Knox County, Ohio - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 1 of those read), 1862 (part 1 of 2)

Chapter with an unread heading (no. 1 of those read)

The coimtrv havini? for its name Ohio was constituted, under General Arthur St. Clair, a territorial government in tlie year 1788, and he continued as Grovernor until the adoption of the State Constitution in 1803.

By his proclamation the county of Fairfield was created December 9th, 1800, and the district of which we now treat was included therein until the month of February, 1808, when it was, by enactment of the Legislature, organized into a separate and distinct county, honored with the name of General Henry Knox, a distinguished officer of the revolutionary army, who was subsequently Secretary of War in Gen. Washington's administration.

The first white man known to have viewed this section of country was John Stilley, wlio, when a cajjtive among tlie Indians, traversed the White

The first settlers in this district were from Virginia, Maryland, Kew Jersey and Pennsylvania, and its inhabitants, at every period of its history, have been chiefly fi'om the middle States.

Erom our research into early statements, we are led to believe that Andrew Craig was the first white man Avho located within the present county limits. He was, at a very early day, a sort of fi'ontier character, fond of rough and tumble life, a stout and rugged man - bold and dare-devil in disposition - who took delight in hunting, wi'estling and athletic sx)orts, and Avas "hail fellow well met" with the Indians then inhabiting the country. He was from the bleak, broken, mountainous region of Virginia, and as hardy a pine knot as ever that country produced. He was in this country when Ohio was in its territorial condition, and when this wilderness region was declared to be in the county of Eairfield, the sole denizen in this entire district, whose history is now being written, tabernacled witli a woman in a rough log hut close by the little Indian Eield, about one-half mile east of where Mount Vernon city now exists, and at the point Avherc Centre Kun empties into the Ko-ko-sing. There Andrew Craig lived when Mount Vernon was laid out in 1805 - there he was upon the organization of Knox county, its oldest inhabitant - and tliere he continued until 1809. Such a harumscarum fellow could not rest easy when white men got thick around him, so he left and went to the In-

After many years of solitary residence on the beautiful Ko-ko-sing, the solitude of Craig's retreat is broken by the entrance of a lone Jerseyman, who, in the spring of 1803, penetrates some ten miles further into the wilderness, so as not, by too close proximity, to annoy each other, and there raises a little log cabin and settles down. This follower of the trade of Yulcan soon gets in readiness to blow and strike, and sets about supplying the sons of the forest with the first axes they had ever seen, and by making for them tomahawks, scalping knives, etc., he acquires the sobriquet of the "axe-maker," which for more than half a century has attached to I^athaniel Mitchel Young.

A year passes by before any white accession is made to society on Owl Creek. Then a stalwart backwoodsman breaks the silence by the crack of his rifle, and at the spot where James S. Banning now lives, near Clinton, the pioneer, William Douglass, drives his stake.

The skillful navigator plies his oar, and Robert Thompson ascends Owl Creek to where Mount Yernon now stands, and on the rich bottom land, about one mile west, commences another improvement. Greorge Dial, of Hampshire county, Yirginia, in another pirogue comes up the creek, and, pleased with the beautiful countrv about where Gambler now flourishes, pitches his tent at the place now occupied by John Troutman. Old Captain James Walker, from Pennsylvania, settles on the bank of the creek wliere Mount Yernon now is. Jolm Simpkins wanders from Virginia, with his son Seeley for his capital, and squats about a mile above Douglass, where George Cassel's beautiful farm now exists. While these plain men from Virginia, Kew Jersey and Pennsjlvania are preparing their cabins for comfortable occupation, and making little clearings, a stray Yankee, solitary and alone, with a speculative eye and money-making disposition, is, with pocket compass, taking his bearings through the forest, soliloquizing about the chance of making a fortune by lajing out a town and selling lots to those who may come after him into this charming new country. Having, as he thought, found the exact sx^ot for his future operations, he blazes a tree, and wends his way to the nearest town - Eranklinton - west of the Scioto, then a place of magnificent pretensions, where he gets chain and compass and paper, and returns and lays out the town of Clinton, in section niunber four, township seven, range four. United States military district, with its large "public green," its north street and south street, its main street, first, second, third and fourth streets, and one hundred and sixty lots, and, taking his toAvn plat in his pocket, he walks to New Lancaster, being the first white person ever known to have made a journey in that direction from this infimt settlement, and before Abraham Wright, Justice of the Peace, acknowledges that important insti-ument, and on the 8th of December, 1804, X^laces it upon record. Thus Samuel H. Smith, subsequently the first sui'veyor of Knox county, for many years a resident, its leading business man, and

Shortly afterwards a large accession was made to the population of the countiy by the emigration from Ten ]\Iile, Washington county, Pa., of John Mills, Hem-y Haines, Ebenezer and Abner Brown, and Peter Baxter, who settled a short distance south of Owl Creek, where the Beams, Men-its and Lafevers have since lived. This settlement, by the increase of the Leonards, was in 1805 and '6 the largest and best community in the country, and upon the organization of the county, and for several years thereafter, it furnished the leading men.

Ben. Butler, Peter Coyle, and Thomas Bell Patterson, in the sjiring of 1805, augment the Walker settlement, where Mount Yernon was located shortly thereafter. William Douglass is joined by James Loveridge, who emigrates from Morris county, Kew Jersey, and with his wife takes quarters on the 6th of July upon the clapboards in the garret of his little log cabin, and is mighty glad to get such a shelter as that to spend the year in. The next year Loveridge starts off, under pretense of hunting a cow, and goes to the land office and enters and pays for the tract of land, where shortly after he erected a dwelling, and has ever since resided. Upon this land there is an uncommon good spring, which caused him to select it, and he tells with much glee the circumstances under which he obtained it. The only Yankee then in the country claimed to have located it, and proposed to sell it to him at a higher price than the government rate, which was then f 2 per acre. Concealing his inten- tion from all but his wife, Lovericlgc slipped off and examined into and purchased it himself from the government, and when he returned with his patent, Bill Douglass laughed heartily at the Jersey Blue overreaching the cunning Yankee. Amoriah Watson, of Wyoming county. Pa., also put up with Douglass, and thus this settlement was made up of Douglass, Smith, Watson and Loveridge, in 1805. The old axe-maker, in the meantime, is followed up by some of liis relations and friends, who start what has ever since been known as the Jersev settlement. Jacob Young, Abraham Lyon and Simeon Lyon are the first to settle upon the South Fork of Owl Creek, and are succeeded by Eliphalet Lewis, John Lewis, and James Bryant. The Indians they found very numerous, and through the kind feelings towards the old axe-maker, they were very friendly, and really quite an advantage in ridding the country of wolves, bears, and other varmints.

In the winter of 1805-6, that settlement entered into a written agTcement to give nine bushels of corn for each wolf scalp that might be taken, and three of the men caught forty-one wolves in steel traps and pens ! The description of these pens, and one of the stories told of their operation, we give in the words of an old settler : - " Wolf pens were about six feet long, four wide, and three high, formed like a huge square box, of small logs, and floored with puncheons. The lid, also of puncheons, was very heavy, and moved by an axle at one end, made of a small, round stick. The trap was set by a figure 1, with any kind of meat except that of wolf's, the animals being fonder of any other than their own. Ou gnawing the meat, the lid fell and caught the unamiable native. To make sport for the dogs, the legs of the wolf were i^ulled through the crevices between the logs, hamstrung, and then he was let loose, when the dogs soon caught and finished him. In Delaware county an old man went into a wolf trap to fix the spring, when it sprung n^oii him, knocldng him flat u^ion his face, and securely caught him as though he were a wolf. Unable to lift up the lid, and several miles from any house, he lay all one day and night, and would have perished but for a hunter, who passing by heard his groans, and came to his rescue."-

North, west and east of these embryo settlements all was wilderness for many long miles. A place bearing the name of Newark had been laid out by Gen. W. 0. Schenck, but it had not any greater population than these little scattered settlements aforementioned. The principal towns of note to the early settlers were Lancaster, Chillicothe and Zanesville. Neither of them were much larger then than oui" usual !x| roads callages now are. The people were exceedingly neighborly, and performed all manner of " kind chores" for each other, in going to mills, lajdng in goods, dividing what they had with each other, &c. The nearest mill in 1805, was in Fairfield countv. Our old friend James Loveridge informs us of a trip he made to that mill, which was seven miles up the Hockhocking river, from Lancaster. It belonged to Loveland & Smith, and was situated in a little crack between some rocks, and he went do^vn into the mill from on top of the roof. He made the trip there and back, about 125 miles, and brought home witb him in his wagon about 900 pounds of flour, one barrel of whisky, and one barrel of salt. How the settlement must have rejoiced at the arrival of the great staples of frontier life, salt, whisky and flour !

Continuation of tbte early outline. - More about the first settlors. - Quakers from Maryland find their way in 1806. - Incidents connected with their emigration, and in the movements of other settlers. - Who they were and what became of them. - The privations endured and dangers encountered. - More towns laid out. - The first mills. - The scene of an encounter with Indians. - InconvenrENCES OF the COUNTRY. - EFFORTS FOR A NEW COUNTY. - An EARLY ELECTION. - Fairfield divided. - Three new counties created by one BILL. - Strife for the seat of justice of knos.

