o years have passed. The first citizens of Van Wert in the early clays adopted the Indian custom on holidays and elections, of selecting one of their number to keep sober : the rest

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of them could get as drunk as they chose, but they would always obey the "Sober Indian," as he was called.

A practical joke that reacted on the originators occurred about this time. Samuel S. Brown carried the mail between Greenville and Van Wert once a week on horseback. Frank Dodds, Frank Mott, S. M. Clark and Bill Parent and one or two others concluded they would have Brown get a pint of good whisky from Greenville as they would not drink Dan Cook's whisky. They decided they would not let Jim Graves have any. But the secret was too good to keep and some one told Graves' wife. Well you know how that goes. The day that Brown was to come, Jim Graves went south along the Grenville road and sat down on a log and waited. When Brown came along, Graves said, "Mr. Brown, the boys are across the creek hunting and wanted me to get that pint of whisky and bring it over to them." Graves got the whisky and when Brown reached town they were all out looking for him, wanting to know if he had brought the whisky. You can imagine their feelings when he said, "I gave it to Jim Graves. He said you were hunting over on the other side of the creek and had sent him over for it."

Smith Hill used to tell that he was sitting in his camp, which was 12 feet square covered with linn bark and open on one side, when he saw a young woman coming along the trail, carrying a little boy, with a little girl following. Mrs. M. H. McCoy was the little girl and the writer was the boy. Mr. Gilliland and his brother, Adam, came up with the team later on.

Mrs. James G. Gilliland, who had the rheumatism so that she couldn't walk, one night crawled on her hands and knees 200 yards trying to get a shot at a bear that was eating the corn.

When James G. Gilliland went to mill, which was only twice a year, his family always had a feast of biscuits made of the shorts and his brothers' families frequently shared the feast also. But most of the year it was corn bread.

The writer recollects hearing Mr. Scott say that he was with Wayne's army, when they went through here and that they camped between Prairie Creek and Blue Creek. In the night some of their oxen strayed off and they could not find them, which compelled them to abandon two of their brass cannon. He said they took them into a deep swale, took off the wheels and left them. So if any one should find them, they will know how they came there.

A bee hunter when he found a bee tree would mark his name on it and that would remain his tree until he wished to cut it. One of the neighbors found a bee tree and marked it, but the next time he passed it he found his name had been cut off and Scott's put in its place. That was not to be tolerated. Some of the neighbors decided to cut the tree but for fear Scott would hear them chop, they took a log chain, put it around the tree and drew it as tightly as they could, so as to deaden the sound. They cut the tree and were just leaving with two big buckets of honey when they heard Scott coming through the woods. He never knew who cut the tree.

Smith Hill and some of his nephews were out coon hunting. They had tracked up a coon and were chopping the tree, when the dogs commenced barking in a treetop near by. Hill set his gun against a tree and went over to the dogs with his axe. When he got close up in the treetop, a very large bear came at him, and he tried to back out, when his heel caught in a brush and he fell. When he got to his feet, the bear was almost onto him and he was compelled to fight. He sunk the bit of the axe into

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its head and killed it. It was very large and very fat. The writer recollects eating some of it.

THE GILLILAND FAMILY.

The early history of the Gilliland family has been quite fully entered into on preceding pages. John Gilliland, the father of James G. Gilliland and his brothers, was 63 years of age at his death in 1826. His wife, Jane (Briggs) Gilliland, died November 13, 1858, aged 83 years. Of their to children, nine lived to maturity. The children's names were as follows : James Gordon, born May 3, 1800; John, born January 28, 1803; Thomas, born October 22, 1806; Adam, born October 19, 1808; Nancy, born September 14, 1810, who married Peter Wills and raised a large family; Robert, born February 2, 1813; Sarah, born April 3, 1815, who married George Guy and died within 30 days of her marriage; Hugh, born October 14, 1817; William, born September 1, 182o, who died at two years of age ; and Jane, born February 14, 1824, who married Theophilus King and left one child at her death,—Mary Ellen Swineheart.

The sons all remained in Van Wert County until their deaths, leaving large families. At their family reunion in August, 1905, 206 of the family sat down to the table at once. It is the boast of the family that there has never been one accused of a crime or been arrested for a misdemeanor.

THE M'COY FAMILY.

Two brothers, David W. and Alexander McCoy, came to the county in 1837 and endured the hardships of pioneer life and left a record of good citizenship and upright lives. Of large families, but two of David W. McCoy's family are now living—William Creighton McCoy and Mrs. Elenor Harnley. Of Alexander McCoy's family there are yet living Moses H., Alexander R., Joseph G. and Almira Vanatta.

