Amanda Township

Amanda Township

Amanda lies immediately north of Clear Creek. It is commonly understood that the name was given by William Hamilton, who was the first County Surveyor of Fairfield. It contains the villages of Amanda and Royalton. Amanda is eight miles west of Lancaster, on the Cincinnati Railroad. Its first proprietor was Samuel Kester, and its beginning was about 1830. Royalton is six or seven miles north of Amanda. It is a small village, and was known as Toby Town at the beginning of the settlements.

Frederick Leathers is spoken of as the first settler. He kept a tavern on the old Chillicothe road. Isaac Griffith succeeded him as landlord, and remained there until 1834, soon after which the house was burned. Other early settlers were : Disinger, William Ward, Mr. Norris, Mr. Denison, William Hamilton, Thomas Barr, John Christy and Mr. Morris, who acquired notoriety as a ring-fighter at public gatherings. A school-teacher, by the name of Solomon Grover, is spoken of ag having school in the upper story of his house, in 1817. A Presbyterian Church was organized in the village, in 1838, by Rev. Dr. Hogue, of Columbus. The first minister was William Jones. The first Sabbath-School in Amanda was inaugurated in 1860, by the Rev. Thorn.

In the spring of 1800, three men, names not remembered, came from near Chillicothe and broke ground on the prairie in section number 4, planted corn, and then returned home. They came back in due time and tended their corn twice. The next fall one of these men sold his share to Horatio Clark, receiving a horse in payment. The other two likewise disposed of their shares to parties not now remembered. In November of the same year, Wilkinson Lane, of Huntingdon County, Tennessee, settled on section 8, and was succeeded in the month of June following by Thomas Cole, my grandfather, who had entered the sertion. His grandchildren still own one half of the section. The family were never troubled bj' the Indians. In a few years my grandfather built a school-house on his land, hired a teacher, Abraham Cole, for eight dollars a month, and then invited all who wished to send their children and pay a pro rata share, or not, as they could or would. In those days school hours were from " sun to sun, " or as soon as scholars ari^^ved. On one occasion, my father. Broad Cole, (born in 1802), thought of " beating the master to school," some day, and, after a few failures to do so, left home one morning about day-break ; but, on arriving at the school-house, he was greeted with a good fire, and found the master, a Mr. Smith, banking up dirt against the school-house to protect against cold. That house was built on the north part of section 18. David Svvope and William Long were settlers on section 8, in June, 1807. In 1800, Dr. Silas Allen bought and settled on section number 3, building a house on the crest of a hill, near the western line of said section, and fronting a prairie on the west, in section number 4. His purchase -consisted of about five hundred acres. At that time there was not the mark of an ax from Lancaster to his house. Said section was soon given to his four sons - Whiting, Lemuel, Jedediah and Benjamin Allen. Lemuel and Jedediah gave ground for a village, and about 1810 William Hamilton, then living on section 22, surveyed and laid out the village of Royalton, about one mile south-east of Toby Town. For some years it went by the name of Toby Town, generally, but by the Allen family it was called Royalton, after a village in Vermont, from whence they came. Elvira Allen, now Mrs.

Meeker, was born in 1803, the first female child born, it is supposed, in that part of the township. Mrs. Meeker still distinctly remembers the Toby Town Indians coming over the prairie in single file, the squaws carrying their papooses on their backs, lashed to a board, and on arriving at her father's house, would stand up the boards upon which their little responsibilities were tied, against the outside, while they went in.

The first schools in Royalton were tauglit by Warren Case and his sister Sabre, in 1810; and by Henry Calhoon, in 1812. The Rev. Dr. Hoag, (late of Columbus) a Presbyterian, preached in Lemuel Allen's house, in Royalton, as early as 1810. About the same time the first tavern was opened there by Lemuel Allen, as also the first store by Jacob Rush. In about 1814, the Methodists organized a society there, and their first preacher is supposed to have been Isaac Quinn.

In this year Stephen Cole built a grist-mill and a carding machine combined, on what is called Cole's Run, heading at a spring in section 8, the mill being situated on section 7. Richard Hooker helped to build the mill ; and in 1817, Piper and Reynolds built what is known as t]pe Hooker mill, on Turkey Run. Mr. Hooker lived on section 19. The mill has long since disappeared, only bare traces of it being now visible. Mr. Richard Hooker, now of Hocking Township, and in his 79th year, assisted in digging the mill-race.

The first horse grist-mill and still-house were situated in the south part of the township, and were owned by a Mr. HuflFer, the exact date of their erection not being known. Richard Hooker was a Justice of the Peace for the township at a very early day. I have recently seen a deed, dated November 15, 1805, the acknowledgment of which was taken by Jesse Willets, J. P. Hamilton and Rush were also Justices for Amanda Township.

On the 6th day of September, 1817, Elders Eli Ashbrook and .Jacob Tharp organized the Turkey Run Regular Baptist Church. This church is still in existence. They held their meetings in Hooker's school-house as late as 1838, about which time a house of worship was erected. None of the original members are now living, and but one now lives who became a member by letter a year or two afterward, viz. : Permelia Ashbrook, now 83 years old. Elder Eli Ashbrook, one of the

In 1803 Valentine Reber came out from Pennsylvania, and entered section 10 of our township, and in '1805 he brought out his J'oung wife from Berks County and settled on the section. Frederick Leathers settled in the southern part of the township, about the year 1800.

The township steadily and rapidly increased in population, and the red-men, dder, bears and wolves disappeared in proportion. The nearest neighbors were out of sight, because of trees and brush. The diet was plain, but the people had much better sauce for their tables than the present owners of the soil, and it was not a compound article, but simply hunger. Try it, ye dyspeptics ; and then eat corn-pone, or johnny-cake, or venison-jerk, with ash-cake, buckwheat-cakes, wild-honey, butter, and coffee once a week for a rarity, and you will adopt the language of an old settler, and say, "Ji! don't go bad." The difference in diet within the last seventyfive years was once referred to by an old uncle, a pioneer, thus: "Nowadays, when folks go a visiting, the inquiry at table is, ' will you take coffee or tea?' but when I was young, the word was, ' will you take sweet milk or sour?' "

Boys and girls then went to meeting barefooted, the girls, and their mothers too, sometimes putting on shoes and stockings just before going into the meeting-house. After meeting, a chicken-pie was sometimes indulged in, if the hawks and owls had not flown off with them. One great fear in those days was that the timber would give out. For fear it would, some would even buy rail timber of their less fearful neighbors. The settlers were usually that class known as " poor men," who were glad to sell their timber to raise a little money. . Coon-trees and bee-trees had, on this account, to be cut on the sly.

Now, Doctor, permit me to introduce a few anecdotes, and I am done. A quite early settler, who had entered a section and settled upon it, went to work and met his payments yearly, until but one remained. The time drew near, and he lacked but three dollars. None of his neighbors could help him to the amount. Only one day remained, and he had to pay the money at the land-office at Chillicothe, nearly forty miles distant. If he failed, his all would be gone. In this extremity his only cow died. This opened the way for relief. He siiinned her and sold the hide for enough to let him out, and setting off for the land-ofHce, arrived there a little before midnight of the last day, barely in time to save his land.

My grandfather, Thomas Cole, once made the round trip to Chillicothe and back, carrying on his shoulder a flax spi*nning-wheel to get it repaired, the whole distance both waj'S being sixty miles. When moving to this county from Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, in the year 1801, he always first waded the creeks with a long stick in his hand, to test the depth of the water and firmness of the bottom.

George Disinger was one of the early settlers. He once went to Mr. Valentine Reber's to get straw for a bed-tick,, but failing to procure any, he and his wife filled the tick with dry forest leaves. After sleeping on it for two or three nights, they thought something was wrong, and upon emptying out the'leaves they found that they had had a black-snake for a bed-fellow.

William Long, before-mentioned, was a small man, but remarkably well-proportioned. He once had a pair of pants made from a single yard of tow-linen, but the pattern was rather scant, and the pants too tight. He said he would never ' spile " another yard of linen in that way. This same Wm. Long found that his cows would not eat straw, so he adopted a strategy. He stuffed straw in the fence cracks, and several times drove the cows away when they had tasted it, and after that he had no trouble in getting them to eat it, and even to eat up his entire crop of straw.

Pages might be written of anecdotes, jokes, etc., that would be enjoyable, because they would so richly smack of those good old times when men were free and equal in the substantial sense of the term; and of sociability, such as no longer attains. These were the characteristics of the pioneer age; at least as the rule. One more anecdote must suffice for the present, lest I trespass too much on j'our space, which I do not wish to do.

Mr. Henry Kiger and his wife, aunt Polly Kiger, are residents of Amanda Township, though they were not among its first settlers. Mr. Kiger is now nearly ninety-seven years of age, and his wife is about six'months younger. She is quite brisk, and able to walk several miles to visit her children.

The old gentleman is rather feeble. From a personal interview had with them last Monday, March 5th, 1877, I took the following from their lips: When nearly nineteen years of age, she was living in Hancock Town, with an Irishman whose name was James Foley, and who was a tailor. She was there for the purpose of learning the trade. On one occasion General Washington came there on some business connected with the "Whisky Boys." The General put up at Johnston's Tavern, and presently came to Foley's to have his suspenders mended. Foley passed them to Folly Walduck (now Mrs. Kiger) to be repaired. They were profusely ornamented with silver. When she returned them, the General inquired of Mr. Foley if the young lady was his daughter. He replied that she was not, but that she was a mighty fine girl, "tvhen the General put his hand on my head, and called me a pretty girl, which made me mad, though I made no reply."