The spring of 1806 brought witli it a new element into the wilderness region, in the form of the Eriends - the forerunners of large numbers of that society, who by their quiet yet industrious ways have contributed very much to the prosperity and peacefulness of our people. The venerable father Henry Roberts may be justly regarded as the head of this emigration from Maryland. In 1805 he left Frederick county, in that State, with his family, and directed his course to the far west, but on reaching Belmont county, found it necessary to winter his family there, and sent his wagon and team back to Maryland with a load of ginseng and snake-root, and on their return with a load of goods, he started with his family and plunder, and on the 7tli of April, 1806, he landed at Henry Haines', in the Ten Mile settlement, and after spending a week looking for a good location, on the 14th of that montli settled down Lis family at tlie little prairie five miles above Mount Yernon, of late widely known as the Armstrong section. Tlie family consisted of his wife, his sons - William, now living at Pekin, Illinois ; Isaiah, now residing near Pilot Knob, Missouri ; Kichard Roberts, of Berlin - and a daughter Massah, who married Dr. Timothy Burr, and died at Clinton, March 9th, 1811. Kine acres of that beautiful prairie were at once broken up and planted in corn. It was very hard work to break the virgin soil with a first rate foiu'-horse plow team, but it paid for that labor by one of the finest crops of corn ever raised in this country. In the fall Wm. T. Earquhar, a cousin of Henry Roberts, came with his family, and after him came Wm. W. Earquhar with his family. They all stopped with Henry Roberts, and thus composed the first settlement of Eriends in this district. Erom this nucleus came the numerous society of Quakers in Wayne, Middlebury and Berlin, in after years. Shortly after this we find anotlier Quaker, Samuel Wilson, and John Kerr in what subsequently became Wayne township, and John Cook and Jacob Cook just above, in what is noAV Middlebury township, and Amoriah Watson goes from Douglass' to the tract of land above, where Eredericktown was the next year laid out, and which he subsequently sold to Jacob Ebersole, a place now easy to be identified by all. In the spring of 1806, there were within the after limits of Knox county but fifteen persons who turned out to vote, and but nine liable to per form military duty out to muster.

a decidedly primitive character. It was in the Hains, or Ten Mile settlement, and constructed without the sound of the hammer upon iron. It was the joint work of Ebenezcr and Abner Brown, assisted by the mechanical skill of the whole neighborhood, and was built on what was called by the early settlers " Big Run," though in later times it is spoken of as the little Lake, through which the road to Granville has since been laid out. The water has almost disappeared - having been in its appearance greatly cliangcd by ditching, and in some parts obliterated by filling up the hollow. The mill stood where Isaac Beam's house now is, and the dam was where the bridge now stands in the lane. It was all of wood - a sugar-trough made its meal-trough - a little box the hopper - the stones were about two feet through, and hooped with elm bark for want of iron. It cracked corn pretty well with a good liead on, but the stream was generally dry, and the mill was only able to run when big showers of rain came. The buildins^ was about ten feet square, of rough logs - not a nail or a bit of iron could be had when it was made. Tlie stones of* this ancient of days are certainly a curiosity - they are yet to be seen, being the property of Moses Farquhar, of Berlin, who since that day has attempted experiments with them. Richard Roberts at one time took a grist to this original mill and liad it ground. He was then about seventeen years old, and not much acquainted with the milling business, but he was greatly impressed with its mechanism, and ready to exclaim, with our old friend Hadly, " The works of God are wonderful, but the works of man are wonderfuller !" He thought that it a\ orkcd first rate, though Henry Hains at that time had got a little hand mill wliicli he claimed was a great improvement on the little wooden mill.

Mr. Roberts recollects of having at one time packed a bag of corn from Tom Butler's down on AVhite-woman home, and from thence to a mill near ]N^ewark, and back home again, less a heavy toll. While at the mill he saw Hughes, and from his own lips had a true account about tlie killing of Indian horse thieves, whom Jack Katliff and himself had pursued into the Owl Creek country and killed as they came upon them in the bottom just below where Tredericktown now stands. The story runs thus : - " One night in April, 1800, two Indians stole their horses from a little inclosure near their cabins, located in some old Indian fields on the Licking. In the morning, finding their horses gone, and tracks about, they were satisfied of their having been stolen, and started oif in pursuit, accompanied b}^ a man named Bland. They followed their trail all day, and camped at night in the woods, and making an early start in the morning, surprised the Indians in their sleep. They drew uj) their rifles to shoot, when one of the Indians, discovering them, clapping his hands on his breast, as if to ward off the fatal ball, exclaimed in piteous tones, ' me bad Indian ! - me no do so more ! ' Alas ! in vain he plead ; the smoke curled from the glistening barrels, the report rang in the morning air, and the poor Indians fell dead." Hughes and Ratliff returned home with the horses and plunder taken fi'om the Indians, feeling as well over their little exploit as any men ever did over a gi'eat and glorious action. Ellis Hughes, who was known to very many of our old settlers, died near TJtica, in March, 1845, and was buried with military honors. He was believed to be the last survivor of the hard fought battle of Point Pleasant. He was a hardy backwoodsman from Western Virginia.

Our old townsman, Wm. Meiford, informs us that when he improved his farm on Mile Run, in Wayne township, he was clearing off ground on which to build his house, and he then plowed up the two Indians killed by Hughes, and also a rusty gun barrel, brass guard, and other pieces of a gun, which had not decayed. This was in 1835; and Jacob Mitchel now has the old relics.

Greorge Oonkie gatliered up the bones and buried them, and the house was built on the sj)ot - the old Peck place on Mile Run bottom, where Mrs. Acre now lives. In early days there was a favorite camping ground for the Indians about three-fourths of a mile from where these Indians were killed. Three old settlers have informed us that about 1808 they saw at one time more than one hundred and fifty warriors camped there. They have several times seen Old Crane, the Wyandot Chief, the Chief Armstrong, and Captain Pipe, with bands of Indians, roving througli this country, and we have gathered some very amusing incidents connected therewith, which the limit we have prescribed for this work compels us to omit in this edition.

Douglass, as early as the spring of 1805, to ccnceiye tlie design of erecting a mill at the seat now known as Banning's Mill. He then eomnienced digging the race and building the dam. After getting a saw to running, he set to work building a grist mill ; being a man of enterprise, he could not brook the thought that the people in that neighborhood should continue to boil and pound their corn when they could not take time to go to the distant mills.

John Kerr, as will be elsewhere noted in this book, erected a little grist mill on the Sullivant track, and laid out the town of Erederick in the first quarter, seventh township, fourteenth range, United States military district, which on the 11th of Xovember, 1807, he acknowledged, in presence of George Chambers, before Wm. W. Earquhar. A full account of the early settlement and i)rogress of this thriving village will be found under the head of Wayne township.

In our investigation of early matters, we find that the settlers of this district were solicitous upon three great points for legislative aid, to wit : the di^dsion of Fairfield, the increase of premium upon wolf scalps, and proper encouragement in killing squirrels. The General Assembly, in 1807, passed a bill to encourage killing of squirrels. It went through the popular branch with a rush, but the vote upon the final i)assage of the bill in the Senate, on the 21st of December, stood 8 ayes to 7 nays. The price for scalping gi'own wolves was increased, after some time and much petitioning, and the monster Eairfield was dismembered at last. Happy were those

In looking over the old petitions and beholding the cramped signatures of a nnmber of these hardy yeoinen, whose rough specimen marks of cracked and blistered hands in frontier service, clearly bear witness to their whole heart being in the prayers sent up for these measures, we can well imagine how they must have cliuckled with delight, as a Christian over his soul's salvation, at the realization of their wishes. In those primitive times their attention was not diverted from the real live issues affecting the welfare of themselves and their families to grand humanitarian schemes for the benefit of any other race or people. The squirrels eat the kernels when the corn was in silken tassels, taking it out of their children's mouths ; the wolves prowled about their tracks, destroying their pigs and poultry, and rendered night hideous Avitli their howling, and frightened and endangered the lives of wives and children, so thev could not leave home to attend to necessary business at the remote county seat. Tliis was a remarkable epoch in the history of the pioneers of this country.

In 1807, at the October election, the section of countrv known as Eairlield countv cast but 213 votes, all told ; and now there is scarcely a township in all tliis country that does not contain more voters. Tlieii i\\(i entire vote cast for Governor in the State, as officially published, was 5,616; and now, after tlie space of fifty-four years, our own county of Knox

What a change in the country we have lived to witness! How striking the contrast in manners, customs, education, intelligence, and in political, religious, and social life ! In nothing is the alteration more clearly marked than in the dissemination of information in reference to elections and the system of electioneering. Then every man ran on his own hook - his own race - making the best speed he was capable of - fully impressed with the belief that the devil would take tlie hindmost. The race was won then by personal merit and cleverness. N^ow party intervenes; caucuses and juntos dictate; conventions and wigwams gather together political carpenters, joiners and jacks of all trades, whose special province it is to make platforms out of vagrant material for Aveak-kneed and spavined candidates to stand on. Then there were no daily papers, and weekly ones only existed in great cities like Boston, Kew York and Philadelphia. In fact nine-tenths of the then inhabitants had never seen a newspaper. The official count of the vote of that year shows more fully than any language could convey the state of blissful ignorance prevailing throughout all this now politically crazy country. There were then two candidates running for Governor, to wit : Return Jonathan Meigs and Nathaniel Massie. The former was voted for under nineteen different names, and the latter under tive different stvles. The various tickets read: For Keturn J. Meigs, Return J. Meigs, Jun., Jonathan R. Meigs, Jr., Jonathan Return Meigs, Jonathan Return

Meigs, Jr., Return Meggs, Eeturn R. Meags, Jr., Jonathan Meggs, Jonathan R. Meggs, J. Meigs, Jr., Jonathan Meigs, Jonathan J. Meigs, Judge Meigs, John Meigs, Mr. Meigs, J. Maggs, Return Israel Meigs, James Meigs, Johan Meigs. Nathaniel Massie, Nathaniel Massie, Esq., James Massie, Mr. Massie, Daniel Massie. Meigs reeeived 3,299 ; Massie 2,317 ; and Return J. Meigs was declared elected Governor by 982 maj ority . Thomas Kirker, Speaker of the Senate, was then acting Cxoyernor.