SMITH HILL

Came to Van Wert County, May 4, 1835, and settled in Ridge township. At that time there was not a white family in the county except in Willshire township. He and Aunt Julia Ann, as his wife was called by all that knew her, built a camp of poles and covered it with linn bark. It was open in front and a fire was kept before it for the purpose of cooking and as a protection from wild animals. Here they were living when the Gillilands came to the county. Hill was a great hunter, and made a good living from the pelts that he secured. He always kept two or three good coon dogs and a deer-hound. He was also a great bee hunter. If he found a bee on a flower in the woods, he would seldom fail to follow it to the tree and secure the honey by climbing and cutting the honey out.

Smith Hill, Elihu Ireland (a brother-in-law) and James G. Gilliland always camped out in the fall of the year to hunt. Hill spent most of his time hunting bees of a clear day and Ireland and Gilliland would hunt for deer. During ,these camping trips Hill always held prayers night and morning, as regularly as at home. He was a good singer and of a still morning or evening his voice could be heard for a great distance, although he was not a loud singer.

But Hill's greatest enjoyment was at quarterly or protracted meetings and he would go a great distance to spend a week at such meetings.

Smith Hill and his wife had no children of their own, which was a source of regret. Yet

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they were seldom without a large family of young people of their relatives or others. Their latch string was always out. "Uncle Smith" was always ready with good advice and counsel. The writer recollects that a young man once said in Hill's hearing that he had sworn that he would whip a certain man if he ever met him, for some wrong the man had done him, when he was a boy. "Uncle Smith" said, "A bad oath is better broken than kept. Then you will have one sin to repent of. If you keep it, you will have two." "Uncle Smith" and "Aunt Julia Ann" have both passed over the river and are reaping the rewards of their well-spent lives here below.

THE RIDGE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

The first religious society in Ridge township was formed at the home of William Hill by Rev. O. Conoway, although prior to this Smith Hill had formed a class composed of himself and wife, John Mark and wife and James G. Gilliland and wife, which class met at Hill's every Sunday. At the time of the organization, the membership consisted of William Hill and wife, Smith Hill and wife, John Hill and wife, John Mark and wife, William Priddy and wife and some of the family and Oliver Stacy and wife. They met for a time at the house of William Hill, later at a log schoolhouse on the farm of William Martin and then at a hewed-log schoolhouse on the King farm near Middlepoint until 1848, when they built a frame church on the land of William Martin. This church was used until 1874 when they built a brick church on the farm of Ebson Stewart. Smith Hill was the first class leader and held that position for over 5o years. The first camp-meeting was held on the farm of William Martin, opposite where is now the Ridge Cemetery. Later the camp-grounds were locatedon the farm of Henry Harrod, now the Walser farm.

THE GILLILAND METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH

Was organized at an early day with the following members : Hugh Gilliland and wife, Sarah Gilliland (wife of Adam Gilliland), Elizabeth Cavett (wife of William Cavett), Christian Harnley and wife and A. T. Priddy and wife. The Gilliland Methodist Episcopal Church for a number of years met in the school-house on the Thomas Gilliland farm. In 1857 they built a frame church on the farm of Hugh Gilliland. Among the early ministers were: Rev. N. B. C. Love, 1854 and 1855; Rev. Nathan Gavet, 1856; Rev. G. O. McPherson, 1858; Rev. William Baker, 1859; Rev. Franklin Merritt, 1860; Rev. James F. Mounts and Rev. A. Belt, 1861 ; Rev. James F. Mounts and Rev. B. A. Webster, 1862 ; Rev. B. A. Webster and Rev. H. L. Nickerson, 1863; Rev. Lemuel Herbert and Rev. Caleb Hill, 1864; Rev. Lemuel Herbert and Rev. Nathaniel Hupp, 1865; Rev. Francis Hogan and Rev. Nathaniel Hupp, 1866; Rev. Nathaniel Hupp and Rev. J. Harper, 1867; Rev. James F. Mounts and Rev. W . Beiler, 1868; Rev. James F. Mounts, 1869; Rev. Isaac N. Kalb and Rev. Nathaniel Hupp, 1870; Rev. Nathaniel Hupp and Rev. L. W. Patrick, 1871 ; Rev. Josiah Crooks, 1873, Rev. Caleb Hill, 1876 ; Rev. James F. Mounts, 1877.

The present brick church was built in 1880 ; in 1902 it was rebuilt and a vestibule added. The present membership is 6o. The church is free from debt and perfect harmony exists among its members. It is supplied by the Van Wert circuit, of which it is a part.

THE FIRST SUNDAY-SCHOOL

In Ridge township was organized at the home of Daniel Beard by Rev. B. W. Chidlow in 1840.

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After Mr. Chidlow had been up through this part of the country and was telling about traveling for long distances through the woods without seeing a house, some of the company asked how he could find his way. He said,"By blazes on the trees." A lady in the audience said, "Now, Mr. Chidlow, would you tell us such things. Who was there to keep up the fires?"