Coshocton County, Ohio - Chapter 25: Scraps of History, 1881

Name - Formation - First Settlers and Settlements - Population - Flora and Fauna - Early Koads and Transportation- A Pioneer School House - Prices for Produce - Early Taverns - Starting a Town - Character of the Pioneers - Social Gatherings - Trapping - Wild Pigeons.

THE name Coshocton is unquestionably a modification of the name of the old Indian town at the forks of the Muskingum - Goschaohgunk - somewhat variously spelled by the old chroniclers in different languages. Different and quite contradictory definitions of the name have been given.

As originally constituted, Coshocton county embraced a considerable part of what is now Holmes, extending to the Greenville treaty line, six miles north of Millersburg; but that county having been organized in 1824, the limits of Coshocton county were fixed as they now are. Prior to the adoption of the present State Constitution, in 1851, there was considerable agitation about a new county to be formed out of parts of Guernsey, Tuscarawas and Coshocton, with New Comerstown as the county seat. There was also a movement contemplating a county with Walhonding as the county seat. But that instrument rendered such movements hopeless. The territory embraced in Coshocton county is part of that designated as United States Military Land District - so called from the fact that Congress, in 1798, appropriated it to satisfy certain claims of the officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary war. These lands were surveyed into townships five miles square, and these again into quarter townships, containing 4,000 acres, and subsequently some of these into forty lots, of one hundred acres each, for the accommodation of soldiers or others holding warrants for that number of acres. What land was not required for the satisfaction of the military warrants was subsequently sold by act of Congress, under the designation of Congress land. Twenty-two and a fraction of these original townships were embraced within the limits of Coshocton countj' as finally fixed in 1824.

The military expeditions mentioned elsewhere, besides accomplishing the immediate object for which they were undertaken, drew attention to the exelencies of the country. Wonderful stories about " the forks of the Muskingum " were told by the returning soldiers. The father of Geo. Beaver, of Keen township, was in Bouquet's expedition. John Williams (brother of Charles), who afterwards settled "in Mill Creek township, was in the Coshocton campaign ; and among the earlier settlers were several whose relatives had been in Brodhead's forces. The first white man known to have come into the territory now embraced in Coshocton county, with the purpose of abiding in it, was Charles Williams. In the spring of the year 1800, having come up the Muskingum in a canoe, he passed on up the Walhonding to what is now known as the Denman land, long called "the Pararie" (four miles above ^Coshocton), and there raised that season a patch of corn, besides fishing, hunting and prospecting. The next year he fixed upon the site of Coshocton as his home, and was there joined by his brothers-in-law, the Carpenters, and William and Samuel Morrison, who, after staying with him for the season, went up into what is now Holmes county, in the Killbuck valley. The same year, 1801, a settlement was made in Oxford township by Isaac Evans and others, who are reputed as having raised some corn and selected their land the preceding year. The Robinson and Miller settlement in Franklin township was made about the same time. The Hardestys are reputed as having been in Washington township the same year. A little later the Millers and Thomas Wiggins located in Lafayette township. Nicholas Miller, James Oglesby, Geo. Mc- CuUough, Andrew Craig, Isaac Hoagland, Benjamin Fry and Barney Carr, are reported as on the Lower Walhonding in 1805. In 1806, Philip Waggoner, Geo. Loose, John Wolf and Geo. Leighninger, settled in Oxford township, and the McLains were in Lafayette. In the same year the Darlings, the Butlers, John Bantham, and John Elder went to the Upper Walhonding valley. In 1807, Francis McGuire, who had been living above New Comerstown, moved down to the locality known as the McGuire settlement, above Canal Lewisville. Then came Moore, Workman, Neff, Lybarger, Thompson, the Bakers, Cantwell and Whitton- to Coshocton ; and Meskimens, Johnston and Harger to the Wills Creek region; and Mitchell, Markley and Williams to the north of Coshocton ; and Pigman, Chalfant, Norris, Slaughter, Woolford, Wright, Stafford,' Meredith, John and Severns into the western part of the county. No regular census of the county was taken until 1820. In 1810, Muskingum county, embracing the present Muskingum, Morgan, Coshocton and part of Holmes, had only ten thousand population. A Scotch traveler, who spent the night at Coshocton in 1806, wrote of it as having a population of one hundred and forty; but it was doubtless not understated by him. Dr. S. Lee, who came to the place in 1811, found it a hamlet with a score or so of rude structures. Fifteen hundred would probably be a large statement as to population at the time the county was organized in April, 1811. Immediately after the organization, immigration was large. The war of 1812, while temporarily checking the growth of the county, and especially the inflow of population, was yet an advantage, particularly in making the region known to the people to the east and south. Just at the close of the war there were in the county one hundred and thirty-eight resident landholders, owning tracts of land varying in size from thirtyfive acres to four 'thousand and five acres. The list of these, and the townships as now named in which they resided, is as follows :