Meigs had been a colonel in the army, and was appointed judge of the territory of Louisiana in July, 1805, and had resided in that country some six months ; his wife and ttiniily, howeyer, had remained, during his absence, at Marietta, in this State. Massie contested his election; and on the 30th of December, 1807, the General Assembly, in joint session, by a a ote of 21 to 20, decided that Meigs was not eligible. The yote of Fairfield was: For Meigs, 167 ; Massie, 46. In 1810, Goyernor Meigs was elected by the j)eople, and served as Governor until 1811. He was a gentleman of education and talent, and Meigs county, upon the Ohio river, will perpetuate his name as long as Ohio exists. At the election of 1807, above alluded to, Elnathan Scofield was elected Senator, and Philemon Beecher and Wm. W. Irwin Representatives.

The singularity of name borne by Governor Meigs is thus accounted for, as narrated to us by George Browning, Esq., a native of Belpre, and resident in this place since 1829. Jonathan Meigs, the father of Return J., was quite celebrated for his bravery in several Indian campaigns, and when out on one of these i^erilons excursions, during his absence, his wife was in her confinement, and wrought upon by great anxiety for her husband, kept continually crying out in pain : " Return, Jonathan, oh ! return, Jonathan, to me." About the time Return Jonathan was born, Jonathan returned, and she was quieted down, and at once the name "Return Jonathan" was given to the new comer.

The great extent of territory comprised witliin the limits of Eairfield, and the inconveniences resulting to the settlers in the more new portion of tlie country from their great distance from the county seat, caused them to agitate the question of a di^dsion of the county as early as 1806.

At t\iG fifth General Assembly of Ohio, held in Chillicothe, December 1st, 1806, a strong effort was made, audit was "within an ace" of being successful. Elnathan Scofield, Senator, and Philemon Beecher, Representative, of Fairfield county, were particularly friendly to this measure. How near it came to being a success, may be judged of by the following statement upon the Senate Journal, page 115, January 15th, 1807. A message from the House of Representatives, by Mr. Beecher, represented that "the House had passed 'an act for the division of Eairfield county,' in which they desire the concurrence of the Senate." On the 16th, tlie bill was received and read a second time. On the 20th, page 128, Air. Scofield laid before the Senate a petition, signed by a number of the inhabitants of Eairfield county, praying for a division thereof, and recommending Mount Vernon as the temporary seat of justice in said contemplated division, and also recommending certain persons as suitable characters for associate judges, and tlie petition was received and referred to the committee of the whole, to whom is committed the bill for a division of Fairiield county. On the 21st, the said bill was taken up, and considered and amended, and continued till Saturdav next.

At the sixth General Assemblv, in December, 1807, we iind on tlie 31st several petitions were presented from Fairfield count v for a division of said county, which were referred to Messrs. Scofield, Mc Arthur and Bigger.

On the 7th of January, Senate Journal, page 69, Mr. Scofield presented a petition from citizens of Fairfield county living south of the Refugee Tract, whose names are thereunto sub^<cribed,for Iavo counties ; the one lying nortli of Refugee Tract line to

January 15th, the bill pending in the Senate, page 83, several amendments were presented to the committee of the whole, one of which is: "Strike out in the 1st section and 6th line, after the word 'heathen,' 'from thence west along the south boundary of said military tract, and insert,'" etc. From which it may be inferred that there were heathen about these parts before these later times.

On the 16th of January the bin passed the Senate, and on the 30th of January, 1808, it passed the House and became a law. The second section of the act created the county of Knox. By this bill three of the best counties in the State of Ohio were marked out by metes and bounds, to wit : Licking, Knox and Richland. By the 4th section the teni- porary scat of justice of Licking was to be at the house of Levi Hays, and of Knox county at Mount Yernon. The 7th section provides "that BicMand county shall be under the jurisdiction of Knox until the Legislature may think proper to organize the same." Hence, the reader will observe that in tliese pages we have incorporated several items of the early history of our younger sister - Kichland - as well as some incidents of more particular interest to those dwelling in Licking. Tor the same reason, we have carried the history of Bloomheld, Chester and Branklin - three of the townships at present belonging to Morrow county, though until 1848 part and parcel of old Knox. The same commissioners who located the seat of justice of Knox county at Mount Yernon, under the joint resolution of February 9, 1808, fixed the seats of justice of Licking and Delaware counties ajt JS^ewark and Delaware.

On the 11th of Eebruary, in joint ballot, the Genm-al Assembly chose the first associate judges of Knox county, Wm. W. Farquhar, John Mills and William Gass.

As we have before stated, in the year 1805 some of the inhabitants became desirous of having a town on Owl Creek, and Mount Yernon was laid out accordingly. Thcfproprietors were Benjamin Butler, Thomas B. Patterson, and Joseph Walker. One of the settlers being from the Potomac, and thinking of the consecrated spot on its shores, suggested that, as the stream Avas so clear and beautiful, the place should bear the sacred name - Mount Yernon - and it was so done.

Clinton - one mile and a half nortli - located the year before, was by its proprietor named after Goternor DeWitt Clinton, of Kew York, and he also shoAved his regard for his old friend by gi^ang the name to his son - DeWitt Clinton Smith - who was a member of the sixth Legislature of Texas, and now resides in the Lone Star State. And in 1807 Fredericktown was laid out. Thus there were three towns, having a "local habitation and a name," before the county of Knox was created. Neither of them had adAanced verA' far in the scale of citA - dom up to 1S0(S; of the number, hoAVCAer, Clinton was the most promising. It had, at that time, more houses, shops and Avorkmen, than either of the others.

Oilman Bryant opened a grocery store in Mount Yernon, on the lot Avhere Buckingham Emporium noAV stands. It Avas a little story and a half sycamore cabin, where he kept poAA'der, shot, lead, whisky, etc., for sale to the Indians and the fcAY AA^iites in 1807. Samuel H. Smith had a pretty good stock of goods and traps at Clinton. Of each of these toAA^ns Ave shall speak more fully under their appropriate heads.

Upon the organization of the county, the inhabitants were greatly pleased. Those Avho had been compelled to traA^el to Kcav Lancaster to transact county business, Avere particularly gTatified. The proprietors of toAvn sites and holders of lots therein, Avere superlatively elated.

In piirsuaiicc tliereof, tlicy proceeded to discharge the duties imposed upon them, and on the 28th day of March, they appeared before John Mills, Justice of the Peace, and were seyerally sworn to discharge the duties assigned them as Commissioners as aforesaid.

Clinton and Mount Vernon were the principal competitors for the seat of justice. The former place at that time was the larger. It had more goods, more mechanics, more enterprises on foot, more houses, more people, and more hope for the future. It had more of Xew England families, more of Yankee spirit and shrewdness ; and yet, with all their cunning and craftiness - all their money and management - all their efforts and inducements - Clinton lost the selection. Its generals were out-generaled - its managers out-manoeuyered - its wits outwitted - its Yankees out-Yankeed by the less showy and pretending men from the Potomac and the Youghiogheny, who had settled at Mount Yernon. The choice of either one for the county seat inyolyed the ultimate ruin of the other. Clinton made a bold effort to keep up against adverse Ayinds. It could not sustain an appeal from the decision of the Commissioners, but still it kept on for seyeral years in its improyements, and until after the war it was ahead of Mount Yernon in many respects. It had tlic first and only newspaper in the county for two years ; it had the ffrst and only church in the county for many years ; it had stores, tanyards, shops of yarious kinds, and gi'eater variety of business than Mount Yernon ; but after the war was oyer it began to decay, and its rival took the lead. The accredited account of the location of the county seat is as follows : - The Commissioners first entered Mount Vernon, and were received Avith the best cheer at the log tavern of Mr. Butler. To impress them with an idea of the public spirit of the place, the people were very busy at the moment of their entrance and during their stay, at work, all with their coats off, grubbing the streets. As they left for Clinton, all quitted their labor, not " of love ;" and some rowdies, who dwelt in cabins scattered round about in the woods, away from the town, left " the crowd," and stealing ahead of the Commissioners, arrived at Clinton first. On the arrival of tlie others at that place, these fellows pretended to be in a state not comformable to temperance principles, ran against the Commissioners, and by their rude and boisterous conduct so disgusted the worthy ofticials as to the apparent morals of the inliabitants of Clinton, that they returned and made known their determination that Mount Yernon should be the favored spot. That night there were great rejoicings in town. Bonfires were kindled, stews made and drank, and live trees S]3lit with gunpowder.

Such is a plausible account of this matter, which we have often heard related by our old friend Gilman Bryant, who took great pride in rehearsing a fable calculated to give Mount Yernon the manifest advantage in the estimation of moral and temperance men in these later times. But some of those who lived in the county at that early day give an entirely different version to the subject, and even have gone so far as to aver that the Commissioners themselves delighted, as did the rest of mankind, in taking a " wee drap of the cratur," and could not have been " disgusted by rude and boisterous conduct" to which they were accustomed.

And again it is suggested that " the crowd" at that day was not so gi-eat in this locality that men who had sense and observation sufficient to be selected for Commissioners, would not have been able to observe and distinguisli " the rowdies," and class them where they belonged.

