Jackson Township (part 4 of 19)

SALE OF LOTS - Next came the lot sale. It began June 2, 1817^ and continued ten days. J. W. Ross was auctioneer, and N. W. Andrews and Richard Johnson served as clerks. A large number of land speculators from Ross, Pike, Scioto and Gallia counties were in attendance, and the bidding on desirable lots was lively. Inlot 1, the southeast corner of Main and Portsmouth streets, w^as bid in by Elisha Fitch of Ross county, who also secured the Commercial bank corner, paying |107 for the first, and $79 for the other. The four lots facing the public square brought |390. Inlot 5, the Martin corner, was bought by Robert Lucas for $100. Daniel Hoffman bid in the Gibson corner, paying $141 for inlot 52, and for inlot 51 adjoining. Inlot 35, the Isham corner, was run up to $145, and fell to Reason Darby. The liveliest bidding was on the improved lots on Poplar Row, but the majority of them fell to the lessees. Inlot 110, the McKitterick corner, was bought by Major John James for $140. John George paid $120 for the lot facing the tannerv. Daniel Hoffman bid $165 for inlot 116, the

Methodist corner, on Portsmouth and Wat^r streets. The southwest corner on the same street was run up by speculators to $200, in order to secure the tavern standing upon it. Andrew Donnally was the winner. Abraham Welch was forced to pay |102 for the Beyron lot, where his house then stood. The highest bidding was on inlot 120, the northeast corner of Portsmouth and Water streets. Benjamin Kiger finally offered |225 and became the purchaser. Outlot 1 was bought by Samuel W. Blagg, who bid |200. Eleven inlots and one outlot failed to sell. The sum realized from the sale of lots was $7,196.75. Whisky was free during the sale, and was furnished for the county by Andrew Donnally. His bill amounted to |25.75. The expense account of the survey and sale amounted to |.349.95. The balance was to be devoted to the erection of public buildings for the use of the county. And now a word about Joseph Armstrong:

JACKSON'S FIRST DIRECTOR - The most noted personage buried in Mt. Zion cemetery was Joseph Armstrong, who died February 4, 1857, aged 77 years and 4 days. He came to the Scioto salt works when a young man, and was at once recognized as a leading spirit. In 1817 he was honored by being appointed the first director of the town of Jackson. Under his supervision, the new town was surveyed and the lots sold, as already related. In 1819 he had the south half of the town laid off and the lots sold. He then secured a patent from the General Government for the whole section, No. 29, which was issued February 16, 1820, and signed by James Monroe. Armstrong and the Commissioners had a difference about certain affairs connected with his office, and he resigned July 3, 1822. Daniel Hoffman was appointed in his place^ and he served until November 22, 1826, when he resigned, and Alexander Miller was appointed. When Armstrong resigned the directorship, he did not go out of oflSce. In the fall of 1816 he had been a prominent candidate for sheriff, and was beaten by Abraham Welch by a few votes onl3\ The latter got into trouble soon after and left the count}', and in the fall of 1817 Armstrong was elected sheriff over a number of opponents. He was re-elected and served until 1823. He was elected again in 1828 and served two terms. John Duncan, a friend, was elected next, but after his incumbency Armstrong was elected for a third period. Altogether he served more years as sheriff than any of his successors. When out of office he was frequently deputy, so that he may be said to have been in virtual charge of the sheriff"s office for about twenty years. He served as tax collector many years, and as road commissioner more than once. He was the executive head of the county during the years of its organization, and knew, and was known to all the citizens of the county. He had three sous, Stephen, James and Joseph, but none of his descendants live in the county now.

THE FIRST JAHj - The Commissioners were in session during the first week of the sale, and when they found the lots selling lively, they determined to make arrangements for building a jail. Accordingly, they ordered, on June 4, 1817, that notices be posted, "advertising the letting of the building of a jail for this county, on the 4th day of July next." Other business occupied the time of the Commissioners on the glorious Fourth, and the matter was deferred to July 5. Joseph W. Ross was appointed to cry the sale. There was only one bid, and the contract was let for $3,000. John George was the nominal bidder, but the jail w^as built by Ashley Gibbs, who, together with Jared Strong and Levi Mercer, became security for George, The work was pushed rapidly, and the completed jail was received by the commissioners February 7, 1818. It was a log building, "thirty feet front and twenty feet deep." It was two stories high, with four rooms and a hall on each floor. The walls of the prison part consisted of two tiers of oak logs, each a foot square. The walls were painted white, the roof and shutters Sjmnish brown, and the casings lead color. No prisoner ever escaped from it. The Associate Judges, at a special court held February 25, 1818, ordered that "the jail bounds for this county extend four hundred yards each way from the jail of said county." The completion of the jail relieved the county of the heavy expense of guarding prisoners. Up to that time all prisoners bad been fed at Andrew Donnally's ordinary, and guarded by deputy sheriffs. John George, the contractor for the building of the jail, was in trouble with the courts all the time, and the expense of guarding him in the fall of 1817 amounted to |33.75. The guarding of Peter Marshall for a few days in August, 1817, cost $39.75, and he escaped after all. The further sum of $25 was paid as a reward to William Jolly for his recapture. The following extracts from the Commissioners' Journal relating to the lot sale and the letting of the contract for building the jail throw additional light on the business methods of the early days. It will be noticed that the sale was worked for all that was in it by the inhabitants of Poplar Row:

JULY 4, 1817 - This day, according to appointment, the Commissioners of Jackson county met for the purpose of selling out the building of a jail for the county of Jackson, legal notice having been given by advertisement at our annual meeting in June, and also for settling and receiving a statement of the sale of onehalf section of land belonging to the county of Jackson of Joseph Armstrong, director. This meeting was held at the seat of justice in Jackson county, in the house of Andrew Donnally; present, Emanuel Traxler, John Stephenson and Robert G. Hanna, Commissioners, and Kathaniel ^^^ Andrews, clerk.

This day Joseph Armstrong presented a statement of the sale with the number of lots belonging to the town of Jacksoai, to-wit: Inlots 137 and outlots 36, one outlet, No. 36, out of which number was reserved for the use of this county until next sale, being a fraction. Eleven inlots were also reserved until the next sale, to-wit: Nos. 64, 66, 74, 78, 85, 92, 95, 96, 98, 99, 136.

The director, Joseph Armstrong, then presented the following accounts as expenses of the survey, and the expenses of the sale, and also his own account of the number of days employed up to the present time.

Ordered, that Judge Fletcher be allowed for surveying the town of Jackson, etc., |60, and that an order issue for the same payable to Joseph Armstrong,

John James, for the use of a boy and one-horse wagon for hauling stakes and stone for the corners of the public square, and a hand one day in making stakes, |6.50.

THE FIRST COURT HOUSE - After the completion of the jail the Commissioners found themselves without enough money to build a Court House at once, but on November 5, 1819, they gave notice that the sale of the contract for building would be made December 4, 1819. The proceedings of that date as they appear on the old Journal are as follows: December 4, 1819. - The Court House in the town of Jackson was let according to law, and Elisha Fitch, of the county of Ross, became the purchaser at |4,061, he being the lowest bidder; wtereupon, the said Elisha Fitch, together with Levi Mercer, William Givens, Hooper Hurst and Jared Strong, his securities, entered into bond conditioned for the faithful performance of the work. The building of the Court House occupied several years. There was trouble with the contractors, and as late as June 4, 1821, the roof had not been put on, for an order of that date reads as follows: "The roof to be what is called a hipped roof, and the cupalow to be in proportion with that in Piketon and finished in the same manner; likewise the octagon to be of the same size and form of that of Piketon." The finishing of the interior took several years more, for one of the contracts for that part of the work was not let until July 16, 1825. The building never was entirely finished. A bell was put on in the Fifties, and in 186D the old structure burned to the ground.

THE FIRST MERCHANTS - French and English traders visited the licks during the Indian occupation, and after the salt boilers took possession, traders became expected and regular visitors. The memory of these pioneer agents of commerce has passed away. The first merchant at the licks of whom there is a record was Daniel Hoffman, to whom a license was issued November 5, 1816, by the Court of Common Pleas, ''to vend merchandise other than the growth and manufacture of the United States." The tax on a merchant's license was |15 per annum. In order to give an idea of the scale upon which this pioneer merchant did business the following entry from the Commissioners' Journal is inserted here :

June 27, 1818 : - This day the Commissioners of Jackson county met for the purpose of valuing the house in which Daniel Hoffman now lives and at present keeps store; present, John Stephenson and Robert G. Hanna. Having carefully examined the said house, with all the loose plank on the lot, counter and other work for the store, with all its appurtenances, we do appraise the whole to be worth |175. The house referred to was newly built and stood on the Gibson House corner. The second store at the licks was started after the county seat bad been located. It was owned by Teter Apple & Company, and was licensed April 8, 1817. Daniel Burley, the third merchant, took out a license May 12, 1818. George Dovenet took out a peddler's license June 27 of the same year. The firm of Hugh l*oor c^ Company, consisting of Hugh Poor, Horace Wilcox and Edmund Kicliiuoiid. was licensed July 15, 1818, and the firm of Strong & Givcns, consisting of Jared Strong and William Givens, was licensed September 20, following. The next year, James & Hiirst started a store, and the little town was well supplied with merchants.

