Ashland County, Ohio - Chapter 26: Organization Ok Wayne and Richland Counties, 1880

vVaynf, was the third county established in the territory ceded by the Indian tribes to the United States at the treaty of Greenville in 1795, and was the largest county in the United States. Its original limits embraced nearly all of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Governor Arthur St. Clair erected | Wayne county by proclamation, about ten years before j the township and sectional surveys were made by the j United States. As early as 1808 the site of Wooster : was purchased at the land office at Canton, and was laid out by the proprietors - John Beaver, William Henry, and Joseph H. Larwill. Shortly after, a few cabins were erected, and among the first: settlers were William Larwill, Joseph H. LanviH, John Larwill, and A.braham Miller. In 1809-10, James Morgan, John Beaver, j Joseph Stibbs, William Smith, Hugh Moore, Jesse Richards, Michael Switzer, and a few others, located within the county. In 1811-12, a few scattering settlements were formed, among which was the Odell colony in Lake-, and the original families in Mohican, the Finleys, the Metcalfs, the Eagles, the Carters, the Carrs, the Bn arts, and others. Range fifteen was included within the jurisdiction of Wayne county. When W ooster became j the seat of justice, the whole of Wayne county was comprised in one township, which was called Kiilbuck, after a noted Delaware chief, whose village was on a stream of that name, ten miles south of the present site of Wooster. In t8to the census gave the whole number ! of heads of families in this township at forty-six.

In discussing the erection of Fairfield county, i; was I stated that the inhabitants of Licking, Knox, and Richj land counties were much scattered. The great extent of j Fairfield rendered it inconvenient for the settlers of most I remote parts to attend the scat of justice at Lancaster. In 1808 the counties of Licking and Knox were erected by the legislature, and their boundaries defined. Their seats of justice were located at Newark and Mount Yerj non. The boundaries of Richland were also defined, j and the citizens, for civil purposes, left under the juris- 1 diction of Knox county, until iter population had be- 1 come sufficiently large to resume the home government.

In 1813, the population having reached about live | hundred, i'. was deemed proper to take the incipient ; steps for count) 01 gauiz.vion. The people met and ; on- 1 suited, uml concurred in the necessity ot a iiome govv eminent. The commissioners established ih.e seat of justice at Mansfield, and converted one of the blockhouses, that had been erected in the public square, into a hall of justice, and, in August, Thomas Coulter and Peter Kinney, of what is now Green township, Ashland county, and William Gass, of Mansfield, being associate judges, held the first session of the cou rt of common pleas, for the administration of estates, and other purposes. The jurisdiction of this court extended over ranges six- | and seventeen, in what is now Ashland county.

. After the splendid naval achievement of Commodore Perry on Lake Erie, on the tenth of September, 1813, General Harrison prepared for the immediate invasion of Upper Canada. The army under Generals Cass, Mc- Arthur, Ball, Shelby, Johnson and Hill, embarked on board Perry's vessels for Malden, which they entered without opposition, on the twenty-eighth of September, and found the British and Indians under Proctor and Tecumseh had just evacuated the town and fort, setting fire to the latter to destroy the work and stores. General McArthur with his forces was dispatched to take possession of Detroit, which was also abandoned by the British. General Harrison pursued General Proctor's retreating army up the river Thames, on the second of October. On the fifth the great battle, two miles below the Moravian town, known as the battle of the Thames, was fought, in which General Harrison's forces gained a signal victory over Proctor, in which the noted Indian warrior, Tecumseh, fell under the sure aim of Colonel Richard M. Johnson. The death of that daring and wily chief was a great disaster to his Indian allies, for they immediately lost all courage, and all hope of ever regaining their old hunting-grounds in northwestern Ohio. This blow completely humbled nearly all the Indian tribes that ha'd aided the British in their invasion, and assisted in perpetrating revolting cruelties upon our soldiers at Detroit and the river Raisin; and Walk-in-thewater, Betwecn-thc-legs, and other chiefs of the Ottawas, Chip pewas, Mia m is, Kickapoos and Pottawatomies gladly accepted peace at the hands of General Cass. This success of the army of General Harrison put an end to all active hostility in Michigan territory, Indiana and Ohio; and on the twenty-third of October, 1S13, General Harrison, with all his disposable force, embarked on board Perry's fleet and sailed for Buffalo, in obedience to orders from the -Secretary of War. Previous to his departure, he appointed Lewis Cass provisional governor of Michigan territory. General Cass was left witn about one thousand men, who were employed at orree in preparing winter quarters at Detroit. From this period the war was transferred to northern New York, and the borders of Lower Canada.

