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Historical Collections of Ohio

By Henry Howe

Vol. I

©1888

 

ADAMS COUNTY

 

Page 222

Top Picture

John Cone Kimball, Photo Peabody Museum.

SERPERT MOUND PARK.

[The skeleton was found three feet below the surface of the mound. The bones below the femora

were removed before the rest of the skeleton was uncovered.]

 

Bottom Picture

John Cone Kimball, Photo, Peabody Museum

SERPENT MOUND PARK.

 

Page 223

ADAMS COUNTY lies on the Ohio River fifty miles east of Cincinnati and one hundred south of Columbus. It derives its name from John Adams, second President of the United States. It was formed July 10, 1797, by proclamation of Governor St. Clair being then one of the four counties into which the North-west Territory was divided. The three others previously formed were Washington, July 27, 1788; Hamilton, Jan. 2, 1790; and Wayne, 1796. The land is generally hilly and broken. Many of its first settlers were from Virginia, Kentucky, and North Ireland. It has 625 square miles. In 1885 the acres cultivated were 85,873; woodland, 84,598; lying waste, 11,123. Productions: corn, bushels 94,223; oats, 105,645; wheat, 88,533, and tobacco 1,600,976, being the eighth county in amount in the State. School census 1886, 8750: teachers, 176. It has 28 miles of railroad.

 

The population in 1820 was in, 406; in 1840, 13,271; in 1860, 20,309 and in 1880, 24,005 of whom 212 were employed in man manufactures, and 20,516 were Ohio born.

 

 

The first settlement within the Virginia military tract, and the only one between the Scioto and Little Miami until after the treaty of Greenville, in 1795, was made in this county, at Manchester, by the then Col., later, Gen. Nathaniel Massie. McDonald, in his unpretending, but excellent little volume, says:

 

 

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called Manchester; at this time a small place, about twelve miles above Maysville (formally Limestone), Kentucky. This little confederacy, with Massie at the helm (who was the soul of it), went to work with spirit. Cabins were raised and by the middle of March, 1791, the whole town was enclosed with strong pickets firmly fixed in the ground with block houses at each angle for defence.

 

Thus was the first settlement in the Virginia military district and the fourth settlement in the bounds of the State of Ohio effective. Although this settlement was commenced in the hottest Indian war it suffered less from depredation, and every interruptions from the Indians, that any settlement previously made on the Ohio River. This was no doubt owning to the watchful band of brave spirits who guarded the place—men who were reared in the midst of danger and inured to perils, and as watchful as hawks. Here were the BEASLEYS, the STOUTS, the WASHBURNS, the LEDOMS, the EDINGTONS, the DENINGS, the ELLSIONS, the UTTS, the McKENNZIES, the WADES, and others who were equal to the Indians in all of the arts and stratagems of boarder war.

 

As soon as Massie had completely prepared his station for defence, the whole population went to work and cleared the lower of the Three Islands, and planted it in corn. The island was very rich, and produced heavy crops. The woods with a little industry, supplied a choice of variety of game. Deer, elk, buffalo, bears, and turkeys, were abundant, while the river furnished a variety of excellent fish the wants of the inhabitants, under these circumstances, were few and easily gratified. When this station was made, the nearest neighbors north-west of the Ohio were the inhabitants at Columbia, a settlement below the mouth of the Little Miami, five miles about Cincinnati: and at Gallipolis, a French settlement near the mouth of the Great Kenhawa.

 

The station being established, Massie continued, to make locations and surveys. Great precautions were necessary to avoid the Indians, and even these did not always avail, as is shown by the following incidents, the first of which we copy from the American Pioneer.

 

ISRAEL DONALSON’S NARRATIVE OF HIS CAPITIVITY.

 

 

I am not sure whether it was the last of March or first of April I came to the territory to reside; but on the night of the 21st of April, 1791, Mr. MASSIE and myself were sleeping together on our blankets (for beds we had none), on the loft of our cabin, to get out of the way of the fleas and gnats. Soon after lying down I began dreaming of Indians, and continued to do so through the night. Some time in the night, however, whether Mr. MASSIE waked of himself, or whether I wakened him, I cannot now say, but I observed to him I did not know what was to be the consequence, for I had dreamed more about Indians that night than in all the time I had been in the western country before. As is common, he made light of it, and we dropped again to sleep. He asked me next morning if I would go, with him up the river, about four or five miles to make a survey, and that William LYTLE, who was then at the fort, was going along. We were both young surveyors, and were glad of the opportunity to practice.