Mr. Kiger was in the war of 1812, serving seven months. His company was encamped three weeks at Washington City, after the burning of the Capitol by the British, in 1814. He says he walked up the stone steps of the burned Capitol frequently and viewed the ruins.

The first settlers of our township are all gone, and not more than five or six of the children first born to them remain. The rest are all hidden by the sods of the valley. Very shortly nothing of the past scenes will he known, except through uncertain tradition, and written history made up at so late a day as to be deficient in much that ought to have been recorded, and which would have added greatly to the interest of the future. Nevertheless, sweet tjjoughts will roll over life's troubled sea, while perusing the pages of the history of first settlers and early times of our county.

Dr. H. Scott - Dear- Sir: Your note of the 12th ult. was duly received. It would require an older person than myself to give a full and correct account of the very earliest settlers of this township. But such older persons are scarce, and my health not heing good, I cannot go to see many that might assist me most, but I will do the best I can. I was less than four years old when, with my parents, I came into the township, and I have lived here ever since - 63 years. I will merely mention the names of some of the earliest settlers who have been known to me, as follows :

James Holmes, Wm. Murphy, Thomas Cherry, Eli Whitaker, Wm. Harvey, James Crawford, Andrew Krager. These settled in the northern part of the township. Then Gamuel Wiseman, Edward Berry, Abraham Harshbarger, Jas. Miller, Wm. Milligan, David Runk, Asa Murphy, Wm. Irvin, Thos. Ross, George Heis, David Dillinger, John Miller, A. Miller, Nicholas Ketner, Samuel Mills, David Lyle. These lived in the central part. Then in the more southern section of the township were Mr. Thoman, Jesse Pugh, Solomon Barks, Edward Teal, Jno. Decker, Job, Thomas and Adam McName, Wm. Beard, Samuel Trovinger, Tillman Baker, Adam Geiger, John Shipler, Daniel Hall, Jonas Rienhart.

The religious societies first organized were the Methodists and Baptists. Both societies built log meeting-houses on lots donated by Job McName. The first Methodist preachers were : Charles Waddle, James Quinn, Father Goff and James Gilruth. First Baptist preachers : Eli Ashbrook, John Hite, Rev. Caves, Rev. Snelson and George Debolt. School Districts were not known. The settlers built log-cabins to suit neighborhoods, and teachers were hired by "articles of agreement.'' The article of agreement was drawn up by the teacher, either male or female, in which the terms were stated. Then the paper was by them carried around and presented to the heads of families, who put down their names for so many scholars, according to the size of the family, at a price named per scholar. The most noted teachers were James Allen and Jesse Smith, who taught in different neighborhoods for many successive years. The other teachers were transient persons.

The first grist-mill built was by George H. Houser, on Walnut Creek, where the Foglesong road crosses. The second was built by John Good, one mile above. The third was built by Solomon Barks, on Little Walnut, in the same neighborhood. These little mills have all disappeared long since, principally.

Two still-houses were early erected on section 15 - one by William Irvin, and the other by Thomas Ross. Another, and third one, was established on section 4 by Eli Holmes. All have disappeared about fifty years ago.

The people lived in log-cabins. Their dress was chiefly home-made cloth, linsey and flax and tow-linen. The men found pastime enough at log-rollings and house-raisings; and for more social gatherings they had singing-schools, and the like.

The morals of the people were good for a new country. Gambling of any kind was almost entirely unknown. The first log-cabin in the township was built by Thomas Warner, on the south-east quarter of section 20.

The names I have given you of the early settlers were all here previous to the year 1813. I have stated matters as they occurred to my mind, and without system. You will arrange my items to suit yourself, any of them, or all of them, if you deem them worthy of a place in your history of Fai,rfield County, a volume I hope we shall soon see.

Statement Of Wesley Peters, Of Hocking

My father came from Baltimore County, Maryland, in the j'ear 1812, and settled first in Rush Creek Township, in this county. In 1817 he removed to Amanda Township, locating on Clear Creek, one and three-quarters of a mile south of the village of Royalton. He was the father of nine sons, viz. : Henry, Robinson I., Nathan, Wesley, Stephenson, Andrew, Gideon, Lewis and Ebenezer. His four daughters were : Rachel, Leah, Mary and Elizabeth. Of the sons, eight are living, in April, 1877, Gideon having deceased in 1844. The four daughters married as follows: Rachel married William Broomfield ; Leah married Broad Cole ; Mary married Daniel

Walters, and Elizabeth married Newton Williamson. William BroOmfield deceased, about the year 1874. Hi^ sons at present residing in Fairfield County, are : Robinson I., Wesley and Andrew ; Lewis and Stephenson reside in Pickaway County ; Henry in Upper Sandusky, and Nathan and Ebenezer in Marion, Marion County, Ohio.

I mention as my father's neighbors, at the time of his settlement in Amanda Township, in 1817, Valentine Reber, Jos. Huffman, Jacob Restler, Abram Myres, George Disinger, 'Squire Stevens, 'Squire William Hamilton, Jacob Prestler, Mr. Hanaway, Jesse Hutchins, Jacob Schleich, Thomas Galaher and Mr. Huber. These were all citizens of Amanda Township. They have all passed away.

I settled in Hocking Township in 1838, three miles west of Lancaster, and have resided in the township ever since. Of my neighbors in Hocking Township, there have died since the time of my settlement; Abram Hedges, Jacob Burton, Jas. Reed, George Strode, Henry Ingman, Father Kemp, James Grantham, Mr. Smith, Allen Green, Father Broomfield, William Broomfield, Joseph Work, Jesse Spurgeon, Nathaniel Wilson, Robert Wilson, William Graham, Buhama (Builderback) Green, Alice Hedges, Mrs. Burton, Mrs. ^roomfield, the elder ; Mother Kemp, Mrs. James Grantham, Mrs. Henrietta Ingman, Mrs. Joseph Work, Mr. and !^rs. Joseph Work, near Royalton ; Mr. and Mrs. Huffman.

Our place of worship at that time was the Methodist Church, known as Mount Zion. There was likewise a Brethren congregation in the neighborhood, and a Lutheran Church. Our school-house stood on William Broomfield's land, and the school district was number two. The building was a hewed log structure with a shingled roof. My father died about forty-nine years ago, and my mother some years afterward, at the age of eighty-seven years.

I have known tbe county in its pioneer age, and have marked its progress to its present population of about thirtyfive thousand, and its more than two hundred and fifty thousand dollar tax-duplicate. I have seen two full generations pass away, and two new ones come upon the stage. I have lived to witness the disappearance of every thing common to the log-cabin age, and live in a new condition of society.

Statement Of Thomas E. Ewing, Of Pleasant

The first settlements in Pleasant Township were begun in 1799. The following persors, with their families, came in 1800 and the few succeeding years: Thomas, Mathew and David Ewing came in 1800, and settled on Ewing's Run, four miles north of Lancaster. Thomas was my father, and Dg.vid was the father of the present David Ewing, who resides on and owns the paternal farm. James Ewing was a son of Thomas, and now is the resident owner of the old place. John and Benjamin Feemen came in 1801, and settled immediately north of the Ewings. James Duncan, father of the present Thomas Duncan, Esq., came in 1800, and settled on lands adjoining Thomas Ewing. Peter Lamb first settled where Frederick Sites lives, purchasing the lands at the Government sales. This was in 1801. In the fall of the same year, his father came with his family and settled on the same land. George and Nicholas Radibaugh settled in the township in 1801. George was the father of George, Jacob and William Radibaugh, who have all been well and favorably known residents of Pleasant Township, but now deceased. George had three daughters ; Mary was the wife of Jacob Gulp; the second daughter married Adam Conklin - her name is not remembered ; Betsy married John Nelson. Both of these latter moved out of the township early. John, George and Daniel Smethers came into the township in about 1801, all settling on Ewing's Run. John Burton came into the same neighborhood also in the same year, and located on what is known as the old Christ Huber place, on the east of Ewing's Run. The father of the three Smethers brothers was also a first settler, his sons being young men at the time ; but his Christian name is not recollected.

During the war of 1812, a rifle company was raised on Ewing's Run and adjacent settlements, which marched to Sandusky. David Ewing was its Captain; Thomas Ewing, Ist Lieutenant; John Burton, 2d Lieutenant. The company numbered from 80 to 100 men.