those in 'the region of the Ricck, at Coulter's, with the exception. of a few families who had strong cabins fin self-defense - a few families in the vicinity of Odell's, j Oram's and Priests, who collected in a strong cabin in that neighborhood - a few families, among whom were ; those of Alexander Finjey and James Coilyer, at Thomas Eagle's or John Shinnabarger's, and all the pto- | neers up the Jerome fork, at the Jerome block-house.

After the death of Ruflner, Zimmer's and Ccpus, that ! settlement was abandoned for nearly two years, and the i small fields cleared by them were overrun with tall weeds and underbrush; and wild game had an undisturbed range along the valley. The Carter, Cuppy, Fry, j Newell and Trickle clearings in Montgomery had again become a wild waste, where deer, turkey arid bear roamed at will. The Trickle cabin, where Markley's brick house was subsequently erected, was the pioneer mansion of Uniontown. There was not a cabin north of it containing a white family. Neither was there a | house in any of the now villages of this county, except | the cabin of Jerome, near the block-house. - The JJjanj dots and Delawares had a free hunt during the fall of 1813 and the winter of 1814; for the inmates of the | block-house did not venture many miles into the forest, i unless compelled to do so to visit the mills. The dan | ger of returning to their cabins, however, was more imaginary than real ; for, after the battle of the Thames, i the Indians of the northwest were shorn of their power | to inflict serious mischief upon the settlements, many of ! the Delawares, Wyandois and Shawnces voluntarily hav- ! ing joined the army of Genera! Harrison.

1 The woodman's axe was again heard in the forest, and new cabins began to appear in every direction. The tide of emigration, though not rapid in the spring, during the summer and autumn increased considerably, and the settlers were greatly encouraged.

In the spring of 1814 ail the territory in ranges sixteen i and seventeen, within the present limits of Ashland 1 county, for civil purposes, comprised one township -

! Green ; and all the territory in range filteen, within the j present limits of the county, was unde; the jurisdiction of Mohican, for civil purposes, no other township hav ing been, as yet, organized.

In Mohican, William Metcalf, W illiam Ewing, Myi -r Tylet, John Bryan. ]olui Naylor, Christian Dcauloif, William Vaughn, Adam Teener and John Lake, vHlh their families.

In Perry, Hugh; Carr, Cornelius Dorland, Thomas' Johnson, Joseph Chandler, Arthur Campbell, John Raver, Richard Smalley, Henry Worst and John l'ittinger, with their families.

In Vermillion, Lemuel Boulter, Samuel Hutchins, William Black, George McClure, Daniel Harlan, William Reed, Robert Jackman, John Vangilder, William Harper, 'William Karnahan, William Ryland, Joseph Workman, George, William and Thomas Hughes,' John McCrory and Joseph Strickland, with their families.

In Montgomery, Jacob Crouse, Daniel Mickey, Samuel Burns, Henry Baughman, Joseph Markley, Widow Trickle, John Carr, Benjamin Cuppy, Robert Newell, Daniel Carter, William McNaull, Henry Gamble, James Kuykendall, David Markley, John McNaull, Michael Springer, William Montgomery, John Heller, Conrad Kline, Robert Ralston, and John Smith, and their families.

In Orange, John Bishop, Jacob Young, Amos Norris, Vachel Metcalf, Jacob Mason, Joseph Bishop, Martin Hester, Lot Todd, Solomon Urie, John McConnell, Martin Mason, Jacob Mason, Patrick Murray, Christian, William, David, and Nicholas Fast, Henry Harnpson, Mordecai Chilcote, and William Patterson, and their families.