Another old settler, whose partiality at that day was for Clinton, avers that the proprietor of Clinton, Mr. Smith, had been very illiberal in his dealings with those who wished to purchase lots in his town. He had adopted a plan of mthliolding from market the best lots on the plat, and keeping the corner lots to be enhanced in value by the improvements made by settlers upon inside lots. At this course many of them became dissatisfied, and some of the number who had bought of him collogued with the Mount Yernonites against Clinton. We have been told by another old citizen, that tAvo of the men living north of Mount Vernon, and considered as in the Clinton interest, proposed to Kratzer and Patterson to help secure the location of the county seat at Mount Yernon, in consideration of their receiving two lots apiece in the town, and that their favor and influence went accordingly.

uel Kratzer, and had become involved on that account. Kratzer had moved to this place from Lancaster, where he had been acting as land tax collector of Eairfield county, in 1805, and reported himself to have been robbed of the public money while upon the road going to make his return. He was a line looking, large, fleshy man, and wore tight buckskin breeches. They had holes in them which he alleged to have been shot in the encounter, though they bore the appearance of having been cut ; his saddle-bags were also exhibited with liorrid gashes in them, and making profert of these he petitioned the Legislature for relief, and at the session of 1806, the bill for Ms relief Avas lost by a vote of 10 yeas to 17 nays. - H. J., p. 114.

Certain it is, Kratzer lost caste, and broken up and humiliated, he came to the new town site and bought out Patterson's interest in the town of Mount Yernon, and it is represented that one of the Commissioners was counted on by the settlers as certain for said place. He got another of the Board with him, and Mount Yernon came off victor. Subsequently - and as resulting from this judgment - Kratzer, enabled by the rise of property to pay off his debt, did the fair and just thing by the Commissioner.

Mount Yernon at that time was a rough, ragged, hilly spot, with a thick growth of hazel and other bushes, not near so inviting a place as Clinton, where everything appeared enticing to the stranger. Oilman Bryant says that : " The ground north of Butler's Tavern was then almost wholly in woods. Some timber had been chopped down in places.

Main Street was full of stumps, log heaps and trees, and tbe road up tlie street was a poor crooked path winding round amongst tlie stumps and logs." Kiehard Roberts says that it was very rough and broken where Mount Yernon was located, and was the last spot on God's earth a man would have picked to make a county seat.

Another gentleman residing north of Mount Yernon, and very partial to Eredericktown, thinks that by a little management that place miglit have been made the permanent seat of justice, when the strife was so great between the other towns. They might have got a strip tliroAvn oif of Delaware county, which might have been attached, and then Frederick would have been alike central ; but Kerr and his comrades had not their eyes open to the importance of getting that five mile range with Knox, and they were left out of doors when the location was made permanent.

We have thus minutely given all the statements made to us in regard to the selection of a permanent seat of justice, for it will be a matter of far greater interest to future generations than to the j)i'esent. Our seventh chapter we devote to Ben. Butler's version, which will be read with great interest, as he is the only one of the proprietors of the town now living, and was a prominent actor in that aifair. With that we leave tliis elaborately discussed subject.

Ths first term of common ^leas. - Report of commissioners on seat of JUSTICE. - The first criminal trials. - "The enforcement of the laws" upon hedrick's bare back. - Forty stripes laid on a poor

0:n^ the first of May, 1808, tlie faces of old and young, great and small, of the male and female, upon Owl Creek's "stormy banks," Ayere anxiously turned to the south to catch the first glimpse of that august personage, "the Court," then expected to make a first yisitation to Mount Vernon. Ben. Butler and Aunt Leah had their house all "in ax)plc-pie order" for their grand reception ; Jim Craig, at his house on the corner of Mulberry and Glambier, had laid in a fresh supply of whisky and other refreshments ; Gilman Bryant had got a bran new horn for his customers, and had rubbed his little store up until the stock looked as bright as a dollar; and Sheriff Brown had caused the little wagon maker shop of Ooyle & Sons to be swept out and supplied with smooth round logs for tlie jurymen and others in attendance to sit on. Every man and boy that had been fortunate enough to kill his deer had buckskin leggins and a new hunting shirt, and every woman that had a wheel had spun and dyed and made herself and little ones a good homespun garment. Some few who could stand the expense had bought of store calico three to five yards, at seventy-five cents a yard, and fitted themselves with a two or three breadth dress, the third breadth made into gores, so as to be wider at the bottom, as their ability enabled; for in those days there were no fashionable women to parade the streets with fifteen to eighteen yards in a dress, and no disposition for extravagant displays of wearing apparel. The Court traveled on horse-back - handed the saddlebags to "Knuck Harris," and, after rest and refreshment, bright and early on the morning of the 2d of May "opened" and proceeded to business. The whole population - men, women and children - wxre out in their best rig, to witness this great event ; and we give the following faitliful transcript of the entire proceedings :

" Agreeable to au act of the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, passed on the 17th day of February, 1808, for establishing and organizing the county of Knox :

" Be it, therefore, remembered and known, that we, William Wilson, President, John Mills and Wm. Gass, Associate Judges for said county of Knox, did on this day, to wit: Monday, the second day of May, in the year of our Lord 1808, meet at Mount Vernon, the temporary seat of justice for the county aforesaid, and proceeded to the appointment of a clerk for the said county, whereupon it was declared by the Court that Chas. Loffland was duly elected fro tempore, who came into Court and was duly qualified as the law directs.

" The State of Ohio vs. W771. ilc^r/rZ; - Felony. - William Wallace, William Bowen and Joseph Cherry Holmes entered into recognizance of $100 each to appear at the next Court of Common Pleas and testify against William Hedrick.

" James Armstrong, James Duulap and Isaac Cook, gentlemen, who was appointed by the Legislature on the 9th of February last for fixing the county seat in the county of Knox, made their report to the Court of Common Pleas for the county aforesaid that Mount Vernon should be the seat of justice for said county.

" To the Hon. William, Wilson, Esq., President, and John Mills, William Gass and Wm. W. Forhcr, Esqs., Associate Judges of the Court of Common Pleas in and for the County of Knox, in the State of Ohio :

" May it please your Honors, In conformity to an act of the Legislature of the State of Ohio, passed the 28th of March, 1803, entitled an act establishing seats of justice, we, the subscribers, were appointed by a Resolution of both Houses of the Legislature, passed on the 9th of February, 1808, commissioners for fixing the Parnianent seat of justice in and for s'd county of Knox. We do hereby make report to your Honors, that. Having Met and attended to the duties of our s'd appointment in s'd county on the 28th of the present Inst., and Having paid due Regard to the centre, Extent of population. Quality of soil, as well as the General convenience, we Hereby declare that the Town of Mount Vernon is the most suitable place for the Courts of s'd county to be held at, and we do hereby declare the said Town of Mount Vernon the parmanent seat of Jus-

" Fighting cases first disposed of. - State of Ohio vs. John Williamson. - For fighting yesterday with William Herrod. The Court do assess him in a breach of the peace, &c., in the sum of $1.60 and costs. State of Ohio vs. William Herrod. For fighting John Williamson yesterday. Fine $1.60 and costs.

" Traders Licensed. - Samuel Kratzer and Stephen Chapman are authorized to retail goods, wares and merchandize in Mount Vernon, on paying into the treasury $5.

" Tavern-keepers Licensed. - Samuel Kratzer is licensed to keep a house of entertainment in the town of Mount Vernon for one year, on paying $6. Daniel Ayres is licensed to keep in Fredericktown, on paying $5.

*' Judgment. - Fine $5, pay the owner, William Bowen, $15, and be whijjpcd 07i his naked bach ten stripes, imprisoned one month, pay the cost, and stand committed until the sentence is complied with.

" Judgment. - Prisoner be whipped 20 lashes on his naked back, and pay a fine of 620, and be imprisoned one month, and pay the owner $70, the value of the mare, pay the cost, and stand committed, &.C.

" Judgment. - Prisoner be whipped on his naked back five stripes, pay a fine of $2, be imprisoned one month, pay the owner $5, double the value of the over-alls, pay cost, and stand committed, &c.

" Judgment. - Prisoner to be whipped five stripes on his naked back, pay a fine of $1, pay the owner 81.50, the value of the bell and collar, pay the costs, and stand committed, &c."

Tlie State pays its first fee. - On motion, a certificate was issued by the Commissioners in favor of Samuel Kratzer, Esq., for his services, for $6, in acting on the part of the State against William Hedrick, who was found guilty of felony.

The sentence of the Court - when, ivhere, l)y ichoni and how executed. - The judgment of castigation was executed upon the public square of Mount Yernon, shortly after the adjournment of Coiu't, in the presence of all the people. Silas Brown was the Sheriff, and it fell to his lot as such to serve the

" legal process" upon tlie body of William Heclrick. There was a small leaning liickory tree upon the east side of the public square, between the present ]N^orton building and High street, and a little south of where the jail was afterwards built, and this tree bent in such way that a man could walk around under it. To this delectable spot the culprit was taken, and his hands were stretched up over his head and tied to the tree, and the stripes were applied by said Sheriif to his naked back. He was struck forty times with a heavy raw-hide whip.

A spectator pleads for mercy. - The first few blows with the raw-hide were across the kidney. Mr. Bryant, one of the bystanders, at once called out to the Sheriff to whip him elsewhere - that was no place to whip a man - he should strike higher up ; and the rest of the lashes were applied across the shoulders.