THE FIRST BANKRUPT - The Court Journal shows that Walter Murdock was the first bankrupt in the county. He petitioned the Court of Common Pleas on June 30, 1818, for "benefit of act relieving insolvent debtors." The court ordered that notice be published in a Chillicothe paper named The Supporter.

TEACHERS' EXAMINERS - Little attention was paid in the early days of Jackson county to schools and education. The struggle for life was too hard, the farmers w^ere scattered too far apart in the woods to organize school districts, and the population at Jackson, the only village in the count}, was not of a character that appreciated the advantages of an education. The village w^as much like the mining camp of later days, a large proportion of the inhabitants being single and transients. The first teacher we hear of w-as William Wilds, who taught a school about 1820 in a log house built for the purpose on the Adam Sell place, near Coalton. James H. Darling, who was the last survivor of the pupils of that school, furnished me the following particulars concerning it: The school house was a low log building, with puncheon floor, a large fireplace at one end and a wiudow on each side. The windows had been constructed by cutting out the lower half of one log and the ui»i.ei- half of the log under it for a distance of several feet, thus making a nan-ow slit, over which greased paper was pasted. Hoisting was a matter of impossibility in the case of these windows, but the securing of ventilation w^as an easy matter, for paper was cheaper than even the cheap glass of today, and a diamond was not needed to cut an artistic looking hole in it. The only furniture in this school house were the benches for the scholars to sit on, which had been constructed by setting slabs on legs, and a stool constructed in a like manner, which was used by the teacher. The latter was always equipped with a bundle of switches cut from a hickory thicket nearby, and Mr. Wilds had the reputation of never sparing the rod. The oldest scholars read the Bible and studied arithmetic and writing. The smaller pupils studied the spelling book, and mischief. At Christmas time the big boys and girls locked the teacher out, and he capitulated gracefully by agreeing to treat. This old custom, which prevailed from time immemorial in the western country, survived in this county until 1877. The last case I can recall occurred at the Oak Hill school, in Madison township, just before the holidays of that yearj when Hon. T. J. Harrison was barred out on a certain noon intermission. He had gone for a walk, as was his custom, and when he returned and found the door locked, he stepped back into the play ground, picked up a fence rail, which had been used as a base in playing "blackman," jjlaced it on his shoulder, and then made a run for the door. The rail battering ram crushed in the door, and Harrison was master of the situation. He taught out the term and then resigned. But he put an end to the custom of '^locking out." After the county had been organized some ten years, there came an educational awakening. The cause is not known. The departure of the salt boilers may have had something to do with it. Be that as it may, one of the results was the appointment of a committee by the Court of Common Pleas to examine applicants for certificates to teach. The appointment was made June 8, 182G. This first Board of Examiners consisted of the three best informed men in the county, viz: George L. Crookham, Daniel Hoffman and Alexander Miller. This was the initiative of the common school system in the county.

moved into the woods knew that the move meant death to one or more of its members. Finley says: The new settlements were regularly visited with autumnal fevers. They were of the bilious type, and sometimes the symptoms resembled those of yellow fever. Billious intermittents, or fever and ague, prevailed to a great extent. They were supposed to have been caused by the effluvia arising from the decomposition of the luxuriant vegetation which grew so abundantly everywhere. These fevers were attended with great mortality, and the sufferings occasioned by them were intense. Often there was not one member of the family able to hel£ the others, and instances occurred in which the dead lay unburied for days, because no one could report. The extensive prevalence of sickness, however, did not deter immigration. A desire to possess the rich lands overcame all fears of sickness, and the living tide rolled on heedless of death. In the summer of 1798 the bloody flux raged as an epidemic with great violence, and for a while threatened to depopulate the town of Chillicothe and its vicinity. Medical skill was exerted to its utmost, but all to no purpose, as but very few who were attacked recovered. From eight to ten were buried per day. The Scioto salt works, located in a low swampy valley, was perhaj^s the sickliest place in Southern Ohio, and the death rate was very high. Even visitors who came here after salt in 1798 sickened and died. There was hardly any hope for any one attacked, for there were no physicians located here until 1810, when Dr. Gabriel McNeal came from Virginia. For eight years after the epidemic of 1798 there was a comparative respite, but according to Atwater, in the autumn of 1806 a fever of the remittent type made its appearance, extending from the Ohio river to Lake Erie. Its symptoms were chills in the forenoon, between 10 and 11 o'clock, which were succeeded by violent fever, afterwards, in an hour and a half. The fever continued to rage till about 6 o'clock in the evening. During the exacerbation great pain or oppression was felt in the brain, liver, spleen or stomach, and frequently in all these organs. The sweating stage took place about midnight. By daylight there was a respite, but not a total exemption from the urgency of these symp- toms. The first cases mentioned afforded no opportunity for interposing tonics. From information given us by many in the circle around Chillicothe, one-sixth part of the inhabitants were swept off by death. In 1813 and 1814 there were like epidemics. But perhaps the worst of all was that of 1823. Heavy and long continued rains commenced about the 14th of November, 1822, and continued almost daily until the 1st of the ensuing June. It is computed by some persons that the country lying between the Scioto and Miami rivers had the twentieth part of its surface covered during the months of March, April and May with water. A fever commenced its ravages and continued its course during the months of June, July, August, September and during the early part of October. It was of the remittent type, affecting more or less, many, perhaps nineteen-twentieths of the people. In 1824 there was a repetition of the epidemic on a smaller scale. The families living in the valley of Salt creek were visited by another, but lighter epidemic, again in 1827. This was the last epidemic, but for nearly 40 years after the settlement of the county many suffered and died from autumnal fevers. To this cause may be ascribed the early death of so many of the pioneers. Those afflicted with any chronic ailment succumbed to these fevers.

THE FIRST DEATHS. - The earliest settlers at the Scioto salt licks found many charred tree trunks still standing in the cleared ground on the ridge which is now occupied by the business part of Jackson. They were so many monuments to white prisoners who had died at the stake. The exact number of those unfortunates will never be known, but any one that has studied the history of the sixty years' war between the Ohio Indians and the white pioneers of the Alleghenies will readily concede that fully one hundred persons may have perished thus within the present limits of the city. The large number is thus accounted for. Bands of Shawanese, Ottawas, Wyandots, Delawares and other Indian tribes came to the licks every summer to make salt. The drudgery at the kettles was squaw's work, and while the women toiled and the old warriors smoked, gambled or hunted, parties of young braves made incursions into the Virginia mountains, and brought back many "scalps, and not a few white prisoners. The boys were often spared for adoption and tlie women for drudges, but the majority of the men, in fact, all who failed to win favor with their captors, were tortured at the stake. These barbarous executions generally occurred on the high ground on or near the site of the Public Square. The Indians cut oft" the top of a small tree, leaving the trunk for a stake, to which the victim was tied. The torture then began, and did not cease until life was extinct. These executions were regarded by the Indians as entertainments, and the tribes expected every returning war party to furnish at least one victim, especially if the party had lost a man on the foray. Inasmuch as the licks were the first safe stopping place after crossing the Ohio, a number of whites must have been tortured here each year, particularly between 1755 and 1785, when the border warfare was most bitter. It was the Indian custom to gather the remains of such victims and give them burial, but the spot has not yet been discovered.

THE OLD GRAVEYARD - The first white settlers that died at the licks were buried on the hill afterward known as the Ford hill, not far from the Lutheran church. Later a number of salt boilers w^ere buried on the hill, which is a part of the McKitterick farm. The graveyard lies east of the old Indian trail from the licks to Chillicothe. The place was selected by the whites because it had been used as a burial ground by the Indians. There is no record of the names of those buried there, but the number must have exceeded fifty. The graves were marked with native sandstone, many of which crumbled in time, while others were carried away by collectors. Names and dates were cut on a. few, but the great majority bore only initials. A visiting collector asked ]»ermission years ago to take away the stone bearing the oldest inscription, but Mr. John McKitterick, Sr., refused. A few days afterward, it was discovered that the stone had disappeared, and it was suspected that the stranger had stolen it. For half a century the graveyard remained uncultivated, but after the giound was cleared the stones disappeared rapidly. Ten years ago, when I tirst visited the place, only two were left. One of them bore the following inscription: "D. F. D., Sept. 23, 1802." Daniel F. Dean was killed at a log rolling. He was a large and powerful man, but on that unlucky September day he lost his hold while raising a heavy log, and it rolled back and crushed him, killing him instantly. Many of those buried here were men w^ho were murdered at the salt works. Some of the earliest salt boilers were lawless men, and the morals of the community were at a par with those of the wildest mining camps of the early gold days. It was a common occurrence from 1795 to 1803 to find the corpse of some one murdered overnight floating in a salt w^ater tank, and to discover later that one or two others had departed between two suns without leaving their addresses. The last of these murders was committed by a negro. He was caught and lynched, the lynching taking place near the Mitchell rocks. His remains were interred in the old graveyard, which caused it to fall into disrepute. Many of the earliest burials were made without coflSns, but they came into use later. They were made of good old oak, and one of them lasted over sixty years, for Mr. G. C. McKitterick remembers when the grave fell in. I have been informed that members of a family named Hill, living in Liberty township, have been buried here, but the information has not been verified.