 

 

Page 225

ing about the block-house on the Kentucky shore, but they heard nothing of it.

 

Evening Camp.—They went on rapidly that evening and camped I think on the waters of Eagle creek; started next morning early, it raining hard, and one of them seeing my hat was somewhat convenient to keep off the rain came up and took it off my head and put it on his own. By this time I had discovered some friendship in a very lusty Indian, I think the one that first came up to me; I made signs to him that one had taken my hat; he went and took it off the other Indian’s head and placed it again on mine, but had not gone far before they took it again. I complained as before, but my friend shook his head, took down and opened his budget, and took out a sort of blanket cap, and put it on my head. We went on; it still rained hard and the waters were very much swollen, and when my friend discovered that I was timorous, he would lock his arm in mine and lead me through, and frequently in open woods when 1 would get tired I would do the same thing with him and walk for miles. They did not make me carry anything until Sunday or Monday. They got into a thicket of game and killed, I think, two bears and some deer; they then halted and jerked their meat, eat a large portion, peeled some bark, made a kind of box, filled it, and put it on me to carry. I soon got tired of it and threw it down: they raised a great laugh, examined my back, applied some bear’s oil to it and then put on the box again. I went on some distance and threw it down again; my friend then took it up, threw it over his head and carried it. It weighed, I thought, at least fifty pounds.

 

While resting one day, one of the Indians broke up little sticks and laid them up in the form of a fence, then took out a grain of corn, as carefully wrapped up as people used to wrap up guineas in olden times; this they planted and called out squaw, signifying to me that that would be my employment with the squaws. But, notwithstanding my situation at the time, I thought they would not eat much corn of my raising. On Tuesday, as we were traveling along, there came to us a white man and an Indian on horseback; they had a long talk, and when they rode off, the Indians I was with seemed considerably alarmed; they immediately formed in Indian file, placed me in the center and shook a war club over my head, and showed me by these gestures that if I attempted to run away they would kill me.

 

The Shawanee Camp.—We soon after arrived at the Shawanee camp, where we continued until late in the afternoon of the next day. During our stay there they trained my hair to their own fashion, put a jewel of tin in my nose, etc., etc. The Indians met with great formality when we came to the camp which was very spacious. One side was entirely cleared out for our use, and the party I was with passed the camp to my great mortification, I thinking they were going on; but on getting to the further end they wheeled short round, came into the camp, sat down-not a whisper. In a few minutes two of the oldest got up, went round, shook hands, came and sat down again; then the Shawanees rising simultaneously came and shook hands with them. A few of the first took me by the hand, but one refused, and I did not offer them my hand again not considering it any great honor. Soon after a kettle of bears’ oil, and some craclins were set before us, and we began eating, they first chewing the meat, then dipping it into the bears’ oil, which I fried to be excused from, but they compelled me to it, which tried my stomach, although by this time hunger had compelled me to eat many a dirty morsel. Early in the afternoon an Indian came to the camp and was met by his party just outside, when they formed a circle and he spoke, I thought, near an hour, and so profound was the silence that had they been on a board floor I thought the fall of a pin might have been heard. I rightly judged of the disaster, for the day before I was taken I was at Limestone, and was solicited to join a party that was going down to the mouth of Snag creek where some Indian canoes where discovered hid in the willows. The party went and divided, some came over to the Indian shore and some remained in Kentucky, and they succeeded in killing nearly the whole party.

 

Two White Men.—There was at this camp two white men; one of them could swear in English, but very imperfectly, having I suppose been taken young; the other, who could speak good English, told me he was from South Carolina. He then told me different names which I have forgotten, except that of Ward; asked if I knew the Wards that lived near Washington, Kentucky. I told him I did, and wanted him to leave the Indians and go to his brother’s, and take me with him. He told me he preferred staying with the Indians, that he might nab the whites. He and I had a great deal of chat, and disagreed in almost everything. He told me they had taken a prisoner by the name of Towns, that had lived near Washington, Kentucky, and that he had attempted to run away, and they killed him. But the truth was, they had taken Timothy DOWNING the day before I was taken, in the neighborhood of Blue Licks, and had got within four or five miles of that camp, and night coming on, and it being very rainy, they concluded to camp.

 

Page 226

and the Indian for the camp. The horse he caught and mounted; but not being a woods-man, struck the Ohio a little below Scioto, just as a boat was passing. They would not land for him until he rode several miles and convinced them that he was no decoy, and so close was the pursuit, that the boat had only gained the stream when the enemy appeared on the shore. He had severely wounded the young Indian in the scuffle, but did not know it until I told him. But to return to my own narrative: two of the party, viz., my friend and another Indian, turned back from this camp to do other mischief, and never before had I parted with a friend with the same regret. We left the Shawanee camp about the middle of the afternoon, they under great excitement. What detained them I know not, for they had a number of their horses up and their packs on from early in the morning. I think they had at least one hundred of the best horses that at that time Kentucky could afford. They calculated on being pursued and they were right, for the next day, viz., the 28th of April, Major KENTON with about ninety men was at the camp before the fires were extinguished; and I have always viewed it as a providential circumstance that the enemy had departed, as a defeat on the part of the Kentuckians would have been inevitable. I never could get the Indians in a position to ascertain their precise number, but concluded there were sixty or upward, as sprightly looking men as I ever saw together, and well equipped as they could wish for. The Major himself agreed with me that it was a happy circumstance that they were gone.

 

Escapes.—We traveled that evening I thought seven miles and encamped in the edge of a prairie, the water a short distance off. Our supper that night consisted of a raccoon roasted undressed. After this meal I became thirsty, and an old warrior to whom my friend had given me in charge, directed another to go with me to the water, which made him angry; he struck me, and my nose bled. I had a great mind to return the stroke, but did not. I then determined, be the result what it might, that I would go no farther with them. They tied me and laid me down as usual, one of them lying on the rope on each side of me; they went to sleep, and I to work gnawing and picking the rope (made of bark) to pieces, but did not get loose until day was breaking. I crawled off on my hands and feet until I got into the edge of the prairie, and sat down on a tussock to put on my moccasins, and had put on one and was preparing to put on the other, when they raised the yell and took the back track, and I believe they made as much noise as twenty white men could do. Had they been still they might have heard me, as I was not more than two chains’ length from them at the time. But I started and ran, carrying one moccasin in my hand; and in order to evade them, chose the poorest ridges I could find; and when coming to tree-logs lying crosswise, would run along one and then along the other. I continued on that way until about ten o’clock, then ascending a very poor ridge, crept in between two logs, and being very weary soon dropped to sleep and did not waken until the sun was almost down; I traveled on a short distance further and took lodging for the night in a hollow tree. I think it was on Saturday that I got to the Miami. I collected some logs, made a raft by peeling bark and tying them together; but I soon found that too tedious and abandoned it. I found a turkey’s nest with two eggs in it, each one having a double yolk; they made two delicious meals for different days.

 

Arrives at Fort Washington.—I followed down the Miami, until I struck Harmar’s trace, made the previous fall, and continued on it until I came to Fort Washington, now Cincinnati. I think it was on the Sabbath, the first day of May; I caught a horse, tied a piece of bark around his under jaw- on which there was a large tumor like a wart: The bark rubbed that, and he became restless and threw me, not hurting me much however; I caught him again, and he again threw me, hurting me badly. How long I lay insensible I don’t know; but when I revived he was a considerable distance from me. I then traveled on very slow, my- feet entirely bare and full of thorns and briers. On Wednesday, the day that I got in, I was so far gone that I thought it entirely useless to make any further exertion, not knowing. what distance I was from the river; and I took my station at the root of a tree, but soon got into a state of sleeping, and either dreamt, or thought, that I should not be loitering away my time, that I should get in that day; of which, on reflection, I had not the most distant idea. However, the impression was so strong that I got up and walked on some distance. I then took my station again as before, and the same thoughts occupied my mind. I got up and walked on. I had not traveled far before I thought I could see an opening for the river; and getting a little further on, I heard the sound of a bell. I then started and ran, (at a slow speed undoubtedly); a little further on I began to perceive that I was coming to the river hill; and having got about half way down, I heard the sound of an axe, which was the sweetest music I had heard for many a day. It was in the extreme out-lot; when I got to the lot I crawled over the fence with difficulty, it being very high.