Hoxi:^ HedricJc acted. - The criminal sobbed and cried piteously, and when released went off* weeping and groaning. In many places the skin was cut and broken, and the blood oozed out, making a pitiable spectacle. And yet such was the feeling against him that few seemed to sympathize with the scourged. As he started off he said to the spectators, " You should not blame me for this, for it is not my fault." Bob Walker replied, " IN'o, by G - d, you wouldn't have stood up and been whipj)ed that way, if you could have helped it." And at this i)rompt retort to Hedrick's exj)lanation or apology, the crowd laughed loudly and uproariously.

the Gniiid Jmy, and James Lover idge and tlie Herrods of tlie Petit Jiuy, and Richard Roberts, all of ^vhom arc yet lining, and who witnessed this scene, ayc have gathered this account of the first and last judicial punishment by whipping in the county of Knox. And scarcely anj^ of the present citizens are aware that such punishment of criminals was ever the law of the land in which they have the good fortune to live.

The First Election At Mount Vernon

On the 4th day of April, 1808, the entire people of the county voted at Mount Yernon. The officers of election were Ebenczer Brown, Jabez Beers and Samuel Kratzer, Judges ; Wm. Gass and Robert Anderson, Clerks. They were here from the most remote points, as well as from the ^^cinity of Mount Yernon. The election of the first officers in a new county brings out eveiy body. They elected them by the following votes : John Lewis, for Commissioner, received 56 votes, John Herrod 52, and Joseph Walker 48. Silas Brown was elected Sheriif. Jonathan Craig, for Coroner, had 45, and Erancis Hardesty 1 vote. Then for Trustees - for be it remembered, the whole county composed the district - George Downs had 41, Henry Roberts 36, and Joseph Coleman 36. The vote for Overseers of the Poor was, Moses Craig 22, James Walker 2, Alexander Walker 12. The candidates for Supervisor were Sam. Kratzer, who received 35, and Peter Baxter 36. Por Pence Yiewers, George Zin, Michael Click and Jesse Severe were candidates.

Eor " House praisers," Arcliibald Gardner and James Craig eacli got 12 votes. Eor Constables, Gabriel \yiikins received 30, Philip Walker 21, Jonathan Hunt, Jr., 15, Dave MiUer 3. Por Treasurer, Ben. Butler had 12 votes, and James Walker, Jr., 2. [NTone of these jjarties are now living but Ben. Butler and Jonathan Hunt, who many long years ago dropped the junior and became a senior, and is now one of the oldest of men.

They Were

"Know ye, tliat on the 2d day of May, 1808, at a meeting of a Board of Commissioners for said county, to wit : Joseph Walker, John Harrod and John Lewis, Commissioners in and for said county,

'^Ordered, that the following bounds be laid off into a separate township, to wit: beginning at the west boundary line of said county, between the 6th and 7th township line, and running east to the west of the thirteenth range line, thence north to the center of the 7th township line, thence on the east to the east line of the 13th range, thence north to the county line, which shall be called and known by the name of Wayne township.

that the following boimds be laid off into a separate township : beginning at the north-cast corner of Wayne township, thence east to the west side of the 11th range, thence south to the center of the Gth township, thence west to the west line of the 12th range, thence south to the south line of the Gth township, thence west on the said lino of the side line, which shall be called and known by the name of Clinton township.

"Beginning at the center of the 11th range line where it intersects Licking county line, thence north to the center of the Gth township line, thence west to the Avest line of the 12th range, thence south to the line between the 5th and Gth townships, thence west to the west line of the county, thence with the county line to Licking county to the place of beginning, which shall be known and called by the name pf Morgan township.

"Ordered, that the following bounds be laid off into a separate township, laid off as follows : beginning at the north-east corner of Clinton township, thence eastward to the Muskingum county line, thence with the line of said county to the Licking county line, thence west to the middle of the 11th range, thence north to the center of the 6th township, thence west to the west side of the 12th range, thence north to the place of beginning, which shall be called and known by the name of Union township."

Those wlio are curious to know wliat tliese townships comprised, will find that Wayne at that time embraced all of the present townships of Eranklin and Chester, in Morrow county, Middlebnry, and Berlin, Wayne, and the north half of Morris.

Morgan consisted of the west half of Clay, southwest quarter of Harrison, south half of Pleasant, and all of Morgan, Miller, Milford and Hilliar.

The Second, Or Fall Term Knox Common Pleas

A Grand Jury was called and sworn for the body of this county, to wit : Jabez Beers, foreman, Ziba Leonard, John Johnson, James Walker, Jacob

Young, Beiijaiiiiu Butler, Wm. Kasli, Jolin Butler, David Miller, John Merritt, Wm. Douglass, Jas. Walker, Jr., James Craig, wlio after being sworn, retired out of Court, and after some time returned with the follo^ving x^resentments, to wit :

" The State of OMo vs. Samuel H. Smith. - On a presentment for selling goods without license. A true bill, to wliicli the defendant plead guilty. Court on consideration of the offense doth find the defendant in the sura of $2.50, and costs of the prosecution.

" John Armstrong vs. John Kerr. - In trespass. James Bryant came into Court and undertook for the defendant, that in case he should be cast in this suit, that he would pay and satisfy the condemnation of the Court, or render his body to the prison in lieu thereof.

" ' On the motion of Samuel H. Smith, it is ordered that license be issued to him to sell and retail goods, wares, and merchandize of foreign growths and manufactories, at his store in the town of Clinton, for one year,' on payment of $10.00.

Knox Coukty

"James Craig vs. Archibald Gardner. - On an appeal from a judgment rendered by Samuel Kratzer, Esq. This came ye defendant by his attorney, and pleads non-assumpsit, joinder and issue. Whereon came a jury, to wit: Daniel Johnson, Ichabod Nye, Wm. Casper, Stephen D. Menton, John Click, Thomas Bowen, Moses Craig, Wm. Bowen, Robert Anderson, Jesse Proctor, Oilman Bryant, Alexander Walker, who upon their oaths say that they find for the plaintiff, and assess the damages to $25.26^ cents damages.

" The State of Ohio vs. Michael Brown. - Samuel Kratzer, Samuel Baxter and Polly Miller entered into 3100 recognizance to appear and testify on the part of the State.

" State of Ohio vs. Aaron Brown. - James Walker, Jr., Benjamin Butler and Wm. McBride entered into recognizance of $100 to appear and give evidence on the part of the State.

"Jacob Young \&., AbraJiam hyon. - Samuel H. Smith came into Court and undertook for the defendant, that in case be should be cast in this cause, that he would pay and satisfy the condemnation of the Court, or render his body to prison in lieu thereof.

" Thomas B. Patterson, for the use of Moses Bixby, vs. Samuel Kratzer. - In debt. The defendant came into Court and acknowledged the services of the writ; declaration filed and continued.

" John Armstrong vs. John Kerr. - The declaration being filed this the 5th day of Nov., 1808, the defendant is ordered to plead to the same within twenty days; otherwise judgment.

The First Special Term Of Court

At tlie request of Micliael Brown, John Click and Aaron Brown, a Court of Common Pleas of the Associate Judges Avas opened at Mount Yernon the 5th of December, 1808. Present, Wni. W. Parquhar, John Mills, and Wm. Gass, Esqrs.

" The State of Ohio vs. M. Brown. - On an indictment found by the Grand Jury, a true bill, thus appeared the prisoner, and pleads not guilty ; the Court then proceed to the evidence of John Williamson, Samuel Kratzer, Samuel Baxter, Polly Miller and Stephen Chapman, on the part of the State, and Thompson Mills and Michael Mills on the part of the prisoner. The Court, upon a full investigation, do order that he do give bail of two persons, which shall be bound in two hundred dollars each, for his personal appearance at the next term, then and there to abide the order of Court; otherwise to be remanded to jail.

" The State of Ohio vs. A. Brown. - On an indictment for a breach of the peace. The Court order him to enter bail in one surety of fifty dollars.

At the October election the first regular vote was taken for State and county officers, the terms of those elected in April having been, in Clerk Lofland's phrase, only "^ro 'pemimre.'''' The following poll-book of one of the most i^opulous townships shows who Avere voted for:

Poll-hook of an Election held in the Township of Wayne, in the County of Knox, and State of Ohio, the 11th day oj October, 1808, at the house of Daniel and Abner Ayres, in the tmcn of Frederic. John Kerr, Chuirman, Nathaniel M. Young, John Cook, Henry Roberts, Judges, and Jacob Young and JV?n. W. FarquJuir, Clerks of the Elcctian, were duly sworn as the law directs, previous to their entering on the duties of their respective offices.

" Samuel Huntingdon had at the above election, for Grovernor, a majority of 23 votes (all cast;) Jeremiah Morrow, for Congress, received 21, and Philemon Beecher 2.

Eifty-four years have not yet passed by, and yet eai-tli has closed upon all the above list of voters and voted for: and at this day there are but seven of the above numbered who have any "kith and kin" within our county limits. Of 126 voters at an election in the entire county, in 1808, but seven are now living - the mementos of the past - the connecting link of the living and the dead; soon, alas! the last one of the pioneers will have departed from among us. Is it not, then, of the utmost importance to gather from the lips of the few who stand, as we ^vrite, at the very threshhold of death, their recollections, and to treasure up, for future generations, an account of their perils and suiferings, and the incidents connected with the first settlement of this great and glorious land '^

The Fair Thing For The Tax-Payer

"Present: Gentlemen Henry Markley, Matthew Merritt and William Douglass, Commissioners, who, at their first meeting, proceeded to the appointment of a Clerk, and James was duly elected Clerk, and qualified accordingly; then, according to law, proceeded to cast lots relative to their ceasing to continue in the office, and it is by them declared that Henry Markley continue in said office three years, Matthew Merritt two years, and "William Douglass one year. Ordered, that this Board do adjourn until nest Friday."

