Licking County, Ohio - Chapter 25: Pioneer Women of the County, 1881

" Look where we may, the wide earth o'er, Those lighted faces smile no more. We tread the paths their feet have worn, We sit beneath their orchard trees, We hear, like them, the hum of bees And rustle of the bladed corn; We turn the pages that they read, Their written words we linger o'er, But in the sun they cast no shade, No voice is heard, no sign is made, No step is on the conscious floor.''" - Whittier.

made them great factors in the establishment of the solid foundation upon which the society of to-day rests. The people of to-day hardly realize or appreciate what they owe to the large-hearted pioneer mothers, who braved with their husbands and children the perils of the wilderness; who reared their families in the fear of God, and implanted within them all the virtues necessary to the welfare of humanity, and passed away, leaving to them an inheritance that is invaluable and that plete without some notice of the pioneer women, who, by reason of sex and their limited sphere of action, could not become conspicuous in the great drama of pioneer life, but whose busy hands and feet, and conscientious regard of duty'

Mrs. Sarah Taylor, widow of the late General Jonathan Taylor, was one of these. She was a daughter of Captain Samuel Elliott, the youngest of twelve children, and came from Maryland with her father, who settled in the Licking valley in 1800, when but half dozen families were to be found within the present limits of Licking county. Her husband was a member of the State legislature, and of the Congress of the United States. She was born May 2, 1798, and died May 13, 1872, having been a resident of this county seventy-two years. She had a fine intellect, sound judgment, good sense, and had, by observation, intercourse with the world and much reading, acquired a large fund of information. She cherished the Christian faith, and had been for more than forty years prior to her death in communion with the Presbyterian church.

Mrs. Catharine Stadden was born in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, in June, 1780. Her father, Mr. Kleiber was a German by birth. She and her husband, Isaac Stadden, were also pioneers of the Licking valley in 1800, arriving shortly before Mr. Samuel Elliott, and locating about a mile below where Newark was laid out two years after their arrival. Mrs. Stadden lived here seventy years, nearly all the years of her adult life, and they were eventful years - eventful in her own life, eventful in the history of the west, and the history of the world.. She died July 3, 1870, in the ninety-first year of her age. She was one of the best of the pioneer mothers; a woman of rare frankness and candor; of integrity of character and fidelity to her convictions, and one whose aim it was to discharge her duty in all the varied relations of life. She cherished the Christian religion during the last sixty years of her life, adopting views known as Socinian, during the latter half of her life, and to which she adhered until her death. Her memory was always well stored with history and incidents of pioneer life, much of which has found its way into other parts of this work.

her father to the Licking valley in 1798, being one of twelve children whom that noted pioneer brought to the Bowling Green, four miles below Newark. In 1808 she married Samuel Davis, who died in 1837. Mrs. Davis survived her husband thirty-two years, dying in 1869, in the eightieth year of her age.

Mrs. Doctor Harris was a pioneer of 1800, being also a daughter of Captain Samuel Elliott, above mentioned. Mrs. . Harris was eight years older than her sister, Mrs. Taylor, and retained a vivid impression of their settlement in the wilderness, being eight years of age at the time. She remained in this vicinity during her long life of seventy-three years, and was the mother of a large family of children. She possessed in an eminent degree those social and domestic virtues which so adorned the pioneer mothers. She died, August 16, 1863.

One of the pioneer women of 1803, was Mrs. - Mary Kemper, a daughter of Major Anthony Pitzer, who came with her father to Hog run, in Licking township, when she was five years of age. After her marriage she removed to Perry county, near Thornville, and in 1863, to Hamilton county, Indiana, where she died, April 22, 1876, aged seventy-eight years.

Among the pioneer women of 1804 in this county Were Mrs. Henry Smith, Mrs. Jemima Thrap, Mrs. Bennett, Mrs. Nancy Sutton, Mrs, Perkins, Mrs. Sarah Jeffries, and Mrs. Naomi Tedrick.

Mrs. Henty Smith was a prominent and important actor in the pioneer settlement of this county, and spent all of her early life on the frontier. She was born in 1770, near Hagerstown, Maryland, and settled, at an early period of her life, in the Kanawha country, while the Indians were still making marauding excursions into western Virginia, and on one occasion assisted in defending a block-house against the attacks of the savages. Some time before the close of the last century, she married the late Judge Henry Smith and removed with him to the mouth of the Licking, where, in 1800, he was an acting territorial magistrate. It was he who came up to Shawnee run, twenty-five miles distant, on Christmas day, 1800, to perform the marriage ceremony for Mr. John Stadden and

Betsy Green, the first couple married in this county. .In 1804, she, with her husband and family, settled permanently in Madison township, where she died, October 25, 1866, at the age of ninety-seven.