While encamped at Sandusky, this companj'- was challenged to a wrestling match by a man of another company near by, who denominated himself " Cock of the Walk. " The challenge was accepted, and the Ewing company came out best in every fall. Jacob Gulp, of the latter company, threw his man three straight falls, thus securing the title " Cock of the Walk. "

Mr. Ewing gave the correct version of an incident of David Ewing shooting an Indian squaw, elsewhere alluded to ; at least his statement of the affair is likely reliable. A party of six men went out on a hunting expedition. In the course of the day they divided into squads of two. David Ewing and his companion, when somewhere in the vicinity of Daniel Arnold's cabin, discovered what they supposed to be a bear, by its motion among the bushes, and the black hair. Mr. Ewing fired at the object, and was terribly frightened at the scream that responded to his shot - he had wounded a squaw. The two men fled with all possible speed, for well they knew that the Indians, whom they could not doubt were in the near vicinity, would soon be upon. their trail. In fleeing, they passed the Arnold cabin. The Indians. were soon on the trail, and having followed it to that point, supposed they had gone in there, and at once rushed in. Mrs. An.old was seated with her baby on her lap, when one of the Indians raised his rifle to fire upoii her. She raised her hands, exclaiming, " Herr Yesu " (Lord Jesus) just as a stalwart Indian rushed forward and threw the gun aside, thus saving her life. She protested that her husband was not out that day with his gun, and thus dallied them until she sent her little eightyear-old daughter to a neighboring cabin to tell her fither to come home. He came with one or two of his neighbors, who succeeded in satisfying the excited savages that Mr. Arnold was innocent, when they went away. Mr. Ewing kept concealed until the affair was compromised, after which he returned to his family, and nothing more came of it, the Indians having become satisfied that the accident was the result of a mistake. The little girl sent by Mrs. Arnold to bring her father was the present Mrs. Sheric, of Lancaster, now an old lady.

the father of Frederick, Daniel, Henry, Jacob and Geo. Arnold, all of whom are well remembered as citizens of Pleasant Township, but now all deceased. Father Arnold had three daughters, who were respectively married to .John Foglesong, Thos. Orr, and Jacob Fetters. Conrad, Jacob and Philip Fetters settled on Fetters' Run, Pleasant Township, in 1801. Old Father Harmon, father of Peter, Frederick and George Harmon, also came into the township in 1801, settling on Pleasant Run. John Baldwin, the same year, settled on what is still known as the Baldwin farm, two miles north-east of Lancaster.

The first school-house Mr. Ewing remembers was a small round log-cabin standing on the Radibaugh land. He remembers a Mr. Newman who taught school in it, about the year 1820. The first meetiag-house in the settlement was built by the Lutherans, and has since been known as the Ziegler Church. He thinks it was built between 1801 and 1810. The first preacher there, which he remembers, was Rev. Stake. The first building was constructed of hewn logs, but that was subsequently removed to give place to a good frame church edifice. The first still-house in the settlement was erected by Thomas Ewing, father of the narrator, previoi^s to 1810. The first mill recollected was erected on Arnold's Run, by old Father Arnold, father of Frederick, Daniel, Henry and Jacob. The site of it was a little north of where the County Infirmary now is. It was a raccoon burr-mill, and its capacity was about ten bushels in twenty-four hours. When it dried up the people had to go to, Zanesville to get their grists ground. There is not a vestige of the mill now to be seen.

Statement Of Frederick Sites, Of Pleasant

My father, Peter Sites, came from Rockingham County, Virginia, and settled on the farm where I now reside, in 1809. He pucchased the land from Jacob and Philip Lamb, they having bought it at the Government land sales about the year 1801. My father continued to reside on the same place until the time of his death, at the age of 85 years. My mother sur-

Our neighbors sixty years ago were : Judge Burton, Thomas Ewing, David Ewing, Mathew Ewing, James Duncan, John Feemen and Benjamin Feemen. The first school-house that I can remember stojd on my father's land. It was a small cabin built of round logs, with stick and mud chimneys and paper windows. I also remember another school a little further east, on Mr. Harmon's place. It was kept in the second story of his spring-house. This was in 1815. The teacher's name at that time was G. Langfore.

The Methodists held meetings at my father's cabin. The first Methodist preachers who held meetings there were : Rev. McElroy, James Quinn, Jacob Young, Cornelius Springer and Charles Waddle. The meetings were afterwards moved to Nimrod Bright's; and again they met at the cabins of Thomas Anderson, Daniel Arnold and Peter Sites. The United Brethren had also a society in the neighborhood, and held their meetings at my father's, and at Daniel Arnold's. Their iireachers at that time were : Rev. Stewart, Rev. Anderson, Rev. Havens, and Bishop Christian Newcomer. In the east part of the township were Jacob McLin, Dewal Maclin, Peter McLin. Not one of the early settlers I have named are living, and there were likewise a great many of their compeers, previous to 1820, who have passed away.

During the war of 1812 an incident occurred which caused great excitement throughout our new country for a few days. An alarm spread over the country that hostile Indians were coming. The settlers mostly went into fort. The people of our neighborhood forted at the house of Judge Burton ; and those of North Berne Township forted where James Driver now resides, near Bremen. The people in some instances carried their extra clothing and valuables and hid them in the clover fields%nd other outdoor places. We took our pitchforks and axes into the house as weapons of defense against the expected foes. The fighting men of the settlement rendezvoused at Lancaster for organization and offensive operations. I remember that some persons came to the fort in the night for protection, and called to be recognized, and to assure the people that they were friends. The rumor proved false, and within a few days all was as before.

We wagoned our wheat to Zanesville and sold it at first for twenty-five cents per bushel, sometimes taking salt in exchange. A little later we got forty cents. We likewise went there to mill, when our home mills failed for want of water.

Our wearing apparel was almost entirely home-made, consisting of flax and tow-linens in summer; and for winter wear, linsey, flannel and home-made fulled cloth. Our women spun their flax and wool on spinning-wheels; and the weaving was done by the women on hand looms. Every neighborhood had several looms. The wool was at first carded with hand-cards; and afterwards we had carding-machines.

Boys and girls had for the most part one pair of shoes in the year, and these were often not obtained until towards Christmas. To economize these, and make them hold out as long as possible, they were carried in hand in going to meeting on Sunday, until near the meeting-house, when the shoes and stockings were put on, to be taken ofi' after coming out. The girls thought they did well if they got one calico dress in the year. Young ladies not unfrequently spun, wove, and made up their wedding-dresses.

In those days people confided in each other - promises were seldom made that were not kept. Almost every man's word was as good as his bond. What little money we had was almost entirely silver, and the change, by fractions of the dollar, was made with cut money ; thus, a quarter of a dollar cut in two made two ninepences ; and cut in four pieces, made four fipenybits, of the value of six and one-fourth cents each. It was said that people sometimes made five fipenybits of one quarter. And in the same way a half-dollar cut made two quarters, or four ninepences. These latter were sometimes called elevenpences. Men had hard work to pay their little taxes.

From my twenty-second year, for twenty-five years, I drove a six-horse team backwards and forwards across the mountains, taking produce and bringing back goods. Afterwards I took over droves of hogs and cattle.

Recollections Of Martin Landis, Of Madison

My father, Martin Landis, Sr., visited this valley in 1798, when all that is now Fairlield County was an unbroken wilderness, if Zane's trace, and perhaps the cabin of Joseph Hu nter on the Hocking be excepted. In 1799 he moved to the county, settling first two riiiles below where Lancaster stands, and as near as I can state on the land now known as the Prindle farm. After remaining there about one year, he removed and settled within what is now Madison Township, where he died in the year 1814, or about the close of the war of 1812.

He served as Justice of the Peace during the administration of James Madison as President of the United States. He entered land in the land-office at Chillicothe for Henry and Samuel Shellenbarger, the same that was afterwards known as the John Wiley farm, on Clear Creek. He also entered for Miss Katy Shellenbarger, sister of Henry and Samuel, the place now owned and occupied by Isaac Julien. Miss Shellenbarger was afterwards and long known as Mrs. Eckert. For another sister of the Shellenbarger's he entered the land now known as the Ezra Wolfe farm. This was Sarah Shellenbarger, who became the wife of Emanuel Carpenter, Jr.

My father had six children - two sons and four daughters. My only brother died in childhood, at the Prindle farm. My sister Mary married William Guy; Katy married Isaac Wolfe; and Sarah married Emanuel Dunic; Nancy did not marry. The sisters are all living.

My father sustained such pecuniary losses during the war of 1812, as to seriously embarrass him. He engaged in stock driving, and was within twenty-five miles of Washington City with a drove of fat cattle, when it was burned by the British. This disaster compelled him to sell his cattle at a sacrifice. He did not live to retrieve his losses.

My father was a Mennonite, and was very charitable and liberal in his religious views. He built a church in his neighborhood, which was called in its time "The Mennonite Meeting-house." It was, however, free for all denominations. Rev.

Stake, Lutheran, of Lancaster, often preached in it. The building was likewise used for a school-house. It was a log structure, of the size of about twenty by thirty feet. It continued to standuntil recently.

There was a powder-mill that I remember well. It stood near where Abbott's store now is. I do not remember by whom it was built, or the year, but it remained a long time.

Recollections Of David Foster, Of Lancaster

David Foster was born in Lancaster in 1811, and has been a life-long citizen of the place. In 1827 he went to learn the chair-making business with Jacob Grubb. In ISBl he succeeded .John B. Reed in that business, at his stand on the north-west corner of Columbus and Wheeling streets, where he still continues, under the firm of Foster & Son. He uses the same lathe and work-bench with which be began ; also, all his other implements, and has never changed his plans of work. Mr. Foster has witnessed the transformation of Lancaster from a condition almost of woods to its present population and business. He has preserved a wonderful memory of its early mechanics, their location and business, with also many other things belonging to the early history of the place. The following is his statement, given to me, which is probably entirely correct :

He has a distinct recollection of the sickle-mill, which was on Baldwin's Run, a few hundred yards below the fourth lock, and a little above the crossing over the canal on the old Logan road. Christian Rudolph informs me that the establishment was built by a man named Roland [David Foster said the name was Funk] previous to the year 1810. It was run by the water-power of Baldwin's Run, and was used for cutting teeth in sickles, and grinding them, and, I suppose, their entire manufacture. The sickle was an implement used for cutting wheat and other small grain at an early day. Mr. Foster remembers that the establishment was not entirely removed in 1828. During the past winter (1876-7), in sinking a culvert under the canal where the sickle-mill stood, part

Mr. Foster likewise describes another esta<blishment which I have not previously heard spoken of - it was a water-power mill for the purpose of breaking and scutching flax. It stood about on the site of a dwelling-house now opposite what is known as the Giesy mill, on the Logan road, three-fourths of a mile below town. He remembers seeing it at work when he was a small boy. The establishment has long since entirely disappeared. He fixes his recollections of it at about 1816. He thinks it was erected by John Rolan J, or Funk, who was also the proprietor of the sickle-mill.