" Ordered, that the Clerk issue an order on the County Treasurer of this county for the sum of one dollar and fifty cents for killing one wolf, proven before Wm. Y. Farquhar, Esq., in favor of James Durbin.

" Ordered, that an order issue in favor of James Smith for the sum of two dollars, for carrying returns of the annual election to the town of Newark.

"Occasion" did "Keqnu-e" a "sooner meeting," for we find that wolves had been killed, and it was a "case of emergency," justifying an extraordinary meeting of the Board of Commissioners at Mount Yernon, on the very next day, and we give the journal entry in its own words:

" Ordered, that an order do Issue to the County Treasurer of this county, in favor of Jesse Morgan, for the sum of three dollars, for killing two Grown "Wolves.

" Ordered, that an order do Issue to the Treasurer of this County, in favor of Jonathan Morgan,* for the sum of three dollars, for killing two Grown Wolves.

* Query. - Was not Morgan township named after the distinguished -wolf-killer, to whom we find many orders to have been issued for killing wolves ? May not a spirit of regard for such public benefactors have caused the old settlers to perpetuate the name of Morgan ?

Philip Walker, constable, of seventy-five cents for one day's attendance on tlie Grand Jury at tlie May term; to William W. Farqnliar, Esq., $1.50 for one day's attendance on a call court, on an indictment of the Grand Jury, on the case of M. Brown; to John Mills $3 for the same ; to William Gass $3 for the same; and the following wolf orders: To John Simpkins t|1.50 for killing one grown w^olf, X^roven before Samuel Xratzer, J. P. ; to John Butler $3 for killing two grown wolves, proven before Abraham Darling, J. P. On the 6th day of December :

" Ordered, that the Treasurer of this Couijty do pay the following sums to the following persons : To James Dunlap $22 for fixing the county seat of this county ; to Isaac Kook $22 for the same ; to James Armstrong $22 for the same.

" Ordered, that 10 cents be erast off the Collector's Duplicate, for an error made by the lister, who personally apj)eared and confessed the same, in favor of Samuel Lewis.

" Ordered, that the Treasurer of this County do pay to James Smith, Clerk, 86. G7 for his services in elections until the said term, likewise 75 cents for Blank Books.

" A petition was handed the Board, praying a view of a Road from the town of Clinton Running to intersect the County Line, near the south-west corner of the County; which review they declare Inexpedient and Rejected.

" A petition was handed the Board, praying a view of a Road from the town of Clinton through the Settlement of Skenk's Creek to the Eastern Line of Knox County, and it is declared by the Board that the said petition is rejected.

" A petition was handed the Board, praying a view of a Road from Mulberry street, in the town of Mount Vernon, to Wm. Douglass' mill, and they declared the same Inexpedient.

" Ordered, that the Treasurer of this County do pay Archibald Gardner the sum of $1 .50 for killing one Grown Wolf, proven before Samuel Kratzer, Esq.

" Ordered, that the Treasurer of this County do pay to Henry Markley the sum of $15 for to defray expenses and charges relative to procuring a Duplicate from Fairfield county to enable the collector to collect and pay the taxes on Resident Lands in this county.

" Ordered, that the Treasurer do pay to Silas Brown $13.33 for his services eight months in criminal cases; for do. in elections, $4; the above allowances for the year 1808; 3 hasps and 1 lock, $2.50 ; summoning 2 Grand Juries, $2 each ; and fifty cents for the diet of Wm. Hedrick, prisoner.

Sucli was the action of Markley, Merritt and Douglass, in the year 1808. How economically our affairs were managed in the early days of the Owl Creek Republic ! Officers then were simple-minded , and wrote with grey goose-quills ; expending but 75 cents for blank-books; gold pens were then unknown, nor steel-vA^ either. The item of "stationery," which has since figured so extensiyely in county exhibits, was not then in the official dictionary. Blessed days were those, when an "error of 10 cents was ordered erast," and "confession" of the same made by the collector upon the county records in favor of the aggrieved sovereign; when roads through "the settlements on Skenk's Creek" and to "county lines," as well as from "Mount Yernon to Mill," were declared bj^ our pioneer board "Inexpedient," and "the petitions" of interested citizens were "rejected;" when it took only "50 cents" toi pay "the Diet" of prisoners, and the "chief end of man" was to kill grown wolves, and of County Commissioners and Clerk to receive cevti.ficates of proof thereof and issue orders to pay for their scalps !

The first of our race known to liaye been witliin tlie limits of tliis county, as stated heretofore, was John Stilley. The second, of whom we have reliable information, was the reckless frontiersman, Andy Craig. And from all we can learn, we are of the o];)inion that cotemporaneous with him was the oddest character in all our history, Johnny Chapman, alias Appleseed, who was discovered in this country when the Walkers, and Butlers, and Douglass and others landed here, and whose name is found recorded among those voting at the first election ever held in this district.

Ben. and John Butler, in September, 1801, made a trip up Owl Creek as far as to the mouth of Center Bun, and camped over night about one hundred yards north of the Owl Creek bank. At that time Andy Craig was living there in a Kttle log hut, with a 2:reat raw-boned woman as his wife. She had been married to some man about Wlieeling, when Andy took u]) with her, and they ran off into the Indian country together. She was a trifling, coarse piece, and said Ben: " I'd as soon have slept with a man as her, and why he should have taken her into the wilderness for a sleeping companion I can't see." Not a white person was then living in our route from Lewisville up to where Mount Vernon now is, and not a settlement had been made in Knox, Morrow, Richland, Ashland, Wayne, or any part of the country watered by Owl Creek, the Mohican, and their tributaries. An old Indian Chief vnth his Tribe was then camped near by, and they had a grand j)ow-wow there. The Indian Eield, in the bend south of the camps, was covered with beautiful grass, and looked charming.

The Butlers were greatly pleased with their exploration, and returned by the mouth of Owl Creek to Lewisville. In 1803, John settled near the mouth of the stream. In the spring of 1805, Ben. takes up his residence in Mount Yernon. During the intermediate time the Indians held undisputed possession. Andy Craig, having fallen into their customs and mode of life, remained with them ; and, after settlers began to pour in, he pulled up stakes, and went up to Greentown and continued in their company. There were three beautiful spots of ground without timber, and known from that time as the " Indian Fields." The one we have named was the "Little Indian Eield," and contained about twenty acres, known to settlers of many years as on the Ann Carter tract, now owned by Judge Hurd. It is in Clinton township.

The beautiful little prairie in Morris township, where Henry Roberts settled, was also a choice spot. And the Me-me-kausen prairie down the creek, now known as the Darling prairie.

These were all favorite places of resort for the Indians as long as they were in this country. Armstrong with his Tribe once every year visited the Indian Eields on Owl Creek, and hunted and fished, and camped by the waters of the stream they loved until the war of 1812, when they had reason to cease their visits in this direction.

This country is described by those who knew it at that early day as the most beautiful region the eye ever rested upon. The work of nature was captivating. Subsequent cultivation by man has added to its interest, though, in some respects, it may have marred the beauty of the original scene.

Beyond the recollection of the oldest inhabitant now living within our borders, a tragedy was enacted on the point of bluff between Centre Run and Owl Creek, of which much has been said by old citizens, but very little is known. The exact time of its occurrence is usually stated at about 1805, but in fact it must have occurred as early as 1800, if not before that. Two slaves had run aAvay from their master, Tumlinson, who lived in Virginia, and had got into this part of the country and taken uj) with squaws. Their j)ursuers tracked them through Zanes^ille and u}) Owl Creek, and finally came upon them at Andy Craig's. One of the boys was a muhxtto ; and, recognizing his master's son as he approached with two other men, sprang to the bank and into the Creek, pursued by the men, who overtook him in the middle of the stream, and a deadly struggle took place, in which he killed his young master, but was then overpowered, taken to the hut, tied, and shortly after jilaced on the horse his young master had rode, and the company started for Virginia with him. The second night after lea^dng Craig's, they built a camp-fire, and left the mulatto tied by it, when they went out for game. On their return, he was found to have been shot, but neither could say that he did it. The belief was, that they had become tired of taking him along, and as he was surly and troublesome, he was killed to get rid of him, and out of revenge for the loss of Tumlinson.

Ben. Butler informs us that on his trip to Owl Creek in 1801, Andy Craig told him the particulars of this fight ; and that in 1805, when he made a trip out to the Sandusky plains, he saw the negro who escaped, and was then living with a squaw among the Indians, and talked with him about this affair.

Dr. J. K. Burr and J. W. Warden, in hunting over the ground where this scene occurred, came across the bone^ of Tumlinson, who had been buried there.

Among the early settlers of this part of Ohio, were the Virginia family of Butlers. They were John, Thomas, Benjamin, Joseph, Isaac and James, and all made tlieir settlements upon Owl Creek and Wliitewoman at first, and subsequently lived upon these streams or their tributaries, and in the division and formation of counties were found in Knox and Coshocton, in what was about the same neighborhood in those times. John settled in 1803, on land which he bought of Capt. Taylor, at the mouth of the Mohican, near where Cavallo was located. He died on Mohican, in his 85th year. Thomas died in his 84th year. Joseph died about 1837. Isaac was drowned in Whitewoman, about 35 years ago. James died on his farm on Mohican, about 1832. They were hardy, sinewy men, good hunters, and well calculated to endure the hardships and privations of frontier life.

