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THE STATE IN CONTROL
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EXPERIMENT NOT A
SUCCESS
PIONEER ROADS AND
POSTOFFICES
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at the July term 1804. The completion of this road
gave access to the Licks from the mouth of the Scioto
River, and it had the effect of causing many of the
young men of Scioto County to come to the Licks in quest
of employment during the summer months. Of the
number were such men as William Salter and
levi and Robert Patrick. These two are thought
to have been the sons of Peter Patrick, who was
one of the squatters who, with their families, effected
a settlement where Portsmouth now stands as early as
1785, three years before the settlement at
COUNTRY ROAD IN JACKSON COUNTY.
Marietta. This
Peter Patrick is said to have been the ranger who
cut his initials on the beech tree near a creek flowing
into the Scioto near the site of Piketon which on that
account was called Pee Pee Creek and gave the name to
the township. At any rate Robert and Levi
Patrick were leading citizens at the Licks in 1809.
TOWNSHIP OF LICK.
When the need for some form of local government was
recognized the new township of Lick was organized by the
officials of Ross County, to include the entire area now
divided into Lick, Coal, Washington, Jackson, Liberty
and Scioto Townships, of Jackson County. It held
its first election in April, 1809, and the following
officials are elected:
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Trustees, Roger Selden, who was the postmaster at
the Licks; David Mitchell, who later played an
important part in the history of the county, and left
many descendants, and Robert Patrick. Levi
Patrick, brother of the latter, was elected
treasurer. He left the county in about a year, and
Olney Hawkins was appointed to fill the vacancy
Mar. 10, 1810. The other officials were John
Brander, clerk; Samuel Niblack, lister; and
William Niblack, justices; Samuel Niblack and
Philip Strother, constables. Hawkins
declined to serve as overseer of the poor and was fined.
Stephen Radcliffe was appointed in his place.
Olney Hawkins was the first grand juror, and
Robert Patrick and William Niblack the first
petit jurors to represent the new township at
Chillicothe. Roger Selden left the county
soon after his selection as trustee, and William
Niblack was appointed in his place May 20, 1809.
It will be noticed that the offices were monopolized in
a measure by a few men.
DAVID MITCHELL.
Of the number only David
Mitchell and John James remained in the
county permanently. It is a singular coincidence
that two of their grandsons, John D. Mitchell and
Charles C. James, were equally as influential in
county Politics in the eighties and the nineties as
their grandfathers had been in the first decade of the
century. Mitchell was born in Kentucky, and
learned the trade of blacksmith. He then moved to
Dayton, but early in 1808, he came to Jackson, where he
spent the rest of his life. He lived on the south
slope facing Salt Creek, near a spring of a short
distance west of the road to Chillicothe and west of the
present residence of John J. McKitterick.
He was a student like Elihu Burritt, and his wide
knowledge added to his mental capacity, soon gave him
high standing in the new country. When the
democratic party divided, he affiliated with the whigs,
and remained in that party until his death. Sept.
29, 1856, aged seventy-five years. He held many
positions of trust in the county, representing it in the
Legislature and serving as associate judge on the county
bench.
MAJOR JOHN JAMES
His associate in many undertakings, Maj. John James,
was a native of Connecticut, but came west as far as
Reading, Pa., when he was sixteen years old, and settled
in 1800, after the close of his warfare against the
Indians at Parkersburg in Virginia. There he
married Nancy Cook. He then moved to an
island in the Ohio, and in 1807 he came to the Scioto
Licks to live permanently. He had been engaged
here several summers before that, and was already known
to all the leading salt boilers. In addition to
his other employments, he opened a tavern, which he
conducted for several years. Later, when the new
town was laid out, he settled in what is now Jamestown,
and his remains and those of his wife lie in the Indian
mound in the Jamestown Cemetery, which he laid out.
He was an active and an influential man almost a giant
physically, stand-
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ing six feet
and two inches, and weighing 225 pounds. Many
stories are related about his remarkable physical
prowess, among them one about a bully who came from
Kentucky to fight him. He was dressing some
slaughtered hogs at the time of the man's arrival, and
asked him to wait awhile. When the work was done,
he picked up the two largest hogs under each arm and
carried them away to his house. When he came back
stripped for battle the bully had disappeared.
James was a great Methodist for many years, joining
the class in 1811 and remaining a loyal member until his
death.
SOLDIERS OF THE WAR
OF 1812.
The first event in the outside world that materially
affected the salt boilers was the War of 1812. In
July, 1812, Gen. Edward W. Tupper of Gallia
County, came to the Licks to seek volunteers in
order to fill up the regiment which he had been
commissioned to raise, and more than two hundred men
enlisted for the six months' service. Their first
camp after leaving Jackson was near a big spring on
lower Salt Creek, where many of the men carved their
names on a large bolder, which had fallen from the
cliffs above some years before. This was known as
the Camp Rock afterward, until it was blasted and sued
for building a new pike, a piece of vandalism that was
inexcusable. It was in place in 1895 and bore the
legend "Camp of 1812." General Tupper led
his men through Chillicothe and Urbana to the Maumee,
entering the Indian country in August. Receiving
orders to march down the Maumee the Indians finally
attacked them. A severe battle followed, but
General Tupper and his men drove off the enemy with
a loss of fewer than thirty men, while the loss of the
Indians was estimated at 300. William Hewitt
was one of the scouts with this expedition.
Tupper's men were on short rations, and while
pursuing the Indians they fell in with a large drove of
hogs in a cornfield, and they abandoned the pursuit,
according to Atwater's history, to kill the hogs.
The expedition then returned to Fort McArthur, and when
winter set in they returned to their homes. Next
year another company was raised at the Licks to march
with Maj. Ben Daniels to the relief of Fort
Meigs. The men served from July 29 to Aug. 19,
1813. The roster of this company was as follows:
Captain, Jared Strong; first lieutenant, John
Gillaspie; ensign, William Howe; sergeants,
William Given, John Lake, David Mitchell, Philip
Strother; corporals, Salmon Goodenough,
Alex Hill, Joseph Lake, William Higginbotham;
drummer, Harris Penny, fifer, James Markey;
privates, William Ellerton, James Phillips, Samuel
Aldridge, John Sargent, Samuel Bunn, Stephen Bailey,
Henry Rout, Joseph Clemens, Joseph Schellenger, John Ogg,
James Higginbothem, William Black. This was a
representative body of men. Strong was
afterward the first representative of the county, Given
the first associate judge, David Mitchell had a
long record in the public service of his time and
county, while Bunn, Howe, Schellenger, the
Lakes, Hill, and Gillaspie have many
descendants in the county to this day. So far as
known all the men in the company came home.
END OF CHAPTER III - |