 

 

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prisoner and had made my escape from the Indians. After a few more questions he told me to come to him. I did so. Seeing my situation, his fears soon subsided; he told me to sit down on a log and he would go and catch a horse he had in the lot and take me in. He caught his horse, set me upon him, but kept the bridle in his own hand. When we got into the road, people began to inquire of Mr. WOODWARD, “Who is he—an Indian?” I was not surprised nor offended at the inquiries, for I was still in Indian uniform, bare headed, my hair cut off close, except the scalp and foretop, which they had put up in a piece of tin, with a bunch of turkey feathers, which I could not undo. They had also stripped off the feathers of about two turkeys and hung them to the hair of the scalp; these I had taken off the day I left them. Mr. WOODWARD took me to his house, where every kindness was shown me. They soon gave me other clothing; coming from different persons, they did not fit me very neatly; but there could not be a pair of shoes got in the place that I could get on, my feet were so much swollen.

 

McDONALD gives in his Sketches the following incidents of Indian history at Manchester:

 

Ellison’s Captivity.—In the spring of the year 1793, the settlers at Manchester commenced clearing the out-lots of the town; and while so engaged, an incident of much interest and excitement occurred. Mr. Andrew ELLISON, one of the settlers, cleared a lot immediately adjoining the fort. He had completed the cutting of the timber, rolled the logs together and set them on fire. The next morning, a short time before daybreak, Mr. ELLISON opened one of the gates of the fort and went out to throw his logs together. By the time he had finished this _.job, a number of the heaps blazed up brightly, and as he was passing from one to the other, he observed, by the light of the fires, three men walking briskly towards him. This did not alarm him in the least, although, he said, they were dark skinned fellows; yet he concluded they were the WADES, whose complexions were very dark, going early to hunt. He continued to right his log-heaps, until one of the fellows seized him by the arms, and called out in broken English, “How do? how do?” He instantly looked in their faces, and to his surprise and horror, found himself in the clutches of three Indians. To resist was useless. He there fore submitted to his fate, without any resist­ance or an attempt to escape.

 

The Indians quickly moved off with him in the direction of Paint creek. When breakfast was ready, Mrs. ELLISON sent one of her children to ask their father home; but he could not be found at the log-heaps. His absence created no immediate alarm, as it was thought he might have started to hunt after the completion of his work. Dinnertime arrived, and ELLISION not returning, the family became uneasy, and began to suspect some accident had happened to him. His gun-rack was examined, and there hung his rifle and his pouch in their usual place. Massie raised a party and made a circuit around the place and found, after some search, the trails of four men one of whom had on shoes; and as ELLISON had shoes on, the truth that the Indians had made him a prisoner was unfolded. As it was almost night at the time the trail was discovered, the party returned to their station. Next morning early, preparations were made by MASSIE and his party to pursue the Indians. In doing this they found great difficulty, as it was so early in the spring that the vegetation was not of sufficient growth to show plainly the trail of the Indians, who took the precaution to keep on hard and high land, where their feet could make little or no impression.. MASSIE and his party, however. were as unerring as a pack of well-trained hounds, and followed the trail to Paint creek, when they found the Indians gained so fast on them that pursuit was vain. They therefore abandoned it and returned to the station.

 

The Indians took their prisoner to Upper Sandusky and compelled him to run the gauntlet. As ELLISON was a large man and not very active, he received a severe flogging as he passed along the line. From this place he was taken to Lower Sandusky and was again compelled to run the gauntlet, and was then taken to Detroit, where he was generously ransomed by a British officer for one hundred dollars. He was shortly afterwards sent by his friend the officer to Montreal, from whence he returned home before the close of the summer of the same year.

 

 

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arrived at their old hunting camp, they alighted from their horses and were preparing to strike a fire, when a platoon of Indians fired upon them at the distance of not more than twenty paces. Asahel EDGINGTON fell to rise no more. John was more fortunate. The sharp crack of the rifles, and the horrid yells of the Indians, as they leaped from their place of ambush, frightened the horses, who took the track towards home at full speed. John EDGINGTON was very active on foot, and now an occasion offered which required his utmost speed. The moment the Indians leaped from their hiding-place they threw down their guns and took after him. They pursued him screaming and yelling in the most horrid manner. EDGINGTON did not run a booty race. For about a mile the Indians stepped in his tracks almost before the bending grass could rise. The uplifted tomahawk was frequently so near his head that he thought he felt its edge. Every effort was made to save his life, and every exertion of the Indians was made to arrest him in his flight. EDGINGTON, who had the greatest stake in the race, at length began to gain on his pursuers, and after a long race he distanced them, made his escape, and safely reached home. This truly was a most fearful and well contested race. The big Shawanee chief, Captain John, who headed the Indians on this occasion, after peace was made and Chillicothe settled, frequently told the writer of this sketch of the race. Captain John said that “tile white man who ran away was a smart fellow; “ that the “white-man run and I run; he run and run, at last the white man run clear off from me.”

 

The first court in this county was held in Manchester. Winthrop SARGENT, the secretary of the territory, acting in the absence of the governor, appointed commissioners, who located the county seat at an out-of-the-way place, a few miles above the mouth of Brush creek, which they called Adamsville. The locality was soon named, in derision, Scant. At the next session of the court its members became divided, and part sat in Manchester and part at Adamsville. The governor, on his return to the territory, finding the people in great confusion, and much bickering between them, removed the seat of justice to the mouth of Brush creek, where the first court was held in 1798. Here a town was laid out by Noble GRIMES, under the name of Washington. A large log court-house was built, with a jail in the lower story, and the governor appointed two more of the Scant party judges, which gave them a majority. In 1800, Charles Willing BYRD, secretary of the territory, in the absence of the governor, appointed two more of the Manchester party judges, which balanced the parties, and the contest was maintained until West Union became the county seat. Joseph DARLINTON, and Israel DONALSON, were among the first judges of the Common Pleas. In 1847 on the publication of the first edition of this work both of these gentlemen were living in the county, Gen. DARLINTON being at the time clerk of the court, an office he had held since 1803. They were also members of the convention for forming the first Constitution of Ohio, only three others of that body being then living.

 

WEST UNION IN 1846.—The annexed view shows on the left the jail and market and in the center the Court House and county offices. The last stand in a pleasant area shaded by locusts. The Court House is a substantial stone building and bears good testimony to the skill of the builder, ex-Gov. METCALFE of Kentucky, who commencing life a mason, acquired the sobriquet of “Stone Hammer.” The first court house was of logs. West Union contains four churches, one Associated Reformed, one Presbyterian, one Methodist, one Baptist; two newspapers, a classical school, and nine mercantile stores. It had in 1820 a population of 406; in 1840, 462. (Old Edition.)

 

Page 229

TOLLE; Clerk of Court, William R. MAHAFFEY; Sheriff, W. P. NEWMAN; Prosecuting Attorney, Philip HANDREHAN; Auditor, J. W. JONES; Treasurer, W. B. BROWN; Recorder, Leonard YOUNG; Surveyor, A. V. HUTSON; Coroner, George W. OSBORN; Commissioners, J. R. ZILE, Thomas J. SHELTON, James H. CRISSMAN.

 

The name of West Union was given to it by Hon. Thos. KIRKER, one of the commissioners who laid it out in 1804, and one of its earliest settlers. In 1880 its population was 626; in 1886 school census, 317. It has one bank, that of Grimes & Co.; and three newspapers, viz., New Era, Republican, Mrs. Hannah L. IRWIN, editor; People’s Defender, Democratic, Joseph W. EYLAR, editor, and Scion, Republican, Samuel BURWELL, editor. It has also a Children’s Home with forty-one children. The buildings are large and the appointments excellent.

 

Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.

THE COUNTY BUILDINGS, WEST UNION.