Ben. Butler, in his 81th year, is yet of vigorous physical frame and of strong mind. Eew men of forty can be found with more rugged constitution. The Butlers were always fond of fun and frolic, and never occupied a back seat when any sj)ort or fighting went on in early days. Ben. is about five feet nine in height, w eighs about 150 pounds, is straight as an arrow, and fleet as an Indian. He is ready to-day to run a foot race with any man of his age in the world, and a few years since gave a public challenge through the press to run for a wager a foot race with any man of his age in the State or nation.

He was born in Monongahela county, Ya., April 18tli, 1779, and when just turned of twenty years he married, on the 2d of May, 1799, Leah Bogers, of Crab Orchard, Ya., then in her sixteenth year, and by her had fourteen children, seven boys and seven girls. Betsey, their oldest child, was born in Monongaliela county, Ya., Eebrnary 22d, 1800. She married John Rouse, who died at Bacine, Meigs county, leaving five children. Betsey is now living with them at that place. Hiram was born on the Tuscarawas river, about two miles fi'om Coshocton, in October, 1801 ; he is dead. Ben. was born on Whitewoman, July 31, 1801, and is also dead. Joseph was born in Mount Vernon, the 23d of October, 1806. Matilda in Mount Yernon, October 8th, 1808 ; she married Charles Critchfield, and is now dead. Huldah was born on his farm down the creek where he has ever since lived, in 1810. Beasin was born August 12th, 1812, and is now dead. Laban E,., born March 7th, 1811, married Luciuda Peckham, and lives in Union township. Maria was born October 1st, 1815 ; married S. W. Sapp, and is now dead. Polina, born August 31st, 1817, married Bobert Grimes, and lives in Iowa county, Iowa. Hetty, born July 5th, 1819, wife of John Carpenter, with her two boys and two girls, lives at the old farm with Ben. Squire John, born in 1821, and George Washington, born in 1823. Squire John married Mary Jane, daughter of Joseph Workman, and George W. married Miss Lydick, daughter of another old settler. Thej^ live in Union township. Josej)h married Polly Biggs, and lives in Newcastle ; Huldah married Joseph Jones, and lives in Knox county. 111. Three of the boys and three girls are dead ; the rest living, together with seventy-five grandchildren. " Pretty well done, is it not," said Uncle Ben. to us this 8th of June, 1862, "for old Yirginia and a little Quaker gal !"

In ISOO, Ben. Butler settled in tlie neigliborliood of Dresden, and raised a crop on land belonging to Major Cass. In 1801, lie moved to Lewisville, two miles above Coshocton, and in 1802, lie settled on Wliitewoman above the mouth of Kilbuck, and from thence to Mount Yernon in April, 1805, where he resided until 1809, when he moved down the creek, where he has ever since resided. Before he moved to Mount Yernon he had bought thirt}^- six acres of land of Joe Walker, which he had purchased of Matthews and Nigh, and Matthews executed the deed to Butler. Patterson, Walker and himself conceived the plan of laying out a town on their possessions, and accordingly in July, 1805, it was surveyed by Bob. Thompson, and taken to Lancaster, and recorded in Pairtield county records.

Captain Walker's house was the first one within the town plat ; the next buildings were two little log stables, built by Ben. Butler, on the corner now owned by Adam Pyle - Gambier and Main streets, north-west corner. In one of these log stables Ben. Butler lived and kept entertainment until he built his log cabin on the corner, which for many years continued the principal tavern of Mount Yernon. He paid for shingles and work on that house $150. This was the building wherein the Commissioners who came to locate the county seat were most hospitably entertained. Ben. moved into it in the fall of 1805, and lived in it until 1809. It continued as the Avar office under successive administrations.

Ben. bought two hundred acres on Licking, and built a log cabin on it, intending to move his family there in 1809, but having met Avith a favorable offer

The most extraordinary event of those early times was a terrible tornado in the summer of 1806, which played hayoc with the early settlers. It came up suddenly, and was very violent. It tore off the roofs of all the houses, killed most of the stock running about, and tore down all the large white oak trees that were on Ben.'s thirty-six acre tract, as also many trees on Walker's land. In its course it took in Andy Craig's old stand on Center Run. Ben. had nine head of horses ; as the storm came up they attempted to run out of its way ; two of them were killed ; one of the horses ran all the way to Craig's, and jumped into his garden patch ; its skin was torn and flesh scratched in many places by limbs of trees hurled against it by the storm as it ran to get out of its reach. Walker had some horses killed ; also Patterson and Kratzer, and a little fellow from Virginia who lived on the hill, named Zinn.

A little doctor named Henderson was with us when we laid out the town. He was from Baltimore, Maryland, and proposed that we should call it after Washington's home-place, and we all sanctioned. When it came to giving any name that pleased Washington, it i^leased all proprietors.

lazy to practice. The first time Ben. saw him, Patterson came out into the lot where he was plowing, and introduced him to Ben., who was mad at the infernal beecli-roots catcliing the plow so niucli, and when Patterson said he was a doctor, and Henderson spoke up and said he had just been inoculating a child, and A\^anted to inoculate Butler's, know exactly what inoculating then meant, but I was mad, and I threatened to put my knife into him, and scared him so that he would not attempt to 'noculate any more in that to^^ii. He stayed about for a time, until he ran away with a woman, and no other doctor dared to show his face there during my stay. We had no lawyers either in them days."

The first election Ben. recollects of attending, the neighbors and himself went down to Dresden and voted in 1803 or 1804. Another election he recollects of was held at Bill Douglass'. David Johnson wanted to be a constable, and 'lectioneered hard, and agreed to take on executions and for fees raccoon skins, if he was elected. But when the A'otes were counted, he was beaten by Dimmick. This was the first time he voted a ticket. In old Virginia it had been always the custom to vote by singing out the name of the candidate voted for. Speaking of raccoon skins : old Amos Leonard preached Presbyterian doctrine, and would often say when he commenced, " Kow, you had better pay the, preacher a coon skin or so." It was with him " poor preach and poor pay." " Once I passed along where he was preaching, with corn on my back, to feed about one hundi'cd hogs that I had about where ^N^orton's mill is, and seeing Walker listening to liim, I hallooed to him to come along ^vith me - that he could learn no good from Amos - that he kucAy nothing ; and Walker came along with me. Another Sunday I was out hunting calves with my brother Tom, and when we had found them and were driving them along the road, l^reacher Leonard took off his hat and shook it at them, scaring them off, so I told him if he ever did so again, preacher as he was, I would whip the hide off of him ; and I would have done it, too, for at that day I could whip anybody ; I was little, but never saw the man I couldn't Avhip.

" Leonard went on to his meeting, and took satisfaction out of me by preaching at me. Captain Walker said to me the next day : ' Oh ! you ought to have been at meeting just to hear Leonard abuse you ; he laid it on to you severely.' I thought that may be so. Many a man can whip with the tongue that is afraid to try it with the fist."

One of the greatest fights of that early date was between Ben. Butler and Jim Craig, in which Craig was badly whipped. Butler's hand had been tied uj) from a hurt, but he took off the poultice and gave him a severe thrashing. The next day Jim and Ben. met together and took a drink over it; the quarrel was dropped, as Jim said he deserved the whipping and would not fight it over again.

The okl school house stood near where the market house stands, and the public well, with a sweej) or pole, was north of it, nearly in the centre of High street. He helped wall the old well.

Oilman Bryant said, that he came to the county in 1807, and lauded in Mount Yernon from his jurogue in March, and at that time there were only three families living within the then limits of the town, viz; Ben. Butler, who then kept a sort of tavern ; James Craig, who kept some sort of refreshments and whisky, on the corner, east side of Mulberry and north of Wood street; and another family, who lived south of Craig's on the opposite side of the street. These buildings were all log. On little pole shantee, put up by Jo. Walker, a gunsmith, who had a little pair of bellows in one corner, and tinkered gun-locks for the Indians. Eurther west, on what is now Oanibier street, and beyond

Walker, also a log. There was also at that time a small log house with a roof, but the gable ends not yet filled, standing on the west side of Main street, between the present market house and where the court house stood in 1849, which would be in High street. There was at the time living in the neighborhood, and recollected by Mr. Bryant Colville, on his farm east of town; Bob. Thompson, where Stilley now lives; Andrew Craig, at or near the old Indian fields (on Centre Bun, above Tur- ner's mill); old Mr. Walker, near Banning's mill, on the left hand side of the road; and old Mr. Hains, south of town. Mr. Bryant brought eight barrels of whisky by water to Shrimplin's mill on Owl Creek, and from thence had it hauled by N^athaniel Oritchiield's team, Joe driving, to Mount Yernon. Tradition says that the first log shelter occupied by old man Walker was made of little round poles by Casper Fitting in 1802, but we can find nothing to sustain a claim to its erection at so early a period. Fitting, doubtless, was the builder, we should think about 1801, though it may have been in 1803; however, as our own recollection does not extend quite that far back, we give it as it has been told to us.