A number of these landholders were heads of quite considerable families, and upon some of the large tracts were several tenants. It is known that, besides those whose names appear in this list, and their children, the following persons were resident of the county at that time, several of them having been so for a number of years preceding: Richard Fowler, William Lockard, James Willis, Joseph Harris, C. P. Van Kirk, Peter Casey, George Carpenter, Joseph Neff, William and Samuel Morrison, James Jeffries, Dr. Samuel Lee, Wright Warner, A. M. Church, Thomas L. Rue, William Whitten, Thomas Means, Thomas Foster, Barney Carr, James Oglesby, George Bible, John Bantham, William Bird, James Calder, William Mitchell, Lewis Vail, Asher Hart, John Williams, Adam Johnston, John Dillon, Abel Cain, Joseph Vail, Rezin Baker, Israel Baker, John Baker, James Buckalew, Benjamin Burrell, Joseph Burrell, James Cantwell, Barney Cantwell, J. G. Pigman, J. W. Pigman, John Elder, Archibald EUson, Samuel Clark, Ezekiel Parker, Andrew Lybarger, John Hershman, Peter Moore, the McLains, William Biggs, George and Levi Magness, Richard Hawk, Isaac Shambaugh and Elijah Newcum.

At the October election, in 1814, there were one hundred and three electors in Tuscarawas township, which, however, embraced at that time not only the township proper on both sides of the river, but also all the territory north of the Tuscarawas, and east of the Walhonding rivers.

After the war the accession to the population was large, running through several years. In those years - 1815-1820 - came the progenitors of the since well-known Burns, Crowley, Ricketts, Sells, Mossman, Heslip, Renfrew, Boyd, Gault, Thompson, Roderick, Squires, James, Tipton, Powelson, Luke, Borden, Neldon, Ravenscraft, Norris, Winklespleck, McNabb, Slaughter, Mulford, Stafford, Cresap, and Lemert families. In 1818 there were 285 resident landholders.

The personal and family records of the period running from 1814 to 1820 (especially the earlier part of it), are full of stories of laborious efforts and wearying hardships in clearing and planting and building. The large inflow of population involved a great deal of exposure. The conveniences of life, even with those best supplied, were scarce. Sickness, incident to all new countries, abounded. Especially was a form of congestive chills, known; as the " cold plague," very prevalent, carrying off many of the settlers and discouraging immigration. Milling facilities were still poor' and remote. Corn meal and bacon afforded, in many cases, almost the whole support, whisky, the panacea of those days, was not plenty. Yet, despite all drawbacks, children were born and settlers came in, and, in 1820, the censustaker found 7,086 inhabitants in Coshocton county.

From 1820 to 1830 there was apparently an increase of only a few over four thousand, making the population in the latter year ir,162. It must, however, be borne in mind that in that period, by the formation of Holmes county, a number of people, hitherto counted as of Coshocton county, were set over, and the limits oE the county decreased. Still the immigration was not heavy, especially in the earlier part of the period. Reports of the sickliness of the river region and the rough ways of the settlers had gone abroad. It maybe stated in this connection that the advancement of the county in both population and wealth has been regarded by many as having been hindered in all its earlier stages by .the fact of there having beena large number (thirty- three) oflourthousand-acre tracts taken up by military land warrants, and held mainly by non-residents, (Tultivated only by a few cabin tenants, if at all.

The immigration of that period was of a much more miscellaneous sort, and having almost nothing of the old Virginian and Marylander element, so prominent in the first settlement of the county. New York, Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio, Germany and Ireland were largely represented.

The same condition of things has been noted in many other counties in Ohio, especially such as have hitherto been most largely agricultural. It is observed in this connection that the cities and larger towns of the State show the chief gains attributed to it. Thus, while Coshocton county lost during the time above noted, the town of Coshocton more than doubled its population, which in 1840 was 845, and in 1870, 1,757. In 1880, its population was 3,044. The disposition to forsake the farm for the shop and store and office, the " go-west " fever, the readiness of forehanded farmers to purchase at good prices the small tracts adjoining their larger ones, the enlargement of the stock interests, the development of manufacturing interest, and even the casualties of war, have all had to do with diminishing the population, especially in the rural districts, and the filling up of the cities and towns.

