Licking County, Ohio - Chapter 24: The First Pioneers, 1881

Chapter 24: The First Pioneers

ELIAS HUGHES AND JOHN RATLIFF - HuGHES AS SCOUT AND INDIAN FIGHTER - THE SHOOTING OF A SQUAW BY MCLANE - ARRIVAL OF HUGHES AND RATLIFF ON THE BOWLING GREEN - THEIR SUBSISTENCE - THE SHOOTING OF THE INDIAN Horse THIEVES - ERECTION OF A BLOCK-HOUSE - MR. BLAND - GREEN AND PITZER - JOHN VAN BUSKIRK - IsAAC AND JOHN STADDEN - FIRST MARRIAGE IN THE COUNTY - ISAAC STADDEN'S DISCOVERY OF THE OLD FORT _ - STADDEN'S MEETING WITH THE FORDS AND BENJAMIN - FIRST ELECTION IN THE COUNTY - CAPTAIN SAMUEL

Elliott

"Ask who of all our race have shown The largest heart, the kindliest hand; Ask who with lavish hands have strown, Rich blessings over all the land; Ask who has sown that we might reap, The harvest, rich with seventy years; And every heart and every voice Make answer: Licking's Pioneers." - A. B. Clark.

- occupation of the territory embraced within the limits of Licking county, has been brought down to the year 1798, at which date the first permanent settlers, Hughes and Ratliff, arrived. It is necessary and proper here to give brief biographical sketches of a few of the most prominent of the early pioneers, whose lives are necessarily a part of the early history of this county.

The acts, achievements and exploits of individual character are history.. This is pre-eminently true of the first settlers of a country - the pioneers. Especially is it true in such a country as this was, where the subjugation of the hostile tribes was the condition precedent to its permanent settlement, The pioneers of Licking county made its early history. Elias Hughes and John Ratliff remained here until their death, hence their names are as much interwoven in the history of Licking county, as is the name of George Washington with the history of the United States, or as are the names of General Grant and Abraham Lincoln with the history of the late Rebellion.

Elias Hughes was born near the south branch of the Potomac, a section of country which furnished Licking county with many of its first settlers and

General Lewis commanded the left wing of the army of Lord Dunmore, then governor of Virginia, and successfully fought the distinguished Shawnees chief, Cornstalk, who had a large force of Indians under his command. One-fifth of Lewis' command was killed or wounded, but Elias Hughes escaped unhurt in this hard-fought battle, which lasted an entire day. At the time of his death, which occurred more than seventy years after the battle, he was, and had been for years, the sole survivor of that sanguinary conflict.

Hughes is next found a resident of Harrison county, Virginia, where his chief employment during the twenty-one years that intervened between the battle of Point Pleasant, and the treaty of Greenville in 1795, was that of a scout or spy on the frontier settlements near to and bordering on the Ohio river. This service which, with him, was a labor of love, he rendered at the instance of his State, and of the border settlers who had been, for a long time, greatly harrassed by Indians. Hughes' father, and others of his kindred, and also a young woman to whom he was betrothed, were massacred by them. These acts of barbarity made him ever after an unrelenting and merciless enemy of the Indians, and in retaliation for their numerous butcheries, his deadly rifle was brought to bear fatally upon many of them.

It is but an act of justice to the memory of this pioneer settler, who was well known as an Indian hater and an Indian slayer, that the provocation he had be clearly stated and properly understood. Born and reared on the frontier, among rude, unlettered people; untaught and wholly uncultivated as he was, it is not surprising that under all these Circumstances of horrid aggravation, he 'should have given rather full play to strong and malignant passions, and that he should have cherished even to old age, the more harsh and somewhat malignant feelings of his nature. This he did fully, so long as the Indian tribes sustained a hostile attitude toward the whites.