About the same time, there was in operation a powder-mill, on the lands now known as the Fricker farm, three miles south-west of Lancaster. The concern was owned and run by one George Bickler. He thinks it was discontinued about the year 1823.

He spoke of the mechanics of Lancaster in 1815 and the few succeeding years. A Mr. Matlock and William Bodenheimer were wheelwrights - that is, makers of spinning-wheels. Mr. Matlock's shop was at the foot of the present Main street. A Mr. Spogle likewise made spinning-wheels. His shop was in with Henry Miers, who was a cabinet-maker. Mr. Miers was -the father of the late Henry Miers, and of the present James Miers. Their shop was on Main street, next west of what is now Bauman's tavern. It was a two-story log-building. William Tony made chairs and spinning-wheels about where Mr. Stroble's furniture-store now is. This was from 1817 to 1820. Jacob Grubb bought out Mr. Tony, and carried on the business at the same stand.

William Duffield was a carpenter. He built the first frame house in Lancaster^at least such is Mr. Foster's recollection. It stood on the ground now occupied by the new Court-house. Christian Weaver was a carpenter, and occupied the lot where Mrs. M. Z. Kreider lives. John Foglesong carried on blacksmithing where John D. Martin resides, and which was the residence of the late Samuel F. McCracken. John Leonard, James A. Weakley and Wilson Latimore were early carpenters, also John K. Myers. Samuel Blazell carried on blacksmithing at a very early day, on the same corner occupied by

John Leonard, Luman Baker and Thomas Dawlin carried on cabinet-making where Bauman's tavern is, on Main street. Samuel Effinger had a tin-shop about where the First National Bank is, on Main street. This was previous to 1820. Scipio Smith (colored) carried on tinning about the same time. Thomas Sturgeon was a silversmith, and carried on where Sturgeon's row is, east of the Public Square. John Townsend was a silversmith' previous to 1820. James Gates came to Lancaster early, and succeeded Thos. Sturgeon in silversmithing. This was Thomas Sturgeon, Jr., who is at present a citizen of Lancaster.

Mr. Foster remembered a tailor, who, previous to 1820, carried on where John Work lives on Chestnut street, opposite the Jail ; also, shoemakers of the same times. He thought John Stallsmith, Jacob Embick and John Napkin were here as early as 181.5. Joseph Work, Sr., ivas carrying on shoe and boot-making in 1827. He spoke also of Hiram Hanson, who was in the same business very early.

John Beeman and Col. Geo. Seits were gunsmiths, and had their shop near Dr. Shg,wk's office, on Main street. Samuel B. Thompson, George W. Claspill, .John Gibbs and William Bodenheimer commenced the gun-making business probably about the year 1826.

Robert R. Claspill, blacksmith and plow-maker, came to Lancaster in 1825. Robert 0. Claspill carried on the same businf^ss on the grounds now occupied by the English Lutheran Church, in 1831.

John Shur, father-in-law to Mr. Foster, Was a baker in Lancaster as early as 1812. He also kept a small tavern. Other bakers wer« remembered, who were in the business at a very early day. Among them were Daniel Keltner, Hiram Hanson, Gotleib Steinman and John U. Gicsy.

Statement Of Christian Rudolph, Of Lancaster

Christian Rudolph came to Lancaster in 1815, when it was little more than a log-cabin town. The same fall he hired himself to Richard M. Johnson, who then had the contract for carrying the mail from Pittsburg' to Limestone (Maysville), Kentucky. He was then fifteen years of age. He commenced carrying the mail in October of that year on horseback. His route was from Lancaster to Zanesville, and back, over Zane's trace. The route required him often to be out all night, which, over the narrow road, and through the forests, especially in very dark nights, was a lonesome and dreary business. It was often so dark that he could see no part of the road, and was obliged to depend on the better eyes of his horse to follow the path. On one occasion he arrived at Zanesville late in the night, and being behind time, he received his mail and turned back, and came as far as Somerset without feeding or taking a bite to eat. In these mail routes he forded the streams that were fordable, sometimes when they were dangerously high. The rivers were crossed in canoes, and horses changed on each side.

Two or three years after he began to carry the mail, open box-wagons were put upon the road. I think he said the new contract required the mail to be carried six months in wagons, and six months on horseback. This latter contract was by J. S. Dugan. Stage-coaches were introduced on the route by Mr. Dugan, about the year 1820.

Mr. Rudolph carried the mail in all about five years, when he purchased a four-horse coach and team, which he drove four years as a common carrier, and then opened a livery-stable, in which business he is still engaged, at the age of about seventyseven years.

He spoke of the taverns in Lancaster at the time of his arrival. John Swoyer kept a house of entertainment on what, for many years, has been known as the Shaeffer corner, now occupied by George Beck's drug store. Frederick Shaeffer succeeded him as hotel-keeper. Mr. Beck, father of the present George and Jacob Beck, kept a tavern on Columbus street, on the grounds now occupied by the dwelling of George Beck. It was known as the Black Horse Tavern. Mr. Beck also had a blacksmith-shop on the same lot. A third tavern was then kept on what is sometimes spoken of as the Latta corner, on Main street, east of the Public Square, by Thomas Sturgeon. Mr. Sturgeon was uncle to Thomas Sturgeon, now of Lancaster. The store-keepers at that time were: John Creed, between McCrackin's alley and Columbus street. Wm. and Christian King, on the corner now occupied by Beecher White as a drug store. Frederick A. Foster kept a store also on the same square ; all on the north side. Mr. Rudolph thinks the buildings were either frames, or log-houses weather-boarded. At that time the town was all below the hill. He stated that Spsthenes McCabe had the contract for furnishing the brick for the old Court-house, and that he made them for two dollars and fifty cents a thousand.

Recollections Of Mrs. Van Pearce

Mrs. Van Pearce was of the Carpenter family, and was born on what is now the Giesy farm, one mile south of Lancaster, in the year 1800. John Van Pearce, her late husband, was brought across the m"ountains when a child - part of the way strapped fast to a pack-saddle. He came in 1810.

Mrs. Van Pearce remembers Lancaster when it was a village of log-cabins in the woods. She claims to have been the first white female child born in the county. She was the daughter of John Carpenter, Jr., and her mother was a sister of Emanuel Carpenter, Jr., who was the proprietor of the south part of Lancaster.

She referred to a few incidents of her childhood days. On one occasion, when her mother had gone to visit the family of Rudolph Pitcher, she being as she thinks about four or five years old, she wandered away from home, and can just recall the circumstance of lying in the door of some cabin in the vil-

At another time she went with other children to gather hickory-nuts, over in the vicinity of Kun-tz's mill. When she came out of the bushes that were close up to her father's yard-fence, she was greatly surprised at seeing the yard filled with people, all seated on the ground. They were Indians. Her mother came out with all the cold victuals she could find, and divided it among them, giving each one a pittance, which they ate, and then went peacefully away. The had papooses, which Mrs. Pearce says she took and nursed, which pleased the squaws very much.

She said that during the Indian scare in 1812, her father refused to leave his own house, and that he rolled bars of lead round, and then cut them in small pieces, and rolled them in the bottom of a large iron kettle, to be used as shot if the Indians came on him, designing to make his house his fort, and the windows port-holes. She spoke of the Dr. Shawk family, the Pitcher family, and many others then here. Between their house and town all was thick woods and marshy prairie, and the only road was a path.

She remembered going to school in town to two teachers, named Rober and Smith. The first meeting she remembers going to was in a log-cabin below where Mr. Prindle now lives. She spoke of Carpenter's mill, the first built - where Kuntz's mill subsequently stood. Her story of how the people lived, and what they did, and how they did it, was the same given in several places throughout this volume. It was the pioneer age; and pioneer life differed' in no essential points throughout all of the g^-eat North-west at the same era.

Statement Op F. A. Foster, Op Lancaster

Mr. Foster came to Lancaster in 1810. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on the 7th of May, 1791, and is therefore at this writing 86 years of age. He was first employed as a clerk, and at about 1816 began business on his own account, and was for many years one of Lancaster's dry

Christian and William King, Nathaniel Gushing, on what is still spoken of as Connell's corner. Samuel F. McCraken sold goods on the old Green corner. Archibald Carnahan had a store about where the First National Bank stands. John Creed sold goods near the spot where Bininger's jewelry store stands. Rudolph Pitcher also sold goods, and Andrew Crocket had a store where Giesy's block is, on the south side of Main street.

There were others who came in afterwards and sold dry ^oods. Jacob Green came from Tarleton at an early day. Then followed John Black, Samuel Rogers, Jesse Beecher, Elenathan Schofield, Thomas Gushing, Latta & Connell, Robt. Smith, and Ainsworth and Willock. All the above were more or less engaged in selling dry goods previous to 1825. There were no groceries, as such. Everything in the grocery line was kept in the dry goods stores, as also iron, hardware, cutlery and all kinds of farmers' goods, such as sythes, sickles, hoes, grubbing-hoes, chopping-axes, pitchforks; all kinds of castings ; nails, saddle-stirrups, bridle-bits,' log-chains and trace-chains ; spades, andirons, smooth-irons, drawing-knives, augurs, gimlets, chisels; a great many things not now in use; and whisky.