When, eighty years or more ago, Charles Williams, the earliest settler, occupied the Muskingum valley, he must have been surprised at the variety and beauty of its vegetable productions. The silence of the primeval woods had until then been unbroken by the axe of the white man ; the forest was here in all its native majesty and beauty; the gigantic size and venerable antiquity of the trees, the rankness of the weeds, grasses and trailing vines which formed a thick covering for the ground, the luxuriance and variety of the underbrush, the long vines that reached to the tops of the tallest trees, the parasites that hung in clusters from the loftiest boughs, the brilliancy of the autumnal foliage, the splendor and variety of the vernal flowers, the snowy whiteness of the dog- wood blossoms of early spring^ and the exhuberance of the fruits that were maturing during the summer and autumn, were undoubted manifestations of the most vigorous vegetable life, and an encouraging proof of the quality of the soil. The yield of nuts, berries, grapes, plums and other wild fruits, was immense, and these for years, perhaps centuries, had been dropping and wasting, save, only, the few gathered by the red man.

The surface of the country was beautifully diversified by hill and valley, with here and there a small swamp, pond, prairie, lakelet, spring or running stream - almost every variety of natural scenery appeared to the eye of the pioneer.

Along the streams, on the bottom land, and also on the more level or second bottom lands, grew the walnut, buttercup, sycamore, hickory, sugar, maple, hackberry, white, black and blue ash, linden, white and red elm, and the beech, boxelder, red and yellow plum, black-haw, crabapple, red-bud, dog-wood, iron-wood, American multi-flora, arrow-wood, kinnakinnick, Juneber-

The gum, cucumber and sassafras trees were found on the clay formation, while in the hills, the different varieties of oak abounded, with a .small sprinkling of the tulip or yellow poplar, and, in limited numbers, most of the above are Taeiitioned as abounding in. the level lands.

Many of the grape-vines on the bottom lands were of enormeus size, approximating in thickness a man's body. These sometimes spread themselves through the branches of half a score or more- of the largest trees, completely shutting -out the sun-light, and bearing immense quanti- "ties of fruit. The huckleberry, confined princi- -pally to the hills, yielded fruit bountifully. Some other berries grew spontaneously, as the strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, dewberry, and, in few localities, the cranberry. The latter were, in an early day, an article of traffic, for the Indians as well as the pioneers. The early settlers laid up for use during the winter months, quantities of these wild fruits, and also hazlenuts, walnuts, butternuts and hickorynuts. Paw-paws and Mayapples were plenty, and were used to a considerable extent.

The ginseng plant abounded in most localities, in early times, and was an article of extensive traffic, both by whites and Indians, for many years after the first settement of the county. Every merchant bought it. Beeswax, tallow, iurs, hides, feathers, coon-skins and whisky were more general articles of trade and barter than ginseng. It disappeared as an article of in the county about 1835, and has not since been known. The plant is exhausted. It was wholly of spontaneous growth and never an article of culture. It was a jointed taper root, as 'large as as man's finger, and when dry was of a yellowish white color, with a mucilaginous sweetness of taste, somewhat resembling licorice, accompanied with a very slight bitterness. It was to china, where it was in demand for its real or supposed medicinal -virtues.

Occasionally a beautiful grove of wild cherry were found. They were thick, tall, of wide- -spreading branches, tolerably clear of knots, and generally sound, except those that gave indications of great age. The woodman's ax had been laid upon but few of these, even as late as 1825 ; but not long after, their commercial value became known, and when the Ohio canal opened, in 1833, they gradually disappeared, being shipped to Cincinnati and converted into lumber for furniture. The concentric circles of many of them indicated that they were centuries old, fixing the date of their origin in the pre-historio age of the country.