A FOKGOTTEN GRAVEYARD - The salt furnaces were built in the valley from James A. Lackey's farm up to the infirmary. Pieces of the old salt kettles used at the furnace on Lackey's farm were plowed up in the spring of 1900. The salt boilers at the upper furnaces found it incom^enient to bring their dead to the "Old Graveyard," and they began to bury in a spot near Smith's lane, where it crosses the railroad, on land now owned by W. H. and M. K. Steele. There are forty to fifty graves at this place, but none of them are marked. Peter Bunn, who is now in his eightieth year, says that two of his infant brothers and another little boy named Walden were buried there. Mrs. Sophia Mitchell remembers that she attended the burial of a little daughter of

THE BUNN GRAVEYARD - This old burial ground occupies the greater part of outlot 26, and a part of outlot 27 in the south half of the original town of Jackson. The lots were laid out by Gabriel McNeel, the county surveyor, on May 25,1819 but the spot had been selected for a town cemetery before that date, for Charles O'Neil was buried there May 17, 1819. Mrs Sophia Mitchell states that her mother, Mrs. Tacy Bunn, attended his funeral, and that this burial was the first in the cemetery. The spot was selected on account of its location and the character of the soil. It lay a quarter of a mile from the new town of that day, but it could be reached without crossing low or wet ground. The high ground selected forms a little hummock, which was more than half surrounded by water at that time, and therefore unsuitable for building purposes. The soil was sandy, free from slate or rock, and thoroughly drained, considerations that appealed to the pioneers. The sale of the lots in the south half of Jackson occurred in June, 1819. Outlots 26 and 27 were purchased by Peter Bunn, the first for |31 and the second for |25.25. The title remains in the family to this day. The Bunns came originally from Germany and settled near Baltimore. Peter Bunn, Sr., born in Maryland, moved with his family to Ross county, in this state, about the beginning of this century. Four of his children, Peter, Jr., Samuel, Hannah and Polly, settled in this county. Peter Bunn, Jr., was born near Baltimore, .January 1, 1780. He married Tacy Howe in this county February 29, 1824. Five daughters were born to them. Mary Ann died an infant. Sophia, who became the wife of Dr. D. H. Mitchell, was born May 29, 1826; Elizabeth, who became the wife of John Ratcliffe, was born February 4, 1828; Eunice, who married John Smith, was born October 16, 1829, and Tacy, who married Henry C. Hale, was born July 27, 1836. Elizabeth is dead, but two of her children, Mr. Peter Ratcliffe and Mrs. W. H. Steele, survive. The other three daughters are still living, Mrs. Mitchell and Mrs. Smith in this city, and Mrs. Hale at Warrensburg, Mo.

Their father died July 19, 1853, aged 72 years, 6 months and 19 days. His wife survived until January 4, 1881, dying at the age of 78 years, 8 months and 29 days. Both now lie side by side in the burial ground bought by Mr. Bunn in 1819. The oldest tombstone in it is that of Charles O'Neil. It is a flagstone, and the inscription reads as follows: "In memory of Charles O'Neil, who departed this life May 16, 1819, aged 26 years.'' O'Neil was county treasurer at the time of his death. Although' a young man, he became a victim of the insalubrious climatic conditions at the licks. A number of other county officers suffered a like fate, as the following inscriptions indicate: "Sacred to the memory of Jared Strong, who departed this life December 20, 1827, aged 43 years, 7 months, 10 days." "Sacred to the memory of William Eausom; born September 20, A. D. 1794, died December 8, 1832; aged 38 years, 2 months, 19 days. 'For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.' " "In memory of Absalom M. Faulkner, who departed this life September 18, 1829, aged 31 years, 7 months, 10 days."

Strong was the first representative of this county, and held many other positions of trust. Ransom was treasurer of the county for about 12 years, dying in office. Faulkner, who was a Free Mason, was clerk of courts for about six years and died in office. Henry May Faulkner, his little son, died the same day, and his infant son, Jacob . Ofifnere, died December 13, 1829. The fatality among county officers was great in those days, for the records show that in addition to those named above. Sheriff William White died in 1824. Other prominent people in early Jackson who died in the twenties where Edmund Richmond, who died February 16, 1820, aged 55 years, 5 months and 6 days, and Huldah, his wife, who died August 21, 1823, aged 59 years, 3 months and 18 days. The Richmonds were an influential family here for jears. There were four brothers in all, named Seth, Nathaniel, David and Edmund. I have not been able to learn what became of the other three. A woman that deserves to be mentioned was the wife of Thomas Scott, who was prosecuting attorney in 1830-2. The inscription on her tombstone reads as follows: "In memory of Eliz' abetli Scott, consort of Thomas Scott, who departed this life De» cember 13, 1822, aged 43 years." A large, wide spreading elm tree now grows near her grave. It sprouted after her burial, but it now shades a space sixty feet in diameter. It should be cared for and preserved. Not far away lie the remains of the first wife ol Daniel Perry, who was sheriff of this county two terms. The inscription reads thus: "In memory of Jane, consort of Daniel Perry, who died February 1, 1833, in the 29th year of her age."

The graves of two children of Daniel and Susan Perry, named Cornelia and Isham, are on the same lot, also that of Perry's brother, Simeon, who died February 28, 1825, in the 32nd year of his age. The majority of those buried here before the fifties died before reaching old age, which goes to show that the climate was fatal to whites until Salt Creek valley was cleared and drained.

More than 700 persons have been interred in this cemetery, but the graves of the great majority were left unmarked, and even the names of many of them have been forgotten. For instance, 217 bodies were removed in March, 1000, to Fairmount, of whom only 64 were known. The unknown removed and left included some men and women who were once prominent in this county. Mr. Peter Bunn remembers that he helped to dig the grave of one of them way back about 1835, viz: Joseph Schellenger, uncle of ex-Auditor William Schellenger and brothers. Schellenger had served with Samuel Bunn, the father of Peter Bunn, in the war of 1812.

SOME RECOLLECTIONS - A letter written by :Michael Mc- Coy and an interview with James H. Darling throw additional light on life at the salt works. Michael McCoy, who spent the last fifty years of his life in this county, furnished his recollections for The Standard a few years before his death, and they are worth preserving. He was born in Lawrence county, O., January 22, 1800. He removed with his parents to this county in 181G, and lived in Hamilton townshi]) until his death, November 8, 18G9. Following are the most interesting jiassages from his letters: We came to this county in the spring of 1816. We landed on the 17th of April and settled near where Jacob Brown now (1866) lives. At that time there w^ere but two houses where the town of Jackson now stands, and they were taverns. One was down below where the Isham House stable now stands, and the other was down towards where Steel's (Ruf's) tanyard now is. These taverns were kept by Abraham Welch and Jared Strong. There were five salt furnaces in operation at that time, run by Ross Nelson, John Johnson, John W. Sargent, Asa Lake and William Givens.

I suppose there were some five or six hundred voters In Jackson county. Abraham Welch was the first sheriff of Jackson county, and Nathaniel W. Andrew's was the first clerk of courts.

Welch and a man named Wilson,^ and another named Squires, and another, whose name I will not give, as he has some relatives jet living in this county, got to making counterfeit money, and they all left the county except Squires, and he was sent to the penitentiary. For some cause Andrews resigned as clerk, or was removed, and a man named Charles O'Neil was the next clerk. He afterward died of consumption. O'Neil's widow married Vincent Southard. Dr. Andrews was again appointed clerk, and held the ofiice until he removed to Portsmouth. Absalom M. Faulkner was clerk and held the ofBce until he died.

Colonel Strong had the contract for building the old Court House for |7,000 (|4,061). This much I know: The brick was made in 1820, not far from where Pearl street and Broadway cross. I do not think the wall of the Court House was built until 1821. What makes me think so is, that the Elias Long house was built in 1820 by a man named Gibbs. I made and carried the mortar for more than two-thirds of that house; Nathan Sheward carried the brick. We worked for 50 cents a day, or at least the promise of it. I never got over half my pay. The same year that little checkered brick by Noel's tanyard was built by a man named Puffenbarger. I made and carried the mortar foi' that building from foundation to the top; same wages and same pay. Both men broke up, and I had to take just what I could get. There were two wells of salt water near Jackson in 1816, one owned by Asa Lake, not far from where the bridge crosses Salt creek on the Chillicothe road. The furnace was out on the road not far from where George L. Crookham built some years afterward. There was another well not far from where Diamond Furnace is now located, belonging to William Givens. The furnace was on Givens' Run, in a southwest direction from town. The courts continued to be held in private houses until 1824 or 1825, maybe as late as 1826, when the old Court House was taken possession of by Ezra Osborne, president judge of this circuit. I was at the first day's sale of the lots in the town of Jackson. A shed made of plank was put up on the public square. Joseph Armstrong was director of the town of Jackson. Joseph W. Ross was the crier, or auctioneer, and Richard Johnson was the clerk of the sale. The highest priced lot wa» bought by Daniel Hoffman, where he afterwards lived and died. The next highest lot sold was where Noel's tanyard was located. It was sold to a man named Henry Kiger. Robert Lucas and Elisha Fitch, from Piketon, were prominent bidders for lots at that sale. Now, I will give you a sketch of the wild aspect of things about Jackson when the first lots were sold. True, there was a great deal of timber cut for the salt furnaces, and in some places the young growth had started considerably. There were three or four public roads that led to Jackson, the Gallipolis and Chillicothe road, the Athens road and the Piketon road. The latter was made for the purpose of hauling corn from the Big Scioto to the salt works. Then there was a track that was called the Guyan trace, along which hundreds of bushels of salt were packed to the Ohio river. That trace left town where Nelson's Furnace was located. It ran a south course and crossed the divide near where Irwin's station now is. It then ran southward to the Adkins place, from there to old Joseph Price's, crossed the Black Fork of Symmes creek, then crossed Dirty Face near Philip Lambert's mill, then up Sweet Bit, crossed the Dry Ridge road, went down a run and crossed Symmes creek near where old Henry Mc- Daniel lived, then up Long creek, and crossing Greasy Ridge ran down Trace Fork to the forks of Indian Guyan, now Scott town; thence south or nearly so to Guyandotte. Many a Red Man of the