Joseph Walker, Sr., of whom we have been speaking, emigrated to this county from Pennsylvania about 1801, and settled near where we now write. Philip, Joe, Alexander, James, Robert and John were his sons, and two daughters - Sally, who married Stephen Chapman, and lives three miles south of this town, and Polly, who married Solomon Geller, a Pennsylvania Dutchman, who was one of the early settlers of Mount Yernon, and subsequently moved into what is now Morrow county. Joseph Walker, Sr., and his wife, both died many years ago, and their bodies were buried in the Clinton graveyard, with no stone to mark the spot where they lie, and this record, it is hoped, may serve to perpetuate their memory. Erom all accounts, they were very worthy pioneers.

tlie back bone, and was constantly harrassed by peace officers. It became almost an every-day occurrence Avith liim to liave a fight ; and, if no new comer appeared to give his fighting life variety, he would, ''just to keep his hand in," scrape up a fight with his neighbors or have a quarrel with his wife - all for the love of the thing, for "Jamie was the broth of a boy." He had as high as four fights in one day with Joe Walker, who was also a game chicken ! When arraigned before court for assault, etc., he would always put on his most pleasing smile, and say to the judge : "^ow, will yer honor jist please be good to the boy, for he can't help it."

We have been told by an early settler of a little incident, illustrating the sports of the j)ioneers in 1807, at James Craig's house, after he had moved out to the log cabin, erected, and yet leaning, not standing, on D. S. Norton's farm, south of High street extension, on the Delaware road. Craig had tended a few acres in corn, and had the only corn for sale in that part of the county. Mrs. Rachel Kichardson sent her son Isaac to buy some for bread, and, after spending a short time in the village, he went out to Craig's, got his corn, and stayed all night. The family had just got to sleep, lapng down on the floor, when the wild fellows of the town came in to the doors and fired a volley over their heads. Craig at once sprang out of bed in his shirttail, grapi^led with one of them, and in a short time all present were engaged in a lively little fight, just for the fun of the thing. " Knuck Harris," a " colored gemmen," the first one ever in Mount Yernon,

One of the most noted fights that ever came off in this county was between James Craig and his son-in-law, Jack Strain, and two of the Georges of Chester township. It occurred in this way: Old Jim was, as he said, in a fighting humor, when, in company with Jack, coming along the road home on foot they met the Georges near Clinton riding sprucely on horse-back, and required that they should get off their horses and figlit them. Parson George explained that they were in a hurry to go home, and had neither time nor disposition for a fight. But Jim swore that they must get off and fight ; and, there being no way of getting past them, as they held possession of the road, they reluctantly got off their horses and "pitched in." Jack soon whipped his man, but it puzzled Jim to make his figlit out, and the conclusion arrived at was, that they had taken too large a contract when they undertook to whip the Georges. Jim, in after years, would revert to this one fight with regret, as it was entirely uncalled for and only provoked by his own determination for a trial of strength.

After the marriage of Jack Strain into his family, old Jim counted himself almost invincible. Jack was a very powerful and active man, unsurpassed for thews and sinews, bone and muscle.

The great fight of the county might, with propriety, be called that of Strain with Eoof. The county pretty much e7i masse witnessed it. It was a regular set-to - a prize fight not inferior, in the public estimation, to that of Hcenan and Sayers.

Jack fouglit with great sjiirit ; he fought, if not for his life, for his wife ; for ohl Jim swore that he (Strain) slioukl never sleep again Avith his daughter if he didn't whip him.

When Craig was indicted the last time for fighting he told Judge Wilson "not to forget to he easy with him, as he was one of the best customers the court had."

In wrestling with Tucker, Jim had his leg broken, which he often regretted, as he couldn't stand on his forks right. He was not a big, stout man, but struck an awful blow, and was well skilled in parrying oif blows. He called Ids striking a man giving him a "blizzard." He was a backwoodsman from Western Yirginia, but of Irish extraction - fond of grog, fond of company, fond of fighting, fan and frolic - kind-hearted, except when aroused by passion, and then a very devil. He fought usually as a pastime, and not from great malice. His wife was an excellent, hospitable and clever woman. We have heard very many anecdotes of Craig, but have space for only one more. One of the last kind jicts of the old settler Avas his endeavoring to treat Bishop Chase when he first visited our town. Jim having heard much said of him as a preacher and a distinguished man, met him on the street, and, desiring to do the clever thing by the Bishop, accosted him with an invitation to treat. The Bishop was somewhat nettled at the oft'er, but declined going to a grocery with him, whereupon Jim pulled a flask from his pocket and insisted upon his taking a drink there. The Bishop indignantly refused, and Jim apologised, if the Bishop considered it an insult. " Bless your soul, Bishop, I think well of you, and have no other way to show that I am glad you have come to our count}^ but by inviting you to drink. Don't think hard of me."

Craig's family consisted of eight girls, and he often regretted that he had no boys to learn how to fight. If the girls did not fight, they did run, and run well too. One of them, we recollect, was very fleet ; many a time did she run races in the old lane, between I^orton's and Bevans', and beat William Pettierrew and otlier of the earlv bovs, notwithstanding the scantiness of her dresses, which then were made of about one-third the §tuff it takes for a pattern in these fashionable davs of 186*2.

At one time old Jim was singing to a crowd, when a smart young man, in sport, winked to those present and kicked his shins. The wink having been observed by him, he instantly drew back his fist and drove it plum between his eyes, felling him to the ground, at the same time exclaiming: "There, take

Chapter

12. - The dream is over - TpE inhabitants beg for roads - The great clinton library struggles for legislative recognition, and the light expires!

The indomitable will of Samuel H. Smith and his associates from I^ew England, among whom we may mention the I*^yes, Ichabod, captain of the troop of horse, and his brother Samuel, Henry Smith, Samuel's nephew, Dr. Timothy Burr, the Barneys, Alexander Enos and others, kept the country in commotion about the seat of justice. Xo stone was left unturned, no effort untried, to bring about its transfer to Clinton. Petitions ivere drawn up and runners traversed the country for signers. Erom the official record we giA e the following exhibit of the disposition made of them :

December 26th, 1808, Mr. Holden presented to the House sundry petitions fi"om a number of the inhabitants of Knox county, setting forth that they feel much aggrieved in consequence of the ineligible and very unhealthy situation of the present seat of justice of said county, and for various other reasons therein stated, praying tliat commissioners may be ax^i^ointed to fix the seat of justice for the said county of Knox in some more eligible and healthy situation ; which said petitions were read and referred to a committee of Mr. Holden, Mr. Owings, of Eairfield, and Mr. Blair, of Franklin and Delaware, to report their opinion thereupon by bill or otherwise.

Mr. Merwin, (Elijah B.) of Fairfield, presented, on the next day, a remonstrance from sundry citizens of Knox county against action as prayed for in above named petitions.

The cunning old fox managing the Clinton claim devised an additional scheme whereby to bring about such increase of territory northward as would throw Mount Vernon farther from the centre than Clinton, and accordingly we find that -

Mr. Holden presented to the House petitions signed by sundry inhabitants of Knox county, setting forth that it will be greatly to their advantage, and to the advantage of the public in general, to have the county extended so far north as to take in one tier of townshij)s, as it will be perceived, by the map of the State, that the county lying north of them, known by the name of Bichland, is much larger than Knox, and by attaching one tier of townships to said county of Knox it will be giving a more equal number of square miles to each county than there is at present; which was received and read, and referred to the same committee to whom was committed, on the 26th inst., the petitions, remonstrances, &c., on the subject of the seat of justice of Knox county. - House Journal, 2)({ffe 93, Bee. SOtJi, 1808.

On the 30th of December, on motion of Mr. Thomas Morris, of Clermont, and seconded, Ordered, that Mr. George Clark, of Cohimbiana and Stark, be added to the committee appointed on the 26th Inst., on the snbject of the seat of justice of Knox county, and the matters from time to time to them referred.

On the 12th of Januarv, 1809, on motion, and leave being granted, Mr. Holden j^resented at the clerk's table two remonstrances, of the same purport, from sundry inhabitants of Knox county, remonstrating against petitions presented to this House, praying for a review of the seat of justice of said county, and a removal of it from Mount Vernon to some more eligible and healthy situation. The remonstrants therein set forth that they are fully of opinion that, unless a fraud or neglect be made to apj)ear against the first viewers appointed by the Legislature at the last session for the j)urpose of permanently fixing the seat of justice of said county, that your honorable body will not grant a view barely for the purpose of gratifying self-interest ; that, in consequence of the seat of justice being established at Mount Yernon, a number of lots have been purchased and improved, and also that upwards of $400 ha ye been appropriated for the building of a jail, and for other reasons, by the aforesaid remonstrants set forth more particularly, praying that the said petition praying for the removal of the seat of justice aforesaid may be rejected; and the same being received and read, were referred to the committee upon that subject appointed on the 2Gth ult.

tlie following entry stands: "On motion, and by leave of the House, Mr. Holden, from tlie committee appointed on tlie 26tli nit., presented at tlie clerk's table a report, as follows : ' The committee to whom was referred the petition of sundry inhabitants of the county of Knox, praying that one tier of townships lying south of Kichland county be attached to the said county of Knox; also sundry petitions from the inhabitants of said county, praying that commissioners be appointed to review and fix the seat of justice of said county in some more healthy and eligible situation than Mount Yernon ; have, according to order, had under their consideration the said petitions, and are of opinion that the prayer of the said petitions is unreasonable, and ought not to be granted.' "

Monday, January 16th, said report came up, and it was Ordered, that it be committed to a committee of the whole House, and made the order of the day for Saturday next.

On the 25th of January, House Journal, page 181, Mr. Merwin moved for the order of the day, whereupon the House, according to order, resolved itself into committee of the whole House, and, after some time spent therein, Mr. Speaker resumed the chair, and Mr. Jewett reported that the committee, according to order, had under their consideration a report of the select committee, made on the 14th inst., on the petitions from sundry inhabitants of Knox county, and had agreed to the said report; and tlie same being read was agreed to by the House, viz: that the petitions aforesaid are unreasonable, and ought not to be granted.