- In Milton, Alexander Reed, John Clay, Robert Nelson, Andrew Stevenson, Henry Keever, Michael Smeltzer. John Hazlet, William Dickey, S. King, F. Sultzer, J. Hoover, Peter. and Benjamin Brubaker, John Hewey, A. Doty, A. A. Webster, J. Church, and J. Crawford, and their families.

, In Mifflin, George Thomas, James Ford, Jacob Snyder, Jacob Keifer, Leonard Croninger, Daniel Harlan, Michael Culler, and David Braden, and their families.

Ir Cltarcreek, David Burns, John Richard, and W. Freeborn, James Haney, William Shaw, Abraham Huffman, Peter Vanostrand, and Isaac Vanmeter. The records of the settlers are very imperfect, and our record of eatly settlers is mostly a matter of tradition, and, hence, it may be quite imperfect.

The year before Mr. Thomas and his family arrived at their new home, Peter Thomas, now a resident' of Montgomery township, made a trip from near Cadiz, Ohio, through the forest, unarmed, accompanied only by a faithful watch dog, to the cabin of lhs uncle, Jacob Beam, on the Rocky fork, where the block-house had been built in 1812, and where his uncle had subsequently built a mill with one run of buhrs. He stayed all night was afterwards known as John Raver's cabin, southeast 1 of the present site of Rowshnrgh, the only house he ' found between Wooster and Beam's block-house. From the caiv.n on the Muddy fork, he followed horse trails, by the v,ay of Jerome's place, until lie reached the cabin -a i 1 is uiiclt, which took one day. He is unable to point out the precise route, but remembers that he traveled hard all day", with his faithful dog at his side, and neither feared Indians nor wild animals. Tils brother, George, was at Beams' when the RufTher-Zirnmer-Copus murders took place, and helped bury the dead. In 1814 he was returning from Cadiz with his family, by the way of Odell s take, when lie took sick arid died, and was buried there - his wife and children subsequently reaching the residence of Mr. Beam with their goods.

In the fall of 1S14, John Coulter and Ebenezer Rice contracted with the State commissioners to cut a road on the old survey, from Trickle's cabin, at the east end of the present site of Ashland, to what is now Windsor, in Richland county - ten miles - for ninety dollars. The Trickle cabin was then deserted; Mrs. Trickle having sold it to Mr. Markley, who had not yet taken possession. When the read was cut, it became the duty cf Melzer Coulier and Alexander Rice, then boys, to sup- ! ply the laborers with food. On pack-horses, they passed i down the old Portage road to near the Jerome block- ! house, and then took the Beall trail to near the present residence of James Newman, and then followed a path through the forest to the present site of Ashland. On one of those trips, while passing down the old Portage road, Alexander Rice found an axe setting beside a log, with the letters "U. S." stamped upon it, which had probably been left there by the pioneers of General Crooks. He took the axe home, and used it for a number i of years; finally having it made into a wedge, which he ! yet has in his possession, as a memento of the days sixty years agene.

The territory along the branches of Mohican remained undisturbed during' the fall of x'814, and emigrants in large numbers visited the country, to select site? t i their new homes. A glance at the financial condition of this region, therefore, may be interesting.