Forest has traversed that path." Some of the above statements are inaccurate. The description of the old Guyan trace is the only one that I have been able to find. This wsis the famous Indian highway from Virginia to the Shawanese towns on the Scioto, and it had been in use for centuries when the whites entered the country. Many a white captive has toiled along this trail, every step taking him farther from home and kindred, and, in many instances, taking him nearer to the spot where he was to die at the stake. Many a young child, unable to keep up with its captors, was slain on this trail and left for wild beasts to feed upon, as iu the case of the little daughter of Mrs. Martin already mentioned.

DARLING'S INTERVIEW - James H. Darling, then living in the west, visited this county a few years before his death, and while here he called upon me and furnished the following facts about the pioneers: "My father's name was Timothy Darling. He came to Ohio in 1815 from Wood county, Virginia, and settled on Pigeon creek, where Coalton now is. Jackson county had noi been organized then. My mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Cook, and she was a sister of Nancy Cook, who married John James, after whom Jamestown was named. I had two brothers and three sisters, viz: William, Derrick, Barsheba, Elizabeth C. and Aurora. Barsheba married Isaac Brown, son of Nathan Brown. Aurora married Charles Love. Elizabeth C. died unmarried, and was the first person buried in the Jamestown cemetery. 1 was born December 30, 1813, and was only two years old when my family moved to Ohio. My father soon purchased the property now known as the Hippel place, and there is where I grew up. I used to come to Jackson to Sunday school in the old Court House. There were two salt wells here that I remember. A man by the name of Aldridge had a salt well near the old Horse creek bridge, and Givens' salt well was on Givens' Run. There were only four houses of any size in Jackson then. There was the old Miller house on Main street, a brick house. The house of Richmond stood where the Orange Furnace property was afterward. Richmond was killed by a falling tree in a storm near Runkle's bridge. There was the Hooper Hurst house. It stood on the point on Main street, not far from where the Ruf property is now. The Donnally House was the first hotel here and stood on Water street, opposite the Hatton residence. This hotel was afterward called the Warren House. There were a great many log cabins here and nearly all of them were strung along Salt creek below Water street, and were called Poplar Row. The salt boilers lived in them. I remember that the old Givens' house stood near Fulton Furnace. I used to go to a horse mill near Berlin, owned by Zephaniah Brown. It stood near the Cross Roads. We would take our own horses to work the mill. I also went sometimes to Jared Strong's mill, on Salt creek. It stood near where Bierly lived afterward. I think Jared Strong came to Jackson from the neighborhood where Wilkesville is now. Jared Strong was the first representative of this county. He had three sons that I remember, Jared, Stephen and Jehiel. Jehiel was killed when his father was in Columbus attending the Legislature. He was riding horseback, going to the house of McKinniss to a frolic. It was winter time and the creek was out and the water frozen. When near Jacob Sell's house, his horse fell and injured him, and he died. His father did not reach home until after his death. I remember going after salt once to Judge Givens' salt works on Givens' Run. Salt was measured and not weighed then. They stopped making salt on account of the scarcity of wood and the failure of the salt wells. The salt that I got was white. My father, Timothy Darling, died in 1830. I was married in 1833 to Rachel Howe. She died last winter in Kansas. She was a sister of Tacy Howe, the wife of Peter Bunn, the pioneer. He owned the old cemetery south of Jackson. They began burying in it at a very early day. Charles O'Neil is buried there. 1 remember when he died. He was county treasurer then. He had one child that I remember, Mary O'Neil, and my wife used to play with her when they were little girls. O'Neil's widow married Vincent Southard afterward. One of the old citizens buried in the old cemetery was Dr. Mussett. I knew Daniel Perry, the ex-sheriff. He was a carpenter, and died in Jackson township. I knew George W. Hale, Stephen Vaughn and Joseph W. Ross. Rev. David C. Bolles was a preacher, and I remember his death. He has a box vault in the old cemetery. (Rev. David Bolles died April 20, 1840, aged 47 years. - Ed.) I have heard of Jonathan Oilkeson and John Runkle, but never saw them. The stars fell in 1833, the year I was married. The stars fell all night, like drops of rain. The great flood occurred in Jackson December 10, 1847. There was a stranger drowned on the Athens road, near where Tropic Furnace is. I knew James Hughes, the man who started The Standard, well. He married a sister of William Mather and went west. Henry Rout was an old settler, and lived on Salt creek. John James was my uncle. He came here from James Island, in the Ohio river, near Marietta. John D. James was his only son. Daniel Hoffman married my cousin, Julia James. He lived where the Gibson House stands now, and had his store where the Sternberger Building stands. He sold out the Salt Lick Reserve for the state. Mrs. Elihu Johnson, Mrs. Alexander Miller and Mrs. Andrew Long were three other cousins. Muster Day was an important event in early times. Jared Strong, Captain Kincaid, George W. Hale and others used to be officers. General muster was held usually about the middle of September.

THE END - In 1817 the State, with the consent of the General Government, donated Section 29, of the Scioto Salt Reserve, for the site of the new^ county seat, the town of Jackson. A joint resolution of the Ohio General Assembly adopted January 3, 1818, declared that experiments at the Scioto salt works, had failed to find water of a sufficient quality to render it an object to the State to retain lands reserved at said works, and asked permission of the General Government to sell the lands. Congress was slow to act, and the Legislature on February 18, 1820, authorized the agent to lease lands for cultivation or pasture. An act of January 25, 1823, fixed the agent's salary at $60 a year. Congress acted at last, and on December 28, 1824, it passed a law permitting the state to sell its salt lands, and directing that the proceeds be applied to such literary purposes as said Legislature may hereafter direct. On February 7, 1825, the Legislature passed a law providing for the survey of the salt lands, and for making two maps of the same, a report of all to be made by December 25, 1825. The agent employed Hon. Joseph Fletcher, of Gallipolis, to make the survey, and the w^hole tract was laid out in eighty acre lots. The Legislature on February 7, 1826, passed a law providing for the sale of the Scioto Salt Reserve in June of that year, the sale to be held for three days, and the lots remaining unsold to be disposed of at private sale. There was no further use for the oflSce of agent of the Scioto salt works, and it was abolished, and all laws relating to leasing salt lands repealed, by an act passed January 26, 1827, the disposal of the lands being placed in the hands of Daniel Hoffman, the agent for selling lands. Thus ends the history ot the Scioto salt works as state property.

Miscellany

A SOUTHERN TERM - The term plantation was common in the early history of the county, and was an importation from the South. Some of the Virginians retained southern words and expressions as long as they lived. The Virginians brought many things with them that revealed their origin. They settled, as a rule, near a spring, and planted calamus in the swale where its waters ran. These calamus patches were the drugstores of the pioneers, and they yet remain in places to mark the site of the pioneer's settlement. One of the largest tracts, that the writer remembers, is on the north end of the William H. Howell farm, in Jefferson township.

TOWNSHIP NAMES - Jackson county was named in honor of General Andrew Jackson, who had made himself famous by winning the battle of New Orleans. The county was at first divided into five townships, viz: Bloomfield, Franklin, Lick, Madison aud Milton. The last was named for the great poet, two others for two American statesmen, and Lick on account of the salt springs within its bounds. Other townships organized the same year, 1816, were Scioto, Jackson, Hamilton and Clinton. The first was named after the river of that name, and the others in honor of three distinguished Americans. A few years later two other townships were organized, and named for the first and third Presidents. The journal entries relating to them are as follows:

WASHINGTON - On application by petition in writing of sundry citizens, within the following boundaries, to me, auditor of Jackson county, be it therefore hereby known that Washington township shall be bounded as follows, to-wit: Beginning ac the northeast corner of the reserve for the Scioto salt works and running on the north line of the reserve to the southeast corner of Section No. 7, in Lick township; thence northwest so as to include the coal bank in Section No. 5, Lick township; thence to continue northwesterly so as to intersect with the old coal road at or near the top of a hill known by the name of Bunker's hill, at or near the head of Mooney's run, including all settlers at or on said coal road; thence east to the range line between the seventeenth and eighteenth ranges in said county, so as to include William Ray^ in Section No. 7, in Jackson township; thence south with said range line to the place of beginning.