A word here in reference to a matter well remembered by the old settlers. In 1820 an Indian squaw of the Stockbridge tribe was shot. near the county line, between Utica and Martinsburgh. She was taken to Mt. Vernon where she died. One McLane shot her, and was sent to the penitentiary for it. He and four others named Mc- Daniel, Evans, Chadwick and Hughes (not Elias), were engaged in chopping, when this squaw and others of the tribe came along and camped near them. The diabolical proposition was made and accepted, that they should play cards, and that the loser should shoot her. McLane was the loser, and did the shooting. His confederates, or at least some of them, were tried and acquitted. In Norton's history of Knox county it is stated that "'Hughes shot this squaw, simply to gratify his hatred of the Indian race." How an intelligent man, writing history could justify himself for making such a gross mistake, regarding a matter on which he could easily get correct information from a thousand residents of this county and of Knox, it is hard to conceive. Elias Hughes had neither part nor lot in the matter, directly or remotely; but condemned the outrage in unmeasured terms. He was not guilty, and this emphatic denial is deemed an act of simple justice to Mr. Hughes.

Indian hostilities were terminated by the treaty of Greenville in 1795, and Hughes' services as a scout were no longer required; he therefore surrendered his commission as captain of scouts, and directed his thoughts to more pacific pursuits. He had been commissioned by that distinguished frontiersman, Colonel Ben Wilson, the father of Dan-

In 1796, Hughes entered, in the capacity of hunter, the service of a surveying party, who were about to engage in running the range lines of lands lying in what is now Licking county. This party was probably under the direction of John G. Jackson, deputy surveyor under General Rufus Putnam, surveyor general of the United States. The fine bottom lands on the Licking were thus brought to the notice of Hughes, and he resolved to leave his mountain home and "go west." Accordingly in the spring of 1797 he gathered together his effects, and with his wife and twelve children, made their way on foot and on pack-horses to the mouth of Licking. This point was made accessible to horse-back travelers and footmen by the location and opening, the year before, by Zane and others, the road from Wheeling to Maysville; and also of a road previously cut from Marietta up the river.

John Ratliff, a nephew of Hughes, with a wife and four children, came with him, in the same manner, to the mouth of the Licking. Here they remained one year, and in the spring of 1798, both families, numbering twenty-one persons, came in the same manner up the Licking and settled on what is called the 'Bowling Green," on the banks of the Licking, four miles east of Newark, a short distance above the mouth of Bowling Green run. This was the first permanent white settlement within the present limits of Licking county.

They found the "Bowling Green," a level untimbered, green lawn or prairie, and they at once proceeded to raise a crop of corn. Whether the Bowling Green was a natural prairie, or had been cleared by the Indians, remains an unsettled question. Their nearest neighbors for two years, lived near Nashport, a distance of ten miles. One of these was Philip Barrick, who in 1801 moved into this county.

This colony of twenty-one persons was subsisted mainly on the meat of wild animals, procured by the rifles of the settlers, although vegetables and a considerable corn crop were raised the first season. For many years bear, deer, wild turkeys, and a great variety of smaller game were in such abundance as to supply the full demands of the settlers.

Fruits, berries, and other spontaneous productions of the earth, also contributed many years, in no inconsiderable degree to the subsistance of the settlers, as did, also, the fishZin the streams.

Ratliff, in some particuldrs, was a different style of man from Hughes. He was much more inclined to the peaceful avocations of life, and for one reared on the frontier, had not been largely engaged in border warfare; though he as well as Hughes, was considerably devoted to the chase, to fishing, trapping, bee-hunting, as well as to killing wild animals generally.

In 1801 two Indians came to the Bowling Green and stole four horses belonging to Hughes, Ratliff, Weedman, a recent immigrant, and a Mr. Bland, living at the mouth of the Licking, but who was, at this time, visiting Hughes. In the morning, finding their horses missing, the owners determined to pursue and kill the thieves, strongly suspecting the Indians. Hughes, Ratliff, and Bland armed themselves and started in pursuit. Weedman, for some reason, was not of the party. They were enabled to follow the trail, readily tracking them through the grass and weeds, and, overtaking them on the waters of Owlcreek, shot them. Bland's flint did not strike fire, but Hughes' and Ratliff's did, and the Indians stole no more horses. When the Indians were overtaken, and it was evident the horses would be recovered, Bland and Ratliff relented, and suggested to Hughes to let the thieves escape with their lives, but the latter was not that kind of a man. He remonstrated in such emphatic terms, using such forcible expletives as to bring his associates to his way of thinking.» When Hughes said a thing must be done, and he could do it or cause it to be done, it was done. In this case he had his way, and the Indian horse-thieves paid the forfeit. Hughes knew them, and believed them to have been engaged in stealing horses, and returning them to their owners for a compensation in skins and furs,

This sanguinary transaction necessitated the erection of a block-house on the Bowling Green, as a protection against the friends of the horsethieves, who were greatly incensed against the white settlers for killing them; but it never became necessary to defend it.

in 1798, with a wife and four children, coming two hundred miles over the mountains on_ packhorses, to Marietta, following bridle paths and Indian trails a portion of the way. On reaching the ° mouth of the Licking he took refuge with his family ina sugar camp. Before he had time to erect a cabin, he had born to him in this sugar camp,-a son, whom they rocked in a sugar trough, the only cradle at hand. Mr. Silas Bland, one of the pioneers of Perry township, was this child of the sugar trough.

The elder Bland, no less than his fellow frontiersmen, Hughes and Ratliff, possessed all the constituent elements of a first class pioneer; and, after acting well his part, he died in Muskingum county.

In 1802 Elias Hughes was elected captain of the first company of militia raised within the present limits of the county. This company he commanded a number of years. The drills of the battalion, to which this company belonged were held at Lancaster.

Hughes had four children born to him on the Bowling Green, making the whole number sixteen, only one of whom, Jonathan, yet remains in the county.

Ratliff's wife died in 1802, and, probably, was the second adult white person,* and the first white settler to die within the present limits of this county; the only probable exception being that of Mrs. Jones, who died about the same time on the farm afterward owned by General Munson, in Granville township, four miles west of Newark. Her husband, John Jones, had erected the first cabin. in that township, being the one in which she died. Ratliff married again, his second wife being the daughter of a pioneer by the name of Stateler, who lived near the mouth of Rocky fork. He also raised quite a family, but none of them now live - if living at all - in this county. He had a son in the war of 1812, who, after his return from the army, removed to Louisiana. Ratliff finally moved to the south side of the Licking, near the mouth of the Brushy fork, where he died about the year 18rr. Neither he nor Hughes seem to have nad much success in acquiring prop-

Elias Hughes, on all other subjects except Indian warfare, was regarded as of a silent, taciturn disposition, but he was fond of relating his exploits and successes as a scout, and would sometimes sit up whole nights to relate, to willing listeners, his hair-breadth escapes and adventures, the thrilling 'stories and heroic acts and deeds of renown, in which he had borne a part. He was unassuming, 'generally mild-mannered, unpretending, unambi- 'tious, but firm, determined, unyielding; and when he resolved on a certain line of conduct, he generally pursued it to success or failed only after vigorous effort. Fond of adventure, he displayed in border warfare, in battle, in the pursuit of Indians, the energy, bravery, and self-sacrificing and heroic virtues that belonged so pre-eminently to the early pioneers of the great west.

In the war of 1812, notwithstanding his age, being about sixty years old, he volunteered for the defence of Fort Meigs. On the formation of a 'company in Newark, he was selected to conduct the men to headquarters, at Worthington, for organization. At the election of company officers she was made lieutenant, while the late General John Spencer was elected captain. Three of his sons were also engaged in the war,of 1812, one of whom contracted a disease from which he died.

Mr. Hughes lived many years on the North fork, a few miles above Newark, and also several years at Clinton, in Knox county, from whence he removed to Monroe township, near Johnstown.

In 1827 his wife died, and most of his children shaving married and moved from the county, he became an inmate of the house of his son Jonathan, who is yet living in the county at the age of eighty-four. Jonathan was born in Virginia in '1796, and was a mere infant when his father reached the mouth of Licking (1797). When, in 1798, the family removed to Bowling Green, he was put into one end of a salt-sack, with an opening for his head, and his brother, David, two years older, in the other end. The sack was, on their daily march, slung across a pack-saddle, and in this manner the only survivor of the twenty-one made his advent at the Bowling Green.

regularly receiving from a benificent government an amount of money that enabled him to spend his declining years in the full enjoyment of all the necessaries of life, kindly ministered unto. by his son and family, with whom he spent the last seyenteen years of his life in the quiet village of Utica.

His life was filled with experiences more diversified than usually falls to the lot of man. He always met adversity, and the stern realities of life uncomplainingly and like a man. Enduring, as he did, for the last sixteen years of his life, the terrible affliction of total blindness, he was deprived of much enjoyment, but he was resigned and patient, thus exhibiting his courage and manhood to the last. His mind turned upon religious matters in these latter years, and he cherished hopes of a happy future.

Such was the life, briefly sketched, of one of the most remarkable of the pioneers of this county. It was a life full of privation, adventure, hardship, toil, exposure and excitement, preserved through all to an unusual length.

The two families of Hughes and Ratliff, and that of a man naméd John Carpenter, of which little or nothing is known, were the sole occupants of the territory now constituting this county, at the close of the last century. Early in the spring of the opening year (1800) of the present century, three more families, Greens, Pitzers and Van Buskirks were added to the In August, Isaac Stadden and family came, making the seventh; and in September, Captain Samuel Elliott and family arrived, constituting the eighth. The marriage of Colonel John Stadden and Betsey, daughter of the aforesaid Green, which took place on Christmas day, 1800, made the ninth family, which was the whole number in this territory when

In the spring of 1799, Benjamin Green, a revolutionary soldier, and his son-in-law, Richard Pitzer, left Alleghany county, Maryland, to, settle in On reaching the neigh- borhood of Marietta, they decided to remain there a year and raise a crop, thus postponing, for a brief period, their removal further westward.

Early in the spring of 1800 they removed their families to Shawnee run, locating about two miles east of the junction of the North and South forks of the Licking, on the farm once owned by Hon. Wm. O'Bannon. Here they remained two years, when they purchased land upon Hog run, within the present limits of Licking township, and removed to this land. (A full account of these two pioneers will be found ina history of that township, as their lives, and that of their families, were mostly spent there. Mr. Pitzer died there in 1819.)

The Greens had a family of fourteen children, eleven of whom. were born before their arrival at Shawnee run. John Green, one of the sons, was an extensive contractor on the Ohio canal, and removed to Ottawa, Illinois. He led an active, industrious life, and acquired a large fortune. Isaac, another son, was a man of much intelligence and worth, who represented Licking county: several terms in the legislature - being elected in 1841 and 1842. Richard died in 1872, aged eighty-seven, having been seventy-two years. a resident of this county. He was the canoe-boy of the Muskingum in 1800, and lived here a longer time than any other person, except Colonel Jonathan Hughes, the salt-sack boy of 1798.

In the spring of 1800, probably not a week after the advent of Green and Pitzer at Shawnee run, John Van Buskirk arrived and entered upon a tract of land of thirty-one hundred acres, on the South fork, in what is now Union township. He had previously purchased it, and at once began erecting buildings, clearing land and raising crops. Mr. Van Buskirk was born in New Jersey, and came with his father's family in 1780 to Brooke county, also, he married and lived until his removal to the South fork, as above stated. He was a man of liberal means, being pecuniarily in more independent circumstances than most of the pioneers, .

He came to his new home in the wilderness by way of ''Zane's trail," as far as Brush creek, in Fairfield county; bringing with him a full supply of wagons and domestic animals, and made the sixth settler within the present limits of the county,

Mr. Van Buskirk was a stout, active, resolute man, a woodsman of the first order, frequently accompanying such chieftains as Captain Samuel Brady and John McCulloch in their expeditions against the Indians. He acted well his part as a faithful, ever ready, efficient pioneer on the frontier of Virginia, in giving protection to the settlers that were endeavoring to establish themselves in © permanent homes on both sides of the Ohio, during the twenty years of Indian warfare ; his residence being at, or near, the mouth of Buffalo creek, in Brooke county, Virginia. Those were years of fierce conflict, murderous warfare, barbarity, blood and carnage.

He remained on his farm at the South fork until 1804, when he removed to Newark and rebuilt the Petticord and Belt mills, which he run persistently, much more to the benefit of the public than himself, until near his death.

He died on the last day of December, 1840, at the age of almost eighty-five years. He was, in the early part of his eventful life, a man of great enterprise and force of character, and while living on the frontier, in common with his fellow frontiersmen, endured many hardships, and had many hair-breadth escapes from marauding Indians in his conflicts with them. As a spy, he was invaluable, and scouted extensively between the Ohio and Tuscarawas rivers. Courage and patriotism were his distinguishing characteristics. His family were the first to enter the territory of this county from the southeast in He left the "Zane trail," east of Lancaster, cutting a road from there to his land on the South fork, in the spring of 1800,

Isaac Stadden and Colonel John Stadden were also pioneer settlers in the Licking valley this year (1800). They came from Northumberland county, Pennsylvania. John was a widower, and had been in the service of some surveying party, this, probably, being the means of bringing to his notice the beautiful valley of the Licking. It was, probably, the same party to which he was attached as axeman, or chain-carrier, that Captain Elias Hughes served as hunter. Isaac Stadden had a wife and two children.

At the same time the Elliotts were raising corn below them, on the Davis farm, and Green and Pitzer doing the same thing on Shawnee run, on the O'Bannon farm, while near the mouth of Bowling Green run, Hughes and Ratliff were similarly employed. That was all the farming that was being done on the Licking in 1800, between the junction of the North and South forks and the line of Muskingum county.

The pioneers in the sparsely settled Northwest Territory were not then favored with mail facilities, and no communication passed between Mr. Stadden'and his wife, during all those weary months that he was engaged in erecting a cabin, clearing land and raising corn, from early spring until late in the summer. A mail was occasionally brought to Zanesville, then the nearest post-office to the settlers on the Licking, but little reliance was placed on it. If letters came through at all from the old settlements, the pioneers were lucky, even if they were a long time on the way. They were subject to high postage - about eight times the present rate.

In September, 1800, Isaac Stadden removed his family from Pennsylvania into the cabin he had erected for them. His was the second wagon that came up the Licking valley. Meanwhile John Stadden, having made the acquaintance of Betsey Green, daughter of Benjamin, became enamored of the fair maid of Shawnee run, and after an honest courtship, of reasonable length for pioneer times, they were married; this being the first marriage within the territory now embraced in Licking county.

This pioneer marriage was to take place on December 10, 1800, but was not consummated until Christmas of that year.. There was nota preacher or squire nearer than Zanesville, and when the late Judge Henry Smith, who was then acting magistrate of the Northwest Territory, living at the mouth of Licking, was invited to perform the marriage ceremony in this case, on the tenth of December, he informed Mr. Stadden that the territorial laws required that written notice of the intention of the parties be posted up at three conspicuous places for fifteen days before the wedding, and if that had been done, he would be there. Mr. Stadden's ignorance of territorial law suddenly brought him to anchor, He came home, put up the notices as quickly as possible, and submitted with some disappointment and despondency to the inexorable law of the land - hence the marriage occurred on Christmas instead of December roth.

Squire Smith came up to Mr. Green's, and made John and Betsey one. A child born to them in the latter half of 1801, was the second birth in what is now Licking county, and its decease, before the close of that year, was the second death.

Mrs. Isaac Stadden related to Hon. Isaac Smucker that late in October, 1800, her husband went into Cherry valley' to hunt deer, that being better hunting ground than the Licking valley; and that he came home in the evening greatly excited, having discovered the "Old Fort," of which he had not before heard. The next morning they mounted their horses, and took a good look at this great curiosity, riding all around it on the top of the embankment. So far as known, they were the first white persons who saw this great work of antiquity.

During the early years of Mr. Stadden's residence here, Indians were more or less numerous, but were pacifically disposed. Mrs. Stadden once gave a humorous account of the attempt of one of them, who came along frequently, to buy her of her husband, by the offer of a considerable number of skins of wild animals. 'The offer was made in goed faith, and somewhat pressed, but Mr. Stadden was not much in a trafficking mood on that occasion,

In November, or early in December, 1800, Mr. Stadden went out to hunt deer above the "Old Fort," on Ramp creek. There, toward evening, in a dense forest, he met John Jones, Phineas Ford, Frederick Ford, Benoni Benjamin and a Mr, Denner. Jones and the Fords were married to the sisters of Benjamin. Jones was of Welsh extraction, born in New Jersey, but had lived in the same neighborhood with Mr. Stadden in Pennsylvania, where they had been schoolmates. Neither knew that the other was in the Northwest Territory. Neither had seen the other for many years, and had known nothing of their intervening histories, or

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTYwhereabouts. The romantic interest of such a meeting under such circumstances may be imagined. The Fords were Yankees, and Benjamin, a Pennsylvanian, and all became prominent pioneer settlers.

When met at their campfire by Stadden, they were exploring with a view to settlement, and did settle a few months afterward - Mr. Jones on the Munson farm, and the gFords and Benjamin on Ramp creek. Denner became a day laborer for McCauly, who located near the mouth of Ramp creek early in 1801. The company accepted Mr. Stadden's invitation to visit him at his cabin, and did so shortly after. Jones raised a crop of corn in the Licking bottoms, near Stadden's cabin in the summer of 18or.

John Stadden moved to Hog run in 1802, and in 1808 was elected the first sheriff of Licking county, in which office he served two years. He was also, for some years, collector of taxes, and held various-positions of honor and trust in civil and military life. His son Richard was sheriff of the county from 1834 to 1838, and was, in the last named year, elected a member of the Ohio senate.

Colonel John Stadden was a man of integrity, uprightness, and a fair degree of intelligence. Late in life he removed with his wife to Illinois, where they died. They were-honored and highly esteemed while living, and died leaving a reputation untarnished. He and his wife were among the original members of the first Methodist society formed in the county, by Rev. Asa Shinn, in 1804.

Mr. Isaac Stadden was a carpenter by trade, and brought his tools when he came to the county, which he used to the great convenience of the neighborhood. Especially was he.useful in making all the coffins needed by the early settlers, for a number of years. The coffin for Mrs. Ratliff, who died in 1802, was made by him, and so were many others. They were at first made out of puncheons split out, then hewed and _ planed.

Isaac Stadden built a "hand-mill" during the winter after he came, for the purpose of grinding the corn grists of a few neighbors, as well as for his own accommodation. 'This was the first effort at mill building, with the possible exception of one, a "make shift," previously erected by Elias Hughes. He raised a crop in 18or, and in the spring of

1802 moved upon land he had purchased further down the valley, upon which he lived until his death, which occurred in 1841. ued to reside upon the same place until she died, July, 1870, at the ripe age of ninety years.

The township of Licking, including the whole of what is now Licking county, except the Refugee lands, and a portion of Knox, was organized in 1801; and in January, 1802, at an election held at the cabin of Elias Hughes, Isaac Stadden was elected justice of the peace - the first in the terri- Probably Mr. James Maxwell was elected constable at this same election. In a year or two John Warden was elected the successor of Mr. Stadden. He resigned in a short time and William Wright, of Newark, succeeded to the office.

A short time after Isaac Stadden moved upon his own land he formed a partnership with a Mr. John Goldthwaite for the purpose of starting a nursery of fruit trees.

This project was a success; and from this nursery came many of the orchards in this section of the State. Johnny Appleseed had a nursery on what was known as the "Scotland farm," about three miles northeast of Newark, but it did not amount to much, as it was not enclosed, and the young trees were eaten off by cattle. When she left her home in Pennsylvania, in 1800, Mrs. Stadden took up and placed in her "chist" three small apple trees, which she planted with her own hands here. One of these trees is yet living and bearing. 'Three sons of Isaac Stadden are yet living in this county.

A few days after the Staddens located in Licking valley, Captain Samuel Elliott came, locating one and a half miles below the junction of the North and South forks, in September, 1800. In the spring of this year he and his two sons left his mountain home in Allegheny county, Maryland, and came to this valley, where they erected a cabin, planted corn and potatoes, then returned for the family. This cabin was built near the large spring, on the farm now owned by T. J. Davis. He was probably drawn to this point to be near Messrs. Green and Pitzer, who were from his neighborhood in Maryland. In autumn Captain Elliott returned with his wife and twelve children, took possession of their cabin, and harvested the crop.

Elliott's family constituted the eighth then within the limits of the county, and the colony was not further increased during the year 1800. The marriage of Colonel Stadden and Betsey Green, however, created another family, so that nine families occupied the territory now embraced within the limits of Licking county at the closing of the first year of this century.

While Captain Elliott lived here he entertained, several days, Rev. McDonald, a missionary of the Presbyterian church, who preached the first ser-

The manufacture of a web of twenty yards of nettle-cloth by the wife and daughters of Captain Elliott, while they resided here, was one of the events of the day. In the absence of flax it was the best they could do. Such were the expedients necessity compelled the pioneers to resort to.

Captain Elliott was born neat Ballymena, county Antrim, province of Ulster, Ireland, in 1751. On his arrival in America, in 1771, he settled in the colony of Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. Here he lived during the dawning era of the Revolution, and, when the contest commenced, took sides with the struggling colonists. Toward the close of the war he married in Northampton county, Pennsylvania, from where he emigrated to western Maryland, remaining there until his removal to the Licking valley.

In 1802 Captain Elliott erected the first hewedlog house in Newark. It stood on East Main street, on Mrs. Fullerton's lot. He moved into it during the same year, and was one of Newark's earliest inhabitants. He soon purchased of General Schenck, one of the proprietors of Newark, some lands lying about a mile west of the village, upon which he settled in 1804, and where he remained 'until his death, which occurred May 24, 1831.

The death of Mrs. Elliott took place on the same farm, May 19, 1822. Her age was sixty-four years. She was a woman of rare excellence of character, and ruled her household wisely and well, her children becoming useful members of society. She died in communion with the Presbyterian church, and her pastor, Rey. S. S. Miles, commemorated her virtues in an appreciative obituary sketch, published in the Newark Advocate, May 23,

Upon the organization of Licking county, in 1808, Captain Elliott became coroner, serving many years in that office, and was succeeded by his son, Alexander, who served many years.

In religion the Elliotts were Presbyterians; and in character, were upright, industrious and_ highly esteemed in all the relations of life. Three of the boys were engaged in the war of 1812; two of the grandsons, David Taylor and Alexander Elliott, served with honor in the Mexican war, and two, William and Jonathan Taylor, served long and faithfully in the Union army during the late war. William encountered a fatal rebel bullet at Arkansas Post; Jonathan survived the "march to the sea" with Sherman's army. Reuben Lunceford, and a number of other great grandsons, also fought the rebels, including two young Elliotts, who lost their lives in the service. Lieutenant Reuben Harris, a grandson, was long a gallant officer in the navy, and died in the service.

One of the daughters married Dr. Noah Harris, who came to Newark to practice his profession about the year 1808, and had a successful professional career of twenty-five years. He left a number of children who were educated by their mother, who lived to the age of seventy-three, dying at Newark August 16, 1863.

The jate Hon. Horatio J. Harris, was a son of Doctor Harris, and a grandson of the pioneer, Captain Elliott. He attained to high position in public life, and maybe regarded as a successful politician, who was not without a good share of ability. He was a native of Newark, but removed in early life to Indiana, where he served respectively in the offices of clerk of the senate, State senator, and auditor of State. During General Taylor's presidential term he was appointed district attorney of Mississippi, having previously moved Ill health compelled him to resign his position; he came to Newark on a visit to his relatives, where he died, having scarcely reached middle life. He was a young man of much promise.

Sarah, the youngest daughter of Captain Elliott, died in Newark May 13, 1872, aged seventy-four She married in 1821, the late General Jonathan Taylor. Mr, Taylor represented this county in the general assembly, and was elected to Congress in 1838. -He led a very active life and was a commanding character in the community. time of his death, his oldest son, David, was a soldier in Mexico, and died shortly after his return. Another son lost his life in the great rebellion. Mrs. ment. practiced all the matronly virtues, led an industrious,

This closes a sketch of the early pioneers of Licking county, up to the beginning of the year 1801. came to the Licking valley in 1800, or before, nothing whatever is known, as before stated; and it is even doubted whether he brought his family with him. Without including this, the number of families within this territory at the beginning of ~ 1801, was eight, all settlers in Licking valley, and all, except Van Buskirk, within the present limits of Madison township. The Fords, Jones and Benjamin, the party mentioned as having been found by Stadden in Raccoon valley late in the fall of 1800, were not settlers of that year; they were here to "'prospect" and enter land, and were settlers early in the spring of 1801, when they came with their families. Biographical sketches of them, and other early pioneers will be found in the history of the township in which each settled.