Seneca County, Ohio - Chapter 14: Spencer Vs. Hedges the Brush-Dam Case the First Jury Trial - Brouse the Sugar Camp Indian Way of Cooking Coon Forest, 1880

Canals -Canal Tax Of Seneca County

SPENCER vs. HEDGES THE BRUSH-DAM CASE THE FIRST JURY TRIAL - BROUSE THE SUGAR CAMP INDIAN WAY OF COOKING COON FOREST CULTURE SCARCITY OF MONEY WORK ON THE CANAL JIGGERS AND CHICHA THE MIAMI, DAYTON AND MICHIGAN. AND WABASH AND ERIE CANALS -CANAL TAX OF SENECA COUNTY.

SI'F.M ' K K'S brush-dam, across the river, mentioned heretofore, is deserving ot notice here lor several reasons, vix: It was the first dam ever erected by man across this river, and of course was very crude. The water raised by it ran the first saw-mill on this river; it was located within the limits and near the center of the present city of Tiffin. It caused numerous contentions between Mr. Hedges and Mr. Spencer, the two rival proprietors ot the two adjoining towns, that resulted in several knock downs; its destruction became the cause ot ai tioii in the first law-suit and the occasion tor the lir-t jury trial in the i oiirt of common pleas of this county, and finally it brought about the purchase ot Fort Mail bv Mr. Hedges, and the union of the two towns, forming the present \oting city of Tiffin. "(I real oaks from little a< orns gn >w."

Since the adoption 01 the present constitution ot ()hio. and the consequent new code of practice, nearK thirty years ago. the voting lav.ver-. a- a general thing. ha\e paid but little attention to the old < ( minion law pleadings and practii e in vogue in former times, and old lawver- are gradual!) toruell i ng "the old way. ' 'I he present age is the age ot the "almighty dollar." and ol "the reason why;" and the bar iioA .!-. m> to i are a- little about the lormer dillerenccs between debt. a -> -- 1 : m p > , i . detinue, ca-e, iropass. trespass on the c a -- e , trover, replevin. ci' < hi. eii>. etc.. a- does Young Amerii a gcneralh about the times gone i i\ . 1 -/-,.-'- Iri .in i he plead i UL;S in this "brush dam case" are here memory ol the reader coin erning the mode (it pi o. <-' ;-;r - - tiiiu- in like cases.

Jio History 01' Sk.Nkca County

Mr. Hedges in liis answer denied "all and singular the premises." and defended the "wrongs and injuries." etc., and said that he was n<>' guilty of the supposed trespass laid to liis charge, etc., "and of this he puts himself upon the country, and the said plaintiff doth the like:" which means siniplv that lie will submit this case to a jury. To this answer a written notice was attached "that the close in question was the property of the said Hedges, and that he had a legal right to do what he did."

The case was continued until the April term. 182^, when it was tried to the following jury, vi/: James Mathers, Jesse (laic. John ('. I)onnel, \\illiam Foncannon. Smith Kentfield. I'eter Yeaky. K/ekiel Sampson. Samuel Scothorn. James C'utright. K/ra Brown, Jacob S. Jenning-. Klisha Clark, "who upon their oaths do say that the said defendant is guilty in manner and form, etc., and we do assess the plaintiff's dam ages by reason thereof, at >S.oo. The court entered up judgment i< r that sum. The costs were >;;(>. 75. This ended the first law-suit ai.d jury trial in Seneca common pleas.

The point upon which Mr. I ledges was found guilt}', was the 1.1 ; that, at the time the dam was erected, the land along the right bank ot the river belonged to the I nited States; had not then been surveyed nor offered for sale, and Mr. Hedges was not then the owner of the same.

Mr. Ingraham. who had been appointed sheriff, gave bond in tin -urn ot >5.ooo. and Kollin Moler, Michael Schaul, Joseph Pool and l"hn A Rosenberger were his sureties.

\\henever the weather in winter would permit of <>ut door work, there was always enough ot il to do. (ireat trouble was otten expe riem ed by those that had cattle i" take (are of. \\heu the winterwere opei |ii. a- was ver\ usual then, the < attic i onld imd gr.i-s ,!i tlie wood- and a!»n^ the bank- of the stream-: but in \ er\ i old '.vi liter-, with m u< i . -now. ind : o ha\ on hand. I he poor annuals siniei'i d \ cr\' tiricli. and were < ompeiled to -;ul>si-l on "browse." which wa> ll:i '( nder end-> of tn-e top-. The tree- had to be ' ut down for th.ii j":i"].i . ' i ihi- labor had to be rejieat l:'o/en -',!-'-:,. ' \ ver\ hard livin.i; lor ! :'->!!! '-'-,: : ' -prin u.

The writer lias seen good use made of some of these sugar-troughs in SCUMMY of the year when sugar-water did not run. They were rocked in the < al>in ol the settler with a sugar lump, in the shape of a v< ung "I'liickeye," in them. The little fellow was thus not "rocked in T;e cradle ol the dee])." hut in a suhstitute much safer. Many noble men am! women, now living in ( >hio. were raised and rocked in these s;:gar-trough cradles: and the motlier's lullal)y. in the cabin, sounded ;;.- sweet a-, it ever did in the palatial mansion, with plate glass \yindows .ir.d gilded door-knobs.

It was among the "rural felicities" to see a whole family employed ir the sugar cam.]) on a pleasant day. some carrying sugar-water, sonic skimming the simp, others preparing wi>od. eacl) employed at some thing: and when night came on. the work was so reduced as to require hut little, if any. attention before the next morning. Some of the neighbors would visit the camp, spend the evening and have a good ' '.at. Neighbors seemed to think more of each oilier then than the\ do now; at least they visited each other otteiier when the distance, the V"rk and the weather would permit.

miasma, produced by the heat ot a summer's MIU. and thu> held in the humid air and breathed conMantlv. tended to corrupt the blood and deraime thr functions ol the li\er. Fever and a.uuc. and bilious levers were vcr\ common, and men were often seen standing on the street on a hot MI miner day, pale as death, with overcoats on. buttoned up to the < lii n. their hands in their pockets and shaking so that their voices trembled. The chill \\as alwavs followed by a fever, and when that was passed, the patient was all ri^ht a^ain ur.til next da\ . or dav alter. The i hills returned a^ain at regular intervals, either ne\t day. or every other da\. People seemed to uet u<ed to them, and some were no; reduced much by the chills, wliile oilier-., and eM>ei ially people trom |-'.urope. suffered very much more trom these diseases. In general, those of Kuropean Buffered more than those of American birth. Many a -tout, robust man was reduced to a walking skeleton in a short time. Yet this lexer and a^ue was not considered dangerous to lite. It was exceedin^l'v troublesome, nevertheless. especially when whole families were taken with it at the same time. It was a >ad scene to come, or be tailed, into a house and see a lar^e family, voting ami old, in their beds, some shaking, and others burning with fever, and not one of them able to help the other to a cup ot water. The onlv i ase where death en-ued trom these (hills that ever came to the notice of the writer, was that ot an old (lerman who lived on South leffer.soii street, in Tiftin. and who died shaking in his chair.

The most serioiis aspect ol these malarious diseases, however, was the various bilious fevers that often defied the skill and < are of the ph\ sii iaiis. and frequently p'ro\ ed fatal. The terribh. heat in fever, the parched tongue. th,e delirium, followed b\ extreme |irostration: and th- n tl'.e remedies, such as calomel, ipecac, jalap. Peruvian bark. quinine, i astor oil, et< .. etc.. all diseases and remedies \\ere simply horrible. Some summers were more si<kiv than others, but for main ve.n's. ;uid until the < i>untrv became partialK cleared up. there \\\i> no summer without this terrible visitation.

than was absolutely necessary, llcds and bedding were ot the same character. With a temporary change of clothing, the men brought their blankets with them. A woolen blanket was a better protection against the mosquitoes at night than any other covering. These pests in warm weather tormcd into a sort ot a cloud around their victims, day and night.

It is scarcely possible to find a place anywhere in the world better tilted to produce malarious diseases, than was the country at that time doim the line ot" the I >a\ ton and Michigan canal, and especially along the Anglai/e. the Maumee and the \Vabash in Indiana.

As the work progressed and the distance to and from the cabins increased, they were abandoned and new ones constructed near the works, in the same crude way. \\ hisky was cheap in those days, and in very common use. They had no temperance societies then, and every man was constituted a committee ot one to mind his own business: nor had chemistry discovered the art of stretching or adulterating the article with poisonous drugs. Men who could allord the expense kept whisky by the barrel in their houses, and it was simply in conformity with the general idea ot hospitality, then in vogue, to have the bottle and glass set before one when visiting a neighbor. There were then less drunkards, in proportion to the number of inhabitants, than there are now. and the pimpled cheek bones and rum-blossomed nose. so prevalent now among those who drink whisky habitnallv. were not seen then.

\'er\ often men had to work standing in water all dav. There were no rubber bouts to be had then, and to avoid getting sick and to keep iwav the -'shakes." it was thought necessary, by both cmplovcr and employes, that men should drink whisky so manv times a dav. In conformity \\ith this generally conceded necessitv, it was made a part of the i ontract with the laborer that, in addition to his pay. he should receive i ol whiskx so many times a day three times, geiier

< >n ;i certain dav each family brings a certain quantity of fhe liquor to tlir council -house, where, after a short ceremony over it. the chief takes his fill: then the next in authority, then the next, and so on. until the officers are all supplied. Then the common rabble tall in. and a i^eti eral drunk ends the festivities.

( )f late years, since mai/e came into use in South America, a chicha is made by masticating the grains in the same way as the leaf, but the liquor made from corn is said to be inferior to that made from the chic ha b'ish: both, however, make people mosf beastly drunk. Think of it - a lot of old squaws, with decayed teeth, chewing leaves or corn and ^pitting them into a tub to make liipior of ! The saliva produces the simar that foments into alcohol and assists the work of fermentation. [See Humboldt's Travels in South America, and Ilerndon and (lib boils' Explorations of the Sources of the Ama/on. The writer's mind recurred to this circumstance when he thought as to the probable origin of the word "ji^'ers." and reflected whether or not the word --chicha" mi^'ht possiblv ha\e become vulgari/ecl or Amcrieani/ed into this "iig-x'r."]

The work on the canals commenced as early in the spring as the weather would permit and the frost was out of the ground, and was prosecuted with a will ilntil aloni; in luly. when the laborers broke down with bilious diseases, and the work had to be abandoned in consequence, until alter the tew first early frosts in the tall, when it was aurain re-Mimed and pushed forward into the winter.

I Miring the time tl'ie lather was at work on the <anal and the mother with her little ones alone in the cabin, miles away from neighbors, no doctor to call to assistance1 in case of sii kne-^. no one to counsel or help in time of" need, the trials and imidenN <>\ such a life lead the contemplative mind to sad and serious meditation. Let us try to forget scenes like these, for they will never occur a^ain.

A -hort hi--tor\ of :he < )hio canal s\stem mi.Liht be made interesting here, would -p.u e only permit: but to -i\e the reader a bird's-eye vicv. iif it. it- origin. n>e an-1 progress, its ima! triumph, the excitement !i produced in :!-,'- political world, the suci .-ss and deteat of men aspirin.; to offn e dcpi-i pon the \va\ the\ -tood on the < anal i|iiesfion, the

( )n the ^ist day of January, 1822. a bill was passed appointing lienj. Tappan. Alfred Kelley, Thomas Worthington, [eremiah Morrow. Isaac Miner and Kbenc/er Buckingham, Jr. commissioners, -' Whose duty it shall be to cause such examinations, surveys and estimates to be made by engineers, etc.. to ascertain the practicability of connecting lake Krie with the Ohio river, trom the Ohio river to the Maumee river bv a canal through the following routes, vi/ : - from Sandusky bay to the Ohio river, trom the Ohio river to the Maumee river, trom the lake to the river aforesaid by the sources of-thc Cuyahoga and I'dack rivers and the Muskingum river, and trom the lake to the sources of (irand and Mahoning rivers to the ( )hio river."

( )n the 2;th day ot lanuary. 1X23, a supplementary act was passed with a view of connecting the lake with the Ohio river, and also of ascertaining whether a loan could be secured lor that purpose, thus making in fact the canal commissioners also the fund commissioners.

Tlic state of ( )liin. from the fertility <>f its soil, tin- benignity of its climate and its geographical position, must always contain a dense population, and the products and consumptions of its inhabitants must forever form a lucrative and extensive inland trade,, exciting the powers of productive industry and communicating aliment and energy to extend commerce, lint when we consider that this canal will open a way to the great rivers that fall into the Mississippi: that it will lie felt, not only in the immense valle\ ot that river, but as far west as the Korky mountains and the borders of Mexico; and that it will communicate with our great inland seas, and iheir tributan rivers: with the ocean in various routes: and with the most productive regions of America, there can be no question respecting the blessings that it will produce, the riches it will create, and the energies it will call into act i\ it > .

In 1824. a survey was made lor a canal trom ('incinnati along the Miami valley to ihe Maumee river at I)efiancc. thence along the left bank of the same to the bay. and an estimate thereof reported to the legislature. Mr. Williams directed the survey and tor ten years there after was the leading spirit ot the enterprise. Samuel Forrcr was the iie. id D| the ' orps of engineers. More than one hall of this route was through a den-' tores! : there was not mie house between St. M;ir\- the mouth ol the Auglai/e.

i in the 2.Sth day of May. 1X28. the President of the I'niled States appro\ ed ,111 a< i ot ( 'on gress, granting to Ohio a < jiiantity ot land. e< pial to one-halt ol live sections in width on each side of the canal, from I)ayton to the Maumee river at the mouth of the Auglai/e. reserving ea« h alternate section to the I'niled States, and the lands thus