JEFFERSON - On application by petition in writing of sundry' citizens within the following boundaries to me, auditor of Jackson county, be it therefore hereby known that Jefferson township shall be bounded as follows, to-wit, within the eighteenth range, beginning at the northeast corner of said township and running so as to include the original surveyed Township No. 5.

In 1850, Richland and Harrison townships, which had been annexed from Ross county, and Clinton township, were cut off and put in Vinton county. Two new townships have been organized in recent years, Coal and Wellston. The latter was named in honor of Harvey Wells.

Know ye, that there has been deposited in the general laud oflSce a certificate of His Excellency, Ethan A. Brown, Governor of the State of Ohio, stating that in pursuance of an act of Congress, passed on the 16th of April, 1816, entitled, "An Act to authorize the State of Ohio to sell a certain part of a tract of land reserved for the use of that State," the Legislature of the said State did, by an act passed on the 14th of January, 1817, authorize and empower certain Commissioners to select, and a Director ta sell, a section of land in said reserved tract, and that the said Commissioners had selected, and Joseph Armstrong, the Director appointed by said State, had sold the section so selected, to-wit: Section 29 of Township 7, in Range 18, being part of the six miles square reserved for the benefit of the State of Ohio, at the Scioto salt springs.

There is, therefore, granted by the United States the section of land above described unto the said Joseph Armstrong, and his successors in office, in trust, to execute titles to the purchasers ot the land aforesaid.

Given under my hand at the City of Washington, the 16th day of February, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and twenty, and of the Independence of the United States of America the forty-fourth. By the President,

James Monroe

AN OLD-TIME WILL - The following will, emancipating a slave, is perhaps the only instrument of the kind ever drawn in Jackson county. Hugh Poor, mentioned as executor, was one of the leading men of the county for a generation. He settle* in what is now Jackson county, in 1811. In 1816, when the county was organized, he became one of the three Associate Judges, and served in that capacity for several years. He was one of the first merchants of Jackson, and in many other ways assisted in its development. He died in 1827. Edward Poor, living in this city, is one of his grandsons.

Last Will And Testament Of Hannah Thompson

I, Hannah Thompson, of the County of Jackson and State of Ohio, being far advanced in years and aware of the uncertainty of life and certainty of death, and being in my right mind and under-

And as to what property 1 may be in possession of at the time of ray decease, it is my will and desire that all my just debts be speedily and punctually paid, and

All the balance of my property, both real and personal, I will to my said Negro, Stephen, except only so much as will pay my funeral expenses and physicians, if any, and it is my desire and will that my executors dispose of it to the best advantage, and appropriate the proceeds thereof to my Negro man, Stephen.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set ray hand and seal, revoking all former will and testaments by me made, and declare this to be ray last will and testament, this 9th day of July, 1827.

IMPORTING CARDS - Ohio had her Blue Laws in early days, and one of the most singular trials in the history of this county was that of John McGhee, indicted for violating one of them. The grand jury of the July term, 1817, indicted him because he "did import and bring into the county of Jackson aforesaid, and township of Lick aforesaid, a pack of playing cards." McGhee pleaded not guilty, but the jury found otherwise, and he was fined five dollars and the costs. The jurors were: Grand, David Mitchell, foreman; John Graham, John Backus, John Bennett, Peter Brown, Moses Hale, Joseph Gray, Jacob Westfall, William Burris,

James Winks, Allen Rice, James Lackey, Joseph Crouch, (ieorge Campbell and Jeremiah Brown; petit, John McBride, Theophilus Blake, Daniel Harris, John Delay, John Frazee, Edward Story, James Stephenson, Levi Howell, Reuben Long;, Asa Lake, Patrick Shearer, Drury Bondurant. With such men all agreeing, it must be conceded that it seems very probable that McGhee did import the cards. Perhaps, the losses of some of the jurors at gaming may have had something to do with this conviction. This is the first pack of cards mentioned in the records, but after that, indictments for gaming followed in quick succession. It appears that John George was one of the settlers that permitted gaming in his house. At least, the record shows that some very prominent men played at his house, although their own dwellings were only a few hundred yards away. All that has been mentioned goes to show that the pioneers were not any better, and perhaps no worse, ' than the people of today. The laws seem to have been better enforced, however. Even two women, living in Jefferson township, who had settled a little difference by fighting, were indicted and found guilty, and a young man arrested in a bastardy case pleaded guilty and was mulcted.

LEAD LEGENDS - Caleb Briggs made geological investigations in Jackson county in 1837, and in his report he said: There are rumors in the southern jjortion of the state, in reference to lead mines, but as yet no veins have been discovered. Small quantities of lead have, however, been found in loose masses on the surface. A small piece of this description was recently sent to me from Jefferson township, Jackson county. Lead must exist in small quantities in either the iron ores or limestone of Lawrence and Scioto counties, as several pounds are not infrequently taken from the crevices in a furnace hearth at the close of a blast. This information was communicated by Mr. Smith, of Jackson Furnace.

is low compared with Rock Hill, but it is nothing but rock, naked on three sides. On the south, a neck connects it with the main hill. It is called Lead Rock because a lump of lead was found in the creek bottom at its base about thirty-five years ago by William, son of Daniel Yerian. The lead was brought to Jackson and examined, and was found to be of good quality. The father, Daniel Yerian, found another lump near by. There is a tradition that the Indians used to dig lead on Rock run, but this may be taken for what it is worth. The presence of the lead found by the Yerians has never been explained. There is a tradition that the Indians had a lead mine near Keystone Furnace. The following letter gives all the known facts:

Editor Standard- Journal : Dear Sir - Herein is noted the tradition which I have received from my people, who settled here in the year 180G, in regard to the lead mine somewhere m Bloomfield township. The Indians found and utilized a lead mine in what is known as Jimmy Adams' hollow, which at its beginning trends through the old Lackey homestead and terminates at the John Ware bridge, near Keystone Furnace. According to the tradition, it ma}' be in some of the ravines or hollows leading into said valley. A certain person (whose name I can not state, as my informant is dead), was captured by the Indians and taken ''blindfolded" to the mine, in order that it could not be located. I am also informed that this captive stated, that at said lead mine there were many beech trees, on which were engraven or cut figures of turkeys, turtles, deer, etc. But let this tradition be as it may, I can state this fact, that my grandfather in the early 1800's, selected this homestead among the many situations in the forests for its fine flowing springs, one of which is called the Silver spring on account of its water.

Chas. A. Lackey

THE LACKEY TAVERN - In this connection, the following petition of James Lackey, asking the Commissioners for license to keep a tavern, may prove of some interest:

The petition of the undersigned freeholders of Bloomfield township represent to your honors that we conceive a house of entertainment in Bloomfield township would be to the public's convenience. We therefore recommend James Lackey, one of our citizens, to be a suitable person to accommodate the public. We therefore pray your honor would grant him license for that purpose.

JAMESTOWN CEMETERY - This cemetery derives its name from Major John James, on whose land it was laid out. He lies buried in it, his grave being on the Indian mound in the cemetery. There were three of these mounds originally, the three marking the angles of a triangle. The one in the cemetery is but little changed. The other, standing near William Warnecke's barn, is about the same size. The third stood in Joseph Watson's lot, and was removed by him about twenty years ago. He found in it a number of darts and arrow heads, some bones, ashes, and a piece of charred wood. It is very appropriate that the remains of Major James, who was a famous Indian scout, should have been interred in an Indian mound. The inscription on his monument is as follows:

11 months, 17 days. The deceased was born in Connecticut June 14, 1772, came to Point Harmar, Ohio, 1788, and to this county in 1807; was a member of the Methodist church 40 years, and died the Christian's death."

The fii'st person buried in this cemetery was Elizabeth C. Darling, a daughter of Timothy Darling and his wife. The latter was Elizabeth Cook, and was a sister of Nancy Cook, the wife of Major John James.

THE MARTIN MOUND - This mound was perhaps the most peculiar in the county in one respect. After Jefferson Furnace was built, some parties dug into it and discovered that it had been built of blocks of ore and covered with earth. The ore was taken out and hauled to the Furnace. There were some 15 tons of it. It is much to be regretted, that no effort was made to open the mound scientifica]ly. Valuable remains or relics might have been found in it, but I have failed to learn that any were found. The presence of the blocks of iron ore and flint in the mound would indicate that the structure belonged to the house mound class. It is probable that others of the kind exist in the township, and when they are discovered, the owner should have them opened according to the plan laid down by archaeologists.

BURNING OF THE COURT HOUSE - The first court house burned down September 20, 1860, and the following account of the fire appeared in The Standard:

On last Friday, at 1 o'clock, a fire broke out in that part of the Franklin House, occupied as a residence by John Rapp. It is supposed that the fire caught from the stove flue. The Franklin house was in a sheet of flame in a few minutes. Great exertions were made to save the next building, the residence of Abraham French, but all in vain. The fire swept on, taking in its course the store room and residence of B. F. Thompson, the grocery store of

Henry Barlow, the saddler shop of D. W. Winfough, the residence of John Stephenson, the grocery store of Meacham & Gibson, the residence of E. D. Meacham, and the book store of R. Harding. The goods and furniture were mostly removed and saved, although some were taken into the street and took fire from the flying cinders, and were consumed. The flames were arrested at Broadway stree, by pulling down the corner building, occupied by Meacham & Gibson.

