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When the first census of Jackson County was taken in
1820 the inhabitants were found to number 3,746.
When it is recalled that the voting population was fewer
than five hundred, it will be seen readily, that it was
a county of large families. There were sixteen
children in the family of George L. Crookham and
the family that could not show five or six lusty sons,
and an equal number of buxom daughters was not able to
command much attention. By 1830 the population had
increased to 5,941 and to 9,447 in 1840. In 1850 a
part of the county was taken to form the County of
Vinton, but a small area was added from the County of
Gallia and teh census returns showed a population of
12,719. Much of the increase from 1830 to 1850 was
due to the coming of the Welsh immigrants into Madison,
Jefferson, Bloomfield and Franklin townships, and to the
building of two iron furnaces. The railroad came in
1853, and by 1860 the population had increased to
17,941. Up to that year Jackson was the only
village of any importance in the county, and yet the
population of the town and Lick Township was only 2,334.
In the meantime, Milton, with no villages, and only an
agricultural population, had 2,365 inhabitants.
Franklin, which had the largest population when the
county was organized retained its leadership in 1830 and
1840, and it continued to grow until 1870, the figures
for the four decades up to that time being 1,055, 1,295,
1,434 and 1,665. The rural exodus and other causes
began to tell by 1880, and the population fell to 1,502.
Madison's population was more than doubled between 1840
and 1850 by the advent of the Welsh, rising from 274 to
1,515. Jefferson grew during the same decade from
752 to 1,036 and it almost doubled from 1850 to 1860,
rising from 1,036, to 2,050. In this
connection it must be borne in mind, that several large
colonies left the
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county for western states, between 1840 and 1860.
One of Welshmen went to Minnesota in 1856 and one of Oak
Hill neighborhood people went to Missouri about the same
time. In the same period, the Massies,
Kellys, Waltons, Allens, Corns and many other
families sold their farms to the Welsh and moved south
to Lawrence, others to Scioto and the rest farther west.
The coming of the Welsh into the townships named, and
the colonies of Pennsylvanians and Western Reserve
people and of Germans into Liberty and Scioto townships,
drove out the last of the squatters who were as numerous
in some parts as the actual settlers who bought the
lands upon which they had lived. About 1870 the
rural exodus began and the country townships have lost
much population, but the explanation of that phenomenon
belongs at a later period in the county's history.
The Germans of Scioto have been mentioned. A few
Irish came in early days but the majority of them did
not come until 1854.
PIONEERS AT THE
LICKS
The first traders at the Scioto Licks were
undoubtedly Frenchmen, but English traders may have
visited the Licks while the Indians were in possession.
Peddlers from Chillicothe came as soon as the whites
settled here and supplies were brought in by traders for
some years before any merchant opened a store.
There is no record of any merchant until after the
county was organized when licenses began to be issued.
The first was secured by Daniel Hoffman, Nov. 5,
1816, on the payment of $15. His business was on a
small scale, for in June, 1818, the commissioners,
John Stephenson and Robert G. Hanna,
appraised his house and store with all the loose plank
in the lot and counter and other work for the store at
$175. This store stood on the site of the Gibson
House, corner of Main and Portsmouth streets.
Peter Apple & company started a second store
receiving their license Apr. 8, 1817. Daniel
Burley, the third merchant, took out his license May
12, 1818. The firm of Hugh Poor & Company,
consisting of Hugh Poor, Horace Wilcox and
Edmund Richmond, took out a license July 15, 1818,
and Strong & Given, consisting of Jared Strong
and William Given, secured a license Sept.
26, 1818. Another firm, James & Hurst,
consisting of Maj. John James and Hooper Hurst,
started a store in 1819. James had been a
partner with the firm of Hugh Poor and Edmund
Richmond before that, taking over the interest of
Horace Wilcox, who had died early in 1819. It
appears that one Walter Murdock had been engaged
in business before June 30, 1818, for on that date he
petitioned for relief as an insolvent debtor. He
was the first bankrupt in the county. The tavern
keepers sold liquor and their profits were larger than
those of some of the merchants. Absalom Welch,
John George, John James and others, opened taverns
in the days of the Salt Works, James in 1807.
Andrew Donnally was the first to secure a
license. He opened his tavern in Bloomfield
Township but soon moved to Poplar Row. James
McQuality came later, and for many years he owned
the most pretentions tavern in the town, a two story
frame building in Main Street, with the small windows
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that the oldest citizens remember. As his business
grew he built an extension toward the alley on the west.
In time the lower room of this extension became the
postoffice. The upper room was used for an office
and Allen G. Thurman always occupied it when he
was in attendance at the Jackson courts. Other
noted men, including General Harrison, Henry
Clay, and many of minor note have spent a night or
more in this old tavern. David Mitchell was
one of the old time blacksmiths from 1808 until official
duties took him out of the shop. Mechanics were
scarce in the county until the '30s, for there was
little building, except of log houses. The
majority of the frame buildings in the county were
erected by journeymen from Chillicothe or Gallipolis.