 

In reply to an inquiry, Hon. J. L. CORYELL of West Union has sent us a communication giving brief mention of valued characters identified with the history of Adams County. Such an one upon every county in the State would be a benefit serving to bind the people of the commonwealth in closer fraternal bonds through the greater mutual knowledge thus obtained, and minister to a laudable pride in the possession of the laws and institution that could give the highest wealth of character. He was prompted to thus aid us through his memory of the old edition, a copy of which he earned when a youth by chopping wood at twenty-five cents a day. Thus writes the judge.

 

 

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Attorney-General of Ohio about 1850. General A. T. WILKOFF of Columbus, President Cleveland & Marietta R. R., is a native of this county; John P. LEEDAM, formerly clerk of our courts, then member of Congress and now Sergeant-at-arms of House of Representatives, is a citizen of this town. J. H. ROTHNECK, a native of this county, is now a Supreme Judge in Iowa. David SINTON of Cincinnati, so noted for his benefactions, was reared in this town where his parents died. Dr. Thomas WILLIAMSON, forty years a missionary to the Dakota Indians, was reared and educated in this county.

 

MANCHESTER, one of the oldest settlements in the State, is on the Ohio, sixty miles east south-east of Cincinnati, twelve miles above Maysville, Ky. and at the foot of the Three Islands. It was widely known early in this century to the traveling public, being a point of transshipment on the great stage route east from Lexington to Maysville and from here through Chillicothe, Zanesville, Wheeling, etc. Up to 1846 it was an insignificant place having at that time not exceeding fifty dwellings. It is now the largest town in the county. It has churches, two Methodist and one Presbyterian. Newspaper, Signal, Independent, J. A. PERRY, editor. Banks, Farmer’s, W. L. VANCE, president, L. Pierce, cashier; Manchester, R. H. ELLISON, president, C. C. W. NAYLOR, cashier.

 

Edward R. Gregory, Photo, Manchester, 1887.

THE LOWER OF THE THREE ISLANDS AND LANDING, MANCHESTER

 

 

Industries and Employees.-Manchester Planing Mill Co., twenty-eight hands; L. W. TRENARY, Lumber, twelve hands; S. P. LUCKER & Co., Carriages, eight hands; Manchester Rolling Mills, six hands; Weaver & Bradford, fruit Jugs, etc., five hands. State Report 1887. Population in 1880, 1455 ; school census in 1886, 643.

 

Manchester was the fourth point permanently settled in the State which has developed into a town, the other three being Marietta, Gallipolis and Cincinnati, the last named originally called Losantiville.

 

 

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The river is highly picturesque from its graceful windings, softly wooded hills and forest clad islands. In but few places is it more pleasant than at Manchester.

 

The islands in the river are all very low. They were originally formed on sand-bars where floating trees lodged in seasons of freshets and made a nucleus for the gathering of the soil which is of the richest. In the June freshet they are overflown, when with their wealth of foliage they seem as huge masses of greenery reposing on the bosom of the water.

 

Those born upon the Ohio never lose their interest in the beautiful stream; and few things are more pleasant for the people who dwell along its shores’ than in the quiet of a summer’s evening when their day’s work is done, to sit before their doors and look down upon the ever-flowing waters. Everything is calm and restful: varied often by the slow measured puff of an approaching steamer, heard, may be, for miles away, long before she is seen, or if after dark, before her light suddenly bursts in view as she rounds a bend.

 

Up to within a few years the barren hills in this and some other river counties remained in places the property of the general Government. They afforded, however, a fine range for the cattle and hogs of the scattered inhabitants and no small quantity of lumber, such as staves, hoop poles and tan bark, which were taken from the public lands. Dr. John LOCKE, one of Ohio’s earliest geologists, from whose report made about the year 1840 these facts are derived, thus describes the peculiar people who dwelt in the wilderness.

 

The Bark Cutter.s—There is a vagrant class who are supported by this kind of business. They erect a cabin towards the head of some ravine, collect the chestnut-oak bark from the neighboring hill-tops, drag it on sleds to points accessible by wagons, where they sell it for perhaps $2 per cord, to the wagoner. The last sells it at the river to the flat boat shipper, at $6 per cord, and he again to the consumer at Cincinnati, for $11. Besides this common trespass, the squatter helps himself out by hunting

 

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