About the time that the flames reached the corner, it was discovered that the cupola of the court house was on fire. The roof of the building soon caught, and all the wood work was consumed. The books and papers were removed from the public offices, and the roof of the clerk's office was at one time in flames. This building was at this time abandoned; but the heated and wearied men again rallied, and by the most daring efforts, the building was saved.

It has been thought by some, that the court house might have been saved; but it must be recollected that the fire caught in a place that could not be reached with the means at hand, and that every one, men and women, had fought the flames ^until exhausted. If we had been in possession of a short ladder, and the means of securing the foot of it on the slanting roof, we might have reached the fire; but we were destitute of these; and in the excitement the loss of a very few minutes was fatal to the old court house.

The whole of that part of Main street from Portsmouth to Broadway, is swept clean. The buildings were old frames, and not worth much. The entire loss will probably not exceed $10,000. There was no insurance except on Mr. Winfough's saddler shop, which was insured in the Aetna, for $400. Those who owned the buildings destroyed, were John Burnsides, A. French, John L. Long, I). W. Winfough, John Stephenson and S. G. Montgomery.

old books, one indexed, and the other not. Tliey are almost identical, and contain a plain and simple history of the transactions AS they occurred, without any reference to the forms of bookkeeping. These records commence in the spring of 1816, and the commissioners had frequent meetings. Nathaniel W. Andrews was their clerk.

The amount of taxes collected in Jackson county yearly, for a number of years, was less than $1,000. The principal items of consisted of jury and election expenses, and the cost of laying out and establishing roads. During the first year the commissioners passed an order paying one dollar for each wolf scalp, where the wolf was under six months old, and two dollars where the wolf was over that age. This was subsequently raised to $1.50 and $3.00. The records show considerable sums paid out for wolf scalps during the ten or twelve years subsequent to the year 1810. This may sound strangely to the people of this day; but I can ion ember of hearing wolves howl at night, in Jefferson township, as late as the year 1834. They destroyed large numbers of sleep and young cattle, and it became a public benefit to destroy them; hence the premium paid by the public for their destruction.

The affairs of the county in the early days were conducted upon very economical principles, but honesty among the public officers was remarkable. True, there was but little to steal, and of course the temptation was small. Few officers were then elected by the people. The theory of the early officers of this county appeared to be, that when an officer was found capable and faithful, he was kept in office. Hence such men as Daniel Hoffman, Alexander Miller, Joseph Armstrong, Samuel Carrick, and a few others, have their names upon the records as public officers during a long space of time, and their accounts always Appear correct. I wish I could say as much for some of the officers whose names appear at a later period. But let that pass. * * *

A family named Darling came from the state of New York, -Cattaraugus county, about this time, and settled in the vicinity <)f Oak Hill. They were Baptists. Isaac Darling brought the first cast iron plow that was ever seen in that region. Before that time the old bar shear plow, with the wooden mould board was the only one, save the shovel plow. My father borrowed Darling's plow, and he liked it so well that he bought it, giving ^6 for it. The neighbors borrowed it all around. Matt Farley, who resided three miles from where we did, and near where Monroe Furnace is now located, borrowed it, and he carried it on his shoulder all the way without laying it down, although it weighed 80 pounds.

This was a pretty hard way of getting along, but there were greater hardships and privations than this. I knew a boy who attended the first Sabbath school, with whom I was quite intimate. The hat he wore to this Sabbath school was the first one he ever had that was bought at a store, and he earned the money paid for it by cutting cord-wood at 25 cents per cord. The hat was a common wool hat, and cost $1.25. He kept it and had it look well, from 1830 to 1834, when he worked at the furnace and got money to buy his first fur hat. He killed squirrels and tanned their skins and of these made his own shoes. He took the insoles of his winter shoes for soles. He dug a trough in a poplar log, cut up black oak bark, and thus was his own tanner, as well as shoemaker. Squirrel skins, when tanned, and then blacked with copperas, made fine, nice leather. This boy became so careful of his hats, thus acquired by so great an effort, that to this day he never wears out a hat, but has it looking neat when it goes out of fashion. He once showed me a lot of hats of all styles, from the bell crown to the sugar loaf, which had become unfashionable by lapse of time. * * *

I stopped under a great oak tree in the creek bottom to rest. In this creek, I saw Levi McDaniel baptize several persons, in the summer of 1833. On the bank grew a bush that leaned over the creek. A boy climbed upon this bush, in order the better to see the baptizing. His weight loosened the roots, and he fell on his back in the middle of the stream. The bush was across his breast, tind he held on to it, kicking and splashing the water. A little girl came to these baptizings whose name was Darling. She wore

Levi McDaniel's father, James McDaniel, was one of the first justices of the peace in Jackson county. When I was a small boy, he taught school in a little log house in the woods, just north of where Gallia and Washington stations are now located. Mr. McDaniel was an old man, with long white hair, and he was stoopshouldered with age. He thought a great deal of me, and borrowed the life of George Buchanan, the King's Fool, for me to read. Mr. McDaniel would go to sleep in school, and we boys would have our pockets full of buckeyes, and when our old teacher ^^as asleep we would cover them in the hot embers. When they became heated they would burst, with a report half as loud as a pistol.

Just above where I now w'rite. once stood the old log school house where I went to school to John McKenzie, Willis C. Wilmore, James Kelly and John Shumate. At Christmas the large boys and young men would "bar out" the teacher, and make him treat. My parents would not let me go, as I was too small. One winter I cried and begged to be permitted to go. At last my father took me up on his horse and went with me. There was a great crowd around the house, and the teacher had procured a jug of whisky at a little distillery kept by George Crump, a short distance below the school house. All were drinking and having a good time generally.

All the men who lived 35 years ago along the route of my walk of to-day, are gone. Not one remains. Then there were John and Matt Farley, Robert Massie, George Crump, Moses Massie, Jesse Kelly, Levi McDaniel, Solomon Mackley, my uncle, William and John Walton, James Kelly, etc. But I mistake. One man remains. Joseph Phillips then lived here, and 1 saw him to-day. Speaking of my uncle, reminds me of the horse mill he had on the hill between Portland and Jefferson Furnace. Here we boys would come to mill, and we had to stay and keep our horses there, or lose our turn. I have stayed there two days and

I do not know how fast a tame turkey can run in the night; but I know a wild turkey can outrun a man in daylight. I have often started up a flock of wild turkeys when hunting. I would run after them to try to get a shot at them. If I did not shoot at once, they would soon be out of sight, so much could they outrun me.

When I was a boy, wild turkeys were quite plenty in this county. They were nice and fat in the winter. We had as many as we wanted. We caught them in pens made of fence rails. A trench some 15 feet long was dug, sloping gradually down from both ends. Then a rail pen was built about three feet high, and covered on the top with rails. One side of the pen was built directly across the middle of the trench. On the inside a few boards were laid across the trench, next the rails of the pen. Then corn would be scattered about the fields, and a trail of corn leading to the pen. Corn 'was thickly scattered in the trench and in the pen. The turkeys, finding the corn, would follow the same to the i)en, and picking up the corn in thi- trench, would walk right through it, into the \pen. When they wanted out, they always looked up, running their heads between the rails. They never once thought of looking down for the li-ench.

When I was a small boy I went one morning with my father to a turkey pen, some half a mile from the house, in an old field. It had six large turkeys in it. He took one out for me to carry home. When he went to wring its neck, I begged to carry it alive. I found that it was all I wanted to carry when dead, and if I had undertaken to carry it alive, it would have got away from me at the first effort it made.

I was very fond of hunting pheasants when a boy. They are good eating, especially the breast. If I heard a pheasant drumming I was almost sure of it. They are a strange fowl. When drumming, they get upon an old log, in a thicket of bushes. They strike their wings against their sides three times in rapid sue- cession, then make a short pause, when they commence striking slowly, getting faster until it ends in a roar. The whole operation does not last over half a minute. I have often heard the drumming of a pheasant one mile. It sounds almost exactly like distant thunder. It was always a mystery to me how the light wings and soft feathery sides of this little fowl, less than the common hen, could make so tremendous a sound.

When I heard a pheasant drumming, I would go towards it until nearly in sight. They drum about once in five minutes. 1 would listen, and get the exact locality, then commence a circle around it. As long as you go around a pheasant, it will sit still and watch you; but to go towards it, it will fly at once. No matter how much noise is made in the brush, while going fast around it, there is no danger of its flying. I would go on until within 20 or 30 feet, and having my gun ready, would snoot its head off. Some times I would miss. The pheasant would generally sit still, and I would commence circling around it, reloading my gun as I went. This may seem small sport to the old hunter, who has been in the habit of killing bears, and wolves, and panthers, and deer; but turkeys and pheasants were the best game we had. True, there were a good many deer, but they were so wild that only the experienced hunters could kill them. * * -

Opossums were very plenty in this county in early days, and were very troublesome to the farmers, stealing and killing their chickens whenever they could get an opportunity. For this they were hunted and killed. The best way to kill them was to cut their heads off with an ax. There may be a few of this animal yet remaining in this county; but like the Avild turkeys and pigeons, they will soon be all gone.