GEORGE L. CROOKHAM,
PIONEER TEACHER
George L. Crookham was the first teacher in the
county, and the only school for more than a decade
before the county was organized was the one conducted by
him at the Salt Works. Then other neighborhoods
began to employ men to teach schools in their own homes,
one week in each home in the community until the teacher
had gone the round of the paying patrons. This
system was very unsatisfactory, and cabins began to be
built for the sole use of schools, and after the sale of
school lands regular districts were organized, some of
which remain to this day, with little change of
boundaries. But after schoolhouses were built,
teachers continued to board around until in the '50s,
and even later.
THE SCHOOLHOUSE OF
OLD.
The following pen picture of a pioneer schoolhouse of
Jackson County was written by Davis Mackley,
who was a teacher for many years, beginning in 1836:
"Going along a path through the woods, we heard a kind
of monotonous sound between talking and singing.
It is the united voice of twenty-five or thirty boys and
girls all reading or spelling aloud. in school.
Now we can see the schoolhouse. It is situated by
the side of the path. It is built of unhewn logs,
and up to the roof is not more than some seven feet
high. The roof is made of clapboards held to their
place by weight poles. The chimney is built with
'cat and clay,' or mud and split lath. The
fire place takes in wood eight or ten feet long.
The chimney is frequently taking fire and a boy is
engaged putting it out by pouring water upon it from a
large gourd. The house is about twenty feet square.
The floor is made of puncheons or split logs, with the
upper side hewn smooth. There is one door, the
shutter of which is made of clapboard and is hung upon
wooden hinges and fastened with clapboards. The
windows are made by widening the space between two logs
and these spaces are covered with paper pasted in.
It is greased with lard on the outside to preserve it
from the weather. Holes in the logs under
the windows are made to hold pins on which are laid
light puncheons for use as writing desks. The
seats are made of split poplar
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logs, the upper side hewn smooth, with four legs set in
holes in the four corners, made with augers. The
cracks between the logs are chinked with mud.
There is not an ounce of metal or any glass in the
building.” This description will answer also for
the cabins of nearly all the pioneers. Even the
most prosperous lived in such houses until in the '50s,
and a large number lived in meaner shanties.
Families of five to fifteen children were raised in one
room log cabins before 1840, and some of the children
became leaders in church and state, outside of their own
county. The teacher in the early schools could
read, write and cipher, and that was all the teaching
done. The books were few in number. There
were small spelling books, Bibles, Testaments, some
annuals and occasional books of history or biography.
After some years, elementary arithmetics and primer
grammars were used by more progressive teachers.
Each pupil had a blank book made at home of foolscap
paper, bound in cloth or calico, in which the teacher
wrote problems, models for writing, rules of grammar,
etc., and the scholars followed copy, and wrote in
solutions of problems. Some of these old copybooks
are treasured by descendants of the scholars of those
days. Spelling was the principal exercise, and
wonderful proficiency was acquired by some pupils.
The spelling school as an entertainment came into vogue
at an early date and played about the same part for the
children as the shooting match did for their elders,
with this social advantage, that both sexes participated
in the spelling matches, and the girls often won.
The teachers and pupils generally provided their own
fuel and the Saturdays devoted to chopping and hauling
wood for the school was a glorious holiday. The
great event of the school year was the Christmas treat,
when children were given candy brought from a distant
town. The treat was always preceded by a frolic
called " locking" or " barring out" the teacher.
It was "barring out" before the day of locks. Some
morning when the teacher arrived at the school house, he
would find the door barred and all the large boys inside
of the house, while the small boys and girls are waiting
expectantly for his arrival outside. Then began
parleying and maneuvering, for the teacher was expected
to make a fight, to get in. All the tricks of an
ingenious Yankee were used by the best teachers, for the
purpose of testing the boys' wits, and for several days
the teacher might succeed in breaking in, but in the end
the boys were allowed to win and the teacher
capitulated. Two large boys were then sent to the
nearest store. perhaps as far as Jackson, to get
the treat and all ended well. Occasionally however
a bitter row developed, and some teachers were ducked in
creeks, or some of the boys were pummeled and expelled
from school. In the earliest days, the treat for
the largest boys always included whisky, and maple sugar
and fruit for the smaller ones and the girls, but in
time sweets came in. Many of the older teachers
had been failures at everything else, but in the '40s
ambitious young men, who expected to become lawyers or
ministers, began to teach, and they introduced new
methods. Some of the best of this class in Jackson
County were Rev. John P. Morgan, a wonderful
mathematician, who entered the
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Calvinistic ministry, and Edward Jordan,
who in after years became solicitor of the United States
treasury. Practically all the professional men
worked their way up through the common schools, first as
pupils, then as monitors, then as teachers. This
kind of training gave the men of the pioneer days fine
training for coping with all the great problems of life.
Such experience is lacking today, and something is
missed out of the lives of the professional men of
today, on that account, which nothing else can replace.
One of the best of the old style teachers was William
Wilds. He taught from house to house for
several years and then a cabin was built for him by the
neighbors of Adam Sell, northwest of
Coalton, about 1820. James H. Darling was
the last survivor of his school and he recalled that
Wilds was a free user of the rod. His oldest
scholars read the Bible and studied arithmetic and
writing. The smaller ones spelled and played.
The teachers of the Wilds type passed away soon
after teachers examinations were required.
FIRST BOARD OF
EDUCATION
The first board of examiners was appointed June 8, 1826,
and consisted of George L. Crookham, Daniel
Hoffman and Alexander Miller. Some of
the children had to travel many miles to school before
the first sub districts were organized but this
proceeded rapidly after 1826 and by Jan. 5, 1828,
Jefferson Township for instance, had three subdistricts.
The first had twenty-five householders, viz.:
Theophilus Blake, Lewis Arthur,
Joel Arthur, Amos Arthur,
Jesse Radabaugh, Young Slaughter,
Gabriel McNeal, James Walton,
Isaiah Walton, Isaac Leniger,
James Jenkins, Enoch Ewing,
John Johnson, Amos Jenkins,
Ben Arthur, W. H. C. Jenkins,
Lewis Harmon, John White,
John Horton, William Hughes,
Henry Hughes, Abner Cutler,
George Hughes, William Comer
and Thomas Canter. The second
district included eighteen householders, viz.: James
Kelly, Jesse Kelly, Solomon
Mackley, George Grager, John
Shoemaker, Robert Massie, Jonathan Massie, Moses
Massie, Jephthah Massie, Jr.,
William Lloyd, Jephthah Massie,
Sr., John Corn, John Mackley,
John McKensie, Samuel Corn,
George Corn, Robert Massie,
Joseph Cummins. The third district
included thirteen heads of families, viz.: William
Corn, Joseph Phillips, Peter
Seel, John Whitt, Jacob
Fodge, David Morgan, Peter
Corn, Matt Farley, Thomas
Farley, George Slack, William
Silvey, James Wallace, John
Farley.
Solomon Mackley, named above, moved to
Jefferson Township in 1821. He was one of those
who established horse mills for grinding corn, which he
did in 1832. At that time the nearest mill was
near Camba on the Stropes Farm. George
Corn, named above, came to Jefferson Township
about 1826. He was the father of twenty children
and many of them came to this county. He was a
native of Virginia and had served in the Revolutionary
war. Lucy, his daughter, became the wife of
Big Jep Massie, son of Robin
Massie, the pioneer, and an account of
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the wedding was written for the Standard by Davis
Markley about forty years afterward.
FIRST LAWYER OF THE
COUNTY.
Perhaps the first lawyer to locate in Jackson was
Joseph Lake and the second was Elihu
Johnson, who came to Jackson in 1829. The
practice had been attended to by attorneys from
bordering counties especially Ross. Joseph
Sill, Richard Douglass, N. K.
Clough of Chillicothe, had cases at the first term
of court in 1816. Then came Samuel F. Vinton
and David Boggs of Gallia County and Le
Grand Byington of Pike. Perhaps the most noted
lawyer to practice in the Jackson County Courts in those
early days was Allen G. Thurman. He was
born in Lynchburg, Virginia, Nov. 13, 1813, and the next
year his father moved to Chillicothe where young
Thurman grew to manhood. After reading law
under his uncle, William Allen, he was
admitted to the bar in 1835. The first case which
he tried in court as an attorney was in Jackson County.
He had a room in MeQuality's tavern where he
always stopped while in Jackson. About the same
time James Hughes, the third attorney,
located in Jackson. He played an important part in
the history of the county, founded the Standard in 1847
and helped to develop thought and intelligence in the
county.
PETTIFOGGERS.
For lack of lawyers there was employment in the various
justice courts for a class of men called pettifoggers.
Of this number were several noted characters, such as
Henry McDaniel of Symmes Creek, and William
Martin of Jefferson. Many justices went to
other townships to practice before their colleagues.
Martin's fee for his services was 50 cents, and
he accepted pay in goods, such as ginseng, linen,
feathers, coonskins, etc.
There was
great rivalry for the office of justice and the contests
were the most exciting in the townships. Sometimes
the candidates brought jugs of whisky to the polls to
keep up the spirits of their partisans.
PAYMENT IN TRADE
Payment in goods was common in all business transactions
on account of the scarcity of money, and there is a
record of a case in which Peter Seel was sued by
one David Morgan for the services of his son,
Thomas Morgan, for one month. The
consideration was to have been linen and flax.
Seel set up the claim that he actually paid young
Morgan 3½ yards of flax
linen, worth $1.75; 2½ yards flax and tow linen at 41
cents, or $1.02; 1 jacket pattern of striped jeans at 50
cents; and $1.50 in cash. John T. Brasse
represented Morgan and N. K. Clough came
for Peter Seel at the trial held in March term,
1830. Morgan won a verdict for $3.75.
Seel felt that he had been wronged, and
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after the trial he said to Morgan: "Dave
there is hemp growing for you" and the story goes that
Morgan went west soon afterward, killed a man,
and in course of time was hanged.
CIRCUIT RIDERS
VISIT JACKSON COUNTY.
Methodist circuit riders visited Jackson as early as
1801 if not earlier and a camp meeting was held here
that year. In a few years regular appointments
were made. The oldest record however goes back
only to 1816, when Rev. John Tivis
was the circuit rider with David Young as
presiding elder. Burroughs Westlake
succeeded Tivis in 1818, but he was cross eyed
and this interfered with his work. G. R. Jones
followed in 1819 and was a powerful preacher. He
was succeeded in 1820 by an eccentric man named
William Westlake. In 1821 James
Harris came and had a successful ministry; William
Crawford came in 1822; Andrew S. McClain
in 1823; William Page in 1824 and 1825;
John Walker in 1826; Richard
Branduff in 1827; John H. Powers in 1828.
Two men were appointed in 1829, James
Armstrong and Absalom D. Fox, and then came
Jacob Delay in 1830. He was a
citizen of the county living in Milton Township, where
he had settled before the county was organized.
His family remained on the farm, while he travelled on
the circuits. He retired at last and died ripe in
years. A direct descendant, Hon. Frank
Delay, is now probate judge of the county. John
Ulin came on the circuit in 1831 and 1832; F.
D. Allen and David Kinneer in 1833;
W. P. Strickland and S. A. Rathburn in 1834;
F. H. Jennings and J. A. Brown in 1835;
Ben Ellis in 1836; John F. Gray and
J. W. Young in 1837; Francis Wilson in
1838; Samuel Bateman in 1839. The noted (Daniel
Poe) came in 1840 and he organized several new
churches, one at Clay as the result of a camp meeting
held in the Ben Callahan woods, west of
the cross roads. Poe was a descendant of
the famous Indian fighter. Poe went later
to Texas where he died. Richard Doughty
came in 1841 and Jacob Delay was returned
in 1842; Joseph Morris and A. L.
Westervelt came in 1843 and Abraham
Cartlich served in 1844 and 1845. These data
were furnished by Rev. John Stewart
in a letter written for the Standard in 1869. He
had known the circuit since 1816.
FIRST CHURCHES AND
SUNDAY SCHOOLS
The Methodist Episcopal denomination is by far the
strongest in the county now, but the Baptists actually
built the first church within the present bounds of the
county. This was erected in 1819 on a ridge near
Faulkner's Mill in a neighborhood included in
Gallia County until 1850. The Baptists had many
adherents among the pioneers, but the high character and
native shrewdness of Dr. Gabriel McNeal
turned the tide in the south in favor of Methodism and
they retained the leadership until the Welsh came in.
Julius A. Bingham, a Presbyterian, started a
Sunday school at old Oak Hill in 1832 but he was not
able to establish a
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church. His school was held in a
grove, east of the village, near where the Calvinists
built their church afterward. It attracted much
attention and hosts of young people attended the first
summer, the roll reaching 300. It was the largest
open air school ever held in the county.
Bingham secured the services of Reverend
Howe to preach to his school, but the best pupils
were already members of the Baptist or Methodist
churches, and no proselyting* was possible in those
days. The school died when winter came.
The Methodist class in Jackson previous to 1830 had the
following members: John and Nancy James, David
and Eleanor Mitchell, John and Margaret Martin,
Samuel Hale and wife, Jacob Schellenger and
wife, John Ogg, Philip Strother,
Hannah McKensie, and others whose names have been
lost. The oldest, however, was Mother
Sylvester, who with her sister, Mrs. John
Martin, was converted at the camp meeting held
near the Salt Works in 1801. Preaching services
were held in the woods in summer and in the homes in
winter until the courthouse was completed in 1821.
In time, other denominations demanded the use of the
courthouse and the commissioners shut all of them out
but permitted a union Sunday school for the town to be
held in it under the leadership of Vincent
Southard.
Shut out of the courthouse the Methodists met for a
time in a log schoolhouse, but in 1835, they built a
church measuring forty feet by thirty feet, and eleven
feet to the ceiling. Samuel Burt was
the contractor and it cost $350, but it was never
painted. The officers at the time were Elias
Long, John D. James, Isaac Brown,
William Flowers, Philip Noel
and Daniel Hoffman. The oldest
record book belonging to the Methodists began Apr. 16,
1830, when Rev. Jacob Delay was pastor. The
members then numbered forty-six. The first brick
church was built on the same site in 1855. It was
most substantial and when it became too small the board
of education bought it for use as a schoolhouse, and
four rooms were made out of it.
The Baptist Church was organized July 19, 1841, with
Rev. John L. Moore as moderator, Prof. W.
Williams Mather was secretary of the meeting.
A creed was prepared by Mather, Felix
Ellison and Oliver M. Tyson, and it was
signed by them and Jonathan Walden,
William Gillespie, Emily Mather,
Martha Gillespie, Gilbert Weed,
Elizabeth Dyer, Frances M. Bolles,
and Catharine Tyson. The first
deacons were O. M. Tyson and William
Gillespie; clerk, W. Williams Mather;
treasurer, William Gillespie. Their first
church was completed in 1846.
The first Presbyterian Church in Jackson which is the
strongest belonging to that denomination in the county
was organized in 1836. The pioneer was Vincent
Southard who played an important part in the
history of the town and county. He was a tax payer
as early as 1819 and in 1827 he was made auditor of the
county. He served two years, went out two years,
was elected a second time in 1831 and served seven
years. It was in 1831 that he started the Union
School in the court house, which lived four years when
it was divided, the Methodists going to their own
church. In the meantime Southard had secured the
oc-
---------------
* SHARON WICK'S NOTE: Proselyting
(also spelled
proselytizing) means
trying to persuade someone to change their religious
faith, political party, or deep beliefs to match your
own. It is the act of actively
looking for new converts.
Page 421 -
casional services of Rev. Hiram
R. Howe of Virginia, who settled on Raccoon in 1832,
and he began to preach at regular intervals in 1835.
Howe was born in Vermont, settled in Virginia,
entered the Ohio University where he graduated in 1827,
returned to Virginia where he graduated from a
theological seminary and entered the Presbyterian
ministry. There were two ladies in Jackson who had
been members of a Presbyterian Church at Portsmouth,
Mrs. Eunice Isham and Mrs.
Rachel French. Through the influence of
Southard and the efforts of these two ladies, a
Presbyterian Church was organized in January, 1836.
The first meeting was held in the home of Dr. Asa W.
Isham and his wife, Eunice. Rev.
Hiram R. Howe, minister and John Strong,
Amasa Howe and James Glenn
were visiting elders. The members were Mrs.
Eunice Isham, Mrs. Rachel
French, Vincent Southard and wife,
Mr. and Mrs. Gillespie,
James and Thomas Nicholl, Christian
Behem and wife, Chapman Isham,
Samuel MONTGOMERY, Dr. Asa W. Isham and a
colored man named Kale, together with others
making twenty-nine in all. Among the
preachers who had been here before was John
Rankin of Ripley, the famous abolitionist. The
first elders were Dr. Asa W. Isham, Christian
Behem and Thomas Nicholl.
Rev. Howe was succeeded in 1837 by Rev.
Ellery Bascom, who began the building of a
church. It was of brick, forty-five feet by
twenty-five feet. Many years elapsed before it was
completed. Bascom was a strong
abolitionist, while the town was strongly democratic.
His usefulness was thus impaired, and he left in 1839
giving way to Reverend Boggs and other
transients in turn. In August, 1842, Rev.
Isaiah Ford came and he finished the
church begun by Bascom. He remained the
pastor until his death in 1851. Reverend
Hicks followed for two years and was succeeded by
Rev. L. C. Ford in 1853, who remained pastor for
five years. Rev. Thomas Towler was called
in 1859 and remained until November, 1862, when his
sermons against slavery gave so much offense that he
left.
PIONEER FARMERS
AND FARMING
Farming was, of course, the only occupation of the
pioneers except at the Salt Works, but there were two
classes of farmers, the squatters and the settlers.
The first class were nomads with no abiding dwelling
place. Their ancestors in England or elsewhere had
been unfortunate in war or business, and had been
transported to Virginia where they were sold as
indentured servants. In course of time, many
persons of this class escaped into the Virginia
mountains where they built cabins and made small
clearings where they raised corn and beans, and
pumpkins, together with tobacco. Their farming was
only a light side line to secure food to balance the
meat diet, which they secured by hunting and trapping.
When real settlers came who had bought the land titles,
the squatters moved on into the wilderness until they
finally crossed the mountains and descended along
branches of the Ohio. There they were dispossessed
after the Revolution and the flight across the Ohio
began. A few, like the Patricks already
named, entered the Ohio woods, earlier
Page 422 -
than 1785, and many more came into
the woods as soon as the Indians had ceded the southern
part of Ohio in 1795. Several score of this class
of pioneers came to Jackson County. Some of them
were superior men, and marrying into the families of
settlers, they bought lands, and became permanent
residents. Others remained as squatters in the
woods, until the iron industry began to be developed.
It produced conditions much to their liking, and they
became wood choppers and colliers, and in course of time
were herded into the huts on the furnace lands or moved
west, in quest of wild country where they could continue
their squatter life. Those who moved on furnace
grounds drifted to the towns after the furnaces ran
their course, where they are still nomads drifting on,
and forming a permanent nucleus for the army of
unemployed. Many of those squatters were
indifferent to all the conventions of society, and
cohabited and raised large families without marrying.
This is the dark side of pioneer life in southern Ohio,
and it is seldom referred to in the books. The
squatters were responsible for many wild fires, and they
were often charged with hog and cattle stealing.
But their shortcomings were not of the flagrant kind,
and while murders were occasionally committed in the
woods, only a few strangers ever disappeared in the
Jackson County woods. As they grew old, some of
them were abandoned by their children. Some of
those established camps in rock shelters, and several
men and women have died in such rude habitations, one
such death occurring near Eifort (where three counties
meet) within a few years. The burials were made by
the townships. Such phases of life are possible
today only in hill counties like Jackson where the
forest is slowly reclaiming a part of its former domain
for her own.
The actual settlers were men of a higher type. T hey
followed the trail of the squatters into the woods,
spied out the choice house sites selected by many of
them, entered their land, bought the claim of the
squatters, in order to secure peaceful possession, for a
gun or a few dollars, made a small plantation of corn
and tobacco, built a cabin, and then returned to
Virginia, to bring their families into the new country
in autumn when the creeks were low, and wild vegetation
had lost its rankness. In some instances, the
improvements of the squatters were such that the family
could be moved here at once. The settlers had no
difficulty in getting rid of the squatters except in one
township. There they had taken possession of a
rich valley, and several had made improvements of some
pretension, and they demanded large sums of money for
those days, before moving off. The settlers were forced
to organize in their own defense, but no actual
hostilities occurred, after one showing of strength was
made at a shooting match. There was disturbance in
two or three townships between rival families over
certain unentered lands, and the feud was kept up in one
township until a murder was committed. This put an
end to hostilities because the attention of the county
officers was attracted by it to the feud and they made
short work of it. All of Jackson County outside of
the Salt Reserve was Congress lands. The surveyors
began their work in 1798 and by 1805 much of the county
had been subdivided ready for settlers. Some of
the first
Page 423 -
settlers were thrifty salt boilers
who had found farms to their liking on Fourmile,
McDowell's Run and Buckeye, and secured patents while
still living at the Salt Works. Other settlers
came in by way of Gallipolis and entered lands on the
headwaters of Raccoon in Bloomfield. Two colonies
came by this route, one in 1806 from Stokes County,
North Carolina, including the Scurlocks,
Stokers and others, and a second colony from
Virginia in 1810, including the Radabaughs,
Jenkins, Arthurs, McNeals and many
others. Another stream of immigrants came from
Ross County, and a third from the lands of the Ohio
Company. But Greenbrier County in Virginia, which
had furnished so many soldiers for General
Lewis' army in 1774, was in a large measure, the
Mother of Jackson County, and those soldiers and their
descendants formed almost one-third of the population as
late as 1820. East Lick was known as Greenbrier
down to war times, and the descendants of its Virginians
are a recognizable element of the population even today.
The first settlers chose the lands where the timber was
heaviest, the farms of big oaks, ash, hickories,
chestnut and walnuts. But only a few trees were
chopped down, those needed for the cabins, stables and
fences. The clearing was begun by cutting out the
undergrowth of pawpaws, plums, dogwood, crabapples,
hawthorns and then the larger trees were deadened and in
one or two years they could be burned down. Vast
fortunes thus disappeared in smoke but the land was
needed for corn to feed the family. The ash and
poplar were usually selected for lumber for the
buildings, one because it slabbed nicely, and poplar
because it could be hewn quickly for the log sides of
the cabins and furniture. The original poplar logs
are still in the Joel Arthur house
built near Clay in 1816, which is perhaps the oldest
house in the county. Girdling the trees was not
altogether an easy task, and settlers ignorant of wood
craft had their bitter experiences. But they soon
learned that an oak tree girdled to the red would die at
once the first season, while trees of other varieties
had to be peeled six to eight feet, in order to kill
them. The burning of the standing wood which
occupied so much of the time of the settlers in clearing
the land, was at first a glorious side of pioneer life,
but the beauty of the wood fires at night was soon
forgotten, when the serious side appeared, the danger to
improvements already made, the burning of cabins and
stables and fence, by wild fires which became
uncontrolable, and not least, the driving of all game
from the forest, thus robbing the pioneers of their meat
supply which at one time was so bountiful. There was one
advantage derived however, the driving out of beasts of
prey and the destruction of venomous snakes which
abounded in the hill country. The clearing was far
from ready for the sowing after the trees were burned,
because of the stumps and the roots, and the following
season, a forest of sprouts sprang up. The fight
with the forest was more tedious than the fight with the
wild beasts in earlier eras for the forest grew while
the pioneers slept, and the sprouts would reclaim the
clearing in two or three seasons, unless destroyed.
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OLD AGRICULTURAL
IMPLEMENTS.
The only plow brought in by the pioneers was the common
shovel plow. No other could be used in the root bound
soil and even the shovel plow did little more than
tickle the soil. The first cast iron plow did not appear
until about the '30s, the first in Jefferson Township
being brought by a family from New York in 1833. The
corn sprouted quickly in the rich soil of the northeast
hillsides which were usually cleared first and it needed
but little cultivation to produce from twenty-five to
thirty bushels to the acre. There were no weeds to speak
of except the late butterweeds, for the pestiferous
immigrant weeds were unknown then. But the corn had many
other enemies, which required vigilance on the part of
the settlers, the crows and blackbirds which found the
new food much to their liking, and as the ears developed
the raccoons and the squirrels which came to collect
rent from the white man. There were no mills for
grinding at first and all the corn had to be grated. The
hand mills came first, then crushers were made by
burning a hole in the top of a stump, which, when
cleaned out, was filled with grain and crushed by a
heavy timber hung from a sweep pole. Horse mills came
next, established by men like Dr. Gabriel McNeal, John
Kight, Solomon Mackley, Stropes, Stephenson, Clark and
others. These were the only mills of importance until
the '40s with the exception of two or three water mills,
like Faulkner's on Black Fork, Traxler's on Fourmile,
Strong's on Salt Creek. There was little wheat raised
until the '30s. It did not thrive in the new land, and
there were so many handicaps in preparing it for food.
Harvesting was done with a sickle, threshing with a
flail, cleaning with sieves, or some blowing devices,
grinding could not be had within ten to twenty miles,
the nearest mills being in Gallia County, and baking was
difficult on account of scarcity of house hold
furnishings. After a time threshing was done on barn
floors, by driving horses round and round on the straw.
One of these old thresh ing floors may still be seen in
the barn of H. H. Stephenson of Hamil ton Township.
Fanning mills were at last brought into the county,
which were a great improvement over the riddles and
flapping sheets, but the first fanning mills were beyond
the means ofthe average pioneer. Some oats, and rye were
raised together with beans, pumpkins and garden
vegetables of a poor type, also two kinds of potatoes,
an early variety of a rusty dark blue color, and the
late red potatoes. Little hay was grown, the cattle as
well as the horses being fed on corn fodder, or grazed
on the sparse wild pea vines in the woods.
But in addition to raising crops for food and feed, the
pioneers found it necessary to raise flax for clothing.
Then men sowed the flax and broke it, but the rest of
the work was done by the women. When it was ripe
they pulled and cured it on the ground, tied it in
bundles, and housed it. Then it was spread on the
ground to rot the woody part of the stalk, bundled a
second time, and dried on a scaffold over a fire.
After the man broke it, the women scutched it, that is,
beat out the stalk, hatchelled it and put it up in
twists. Next it was spun, the
Page 425 -
thread was boiled in lye to take
out the kinks, and wound upon large spools. The
weaving followed, then the bleaching, requiring much
more labor after which the linen was ready to be made
into clothing or used for bedding or other purposes.
The average family had a field of half an acre to an
acre of flax each season. The ground was scratched
with a shovel plow, and the seed was sown broadcast,
generally on Good Friday if the weather permitted.
It was brushed in. By June it was three feet or
more and began to bloom. This was the "Blue Bow."
The blossom is beautiful and the flax field seemed like
a bit of sky fallen to earth. Toward the end of
June the flax turned yellow and then followed the flax
pullings. This crop was raised extensively in this
county down to the '60s, and one of the old fashioned
flax pullings was going on at the Exline Farm on Salt
Creek the day that Gen. John Morgan's
army captured Jackson. The spinning wheel for flax
was smaller than that for wool. An expert woman
could run it at the rate of thirty to forty revolutions
a minute. A dozen cuts a day was considered by her
as a fair day's work. A cut was 120 threads around
a reel three yards round, or 360 yards. Thus a
day's work was 4,320 yards or about 2¼ miles. But
only the few could devote the entire day to the work and
the spinners in many a farm home worked until the
midnight hour. Such was one of the hardships that
farmers' wives underwent before the advent of the
factory.
COTTON AND COTTON
SEED
The first settlers in the county of southern origin,
brought cotton seed with them and crops of cotton were
grown in Milton, Bloomfield, Madison, Lick, Franklin and
Jefferson townships for several years. The season
was very short, for it could not be planted until the
frost was out of the ground, and the autumn frosts came
so early, that only the lower bolls would ripen in this
county. The seeds were picked out by hand for no
gin was ever brought to this county. The neighbors
gathered at night to pick out the seed, just as they did
to husk corn, and the gatherings were merry ones.
A few ingenious farmers made small gins of two rollers,
to be operated by two persons, one feeding and the other
pulling out the fiber. This expedited the work,
saving the labor of six to eight people. Carding
came next and spinning on the small flax wheels.
The cotton thread made in this county was coarse. The
difficulty of maturing the crop soon led to its
abandonment and none has been raised here for seventy
years. Another crop that the southern immigrants
never neglected was tobacco. In February or early
March, a brush pile was burned on a piece of new ground,
and while the soil was still warm, the tobacco seed was
sown in it. It came up in about six weeks, and
when large enough it was set out leaving about four feet
between the plants. It required much cultivation
and the labor of picking the tobacco worms was exacting
and disgusting. The top was pinched off to prevent
seeding. The stalk was cut in time and split and
hung upon a pole to cure. After the usual
preparations it
Page 426 -
was made into twist or pressed.
A tobacco house was established in Milton Township but
it was operated only a few seasons. All men, women
and children used tobacco in some form and some women
still smoke it in some parts of the county. While
the habit of using tobacco may seem disgusting, its use
may have had a beneficial effect on the health of the
pioneers.