Mrs. Jemima Thrap was a neighbor of Mrs. Smith in the Licking valley, and came there in the same year. She was born on Ten Mile creek, Washington county, Pennsylvania, near the town of Amity, in January, 1782. When she was three years of age, her parents settled on land near Morgantown, where she grew from childhood to maturity amid all the well known scenes and circumstances of pioneer life. She became a member of the Methodist church in 1802, and in 1803, was united in marriage to Joseph Thrap. In 1805 or 1806 the second Methodist church in this county was organized at the cabin of Joseph Thrap in the Licking valley, and Mrs. Thrap's name was the second one on the list of this class, that of her husband being first; making her the first of her sex to unite with the second organized church in this county. The Thrap cabin was a preaching place many years, and 'Mother Thrap," as she was generally called, was noted for her kindness of heart and benevolence; entertaining for years all the itinerant Methodist ministers that came into the valley.. She maintained: to the end of her life an unblemished moral and religious character, being noted for zeal in the cause of Christianity. She died suddenly July 25, 1867, in the eightyfifth year of her age.

Mrs. Bennett was. one of the oldest children of that noted pioneer hunter, Mr. John Channel, and was also a settler in the Licking valley. She died in Muskingum county at the age of, probably, nearly four score years.

Mrs. Nancy Suttorm was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, in 1777, entering into the marriage relation with Jehu Sutton about the beginning of the present century. They settled in Licking township, where they passed the remainder of their lives. Both were consistent members of the Hog Run Baptist church. Mrs. Sutton died June 7, 1874, in her ninety-eighth year.

Mrs. Sarah Jeffries was born in Virginia in 1795, and accompanied her father, Mr. Deweese, to the vicinity of Newark in 1804, where she lived the | remainder of her life, dying at the ripe age of eighty-two years.

Mrs. Naomi Tedrick, the last of those above mentioned as pioneers of 1804, was the daughter of one of the Suttons who settled in Licking township, and who came from Fayette county, Pennsylvania. She married Captain John Tedrick,a well known pioneer settler, and was an intelligent woman, a member of the Baptist church, and much esteemed. She died May 13,1877, at the advanced age of ninety-one.

A few of the pioneer women of 1805, in this county, were Mrs. Almena Rose Bancroft, Mrs. Motherspaw, Mrs. Everett, Mrs. Duke, Mrs. Dorsey, Mrs. Walcott, Mrs. Seymour, Mrs. Munson and Mrs. Myers.

Mrs. Motherspaw was the wife of the late Danie Motherspaw, and a daughter of John Feasel, whe settled in Clay Lick valley in 1805. She was borr in 1787, in Shenandoah valley, Virginia, and diec at her residence in Franklin township, April to. 1875. Seventy years of her life Were passed ir this county. She was a devoted member of the Lutheran church, and a model"pioneer woman.

Mrs. Sabra Everett, daughter of Hiram and Sabra Rose, and wife of Revel Everett, of Hartford township, was born in Granville, Massachusetts, June 22, 1797, and came with her parents to Granville in this county, in the fall of 1805. August 21, 1817, she was married; lived a Christian life of seventy-two years, dying October 30, 1869.

Mrs. Sarah Duke, wife of David Duke, and daughter of the late Nathan Conard, died at her residence in Liberty township September 20, 1877, in the seventy-second year of her age. She was born in Fairfield county (now Knox county), December 24, 1805, but lived from her infancy in this county. She was a member of the Methodist church from childhood; married Mr. Duke March 1, 1827, and raised a family of seven sons and one daughter.

Mrs. Susan E. Dorsey, a daughter of Rufus Enyart, was a much esteemed pioneer woman. She came with her father from Miami valley to what is now Hanover township, in 1805, when she was two years old, remaining there until her death, July 12, 1878. September 21, 1826, she married Henry H. Tiebout, who died in 1847, and, in 1849, she married Mr. Owen Dorsey, who died in 1876. She was a member of the Protestant Methodist church forty years.

Mrs. Rebecca Walcott belonged to the original Granville colony, few of whom are probably living at'the present time. She was a dayghter of Deacon Silas Winchell, and was born in Granville, Massachusetts, February 9, 1805, and was nine months old when the colony reached Granville township. This was an intelligent colony of pioneers, and although means of education were scarce in the wilderness, they looked well to the education of their children. Rebecca Winchell 'was not only carefully trained in all domestic work, but fairly educated, and was employed in teaching prior to her marriage. She married Horace Walcott April 13, 1829, by whom she had four sons and four daughters. Three of her sons were actively engaged in the late war. She died in May, 1879.

Mrs. Elizabeth Seymour, wife of Adam Seymour, and daughter of John Channel, was born in Virginia, December 8, 1789, and came with her father to Madison township, where she was married April 14, 1808. She was the mother of nine children; was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and greatly beloved by all who knew her. She died at the age of seventy-eight years.

Mrs. Munson was the wife of General Augustine Munson, a prominent man in the Granville colony and in the county.. They were married in 1807, and lived upon the farm, where she died, 'more than sixty years. She was seventy-six at the date of her death, and was an excellent and intelligent New England woman.

Mrs. Mary Myers was born in New Jersey, Jan- 'uary 29, 1780. _She accompanied her parents to Brooke county, Virginia, where she married John Myers in 1798. In 1805, with her husband and four children, she settled in Union township, this county, on land Mr. Myers purchased of John Van Buskirk. Their neighbors were Cornelius

Elliott and Richard Wells, who had preceded them two years. She raised a large family and died July r2, 1870, in her ninetieth year. Hers was a life of much toil and hardship, though prolonged to an unusual length.

The year 1806 brought with it many additional pioneers to this county, among whom were Mrs. Margaret Wilson, Mrs. Horn, and Mrs. Lovina Hughes.

The first was a native of Frederick county, Virginia, and was born in 1792. She was a resident of Newark forty-five years, and died March 8, 1869. She was long a devoted member of the Presbyterian church.

Mrs. Hannah Horn was born in Loudoun county, Virginia, May 25, 1785, and married Henry Horn in 1804. They settled in Union township, where Mrs. Horn died at the venerable age of ninety-one years.

Mrs. Lovina Hughes was one of the earliest residents and oldest pioneers of the county. She was the wife of the venerable Colonel Jonathan Hughes (a son of the first settler, Elias Hughes, and who is yet living in Washington township), whom she married in June, 1817. She was born in Hardy county, Virginia, June 14, 1800, and came with her father, Joseph Davis, to Newark. In 1810 Mr. Davis settled in Washington township, onthe farm where Mrs. Hughes died, in her seventyseventh year, having resided more than seventy years in the county. For the last forty years of her life she was a member of the Episcopal church of Utica. A husband, five children, twenty grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren survive her. It was one of the greatest pleasures of her declining years, as it was of all the pioneer mothers, to call her children and grandchildren about her and tell them the thrilling stories of pioneer life - a picture so beautifully portrayed by Whittier -

In baffled rage at pane and door, While the red logs before us beat The frost-line back with tropic heat; And ever, when a louder blast Shook beam and rafter as it passed, The merrier up its roaring draught

And hand, the basket stood With nuts from brown October's wood. * * * * % Our mother, while she turned her wheel Or run the new-knit stocking-heel,

Mrs. Mina Adelia Howe was born in Granville, Massachusetts, January 18, 1799, and came with her father's' family to Granville, in this county, in 1807, where she lived seventy years, dying February 27, 1877, in her seventy-eighth year. She was the daughter of Arunah and Mindwell Clark, and married Daniel Howe at the age of twenty. Mrs. Hoskinson became a resident of Franklin township in 1807, and there passed her long life of eighty-seven years, dying June 24, 1880.

Mrs. Eleanor Donivan was a.pioneer of 1808. She was born in 1792, in Virginia, and died near Chatham, in this county, at the age of eighty-one.

Mrs. Mary Cully was also a. pioneer of 1808, being a daughter of the veteran pioneer, Thomas Taylor. She died May 2, 1875, in her sixtyseventh year.

Another pioneer of 1808, was Mrs. Hannah Harris, a daughter of Mr. Jacob Pugh, a revolutionary soldier. She was born in Hardy county, Virginia, May 10, 1776. She and her husband first settled on the Clear fork, but in r8ro, removed to Burlington township, where Mr. Harris purchased and cleared up a farm. Her husband died in 1844; she surviving him thirty-two years, dying December 7, 1872, in her ninety-seventh year.

Mrs. Elizabeth Shaffer was among the pioneers of 1810; was a daughter of Phillip Peters, and was born in Hampshire county, Virginia, September 22, 1790. She married in 1810, and removed to a farm two miles northeast of Newark, where she died in her eighty-sixth year.

Elizabeth: Moore, Mrs. Sarah Harris and Mrs. Rachel Young. These all died within the same decade, and all were more than eighty years of age ; at the time of death; the first being eighty-three, the second eighty-six, and the third eighty-seven. Mrs. Moore, a native of Adams county, Pennsylvania, was born September 19, 1787; Mrs. Harris came from Ontario county, New York, and Mrs. Young from Virginia.

Mrs. Jacob Sperry, Mrs. Sarah Robertson and- Mrs. Benjamin F. Coleman were pioneers of 1813. Mrs. Sperry belonged to the extensive family of Wilsons, who were prominent pioneers of the county. She was accidently killed at the age of eighty-two, near her home in the vicinity of Utica.

Mrs. Robertson was born near Chambersburgh, Franklin county, Pennsylvania, June 24, 1791; was married to Major William Robertson, January 28, 1813. They removed to Washington township, and settled near the present site of Utica, where Mrs. Robertson died in her eight-seventh year.

Mrs. Coleman was a native of Rhode Island, and was born in Newport, September 9, 1790. She was a resident of Newark sixty-six years; a member of the Episcopal church, and was nearly eighty-nine at the time of her death.

Mrs. Smoots resided in Washington township sixty-three years, and died August 7, 1879, aged eighty-seven. She was from Shenandoah county, Virginia.

Mrs. Henry was from Frederick county, Maryland; came with her parents to Circleville, Ohio, in 1811; married John W. Henry in 1812; remoyed to Granville township in 1815; to the vicinity of Newark in 1833, where she died in.1877, aged eighty-four.

Mrs, Sarah Taylor was born in Kentucky, arid after the death of her husband, the late judge William Taylor, lived some years with her brother, Stephen McDougal, in Newark, where she died November 8, 1868, in her seventieth year. She was for many years a consistent member of the Prerbyterian church of Newark.

markable for her length of life, being ninety-eight at the time of her death, November 3, 1873. She belonged to a long-lived family, one of her ancestors living more than one hundred years. resident of Hopewell township, and: one of the first members of Gratiot Baptist church, organized in 1821. She settled in this county in 1816, as did also Mrs. Mary Swigart, who was born in that place, well known in history, as Gettysburgh, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Swigart was long a resident of mentioned the following: Mrs. Sarah Miller, 1817; Mrs. Elizabeth English, 1817; Mrs. Matilda Coulter, 1817; Mrs. Catharine Wilkin, 1819; Mrs. Abigail Rowe, 1820; Mrs. Sarah Conine, Mrs. Margaret Weaver, 1823; Mrs. Susan Fry, 1827; Mrs. Colville, 1829; Mrs. Eli Ashbrook and Mrs. Brakebill, in 1830.

Mrs. Weaver, wife of John Weaver, was born in Hampshire county, Virginia, December 29, 1790; was married in 1811, and settled near Homer in in 1823, where she died July ro, 1873.

phrey, and was born in Ohio county, Virginia, November 9, 1797. Upon their removal to this west- _ ern wilderness, her mother rode the entire distance on horseback, and the children walked most of the journey was made in March, and while the snow yet covered the ground. Her father was an earnest, energetic Methodist preacher, and much devoted to the interests of his religion, his family and his neighbors. She married John Coulter in 1817, and settled near Chatham; in 1821 she removed to the Clay Lick valley, where she died December 12, 1872, aged seventy-five years.

where she continued to reside until near the close of the last century, when she came with her husband and six children to the Muskingum and settled near the mouth of Licking. Subsequently her husband died and she removed to this county, settling on Rocky fork, and afterwards moved to Madison township, where she passed the remainder of her days." As evidence of her vigor and strength, it may be stated that she walked every mile of the distance from Culpepper to the Muskingum, the distance being about four hundred miles, and carried an infant child. Her mind was a storehouse of Revolutionary and pioneer incidents. During the last sixty years of her life she was a member of the Baptist church.

Mrs. Stanbery, wife of Hon. William Stanbery, was a lady of much intelligence and force of character, and a resident of this county from 1809 to her death, which took place at "Oakland," Madison township, March 17, 1873, when she was eighty-seven.

county, Virginia, August To, 1782, was married in 1806, came to Ohio in 1812, and died in this county, February 16, 1874, at the advanced age of more than ninety-one years.

Mrs. Sarah Kindle was more remarkable for age than any other pioneer woman of the county, being one hundred and five years old at the date of her death, which occurred in Union county, December 28, 1870. She was from Virginia, and lived many years on the Flint ridge.

Mrs. Hannah Sargent Rowell was born in Pennsylvania in 1783, and died in this county, August 12, 1880, at the great age o1 ninety-seven years.

It is proper before closing this chapter to mention Mrs. Hannah Reeves, a noted pioneer preacher, who though not a resident of this county, frequently visited it in the prosecution of her work. Mrs. Reeves was a daughter of James and Mary Pearce, and was born in Devonshire, England, January 30, 1800. She united with the Methodist church December 18, 1818, under the preaching of Rev. James Thorn, and immediately began preaching, following itinerant ministry in England until 1831, when she came to America. July 6, 1831, she married Rey. William Reeves at Zanesville, Ohio, but continued her preaching, becoming well known and much respected through this portion of the State. She was a woman of much ability, force and eloquence; very zealous in her labors, making many converts, and attracting large audiences wherever she went. She died at New Brighton, Pennsylvania, November 13, 1869.