When the wave of white settlers first touched the borders of this county, a great variety of wild animals contended with the Indian for supremacy. Some of the native animals of this primeval forest had gradually given way to the general Westward movement of the white race. The buffalo was gone, probably never to return, at least in any number. A few years after the first settlement, probably about 1803, a small herd, six or eight in number, strayed from their usual haunts further west, and reached a point a short distance east of where Wills creek empties into the Muskingum. Here for a day or two they were pursued by the late John Channel, of Licking county, a famous hunter and pioneer, and perhaps by others, but without success so far as Mr. Channel was concerned. This information is given on the authority of Adam Seymour, who was here at that time, and Mr. E. S. Woods, who obtained the information from Mr. Channel himself. This was probably the last sight of wild buffaloes east of the Scioto.

The elk, too, was gone when the pioneers came, but the numerous wide-spreading antlers he once carried, were found profusely scattered in the forest, showing conclusively that he had once been here in considerable numbers, and at no remote period ; but probably no living wild elk was ever discovered here by the pioneers.

Panthers were not numerous, but occasionally one was seen or heard, and a few were killed during the first ten or fifteen years after the first settlement. They disappeared from this section about 1812.

Bears were more numerous and remained longer; an occasional straggler being seen at intervals of many years, until 1846, or later. Bruin was hard on young domestic animals, pigs particularly, he had a good appetite for, and it

Wolves were found in great abundance, and long continued to be a great annoyance to the settlers. The legislature encouraged their extermination by laws which authorized the payment of liberal sums for wolf scalps, both old and young. The records of the county commissioners that large sums were paid thp pioneers of the county for wolf scalps; four dollars being the price for full grown and two dollars for those less than full size. They have long since disappeared.

Deer were very abundant, and for many years after the first settlement, supplied the pioneers with most of their animal food. The pioneers were mostly hunters, and the chase yielded them muclT profit as well as amusement. So numerous -were the deer in early times that an hour's hunt was generally sufficient for securing a fine buck or the more palitable doe or fawn. So plenty and tame were they that they were killed frequently with a shot gun charged only with squirrel shot.

Gray foxes, raccoons and gronnd-hogs were plenty, and hunting them afiorded fine sport. The two latter of these are yet found in limited numbers, but the first has, probably, entirely disappeared.

Eed foxes, catamounts, wild-cats and porcupines, were found in large numbers, but they -early disappeared, except the first named, which -may, perhaps, even yet be occasionally found.

Rabbits and squirrels, if not here before the settlement of the county, came soon after in great numbers, and still remain. They seem to follow rather than precede the settlements.

The beaver and otter were here in considerable numbers, and were much sought after by the -trapper for their valuable furs. The former has long since disappeared, and the latter is exceedingly scarce, if indeed, any remain.

Wild turkeys were also very abundant in pioneer days, and so continued for many years, affording no inconsiderable portion of the food of the early settlers. They were so numerous and

Quails are not natives of the wilderness ; neither are crows, blackbirds, bluebirds nor turtle doves, but they all became plenty after the settlement of the county, and still remain in moderate quantities.

Birds of prey, such as turkey buzzards or vultures, hawks, ravens, owls and eagles, were very numerous, but have been slowly disappearing, particularly the eagle, which is now seldom seen.

The "streams abounded in fish of large size. The pike were from two to five feet in length. It has almost, if not entirely, disappeared from the waters of the county.

The catfish were plenty and of large size, but there were no eels. The white perch and sucker were numerous and of large size ; the black jack and clear jack were here and grew large, but have long since disappeared. The streams, no less than the forests, contributed to the support of the early settlers. Indeed, so plenty were game, fish, fur animals and the fruits and other spontaneous productions, that it was hardly necessary to till the ground to procure subsistence.

Serpents were of many varieties and in great abundance. Especially numerous were the rattlesnake, the copperhead, the viper, blacksnake, the garter and watersnake. They were often found in the cabins of the settlers, and even in their beds. It was not unusual for the settlers to be bitten by them, but few, if any deaths occurred from this cause, as the settlers understood the treatment of snake bites.

Insects of various kinds were numerous and troublesome. Spiders, particularly, were plenty and of large size. Gnats, hornets, yellow jackets, musquitoes and horseflies were in great abundance and exceedingly annoying to man and beast.

The wolf arid the more venomous serpents were the most formidable and annoying enemies of the early settlers. Panthers were much dreaded, but fortunately were not numerous. The fox, mink and polecat frequently made raids on the hen roost.

The distinct classes known in pioneer times as hunters and fishermen, have almost disappeared. People change and conform their lives to the times in which they live.

Some of the earliest settlers of Coshocton county came into it by the route taken by Brodhead's military expedition, and others by that taken by Bouquet's expedition - the former from Wheeling, and the latter from Pittsburg to the Tuscarawas valley. The roads were of course Indian trails and bridle paths. Others of the pioneers used canoes or other water conveyances, floating or poling up or down, as the case might be, the rivers and creeks.

In 1812, the legislature provided for roads from Cambridge to Coshocton ; from the head of White Eyes plains to Cadiz, and from Coshocton westwardly. Congress g,ppropriated three per cent of moneys derived from the sale of land to the making of roads. For the making of State roads, or the principal ones, commissioners were designated by the legislature. Many roads laid out in early times have in more recent years been somewhat altered, but the chief ones are in alignment wonderfully near the old Indian trails. An immense proportion of the time occupied in the sessions of the commissioners has been from the

As soon as half a dozen or more pioneers had settled in close proximity to each other, a hut was erected and used for all public meetings, and for school and religious purposes. They were a rough, hardy people, but believed in giving every body " fair-play," and whenever a preacher appeared among them he was invited to preach, and all the settlers, big, little, old and young came to hear him, paying little regard to religious creed.

The following description of one of the school houses, or places for public meetings, was clipped from the Coshocton Age, of February, 1881, and as it is a faithful picture, is worthy of preservation :

The one I can more particularly describe was situated in the southwest quarter of White Eyes township. The house was built of round logs, not hewed on either side. The openings between the logs were filled with chunks and daubed with mud. The floor was made of puncheons, split out of a tree and partially hewed. The roof was made of clapboards, laid on poles, and poles laid on the boards to keep them on. The loft was made of the same kind of material as the floor, and daubed along the joints with mud to keep the cold out. The door was made of rough boards, with a wooden latch for a fastening, with a buck-skin latch string; the end of which hung through a hole in the door, to raise the latch. There was no stove in it, but it had a fireplace in one end of the building; a back-wall was built from the ground to tide loft, about eight feet long, without jambs; the flue was started at the loft, built of mud and sticks, and run up through the roof, to let the smoke escape. In this fire-place the teacher would build a large wood fire around which the boys and girls would stand to warm themselves before the school hours in the morning. A substitute for windows was made by cutting out a log on each side, with paper pasted over the openings, and greased with lard or tallow, to admit the light. The paper used was the Coshocton S'py (now the Age). Around the walls were rough boards fixed on pins in the walls for desks; along these desks were long benches with four or five legs in each one, made by boring holes in a slab and inserting the legs in these holes. The desks and benches were occupied by those learning to write, and those studying arithmetic. There were three other benches, shorter in the legs, placed in front of the fire, for smaller children to occupy. The benches were all without backs. The teacher made all the pens for his scholars of goose quills, with a small knife. The paper used to write on then was not ruled like the paper now; the scholars had rulers, to rule their paper with, and pencils made of lead, hammered out in the shape of a horse-shoe nail, and would rule their paper with this. The text books used at that time, were the United States Spelling-book, English Reader, New Testament and Western Calculator. . No English Grammar or Geography were taught. Those reading in the English Reader would all stand up in a class, in some unoccupied space in the house ; the whole class would bow to the teacher. The one standing at the head of the class would then read a paragraph, the one next to him the same, and so on till all had read. Those reading in the Testament the same. All the teacher done during the reading was, when the scholars came to a word they could not pronounce, the teacher would pronounce it for him or her. After the class had read two paragraphs each, they would return to their seats, without any further instructions on the subject of reading. Then the teacher would call up the smaller scholars, one or two at a time, and point to the letter or word to be spelled, with his penknife ; in a general way the scholar repeating the lesson after the teacher. Those who had studied arithmetic solved the examples at their seats, except when they come to one they could not in any way solve; they would then go to the teacher, he would solve it on the slate and pass it back to the scholar. There was no blackboard, consequently there was very little instruction in the matter. These were the days of corporal punishment, and in a conveninent place to the teacher stood one or two hickory gads, large enough to drive a yoke of oxen. School continued from between eight and nine o'clock in the morning to four o'clock P. M., except one hour at noon ; no recess. Young folks, compare your advantages and comforts with those of forty-five years ago.

Closely following the pioneer hunter and trapper came the pioneer merchant and trader. To get goods into and produce out of this county was easy as compared with counties further west and those away from the larger streams. The Muskingum river formed a very good outlet, and was for many years the highway for the tranportation of goods both out of and into Coshocton county, and other counties north and west. The pioneers of Knox, Richland and Ashland counties did a great deal of boating on the Muskingum. After a few years, when roads were constructed, came the great freight wagons. The National road especially became a great outlet for the produce of this and other counties of the State. Great covered freight wagons, with tires seven or eight inches broad and an inch thick, drawn by six horses or mules, made regular trips from Baltimore and Philadelphia over the National road to Zanesville, to which place much of the produce of this county was taken to be shipped by these wagons, and from which place goods were received by the merchants of Coshocton. The wagons left the National road at various, points and traveled over the " mud " road to distant settlements and villages for the convenience of the settlers. They not only carried goods and produce, but carried the mail also, and did the express business in parts of the, country not touched by the stages. Many of the teamsters were men of high character, standing and credit, and, in transacting their business, would require persons who shipped goods by their wagons to make oiat three bills of lading, all properly signed with as much regularity as a ship at sea or the freight trains of to-day; one bill to accompany the goods, one to be retained by the shipper, and one to go by mail to the consignee. One of those teams and wagons would to-day be a greater curiosity than a steamer or a train of cars. They are yet to be found on the great prairies of the west, transporting freight to points not yet reached by the iron-horse. These wagons did the larger part oi the carrying trade of the country for many years. The merchant who wished to purchase goods in the eastern cities sent his order and received his goods by these wagons, and, in order to pay for the goods, often intrusted large sums of money to the teamsters.

The products of the country recived by the merchants in exchange for goods, consisting mostly of wheat, whisky, furs, etc., were also shipped by these wagons, being taken by boat to Zanesville, then loaded into the wagons and either taken east or north to the lakes ; often, however, it was taken on down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans. Often months would elapse before the merchant could receive his returns for produce thus disposed of.

The water courses were, in very early days, untramraeled by mills or bridges, and by reason of the swampy condition of the country, and the abundance of water, a number of the smaller streams were navigable for small boats to points which would seem incredible at this time. Flatboats were built carrying from twenty to fifty tons, these were loaded with pork, flour, whisky, and the products of the chase, and taken to New Orleans, where the boat and cargo were disposed of for Spanish gold, and the pioneer with his money in his pocket would often set out for home on foot, walking, perhaps, the entire distance, or may be purchasing a mule or horse by the way or taking the stage occasionally for short distances.

In these primitive ways the pioneers of Coshocton county communicated with the outside world. About half a century elapsed from the time of the first settlement of the county, before these were superceded by the railroad.

The products of the county, for want of transportation and a market, brought very low prices at home; the price of wheat being generally from twenty-five to fifty cents per bushel; oats, twelve cents per bushel; corn, twenty cents per bushel; whisky, fifteen cents per gallon; pork, one dollar and fifty cents per hundred weight; cows, eight to ten dollars each, and horses from thirty to forty dollars each. Coffee brought from seventy-five cents to one dollar per pound; salt, from four to six dollars per barrel; calicoes from fifty cents to one dollar per yard. Money was the exception, traffic and trade the rule.

In trading with the Indians it was customary for the pioneer merchant to place a bottle of whisky on each end of the counter that the purchasers might help themselves gratuitously, and thus facilitate business. These cabins for the purposes of trade and traffic sprang up all along the new roads, and were occupied by some hardy pioneer family, who procured a living partly by hunting, partly by trading whisky, tobacco, blankets, knives, tomahawks and trinkets with the Indians and settlers ; and, as travel on the roads increased, by keeping travelers over night, finally converting his cabin into a " tavern," by swinging on creaking iron hinges the great painted sign - the most conspicuous and important thing about the premises. Frequently these taverns were the means of starting a town, which grew and prospered, or became extinct, according to circumstances. Establishing a town was like investing in a lottery ticket, which might draw a prize or a blank. Nothing now remains to mark the site of many early towns platted on the soil of Coshocton county ; others are marked by small clusters of partially deserted houses.

The early settlers were generally a rough, hardy set, and their social gatherings were often marred by ring-fights, much whisky drinking and carousal. They seldom or never visited each other simply for the purpose of a social call as is the practice of to-day, but the women took with them their knitting and sewing, or went with the expectation of quilting or cutting apples, or in some way helping a neighbor through the great mass of work, and at the same time cultivate social and friendly relations; and the social parties on the masculine side of the house, were cabin-raisings,, corn-huskings, log-rollings, various gymnastic exercises, such as jumping, wrestling, shooting at. a mark, etc. Thus but little time was lost in sociability.

If they were always ready for a fight, they were also always ready to help each other or a stranger on any and all occasions, and for thispurpose would put themselves to great inconvenience and travel great distances. Did one of them, want a cabin raised he had only to let his neighbors know (and all were considered neighbors within a circle of five or ten miles) and they would be there promptly, the only compensation expected being a generous supply of whisky.

Log-rollings were a weekly occurrence ; every settler would have one or more of these gatherings every year until his lands were well cleared. Settlers for miles around would come with their axes, oxen and hand spikes ; the logs were cut,, hauled together and piled in great heaps to be set on fire after drying. The younger members of the community, girls and boys, piled the brush and smaller sticks in immense heaps ; and boys not yet old can remember when these heaps were set on fire at night, and how all the young people for miles around gathered and played " goal " and " round-town " by the light of the crackling brush.

dulged in by the farming community, though rarely, and will soon be entirely unknown. A night was selected for the corn-husking when the moon was full. Sometimes the corn was husked as it stood in the field, and large fields were thus cleared of corn in a single evening. At other times the owner of a corn-field would go throiigh it a day or two before the husking was to take place, jerk the ears from the stalk -and haul them to some dry spot in the meadow, where they were piled in a huge circle. About this circle, on the outside, the men would gather in the evening, and amid the rattle of husks and the general hilarity the yellow ears would flow toward the center of the circle in a continual stream, while the huskers buried themselves deeper and deeper in the husks, until they emerged and stood upon 'the inner line of the circle, with a great pile of corn in front and a pile of husks in the rear.

Occasionally the corn was as nearly as possible divided into two heaps; captains or leaders were chosen by the men, who in turn choosing their men arranged themselves in opposition. Each of the opposing parties endeavored to get through first, the bottle being passed frequently, each one helping himself to as much of the contents as he desired. The successful captain was elevated upon the shoulders of his men and carried around the pile amid prolonged cheers. Sometimes -the beaten party was aggravated until knock-downs ensued, after which all would repair to the house of the host and partake of the good things prepared for the occasion.

The settlers exercised a good deal of ingenuity in making traps to secure the wild animals of the forest. This was one of the principal occupations and sources of pleasure for the boys. In certain localities it seemed almost impossible for the pioneers to raise sheep or hogs on account of the depredations of wolves and bears ; the latter invariably preferred pork to mutton, but the wolves always attacked the sheep in preference. The State offered six dollars each for wolf scalps ; this and other considerations stimulatid the efforts of the settlers to destroy them. Many of the young men devoted their time almost exclusively to this business. For the purpose of catching them, a wolf pen was constructed of small logs, six feet long, four feet wide and three feet high. It was formed like a large box, with puncheon floor, the lid was made of heavy puncheons, and was removed by an axle at one end made of a small round stick. The trap was set by the ordinary figure 4 combination, and baited with any kind of meat except wolf meat, the animal preferring any other to his own. Upon gnawing the meat the lid fell, enclosing the unwary native for the benefit of the trapper.

Steel traps were generally used for the mink and muskrat, but for the coon the figure 4 arrangement was often used. The habits of this animal (as well as of all others) were taken into consideration. It is well known that the coon frequents swails, swamps and stagnant pools in search of frogs, of which he is very fond, and upon which he subsists largely when roastingears are not at hand. In his search for frogs he will traverse the logs that are always to be found in the swamp. The trapper understands this, and places his trap upon the log upon which the unwary animal must enter the swamp or make his exit therefrom. The trap is simply a small log, placed lengthwise of the log which the coon must walk, and held up by the figure 4, to the treadle of which three or more strings are attached and stretched along between the two logs in such a way that the coon must come in contact with them in his passage, and thus spring the trap, letting the small log fall upon him. This small log must be made sufficiently heavy by weights to crush him.

Wild pigeons were once very numerous, and were caught in large numbers in traps. During the season when the mast was ripe and plenty, millions of these birds frequented the countrj'. The flocks were so great that they would sometimes be hours in passing over a given spot, and it is said that they would occasionally obscure the sunlight, and bring on twilight in midday by their immense numbers. For the last twenty years these birds have been gradually disappearing until at present only small flocks are occasionally seen. Probably the clearing up of the country and the gradual disappearance of the mast-bearing trees has caused them to seek other feeding grounds. They were here slaughtered in great numbers, both by gun and trap, and were considered a great table delicacy.