He stated that the Lancaster Ohio Bank went into operation in 1816, and closed in about 1842. After it resolved to wind up, the officers contracted with Jacob Green to redeem all outstanding notes, for the sum of $4,001. The amounts came out about even. The bank was solvent, and nobody lost anything by it, with the exception of some slight shaves on some of its notes in changing hands after it suspended operations.

The first President of the bank was Philemon Beecher, who, - Mr. Foster thinks, remained about one year, when he was succeeded by John Creed, who continued to be its President until it ceased. Michael Garaghty was Cashier throughout the entire course of the bank.

The immediate cause of the close of the bank was the refusal of the Legislature to renew its charter. At that time there was found to be on hand about three-quarters of a million of dollars of unissued bills of all denominations. These

Mr. Foster referred to the typhoid epidemic that prevailed in Lancaster in 1823. He remarked, that to the best of his recollection, only two persons in the town escaped its influence entirely, whom he named as Christian Weaver and himself. A great number of leading citizens died.

At the time of Mr. Foster's coming to Lancaster there was but one brick building in the place, and that was the office since known as that of John T. Brazee, on the Schofield corner, Main street. In the fall of the same year, viz. : 1810, Philemon Bjecher built his brick office adjoining his residence, on what is at present known as Rising's corner - once Beecher's corner, on Main and Columbus streets. The third brick building was a residence, which is still standing, and at this time occupied by Henry Reindmond, on the north side of Main street going east, up the hill. It was built by Rev. John Wright, first pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Lancaster.

The verj' first tavern in Lancaster was on Wheeling street, south side, a little below Center, or McCracken's alley. IJ was a log building, and was removed at an early day.

Recollections Of Rev. Elias Vandemark

Mr. Vandemark, when a boy of five years, came with his father, Gared Vandemark, from Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, and settled three miles north-west of Lancaster, in the year 1810, and in the autumn of that year. Their first location was on the same spot which was the residence of the late John Levering. Their nearest neighbor was Adam Bear, father of Adam Bear, who at this time resides on the same place of his father. He spoke of the following persons at that time residing within neighboring distance of his father's cabin : Peter Woodring, Joseph Hunter, Mr. McKey, Samuel Grabill, Joseph Work, Jesse Spurgeon and Mr. Stewart, father of the present Levi Stewart, of Lancaster.

He remembered Lancaster as being at that time a village of log-cabins, whose streets were filled to some extent with stumps and mud-holes. He spoke of the swale that crossed Main street at Center alley, and thought the fill there now, east of Shawk's alley, is from six to ten feet. There were only one or two small brick houses in the place, and a few frames. South of Chestnut street there were no houses, and the ground was used for a muster-field and race-course. East of High street, and occupying all the present church grounds, as well as the Court-house lot, was at that time a small cornfield, fenced with split rails and surrounded with woods. All the railroad grounds, and including the starch factory, was a common, grown over more or less with wild-plum, black-haw and hazel-bushes, interspersed with a few large elm-trees.

The first school-house he remembered stood near the house known as the Jesse Beecher place, perhaps a little west of it. It was a round log-hut. They got their water from a spring near a big elm-tree that he thought is still standing. The first teacher in it was a Mr. Cole ; and after him W. H. Coley. That was in about 1813. He had not forgotten the droll way Mr. Coley required them to spell and pronounce their words, and for failing to do which they often got their ears soundly boxed. He tried to imitate the teacher's way, thus : S-a-1 sal, v-a vay, salva, t-i-o-n shun, salvashun ; the final pronunciation being broad, and accented on the third syllable. After that, and in the year 1818, he went to school to a Mr. Jas. Hunter, at the same place.

Mr. Vandemark said : My sister Jane married David Westenbarger in 1812. It was the first wedding I had ever seen. The license was issued by Hugh Boyl, and the ceremony was performed by Adam Weaver, Esq., father of the late John C. Weaver. Mr. Boyl was at that time Clerk of the County Court.

"During our three months' term of school, which was all we had in the year, we had spelling-schools, and a polemic, which was sometimes denominated a 'debating society,' or 'debating school.' It was at one of these debating schools that I was religiously convicted under the following circumstances: We held these meetings at night, and in a log-cabin that had previously been a dwelling, and which stood somewhere between the present residences of Robert Work and Newton Peters. The question debated on this particular evening was, ' Which is the most useful to mankind, the Doctor of Divinity, or the Doctor of Physic ?' Myself and Levi Stewart were appointed chief combatants. I took the affirmative, and Mr. Stewart the negative. I tried to show the value of an immortal soul, and in the eBfort I became so affected that I shed tears, and the whole house was so wrought upon that the meeting broke up without any decision being given on the question, or arrangements for another meeting. Jacob and Daniel Strayer, brothers, were the judges. From that evening I identified myself with the Christian people, and have ever since been trying, in my humble way, to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ."

Mr. Vandemark remembered that they went to Carpenter's mill (later Kuntz's mill), for their grinding, and when the water got low, and the little mills could not grind, they were compelled to go all the way to Chillicothe, or Zanesville, to mill. He spoke of the old hominy-block, and of the corngrater, and of the way the people dried pumpkins, and beans, for winter sauce. He had also a distinct recollection of the old-time log-rollings, corn-huskings, house-raisings, quiltings, grubbings, rail-maulings, and the like. Also, the fodder-house, ash-hopper, and potato and turnip holes. He said hi'fe father was a teetotaler all his life, and on that account sometimes had difficulty in getting his harvesting and other work done, because he refused, from conscientious scruples, to furnish whisky. But he never yielded, and at last got his work done.

He described another custom of the pioneer age, which the circumstances of the times compelled the people to adopt, and of which the writer has also a distinct remembrance. The wheat was thrashed out with flails, or tramped out with horses, often on dirt-floors ; and then, after raking the straw clean from the wheat and chaflF, the latter was shoved into a heap, and the following method of cleaning it resorted to: The wheat was let down from an elevation as high as a man could raise his arms, either through a riddle (which was a kind of course sieve) or from a shovel, falling in a stream, from which the chaff was blown away with a common bed-sheet held at each end by two persons. From eight to ten bushels in a day was good work for three hands, as it had to be gone over generally two or three times before the wheat was ready for the bags.

Recollections Of A. Hathaway, Of Canal Winchester

Mr. Hathaway's father was one of the early settlers of the vicinity of Winchester. He is at this writing seventy-one years of age, and has spent his life in the neighborhood. He remembers the times and incidents of the log-cabin state of the section of country, since known as Violet Township. He named the following persons as having been his father's neighbors, at the time his recollection reaches to, or, about sixty-five years age. He fixed the time at 1812 to 1815:

William Perin, George Tong, Michael Creamer, John Shoemaker, Lewis Phillips, John Daniel; Adam, Jacob and George Creamer ; George Harmon, John and Jacob Algire, John Huff, Clem Green, David Painter, Thomas Roberts and John Tallman. Old Mother Creamer, wife I believe of Michael, was familiarly known all through the country as " Granny Creamer." This was an appellation given to certain old ladies in the early days of the country, who performed duties now belonging to the doctors. The title has become obsolete. The above-named persons have all dece9,sed, with the single exception of George Harmon, who is living near Pickerington, at the great age of more than eighty years.

Mr. Hathaway related an incident which reflects back-woods life, and has many similar counterparts which still live in the memory of the writer. At the age of four years, he was accompanying his mother to the cabin of Mr. Tallman. They discovered a large black-snake near the path, and his mother having an instinctive dread of Eve's betrayer, told him to stay and watch it while she went to fetch Granny Creamer to kill it. Mrs. Creamer was in sight of them, in the act of grubbing up bushes iii the clearing. She came and killed the snake, greatly to the relief of Mrs. Hathaway, and then returned to her grubbing-hoe.

Their cabin was two miles north of the present village of Winchester. There was a sorrel mare belonging to the family, which was nightly stabled in a log-pen. The wolves came every night and howled in the near vicinity, which caused the family to believe they were after the old sorrel. The country abounded with wolves, bears, wild-cats, panthers, deer and wild-turkeys. He spoke of the sociability and kindly feeling that united the people together, and thought everybody was happier then than they are now.

He spoke of the first mill of the settlement. It was built on Little Walnut, one mile below where Winchester now is. In the latter part of summer, and in the fall, it " w(mt dry," and then the people had to go to Zanesville for their grinding. In a good stage of water the mill could grind ten bushels of corn in twenty-four hours. It was a raccoon burr-mill, the only kind known in the pioneer country.

He gave a full account of the pioneer hominy-block, corngrater, lye-hominy, johnny-cake, hoe-cake, ash-cake ; flax and tow-linen, linsey; the one pair of shoes a year; and how the people went to meeting barefooted in summer. A man by the name of Hughes built a hand-mill, and the neighbors went there and ground their corn on it.

The first school he remembered was three miles from his father's. It was a pioneer school-house, with a paper window. He remembered that William Hackney, Thomas McArthur, William King, and a Mr. Allen taught school in it, and that John Swasey taught in the same neighborhood about the year 1820.

William Stevenson settled in the neighborhood in about the year 1815. He was a Methodist, and opened his house for preaching and other religious meetings. The ministers who preached at his house the few succeeding years were, Vananda, Charles Waddle, Russel Bigelow, Jacob Cooper and Jacob Young. The United Brethren organized a society in the neighborhood soon after, and Lewis^ Creamer was their preacher. Presbyterians likewise made their appearance at an early day in the settlement of the township.

Mr! Hathaway thought that George Tony was the first 'Squire in the township. He was at least among the first. Abraham Pickering and John Rickets were also early Justices in Violet.

Reuben Dove was the first propietor of Winchester. He laid off and sold lots in^ about 182-5. The plan of forming a village there was settled upon immediately after the location of the Ohio Canal was made. Subsequent additions to the town were made by Mr. Dove, David Dixon, John Coleman, William Miller, John Creamer and Reuben Tine. Some remarked that perhaps their grandchildren might live to see the canal completed; but notwithstanding the prediction, boats passed there in 1831.

The first church built in Winchester was by the United Brethren, which was for a time, by arrangement, used by the Methodists. The second was by the Lutherans and German Reforms, jointly.

Winchester has now, in April, 1877, one Odd Fellows' Lodge, four physicians, two dry goods stores, one clothing store, two hotels two hardware stores, one drug store, five groceries, one flour mill, three warehouses, one livery-stable, one brickyard, one carriage factory, two blacksmith-shops and one saw-mill.

"There was a mute by the name of Shoemaker, who was among the early settlers. He was a successful hunter, and shot a great many deer. My father made a business of dressing deer-skins for clothing. Many wore buckskin breeches. Skin vests were likewise often worn, generally with the hair on. My pants often got wet by running through the snow and water, and when dry, became brittle and broke off at the knees, leaving the lower half of my leg naked for some time before I got another pair. These buckskin pants were made to fit close to the skin, and as at that early day we wore no underclothes, it was very much like putting one's limbs into bags of snow on very cold winter mornings.

" Flocks of wild-turkeys used to come around a corn-rick that stood near the house, to peck off the grains. I devised a plan for catching them, which was as follows : I secreted myself in one end of the rick, with my handful of shelled corn, and held it out, expecting they would come along, when, in the attempt to take the grains from my palm, I intended to seize them by the neck with my other hand. But the birds were my superiors in sagacity, and always kept at a safe distance from me. We, however, caught a great many of them in turkey-pens.

" My father was a bee-hunter, and found a great many beetrees. There were two methods of coursing them. One was from the wild flowers where they came to gather their stores ; the other was the dish of honey-comb, which was set out to attract them. The latter was generally used in the earl}j

" Our social evenings were often spent in the old plays of ' Sister Thoebe, ' ' Marching to Quebec, ' ' Kilimakranky, ' ' Qats, peas, beans and barley grows, ' ' Thus the farmer sows his seed,' ' It's raining, it's hailing, it's cold frosty weather,' and the like. Dancing was little practiced. Our school-books were Webster's Spelling Book (' Easy Standard of Pronunciation '), Pike's Arithmetic, Columbian Orator, American Preceptor, Primers, and the Bible and Testament. Our games of ball were bull-pen, or corner-ball, cat-ball and town-ball. We also had another game which was pretty generally practiced all over the country, which was called the game of " Baste. "

[The game of "Baste" was played all through the West during the pioneer age. The bastes were two trees, or stumps, usually, and situated fifty to seventy-five yards apart. Two captains were appointed, who chose the boys off alternately, and the right to the first choice was determined thug: One of the captains, taking a ball-paddle, would spit on one side of it, after which he gave it a whirling toss in the air, when the other party called out "wet," or "dry." If the side having his call on it came up twice out of three times, he won ; if but once, his adversary won. The same method was used in choosing off for a game of ball, and afterward for the first inning, or paddle. The game of baste consisted in " daring," thus : Any one of the players would start out and advance as near the other baste as he chose, and when he got sufficiently near, one or more of the party thus dared would dart out and try to catch him before he got back to his baste. If caught, or tagged, he was taken, and afterward played with the other party. In turn, when the pursuers came too near the home-baste, the other party had the right to pursue them home and catch or tag them if they could. The game often became highly exciting. Girls often took part in the game of baste. The game was ended when either party took all the others prisoners. The tag was a simple touch, even with the finger. But in either case, if the pursuer caught his man, both were at liberty to walk leisurely back to baste unmolested. The adventurer was not home, after having made the sally, until he touched the baste; but the pursuers generally stopped within what they judged to be a safe distance. The game has long since been abandoned. But in this, as in games at ball, at the word "books," the paddle dropped instantly, and all started for the school-house door. - Ed.]

" The first wedding I ever attended was that of Mary Starr to John Courtright; and the first funeral I can remember of being at was that of John Huff. This, I think, was in 1823. During the years 1823 and 182-1 there was much sickness - a great many died of bilious fever. Dr. W. W. Tolbert was the physician of the settlement at that time.

"Of all the neighbors of my father, in 1812 and 1815, or about that time, or heads of families within the township, there are but two persons living now, in April, 1877 - George Harmon, and George K. Stevenson, both of great age.

" I have lived to see the wilderness transformed into a populous and wealthy community, and to see the tax list multiplied many hundred times. Two full generations of people have passed away, and two new ones have taken their places. All the institutions, manners and customs of the early times have drifted back, and are nearly forgotten. All birds and beasts have turned to dust. A. Hathaway."

Recollections Of Christian Heyl, Op

Christian Heyl emigrated from Germany in 1800, and settled first in Baltimore, Maryland. While there he was the companion and associate of the late Gotleib Steinman, of Lancaster. There they both learned the baking business. In 1807 Mr. Heyl came to Lancaster, Ohio. During his residence in Fairfield County he purchased, in connection with his brother Coonrod, apieceof land containing one-hundred and sixty acres, in the vicinity of the present Basil, in Liberty Township, where he opened a little farm and lived on it five years, after which he removed to Columbus in 18l3. He named the following persons who were citizens of Lancaster at the time of his coming - other names he could not recall :

John Creed, Wm. Irvin, Geo. Sanderson, Robert F. Slaughter, Thomas and Timothy Sturgeon, Peter Reeber, Rev. John Wright, William Duffield, Charles Sherman, David Crocket, John Shur, Mr. Lewis, Mr. MuUenour, Rudolph Pitcher, David Reece and Mr. Cisney. Of all those just mentioned, Mr. Heyl is the only one living. He is a citizen of Columbus, and is ninety years old.

During his residence in Fairfield the Indians were about. He spoke of their coming into Lancaster with their handywork to trade for goods and trinkets.

He mentioned his neighbors in the neighborhood of Basil, during his residence there, previous to 1813 : Joseph and Sam'l Heistand, the Walterses, Mr. Saliday, John Zeigler, Nicholas Radibaugh, John Houser, Jacob Weaver.

When he landed at his place near Basil, it was all wild woods. He cleared off the ground and built a small hut of round logs, to live in. He next cleared and fenced a small field, and planted it with corn and " truck " (truck, in the vernacular of the pioneer age, meant all kinds of garden vegetables, including potatoes, turnips, and the like). He had two small glass windows of four 8-by-lO lights each, put into his cabin, which circumstance brought upon his family the reputation of being aristocrats. He ^ remembered that the women sometimes placed their spinning-wheels up in the wide fireplaces, to secure the better light that came down the spacious chimney.

From his little farm, near Basil, he returned to Lancaster and remained awhile. When in 1813 he moved to Columbus, he loaded two six-horse wagons, partly with his household goods, and partly with flour. He. went on foot himself, with his ax, and cut out a road some part of the way. There were few cabins between the two places. It took them three days to get through. The first house he occupied in Columbus was a rough log-cabin. In it he followed baking and tavern-keeping. The first evening of his arrival there the supper was set on the lid of his dough-trough, rested on the heads of two upturned flour-barrels, and the participants sat upon flour-barrels.

He occupied the log-house as a tavern and bake-house two years, and then, in 1815, built the Franklin House on an adjoining lot, and moved into it, where he kept hotel for twentyeight consecutive years. The location of the old Franklin

House, on High street, east side, a little south of the present Cotton Block, will be remembered bj' all who have been familiar with Columbus. In 1841 he traded the hotel for a farm on Alum Creek, and removed to it, where he continued to live twentj'-one years, or until 1862, when he again returned to Columbus.

Mr. Heyl related an occurrence that took place When he was moving from Lancaster to Columbus, in 1813. They had arrived with the two six-horse wagons on the south vicinity of Columbus, where it became necessary to pass over lands owned by one John McGowen. Mr. McGowen refused to allow the wagons to pass over his grounds. There seemed no other way to get the teams into the village, and a negotiation was entered into, which ended in Mr. Heyl agreeing to give McGowen a bottle of whisky for the privilege, and the teams passed over. On the following day the lord of the soil presented himself at the cabin of Mr. Heyl, with his half-gallon bottle, and got it filled.

In Mr. Heyl's parlor hung a photograph representing four generations in a group - himself; his oldest son, Lewis; his grandson, Henry ; and great grandson, Reney.

He detailed the great squirrel-hunt of 1816, an account of which is given elsewhere in this volume, and in which he was a participant. He stated the number of scalps returned at 15,000, and thought the wager, to be paid for by the party having the fewest number, was a barrel of whisky. He gave the number of men engaged at two hundred. The Scioto was the dividing line; one hundred of the men taking the east, and the other hundred the west side. Columbus was the rendezvous. The hunt lasted but a single day. He stated the squirrels were so numerous that, in some places, a racket made by knocking on the fence, or otherwise, started them so that dozens were seen running up the same tree.