Raccoons were formerly very plenty in this county, and a few yet remain. They did a great deal of mischief to the corn in the summer, eating it, and breaking it down. We often hunted them of nights. They would come into the corn fields soon after dark. Then we would send in our trained dogs. The raccoon Avould seek refuge on the largest tree it could find. A trained raccoon dog has a peculiar kind of bark when he trees the animal, which the hunter at olice recognizes. If the tree was not too large, we at once cut it down. The dogs would be ready near where it would fall, and rarely missed catching and killing the raccoon at once. If the tree was very large, we would build a fire, roast the green corn, tell stories, and thus amuse ourselves until daylight, when we would shoot the raccoon, and thus save the labor of cutting the tree down.

PRICE'S RECOLLECTIONS - The following reminiscences of P. P. Price, the last Whig postmaster of Jackson, tell the story of the company of volunteers organized in this city for the Mexican war: i ^

"I was born at Louisburg, in Greenbrier county, Virginia, on July 20, 1820. My father's name was Isaac Price and my grandfather was named Jacob Price. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, for which services he received a pension in later years. He died in Pike county in this state. My father, Isaac Price, was a soldier in the War of 1812. About 1825 he left Virginia and came to Ohio. He came down the Kanawha and then to Gallipolis. He stopped first near Beavertown in Pike county, having passed through this town. Later he settled at Piketon. I b^gan to learn the trade of hatter at Piketon, but when I was 17, I went to Chillicothe where I finished. 1 remember my experiences at Chillicothe very distinctly. One night in 1838, I went to a political meeting at a little brick school house on Bank alley, running from Second street to Water street. There I heard Allen G. Thurman make a speech and I was told that it was his first effort. I remember the Harrison meeting in 1840. The people came by thousands and the parade was very long. Tom Corwin spoke. Another time, I went to hear Thomas L. Hamer, who was afterward killed in the Mexican war. I once heard Richard M. Johnson, who was vice president under Van Buren, and who was a candidate with him again in 1840. I came to Jackson in January, 1842, and started a hatter's shop. My shop stood just across the alley west of .the Pickrel building Joseph Throckmorton had a shoe shop in the same building. I soon began to keep a supply of boots and shoes in addition to my stock of hats and caps. About 1841, I turned my store into a general store. Throckmorton left and Moses Sternberger moved in, he occupying one side of the room and I the other. 1 was single then and boarded at the McQuality house. Levi Dungan was one of my fellow boarders. The room now occupied by N. Downey was then the parlor, McQuality was county treasurer. He also, had a little store. He kept his store in a little frame house east of his hotel. It stood where the brick house adjoining the old hotel now stands. I remember some of McQuality's family distinctly. Three of the girls were Mary Ann, Eliza and Electa. Mary Ann became the wife of James Cadot, of Scioto county. I think Mc- Quality had two sons, James and William. I was a Whig. In 1844, when Clay and Freylinghuysen ran, I was a member of the Whig central committee. The other members were William Cissna and William McKinuiss. There was no paper published then in Jacksn county. I was a member of the M. E. church here. Rev. Jacob Westfall was pastor in charge and Rev. C. H. Warren was junior pastor. I remember making a hat for him. He wasa gentleman well liked by all on account of his amiability. School had been taught here before I came, in a little school house built of poles. It stood on the triangle near where the Lutheran church is now. Levi Dungan taught there. A man" by the name of Thornton taught there also before I came here. We called that part of town Ford's hill then. It was so called because a preacher named Ford lived on the road that passed over the hill. There was a s(;hool taught after that in a little building standing near where the National bank is now. It was taught by a lady. The Isham house had not been built then. A small brick building stood on its site owned by Chapman Isham and he had a store in it. I think a part of the walls of this brick were used when the Isham house was built. I was a member of a company raised for the Mexican war. William Cissna and myself had been aides of General Hamilton of this military district in the old militia, and we tried to organize a company here. We secured only a part of one however. Gabriel Andrews was one of the men. Another that I remember was Sam Pike, who did a little ;|ob print- ing. From here we went to Piketon, where we made up the company. William Cissna was elected captain and I was chosen one of the lieutenants. We went from Piketon to Portsmouth in an old corn boat, traveling on the canal. It rained nearly all the way and we had a disagreeable time. The boys got to playing once and one of them slipped off into the canal just in front ot the boat, but he was rescued before the boat passed over him. We had to stay several weeks at Portsmouth while General Hamilton went to Cincinnati to get us accepted. He got his company accepted, but our company was discharged and we had to get back fo Jackson the best we could. I think this company was raised here in 1847. Martin Stalliugs, of this county, had gone out before. He was wounded in the war. Shortly after our return, Cai)tain Cissna was married to a daughter of David Mitchel. I was at the wedding. I think Mitchel's house stood on the Chillicothe road. I remember that the boys got to shooting after the wedding, and several horses got scared and broke loose, creating considerable excitement.

The campaign of 1848 was an exciting one. I j'emember we had a great meeting here, one of the features of which was a parade. In the parade we had a large mechanics' wagon. Kiding on it were several juechanics all at work. I was working on a hat. After Taylor was elected in 1848, I was appointed postmas^ ter of Jackson. I think I entered upon my duties about July 1, 1849. I kept the otiice at my store at the corner just across the alley from the Pickrel building. About 1852 I built a part of what is now 'Rat Row' and moved my store and the postoffice there. My partner's name was John S. Taylor and our store was the fourth door from the (corner. There was no fence around the Public square then and the public used to drive down between the old court house and the log jail. I soon grew tired of the postoffice because it required me to keep a clerk. When Pierce was elected I resigned. My first letter of resignation was not accepted and I had to write a second. Finally Steele was apl)ointed and he removed the office to the parlor of the old Mc- Quality house, which 'Steele had purchased. Later, I sold out to my partnei', Taylor, and purchased the stock of James Dyer, who had his store in a small building standing at the Commercial Bank corner. Afterward I moved to a building where Hugh Crossin's building now stands. I remember that father used to catch wild turkeys in rail pens when we lived at Beavertown. The country was then full of deer and all game. The salt wells were not used when I came to Jackson. They were thick on the Salt creek bottom from Lackey's farm to the Bunns, but were beginning to lili up. Walker Bennett, the banker, used to bathe in a well near where the Baler works are. Coal had been discovered here before I came. It was found in a well which was put down near where the Crescent Opera House is now. Powell, a Welshman, had a tailor shop there, and the well was near the shop. The existence of coal under the town was well known in 1842. I remember the big flood in 1847, and I saw the man drowned on the Athens road near the Tropic furnace. George L. Crookham, I knew well. He used to sit down to read in the postoflBce. He took many papers, one of which was the National Era. I remember the great fire in 1860. Fire caught in the cupola of the old court house from a building standing near where the Iron bank is now.

I remember of going with a party to a place about one mile west of Jackson to a pigeon roost. We had pine torches. There were so many pigeons at the roost that limbs of trees would break down under their weight. We climbed them and knocked them down in great numbers. What a fluttering there was. The roost covered about four acres. We would knock down the birds with poles, put them in sacks and bring them to Jackson. If we could have sold them we would have been made rich, but the buyers were few and they had no money. I remember that an old man from Fairfield county told me that he once hauled a barrel of salt from Jackson to his home in Fairfield county on a sled. The distance is from 65 to 70 miles.

THE FIRST RAILROAD - Jackson county is largely what the railroads have made it, for its mineral wealth would never have been developed without them. Only Jackson, Keystone and

Buckeye furnaces had been built before the railroad. The first was not far from the Little Scoto, while the others were on the Little Eaccoon and could ship their product bj water direct. It is doubtful whether they would have been built, had it not been proposed to establish slack water navigation on the Eaccoon. The ''Eaccoon Navigation company," consisting of James Riggs, -Nicholas Thevenin, Alexander Williams, James Lewis, Charles Giles, Joseph S. Coombs, A. Bentley and Moses E. Matthews, w^as incorporated for that purpose, February 4, 1848, with a capital stock of |100,000. The commissioners of Gallia, Jackson and Athens counties were authorized to subscribe to said stock "any amount not exceeding |20,000 each." A survey was made, but the probability of the early building of the Iron railroad killed the enterprise.