The only currency in circulation among the pioneers of this region in 1814 was gold and silver, and that in very limited quantities. The supplies furnished the army of the northwest, kept a small amount of specie in circulation. But when the sums paid the soldiers for their services had been invested in small tracts of land, money became very scarce. "Necessity" is said to be the "mother of invention," and Pennsylvanians, Virginians, j and Yankees, alike, were driven to "invention." Failing | back to the common remedy for ail evils- - the constitution of the State- the pioneers held, that in consequence ! of the scarcity of money, they had the right to have j charters granted for the establishment of a bank or banks 1 by the legislature. Insisting upon such right, articles | of association were drawn for the establishment of a bank at Mt. Vernon, with a capita! of tv.o hundred and fifty thousand dollars, in shares of fifty dollars each. In December, 1814, articles of association were submitted to a meeting held in Mt. Vernon, raid it was resolved that an institution, to be called the "Owl Creek Bank of Mt. Vernon," be established : and certain commissioners were appointed, to open stock books. Petitions 1 r a charter were presented to the legislature, which was refuses!; and then the stockholders "went it alone," and planting tlw-mselvos upon their a-sutned constitutional rights, they formed themselves into a coinj any and es- tabiished the "Owl Creek Hank of Ml. A ernon." This institution issued shinplasters, from the denomination of six and one-fourth cents, up to ten dollars, and the country was soon flooded with them. In .'act, the settlers of Richland county, and the people of what is now Ashland county, were compelled t" take it or nothing for their surplus produce. In a few years, ihe Owl Creek currency became worthless, and much distress, with unlimited recrimination, followed. Samuel Williams, a merchant of Mansfield, got up a sort of rival currency, upon which he had printed a coiled rattlesnake. A good many of such shinplasters were thrown into circulation. Finally, Jacob Hearn, who had purchased about a section of land in thy- vicinity of his mill, and was tire owner of a fine six-horse team, which was used to haul produce to Pittsburgh, and bring back salt, trails, iron, dry goods and the like, for the use of the settlers, became involved in the meshes of Williams, and was subsequently stripped, by litigation, of his wealth. Such was the beginning and effect of the wild currency of 1814.

Many anecdotes are related concerning the "Owl Creek Bank!," and its worthless notes. The Indians visiting Mt. Vernon and Mansfield, were frequently offered the "Owl Creek" shinplasters, on which was the figure of an owl, in exchange for venison and furs, but they invariably refused to take them, saying: "Too much hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo." On one occasion, an enemy of the bank killed a large owl, which he deposited on the counter of the bank, saying " he had killed its president."

Salt was extremely scarce among the pioneers, so much so, that neighbors often borrowed pints. Corn-bread, hominy and mush were exceedingly unpalatable without salt. This article was generally brought from Zanesville j on pack-horses, or in. small boats up the Muskingum and I its branches. Late in the fall of 1S14, William Ewing,* | then a young man, lb ing two miles below the present site of Jeromeville, fitted out a four-horse team, takinga small load of shelled corn, and money enough to purchase a load of salt and plow-castings, and started for Zanesville. He passed up the old Portage road toGreentown, thence to near Lewis' block-house, on the wagon trail leading to the village of Clinton, one mile north of Mt. Vernon. The clay he started it was clear and cold, and he made good progiess until he reached the Clear fork. That stream was unusually full and rapid. In crossing it, he struck the opposite bank oblujue.v, and in attempting to ascend it the hind part of his wagon was overturned, emptying the. greater part of the corn, which j was in sacks, into the stream. For a time he thought 1 his wagon would he drawn into the current, and his horses entangled and drowned. Fortunately, lie had a fifth-chain along, which he fastened to the coupling poll, and, hitching two horses to it, and at the same time encouraging his wheel horses, he succeeded in righting the hind wheels and dragging the wagon up the hank to drv land. Ihe next effort was to fish out his sacks of corn j and food, which had become .completely saturated with j j Ins neck." being much chilled and benumbed, it was j with difficulty he could hitch his horses in their proper j places in the team. This he finally succeeded in doing;

! and again started on the path through the forest. He continued along it until after dark, expecting to lay out during the night, and probably freeze before morning; but, as he was about to lose all hope, the light of a cabin window was seen in the distance. Pressing on, he soon reached ir, wet, cold and hungry He was welcomed to its shelter. His horses being arranged about the feedtrough, and fed, he found his new landlady had prepared him a bowl of warm mush and milk, for which Ire was exceedingly thankful. The fire kept up a cheerful blaze until he had dried his clothing and recovered from his numbness. He slept soundly, rose, bright and early, and started on his way whistling. In about ten days he returned safely to his cabin, with a load of salt and castings. We give this incident to illustrate the hardships endured by the pioneers.