Mr. Heyl related an incident. Both himself and his brother Coonrad married into the Alspaugh family, who were early settlers near the rock-mill, Fairfield County, and where the descendants of the Alspaugh's still reside. He had gone with his wife to visit her people in that neighborhood, and while there word was brought to him that his brother had fallen from the Court-house in Columbus, and received dangerous injury. They at once started on horseback. His oldest son, Lewis, was a baby. He held the baby in his arms, allowing his horse to follow at his pleasure that of his wife, who rode in the path before him.

When Mr. Heyl came to Columbus there were but fifteen families there, the heads of which he named as follows : John Carr, John Collet, Michael Patton, William McElvane, Benj. Thompson, John McGowen, Daniel Kutzer, Samuel Keys, George McCormic, George B. Harvey, Benjamin Johnson, Peter Putnam, John Putnam, Alexander Patton, and himself.

Wheat at that early day there sold for from fifty to seventyfi.ve cents a bushel ; corn twelve and a half cents; whisky six dollars a barrel ; oats ten cents a bushel. He bought a cow for twenty dollars, and delivered two hundred bushels of oats in payment. This was in 1841, while he was living on his Alum Creek farm.

Mr. Heyl named his family still living. He had five sons, but ho daughters. Lewis was the oldest. Lewis, John K. and George, were residing in Philadelphia. William and Charles were in Columbus.

Christian Hyel is lingering on the verge of time. He has outlived his generation. He has lived through nearly three full generations of men. All he knew and associated with in Fairfield County and in Franklin County, sixty-five years ago, has faded out of sight. What he did is as nothing to the bustling throng that tread the earth ; all has been covered over by the debris of time. He Resides with his son Charles, his companion having passed away some years ago. He is feeble, but his mind is clear.

Recollections Of John See

Mr. See is a son of George See, who came to Fairfield County in 1805, and settled on the place now owned by George Huflfman, adjoining the present See farm, in Berne Township. This farm he purchased of William Carpenter. It consisted of 160 acres. Mr. See has lived the past threescore years on the same spot. He was born in 1816. He remembers^ the sickle- mill and the flax-mill; and als,o of seeing the remnants of the Indian wigwams on the plat of Tarhe Town, where the railroad shops now stand. He spoke of the first school he attended. It was taught in a little log-building a short distance below the Prindle farm. The teacher at that time was Bartholomew Foley. Thomas Paden and Hocking H. Hunter subsequently taught in the same house, in about 1828. He named the following persons who were patrons of the school when he attended it : James Pierce, father of the late John Van Pierce ; 0. Lewis, David Reece, Isaac Kuntz, John Panebaker, Jacob Iric, Simeon Bixler, Mr. Shellenbarger, father of Reuben Shellenbarger ; Peter Tool, Henry Crawfus, William Jackson, father of 'Squire Thomas Jackson ; Thomas Mason and David Carpentjr. William Jackson lived where Reuben Shellenbarger now lives) The first preacher he remembered hearing was the Rev. Samuel Carpenter, in the school-house below Prindle's.

The boys of the settlement wore tow and flax-linen in summer, and linsey in winter. The women wore linen dresses in summer, and in winter linsey and striped flannel. Their cloths were all home-made, and were colored with bark and copperas, and sometimes with indigo. The boys got but one pair of shoes in the year; and sometimes went barefooted half the winter. He sometimes went to his partridge-traps through the snow with his feet tied up in flax-tow to keep them from freezing, for the reason that he had no shoes.

He said deer were so plenty that they could be seen every day. He had seen fourteen of them at one time within one hundred yards of his father's house. Any man who had a gun could go into the woods almost any day and shoot a deer. He had known instances where the dogs chased deer into the ponds, among the bushes, and kept them at bay until the men went in and killed them with clubs.

He related the killing of two bears, the manner in which it was done being quite primitive, and new to the present generation. The first one was driven under cover of the top of a large fallen oak, by dogs, which were holding it bay, when Mr. See's father and William Garvin came up. They climbed on the limbs above, where the bear was plainly in view below, and succeeded in knocking it in the head with a chopping-ax. It weighed three hundred pounds. The spot where this took place was within one mile of the See house. The other one was killed by Mr. Duhma, with a handspike. The occurrence took place on the farm now owned by Daniel Akers. The bear had got into the hog-pen, with the intention, doubtless, of carrying off a shoat. Mr. Duhma, hearing the disturbance, came armed with a handspike, and, entering the pen, with one stroke broke the animal's back, after which he easily dispatched it. This one weighed four hundred pounds.

Barring the master out was practiced ; and on one or two occasions they had rough times with their old Scotch teacher, who would not submit to their terms. Mr. See spoke of the manner of living of the early times. Sometimes breadstuffs could not be had in sufficient quantities, and they were obliged to pound corn in the hominy-block, sifting the finest of it out for meal, and boiling the coarser part for hominy. Boiled wheat was also a very common article of food. Wildhoney was abundant, and bee-trees were to be found in all parts of the country.

He related the following characteristic incident: David Reece lived then on what is now known as the Pardee farm. He had a young bearing orchard. On one occasion he surprised three half-grown chaps stealing apples. He asked them what they wanted them for. They replied that they wanted them for dumplings. He said, "Come along with me." He shut them into his loft over night, and until the afternoon of the following day, when he ordered the girls to make for each of them twelve large apple-dumplings, which he required them to eat, and then start for home.

At that time corn was a drug at 12| cents per bushel, and wheat the same at 25 cents. Oats would bring from 8 to 10 cents. Mr. See said he had often sold partridge for ten cents a dozen. On one occasion he traded a mud-turtle to William Peck for a small glass salt-cellar. A man's wages was twenty-five cents a day in trade, except in the harvest-field, when fi[fty cents was paid in cash. Rye was a good article in trade. It was made into whisky at the little still-houses all over the country.

It was a common thing to work in the clearings at burnin g logs and brush until midnight, or later. They drank rye-coffee, sassafras, spice- wood and birch teas. A large proportion of the meat eaten was from the woods, such as deer-meat, bearmeat and wild-turkey ; and, in winter, partridge.

Recollections Op Mrs. Rachel Young

Rachel Young was born in Huntingdon County, Pa., May 1st. 1784. In 1799, in company with her parents and three or four other families, she came to Fairfield County, Ohio, arriving there on New-Year's Day. They floated down the Ohio river on a flat-boat to the mouth of the Hocking. From there they ascended that stream in canoes to the falls, where Logan stands. There the canoes were unloaded and dragged over the falls, where they were re-loaded, and paddled up to the mouth of Rush Creek, the present site of Sugar Grove, where they were abandoned, and the goods and stores packed on horseback, the most of the company traveling on foot through the forest up Hocking to where Mr. Prindle now lives, two miles below Lancaster. From there they proceeded in the same manner to the neighborhood of Bremen, or rather the present site of Bremen, where they all settled, in the beginning of 1800. In their passage up the Hocking, obstructing logs were severed with a cross-cut saw, and removed from the stream to allow the canoes to pass. Some of the men had been out the previous spring and cleared off some ground, and planted corn and potatoes, and also put up some rude cabins.

The company numbered fifteen souls, including one child, whose name was Joseph Ashbaugh. The following are the names of the fifteen : Elizabeth Miller and her mother, Andrew Ashbaugh, Joseph Ashbaugh, Frederick Ashbaugh, Jos. Miller, John Ashbaugh, Sr., and wife, John Ashbaugh, Jr., and wife, three daughters of John Ashbaugh, Sr., Joseph Ashbaugh, the baby, and Rachel Miller, now Rachel Young.

Mrs. Young was married to Edward Young on the 2d of April, 1802, and remained in married life fifty-eight years ; and, on her ninety-third birth day, had been a widow seven teen years. At that time she had six children living, viz. : three sons and three daughters. She became a member of the Presbyterian Church in 1820, and has lived a Christian woman and worthy pioneer mother. She was ninety-three years old on the 1st of May, 1877.

The men who came out Lhe previous spring and made the preparations for emigrating were: Joseph Miller, and John and Joseph Ashbaugh. The spot where they made the first opening has since been known as the James Neely farm, now belonging to the estate of the late John C. Weaver.

The first school Mrs. Young remembered in the Bremeji neighborhood was near William Black's present residence. This she thought was in 1803. The first preachers who held meetings in^the settlement were Rev. Cradlebaugh, of the German Reform Church, and Rev. John Wright, Presbyterian. This was also about 1803.

On one occasion, when Mr. Young came to see her as a suitor, he shot a bear on his way. He sent some parties back to skin and dress Bruin, while he remained with the object that was the cause of his visit. On another occasion she went out on the hill to cut a rock, [a rock was a five-pronged switch formed into a kind of reel, upon which the hatcheled flax was wound preparatory to spinning - the best of the kind were found in the tops of dogwood saplings. - Ed.J and while she was looking round for a good one, a very large bear came walking leisurely along in unpleasant proximity, but as he did not show any disposition to molest her, she eoncladed the best plan for her to adopt would be to not molest him, and so each party took the course that suited them best.

The first hog killed in the settlement was a small shoat, which made a part of her wedding-dinner. After the ceremony of the dinner, dancing was introduced, John Ashbaugh being the fiddler.