One of the most important events in the history of the county was the coming of Professor William Williams Mather in 1838. To him must be given the credit for bringing to the attention of capitalists, its great mineral wealth, and for taking the first important step toward its development. Mather was a descendant of Cotton Mather and was born at Brooklyn. Ct., May 4, 1804. He graduated from West Point and remained in the army until 1836, when he resigned to come to Ohio to take charge of the first Geological survey. He began the work in June, 1837, assisted by Caleb Briggs, Jr. The w^ork was suspended in a few months, but not until Mather had made a practical survey of Athens, Hocking, Jackson, Scioto, Lawrence and Gallia counties. Frances Mather, a sister of the geologist, was the wife of Eev. David C. Bolles, of Licking county. Bolles invested largely in Jackson county mineral lands in the early part of 1838, and soon moved his family here. Mather bought a tract of land from Bolles, February 22, 1838, and moved his family here from Columbus later in the year. Mather and Caleb Briggs, jr., assistant on the survey, bought a second tract from Bolles, which included a coal mine. While living in this county Mather discovered the great possibilities of this mineral region, and began to devise a plan for developing it. He associated himself with a number of capitalists and organized the "Ohio Iron Manufacturing Company" to manufacture iron, glass, pottery and fire brick, make salt and saw marble. The company was incorporated March 6, 1845, with a capital of |300,00U. It was to begin operations within three years and to build a furnace in Jackson county within six years. It was authorized to build a railroad from said furnace to the Ohio river, the Ohio canal, the Hocking canal or all of them. It was empowered also to build furnaces in Athens, Gallia, Lawrence and Scioto counties. This brilliant scheme never materialized, although Mather and a company built the Oak Ridge furnace in Lawrence county; but it called the attention of capitalists to our resources. Mather was more a student than a business man, and he succeeded better as professor at Marietta and the Ohio university, than in building furnaces. He died of heart disease at Columbus, February 26, 1859. Rev. Bolles, his brotherin-law, had died within two years of his removal to this county. His monument stood in the old Presbyterian cemetery and bore the following inscription only:

Briggs, mentioned above, settled in Lawrence county and became a member of the "Ohio Iron & Coal company," w^hich laid out Ironton. He was a native of North Rochester, Massachusetts, where he was born May 24, 1S12. He died at Ironton, September 24, 1884.

The example of Mather in organizing the ''Ohio Iron Manufacturing Company" was followed with better success, by the promoters of the ''Ohio Iron & Coal company," incorporated March 23, 1849. It consisted of John Campbell, Joseph W. Dempsey, Henry Blake, James O. Williams, Caleb Briggs, James W. Means, John Ellison, George Steece and James A. Richey, and was organized to develop the resources of Lawrence county. Its incorporators contemplated the building of a railroad beginning at the Ohio river in Upper township, Lawrence county, and penetrating the iion region to the north, but the building of this railroad was

An Act To Incorporate The Iron Railroad Company

Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, That James Rogers, Robert B. Hamilton, Hiram Campbell, Henry Blake, John Peters, J. Culbertson, William D. Kelley, Anderson Dempsey and John E. Clark, of the county of Lawrence; and Daniel Hoffman, George P. Rogers and John Adair, of the county of Jackson, are hereby created a body corporate, with perpetual succession, by the name of the Iron Railroad company, with power to construct a railroad from the Ohio river, in Upper township, in Lawrence county, to the south line of Jackson county, with the right at their discretion of continuing it in a northerly direction, to the line of the Belpre & Cincinnati Railroad company.

Sec. 3. The said company shall have all the power, and be subject to all the restrictions and provisions of the act regulating railroad companies, passed February 11, 1848.

An act was passed March 7, 1850, authorizing the commissioners of Jackson county to subscribe |1()<),()00 to the capital stock of this railroad, and the matter was submitted to a popular vote at the spring election, held April 1, 1850, with the following result:

For subscription, 1,128; against subscrii)tion, 37G. The strong- <^st opposition was in Bloomfleld, where the vote stood 114 to 106. The citizens of Bloomfleld have nearly always taken a similar stand on other questions, especially that of pike building.

The promoters of the Iron railroad failed to push their enterprise and their procrastination proved fatal, as far as Jackson county was concerned. It happened in this way. The boom in Lawrence county had aroused the people of Portsmouth. The re- suit was the incorporation of the ''Scioto & Hocking Valley Railroad company," February 20, 1849, with a capital stock of 1200,000, The Portsmouth promoters were B. F. Conway, Joshua V. Hobinson, C. A. M. Damarin, Peter Kinney and John Mc- Dowell. The proposed road was to run from Portsmouth to Newark by the way of Piketon, Chillicothe, Circleville and Lancaster. Unfortunately for the enterprise, Scioto and Pike counties refused to subscribe to its capital stock, and the proposed route had to be abandoned. Portsmouth was too anxious for a railroad to let the matter drop, and its capitalists began to covet the |100,000 subscription by Jackson county to the Iron railroad. The Scioto & Hocking Valley officials went to work and secured $128,000 from Portsmouth. They then proposed to build the railroad through Jackson, if the county would transfer to them the money subscribed to the Iron railroad. The proposition was favorably received. Portsmouth w^as already a town of importance, and immediate communication with it, was more to be desired than deferred communication with Ironton, the terminus of the Iron railroad, a mere hamlet at that time. Before the transfer could be made, Jackson county had to be relieved of liability to the Iron railroad. This relief was secured March 20, 1851, by the repeal of the act, authorizing the commissioners to subscribe to that road. The commissioners were assured of the result and had alreadj^ made the subscription. The following journal entry tells the story:

March 18, 1851. - The Honorable John Callaghan, John S. Stephenson, and Moses Hays, commissioners of Jackson county present, met for the purpose of a subscription of |100,UOO to the Hocking & Scioto railroad, to be raised by the taxpayers of Jackson county to pay the interest on the loan for 15 years, when the county pays the principal and interest, if any there be. To which a borrow of that was negotiated.

The transfer of this subscription had a vital bearing on the after history of Jackson county. It built Oak Hill mostly in Jefferson township instead of in the "flatwoods" of Madison. It gave birth to Berlin and Wellston and deferred the development of Jackson and Washington townships 30 years. It knit a bond political as well as commercial, between Jackson and Scioto, instead of Jackson and Lawrence.

The first work on the road was done in Scioto county in 1850, but operations did not begin in earnest until Jackson county had made its subscription. The contract for building the flrst five miles south of Jackson was awarded immediately afterward, the contractors being Henry and Lawrence Myers. They came here from Maine. Henry was married here to Electa McQuality, a daughter of James McQuality, who lived so many years on Main street. The first load of ties was delivered on this section April 1, 1851, and occasioned this local:

The work on the railroad near this place has commenced in real earnest. The merry sons of the Emerald Isle are pouring in in goodly numbers and the digging has actually commenced. - Standard, May 22, 1851.

Work at the Scioto end of the road had already been contracted for to within two miles of Webster. There was left a link of nineteen miles to connect with the section of the Myers Bros. The contract for this link was awarded June 1, 1851. The greater part of the grading of the road was completed by August, 1852, and tracklaying began at Portsmouth. Fourteen miles of track were laid before December 1, 1852. The track into Jackson county was laid shortly afterward, and the new era began.

THE FIEST BANK - The breath of coming prosperity reached Jackson in 1851. Laborers came to build the railroad, merchants came to share the increased business, and the natives awakened from a lethargy of half a century. These causes gave birth to a bank. The necessity for it had become apparent, and its organization was hastened by the following editorial:

There is perhaps no place in Ohio where there is greater need of a bank than in our own county. We have heard a good deal of talk about making an effort to organize a bank here. We presume there will be but little difficulty in raising the requisite amount of capital. Nothing but a want of concert of action on the part of those interested prevents the speedy organization of a bank in this place. Will not the friends of the measure meet together and consult about the matter - Standard, May 22, 1851.

CITIZENS' BANK - Bennett & Co. have established a bank in Jackson, and are prepared to loan money on short time, in large or small sums, upon approved security, and also purchase good negotiable paper and county orders on favorable terms. Office for the present over the auditor's office. Bank open from 10 o'clock a. m. to 12 m.

Bennett & Co. consisted of Walker Bennett, T. R. Stanley, J. M. Steele, James Farrar and J. W. Laird. T. R. Stanley had been prosecuting attorney, and the bank opened for business in his office. The building ,stood on the east side of the Court House and belonged to the county. It was two stories high, with two rooms and a hall on each, floor.

THE MATHER CEMETERY - Prof. W^ W. Mather was appointed to begin the geological survey of Ohio in 1837. This work brought him to Jackson county, and after the work on the survey was discontinued in 1838, he settled in Jackson. The family boarded at first with Mr. Jacob Westfall. Mather soon purchased the land of Rev. David C. Bolles on Salt creek, and erected a fine residence for those times. The mansion stood on a slope overlooking Salt Creek valley, and not far from the top of the hill where the cemetery is now. It was a picturesque spot then, when the virgin forest had not yet been touched, but it must have been a very lonesome place for a family that had lived in cities. The liouse was removed years ago by W. W. Pierce, who purchased the land from Prof. Mather, but the cellar and well still remain. The cellar seems to have been under the whole house. The well is about one hundred feet deep and no water was found. Later, water gathered in it, and now stands at about sixtj feet. The survivors of the old orchard are scattered about, and all goes toshow that Prof. Mather endeavored to secure for his family all the comforts of the times.

Here the family lived for about ten years. Then death came, and Mrs. Mather was taken. Upon her death Prof. Mather laid out a cemetery upon the point overlooking the mansion and deeded it to the township. In a year or two afterward, he removed to live in Columbus, where he died in 1859 of heart disease. The inscription on Mrs. Mather's tombstone is as follows: