Wayne County, Ohio - Chapter 5: Early Settlement of the County, 1910

Chapter 5: Early Settlement of the County

Wayne county's earliest pioneers were largely from Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and far-away New Jersey. New England also was fairly represented among the early settlers. But by far the greater number came in from Pennsylvania.

Intelligence was the rule among the first band of settlers who here sought out lands and builded for themselves homes. They possessed iron nerve and a will that made the drear}^ wilderness soon take on the aspect of a blooming garden spot. They had to encounter many a hardship ere this was accomplished. They contended with the hostile Indian tribes, the perils of storm and flood, the unbridged and swollen streams, with new country sickness, "homesickness" and a hundred and one trials and privations unknown to the population of the twentieth centuiy.

These hardy pioneers never surrendered to disaster or trembled before uncalculating misfortune. Manhood was fully tested. His adversities made him, oak-like, grow the stronger. When memory caused the eye at times to weep, - when the flood interposed - when the ravine stayed his progress - when the mountain and hillside overshadowed him, - then it was that the Wayne county pioneer forgot father and mother, home and childhood; then it was that his moral stature developed into giant outlines. His ax was his trusty companion ; his devoted wife his assurance of triumph and well poised confidence. His cause was religion, civilization and man. He trod the forests of the county, viewing its "green, glad solitude" with an ever open and keen eye.

As another has written, "He persistently struggled, and how heroically he sufifered, how faithfully he toiled, we who succeed him and have lived to see what he foresaw, and whose privilege it is to honor and venerate him, most tenderly remember and sensitively know. They had an unshaken faith in their mission and the benign and comprehensive results that were to flow from it."

Washington might well say of the colony that was settled upon the Muskingum : "None in America were occupied under such favorable auspices. Information, property and strength will be its characteristics. I know many of the settlers personally, and there never were better men calculated to promote the welfare of such a community."

It was not their sole motive to establish government, but to make it the protector and hand-maid of religion, for, said they, "Religion and government commenced in those parts of the globe where the sun first rose in its effulgent majesty. They have followed after him in his brilliant course; nor will they cease till they have accomplished in this western world the consummation of all things."

So may it be recorded of Wayne county's early settlers. While it may be partly true that many of them were actuated by a desire to augment their riches and possess innumerable acres, they were also inspired by a nobler ambition and had loftier incitements than the dread omnipotence of gold. While they were seeking to promote their own welfare and discharge their duties to themselves and their government, they were not forgetful of their higher Christian duties. In many instances, with the smoke that curled from the chimneys of their cabins ascended the incense of prayer. The rude pioneer hut, instead of being the abode of the little family cluster alone, became a temple of worship, and the gray old woods resounded with the simple but pathetic and eloquent prayers of pious men.

What a contrast between those long-ago days of the early years of the nineteenth century and those of today - a hundred years later? Again let us linger with and talk of the early emigrants in Wayne county, who verily builded better than they knew. They were lone dwellers of the forests. Their daily necessities and wants were as numerous and multiplied as the inhabitants of older communities. Necessarily they were so situated as to make it impossible for all of them to be gratified. Schools and churches, there were none. The intellectual as well as the moral training of their children devolved upon themselves to a great extent. The child was the pupil, while the ])arents were of necessity the real educators. If they were fortunate enough to have a minister in their midst, all the better; if not, their spiritual recreations consisted in prayer meetings and the private but equally orthodox methods of interchange of Christian views and religious experiences.

Streams were then all unbridged and roads were cut by the pioneers through the dense forests. Cabins were to be built, but the saw-mill existed only in the memory of the older states from which they had emigrated. The professional tradesman was missing, unless perchance he was an integral of the colony; but a market would have been superfluous, as there was little either for sale or exchange.

With the exception of mere patches along the larger streams or on the lowlands, the surface was overgrown or covered with trees and bushes. The bear, wolf, catamount and deer held sway, with no one to contest their rights as supreme rulers. The passage from the settlers' homes through the wilderness was attended with much discomfort, privation and peril. Their journeyings were slow and painfully tedious. They were not made in the stateroom of a Pullman palace car, speeding like a mighty whirlwind around curves of the iron highway of this day and age. A footman was no prodigy of the road in those long-ago days. To bestride the faithful horse, mount the wagon or help draw the cart, was no disgrace then to either man or woman. AVeeks and even months were consumed in their journeyings westward, and their nightly bedchamber was but the tent or bare ground beneath the covered wagon. Here husband, wife and infant sank to slumbers, serenaded by the cry of wild beasts and wild winds. Here the uncertain flint-lock gun and the trusty dog were ever on watch and in readiness to repel invasion. They made their own farm utensils, as well as the apparel they wore. Wild turkeys and deer were in abundance, so they were supplied with meats; and in the absence of Oolong and Young Hyson tea, they sipped the sassafras and spice-wood teas. But contentment was there, if not riches.

them! How comforting to believe that in that procession of beatifled and redeemed souls which forever circle around the throne and remain the nearest to the Master, the mothers are there ! If it be so endearing in heaven as it is on earth, angels will whisper it, and the name of Mother will be next in sweetness to 'Our Father, which are in Heaven.' ''

Among the unalloyed traits of the pioneer in this, as well as in most new countries, hospitality was ever foremost. The stranger never failed to receive a hearty welcome at the cabin home of these friendly people. Did he ask for bread, he always received the best loaf at hand. Lodging was seldom, if indeed e^'er, refused the weary one. AA^hile the fare was coarse, it was handed out freely and graciously received. Then, too, there was a warmth and genuineness in the hand-shake hardly known to the twentieth-century generation. Women used no cosmetics ; they were false in no sense, but li^-ed as nature had formed them and home life was pure, sweet and simple. From these pioneer homes came forth the Garfields and McKinleys and many of the noble men who have from time to time graced the loftiest positions in the nation. These fathers and mothers taught their children to be useful, and always insisted that the useful should be the foundation 'for the ornamental.

Rut now the kind reader is asked to leap the chasm of a hundred years in the history of the kingdom of Wayne - span the distance between the historic Then and the eventful Now.

The pioneer cabin has long since gone to decay and most of the inmates of these primitive homes have years and decades ago joined that innumerable caravan that has crossed the deep waters of the river of death, leaving only their well-trained offspring and the sweet memory of the summer of their lives as monuments to who they were and what works they wrought out in this section of the Buckeye state. But be it recorded to their credit that they left an imperishable name for honor and patriotism and that their virtues have been handed down even to this the first decade in the progressive twentieth century. The departure from the ways of the forefathers has, of course, been wide and very marked. New systems have obtained. New systems of farming and new business methods have been ushered in with the passing of the years since the first settlers blazed their way through this goodly land and finally selected a spot on which to erect their cabin home. New implements are used, new plans of agriculture and merchandise have long since been employed. The human sa\'age and the savage beast that roamed at will through the dark forest have forever gone and a new type of Christian civilization has come in, yet the foundation for all this modern greatness was laid by the axman of ninety and more years ago.

In reality, it is to be questioned whether that high moral type of noble fatherhood, motherhood and childhood obtains here that once prevailed. Yet with the loss of some of the ])riceless virtues Wayne county ])ossessed in the century ])a.sc, it should be said that, in the main, the present-day progress in moralitv and religious sentiment is indeed praiseworthy of an enlightened, educated and highly refined peo])le. Since the first generations of this county [)assed from earth's shining circle, it should be remembered that Ohio and Wayne county have jiroduced many eminent statesmen and religionists. It was after all these pioneer characters passed away that the world was made better by such loyal liberty-loving men as Grant, Garfield and McKinley, all of whom were children of this soil. Ohio need not simply point to the Presidents, hut tc' the larger number of gallant soldiers and later true statesmen.

i\Iay the memory of the departed pioneers - our good ancestors - long be cherished and their names be held in admiring esteem and true reverence. The shore, the palm, the victory - their rest is yonder!

The first four settlements effected in Wayne county, Ohio, were made as follows (substantiated by former historians, including Ben Douglas - lately deceased - and John Larwill, both of whom made careful investigation along this important line) :

The first' settlement by white men in this county of whom there is now any authentic account was William Larwill, a native of Kent, England, who dated his settlement as far back as 1806. He was a brother of Joseph and John Larwill, who came to the county a year later, 1807, the former in the employment of John Sever, Lhiited States surveyor, who was then engaged in running off the county into sections. And here on the present site of Wooster was made the first settlement in Wayne county.

The second settlement in the county was made by James Morgan, a native of Virginia, but of Welsh ancestry, who' selected a place in Franklin township, early in the spring of 1808. He came in to Ohio and sc|uatted on the Mohican, in 1806, but removed to Franklin township in the year above named, entering lands composing the farm owned later by Thomas Doty. Thomas Butler, born in Virginia also, emigrated to this township in 1808, and married Rebecca, daughter of James Morgan, April 12, 1809.

The third settlement in the county was made by James Goudy, father of John Goudy, who later resided in Dalton, Sugarcreek township. He removed from Jefferson county, Ohio, and located two miles southwest of Dalton, in the autumn of 1809. James Goudy was in General St. Clair's defeat, November 4, 1791, and was wounded in the thigh by a bullet, which for many years he carried in his body and which finally caused his death.

The fourth settlement was brought about by the coming of Oliver Day in cither 1809 or 1810 (Hon. John Larwill was of the opinion that he came first in 1809). He removed to East Union township, not far from "Cross Ikeys,'' and settled on the farm later owned by Jonas Huntsberger. He was a native of Vermont, as were his companions, Ezekiel Wells, M. D. ; old Jonathan Mansfield and Vestey Frary, who accompanied him - this being the first of the New England settlement - and "Square Day," as he was called was keeping a place of entertainment at what was long afterwards known as "Carr's tavern" when General Beall's army passed. The first transfer of real estate on the public records of the county recorder's ofiice of ^^^ayne county was made by Oliver Day.

The settlements in the various townships of the county of which this volume is an authentic history, will be found under the various township headings in the Township History chapter.

Pioneer Families

The subjoined is a list of the heads of families residing in Wayne county in 1810, according to the United States census returns: Jacob Amman,