Mrs. Young spoke of a method of salting down pork at that early day, which the writer remembers as having been practiced. She said coopers were at first not to be found, and the settlers dug troughs from the trunks of large trees, and used them as meat-tubs. She remembered that at one time she had five wild-turkeys salted down in one of these troughs. She spoke of a turkey-pen they built near her house, in which she caught twenty-one turkeys within less than two weeks.

She also spoke of another matter which perhaps few, even of the oldest inhabitants, have any recollection of, as it was not everywhere known. I allude to the art of manufacturing fine linen from the fiber of wild-nettles. The wild-nettle grew in some sections in great abundance, and always on the low and richest soil. It was a weed that grew up from three to four feet high, and bore a remote resemblance to the boneset, or ague-weed. Its fiber was as fine as the finest ITax, and the nettle-weed was treated in the same way that flax was, by roting, breaking, scutching and spinning, with the exception that it was mowed down instead of being pulled up by the root, as flax was. -

The nettle has nearly entirely disappeared from the country, and is seldom seen, and never, except in remote and wild spots. Few of the present living generation have ever seen it at all. A peculiarity of the nettle was that it had on its stem a prickly beard, that, upon touching with the hands or other parts of the body, inserted itself into the skin, producing a most intolerable itching and burning sensation scarcely to be endured) hence, everybody soon learned to go round the "nettle patch."

Every family manufactured their own clothes. Hand-cards were used in preparing wool for spinning. The young people went to meeting barefooted ; sometimes carried their shoes and stockings in their hands to near the meeting-house, and then sat down and put them on.

Mrs. Young was present at the first Fourth of July celebration held in Fairfield County, half a mile west of Lancaster, but did not remember the whisky-barrel and the fight, but she remembered that the wild meat was roasted before a big fire.

The first wedding in her neighborhood was that of James Wilson and Patsey Hammel. The first death was that of a Mr. Hamerly. The first birth in the new settlement was David Ashbaugh.

The writer was present at the celebration of Mrs. Young's ninety-third birthday, on the first day of May, 1877, at the residence of Jacob Moyer. She was in fine spirits, cheerful, and her memory very little impaired. There were present on

Reminiscences By Dr. Charles Shawk

" My father, Dr. John M. Shawk, came from Lexington, Kentucky, to Lancaster, in 1801, and purchased from Ebenezer Zane the lot upon which I now live, on Main street. Lancaster was then principally a forest of trees and underbrush. He hired the father of Jacob Gaster, well known here, to clear ofif , the ground and inclose it, and then returned to Lexington. In 1806 he removed to the place, living first where the canal now is, and on the south side of the mouth of Main street. The same building was afterwards moved on rollers up to his lot on Main street, and is at present a part of the same buildings occupying the grounds. To move it to this spot, the trees and stumps had to be cut out of the way. I was six years old when my father came here, and have resided on the same spot ever since. The house my father first lived in - the one removed on rollers - was built by Dr. Irvin."

Dr. John M. Shawk was a practicing physician up to the time of his death, in 1846. His wife was Susanna Stoy. Dr. Stoy was distinguished for his art in curing rabies canina (hydrophobia), which art also descended to the Shawk family, through Susanna, and has been successfully practiced by the present Dr. Charles. Mrs. John Shawk was a highly educated lady, and possessing also a strong mind. She was a mother of the old type, of whom there are few left, and whose places will not be filled until another revolution in the human race takes place, and another era sets in. She died in 1863, at a very advanced age.

The following are some of Dr. Shawk's recollections of the early days of Lancaster. The first elections he remembers were held in the Court-house. He remembers when Governor Worthington made a speech in the Court-house yard when he was a candidate, and how the people cheered him because he was a favorite. This was about 1810. He remembered that Governor Worthington, assisted by Judge Abrams, surveyed the lands lying south of Lancaster, and extending down into Hocking County, or what is now Hocking County. Judge Abrams was a successful hunter. He (the Doctor) said ho saw him bring a huge bear into Lancaster about the year 1810.

The Doctor spoke of the streets being full of stumps, and that Main street sometimes became so deep with mud that wagons stalled in it, and had to be pried out. On that account Wheeling street was the principal thoroughfare. Main street was at one time bridged with poles, which, in early times, were called corduroy bridges. There was a swale crossing Main street about where Shawk's alley is, extending up towards the Talmadge House. He had seen people watering their horses there; and there was a pond that sometimes became so deep that it would nearly, or quite swim horses. At that time, about 1806, there were not more than six or eight cabins, on Wheeling street, and on Main not exceeding thirty.

The fights on muster and other public days were vivid in his recollection. He said that bears and deer often came into town. In 1817 he shot and killed a bear on Kuntz's hill. Wild-turkeys were seen in immense flocks, especially in the beach woods ; and they likewise often came into the village, which at that time was full of forest trees. A man by the name of John Rhoads killed a huge panther near Mr. Stukey's, below town. It measured seven feet from the tip of the tail to the point of the snout. The Indians came every fall from Sandusky, to hunt. He sometimes went to their camps and saw them beat their breasts and grunt their songs.

Source changes here: from History of Fairfield County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, by Miller, Charles Christian, published 1912; 844 words in this source stream.

Amanda Township

Amanda was named by William Hamilton, the first surveyor of Fairfield County. Its beginning dates back to about 1830, when Samuel Kester is recorded as a proprietor of the "Village of Amanda," which was nothing more than a couple of buildings at the crossing of Main and Maple Streets, which marked its location as ten miles west of Lancaster. Its substantial growth began in the year 1850, when the Z. F. C. Railroad was completed, placing it upon a direct route of commerce between Zanesville and Cincinnati. In the first days of the Zanesville and Cincinnati Railroad it is said that 400,000 bushels of grain were

It is thought that it was about this time that the first schoolhouse was completed, upon the site of the present Adam Nye residence. It was crudely constructed of mortar and brick, with long interior benches for recitation and the study of the only text-book, the Testament. The present school building site was deeded for school purposes by Miss Anna Griffith. The present school building has been just completed at an approximate cost of $25,- 000. It contains a seating capacity of 350 pupils, in addition to one playroom and one spacious laboratory well equipped for physics, botany and agriculture, one splendid library room containing 500 volumes, and a superintendent's office. At present the teachers are all college trained. O. C. Minnich is the present superintendent.

There are at present three churches and four parsonages in the village limits. The Methodists, organized in 1S34, held their first services in the present Lutheran Church. In 1884 the present brick structure was erected and dedicated. The present pastor is Rev. J. H. Redmon. The Presbyterian Church was organized in 1838 by Rev. Dr. Hogue of Columbus, O. Rev. William Jones was the first pastor, and services were first held in what is now the A. H. S. Gymnasium. In 1873 the present brick building was erected and dedicated. Rev. W. A. Sears is the present pastor.

The Lutheran Church was organized in 1884 by Rev. Fishburn. The church was rebuilt in 1892. Rev. Dittmar is the present pastor. Sunday school was inaugurated in Amanda in the year i860 by the Rev. Mr. Thorn. The United Brethren Church maintain a parsonage in the village also. The charge lies outside the corporation limits.

Amanda's commercial and mercantile progress has been of an enduring and substantial nature. There are at present seven general stores, two drug stores, two meat markets, one hardware, one large furniture store, one jew'elry store, one farm implement store, two grain elevators, one flouring-mill, one large canning factory, a glove factory, two harness shops, two hotels, and a new and modernly constructed bank, property valuation $15,000. The bank was organized in 1904 to meet the growing demands of the business interests of Amanda. Amanda is a splendid shipping point. The village has a total population of about five hundred.

John Sweyer was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, and coming to this country with his parents first settled in Hagerstown, Md., thence to Lancaster, Ohio, in 1812. He was married to Margaret McDill, of Scotch descent. He and his brother-in-law. Col. John Noble (father of John W. Noble, late Secretary of the Interior under Harrison) were among the first to keep what was known as the better class of hotels, John Sweyer being spoken of as the famous hotel man. He afterwards located on his farm south of Amanda and built a large hotel, well remembered for the entertainment of its guests, and this being the direct stage line from points west to Washington, D. C, many personages of early history - Henry Clay, Santa Anna and others - were entertained at the inn. John Sweyer was also the brother-in-law of Henry Duble, a pioneer of this county. Of the ten children of John Sweyer, only one survives, this being H. McDill Sweyer, now living in Circleville. at the advanced age of ninety-one years.

The late Samuel Sweyer, son of John Sweyer, was born in Lancaster in 181 6, was married to Anna Catherine Lowrie, of Mifflin County, Pa., and located upon his farm west of Amanda, living there until the time of his death in 1898. His children are John C. Elizabeth M., Delia C, Charles R, Clara L. and Mary F. Clara L. died Sept. 18, 1906. John C. was married to Nora Barr. in 1908 and lives on the home farm west of Amanda. There are two children by this union, namely : Anna Katherine and Richard B.

The present township officers of Amanda are as follows : Geo. W. Blue, C. W. Griffith, Meinhard Palm, trustees; C. A. Barr, treasurer; Bert Borchers, clerk. The members of the school board are F. S. Barr, Milton Williamson, Clint. Reigher, Charles Rufif, G. O. Noecker. The churches are as follows (outside of the village) : Israel's Church, Geo. F. Ditmer, pastor; Evangelical Church at Trinity and at Cedar Hill, Dubbs Division, C. W. Ruhlman; Evangelical, at Cedar Hill, Esher Division, E. F. Marchland; M. E. Church at Royalton, Amos Turner.