SPORTS OF THE
BACKWOODSMEN
The sports of the pioneers were very different from
those of today in that many of them were a part of the
every-day life of the people. Log rolling is hard
labor, but when all the neighbors gathered, the event
became in a measure a holiday affair with its big dinner
and supper and dance afterward. House raisings,
corn huskings, fodder and flax pullings, cotton seedings,
apple peelings, and quiltings were all joyous occasions,
and while there was much sport, the co-operation of so
many was of material benefit to the community. In
case of desperate illness in the family or accident to
the head of the family, the neighbors came and did all
the needful work, thus preventing the distress that
leads to poverty and penury. All these country
gatherings, while furnishing clean, wholesome social
intercourse, also promoted the material prosperity of
the pioneer. There were other more purely social
or religious affairs, spellings, singings, camp
meetings, and revivals, which on the whole had an
uplifting tendency. The funeral was also a great
institution in the woods, for neighbors did not count
the miles when sickness or death came into a family, and
they traveled ten to fifteen miles sometimes to show
sympathy and render service. There were less
innocent sports, among them various forms of gambling.
The first man in the county that violated the law
against gambling with cards was John McGhee,
of Lick, who was indicted at the July term of 1817.
He entered the plea of not guilty. The jury that
indicted him consisted of David Mitchell,
John Graham, John Backus,
John Bennett, Peter Brown,
Moses Hale, Jos. Gray, Jacob
Westfall, William Burris, James
Winks, Allen Rice, James
Lackey, Joseph Crouch, George
Campbell and Jerry Brown, and they
indicted him for importing a pack of cards into Jackson
County, and John McBride, Theo. Blake,
Dan Harris, John Delay,
John Frazee, Edward Story,
Jas. Stephenson, Levi Howell,
Reuben Long, Asa Lake,
Patrick Shearer and Drury Bondurant
found him guilty at his trial. He was fined $5 and
the costs. It will be wondered how they kept their
faces straight.
Another of the sports of early days was horse racing.
There was racing everywhere, to and from camp meetings,
musters, weddings, but regular courses were also
laid out and measured. One such track was
established in early days in the flatwoods of Madison,
near the site where Daniel Edwards, the
Welsh pioneer, settled afterward in 1834. This
track consisted of two paths about thirty feet apart,
one-fourth of a mile long, and straight as an arrow.
Races were held at least as often as twice a month.
Unfortunately these gatherings were the occasion
Page 427 -
for much drinking and fighting as
well as racing and gambling. Several tragedies
finally checked the sport. The first was the
killing of John Powers. He was
riding one of the race horses and it suddenly left the
track. When it approached a tree Powers
leaned to the other side, and the horse swerved in the
opposite direction and Powers struck another tree
full in the breast. He was knocked to the ground
and died instantly. There was another race course
on the land of James Reed, living west of
old Oak Hill. It started in the low gap near where
the railroad runs now and was laid up-grade toward the
Reed spring. From three to five hundred
attended these rural races. Two others killed at
such races were Ebenezer Donaldson and
David Jones, and several others were
seriously injured. The coming of the Welsh,
combined with these tragedies, made the sport unpopular
for a time, and it has never regained its old standing
in the county.
Shooting matches had a fascination for men who had just
been freed from fear of Indian foes, and the institution
continued as a sport in the southern townships, down to
1913. Some farmers provided turkeys for the
matches, an occasional farmer getting up a match for the
purpose of selling his turkeys at home. In the
early days a turkey was tied to a stake or stump, 150
yards distant from the shooting line, and the first to
draw blood from the turkey secured it as a prize.
Later the shooting was done at a mark, and the best shot
won the turkey. Chances for a shot were sold in
the early days for a bit or 12½
cents, but since the war, for one dime. There was
much drinking during the day, with an occasional fight,
and a dance was always given at night which was
occasionally broken up by fighting. The girls wore
calico dresses, but they had heavy shoes, for the dances
were usually held in winter. The dancing was done
in a small log cabin, with a roaring fire in the big
chimney and the room was always crowded; but certain
conventions, well understood, and observed, prevented
many improprieties winked at in pretentious dwellings
today. The last shooting match of record held in
Hamilton Township ended in a fight and a shooting.
The trial that followed brought the sport such notoriety
that shooting matches have been discontinued, perhaps
forever.
SICKNESS AND
DOCTORS
The greatest trial of the pioneer was sickness, for no
medical assistance could be secured by those who had
penetrated deep into the woods. Every family knew
that when they located in the woods and began to make a
clearing, death would come and carry away one or more
members, perhaps the father and provider, before the
land would become salubrious. The fevers that came
unawares were dreaded the most. Finley, who
was thoroughly acquainted with conditions in Jackson
County, wrote that many deaths occurred from diseases at
the Scioto Salt Works. "The new settlements," said
he, "were regularly visited by autumnal fevers.
They were of the bilious type, sometimes the symptoms
resembled those of yellow fever. Bilious
intermittents, or
Page 428 -
fever and ague prevailed to a
great extent. They were supposed to be caused from
the effluvia arising from the decomposition of the
luxuriant vegetation which grew so abundantly
everywhere." (They did not seem to have suspected
their drinking water.) "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 help the others and instances
occurred in which the dead lay unburied for days because
no one could report the death to neighbors. The
extensive prevalence of disease, 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 the town of
Chillicothe and its vicinity. Medical skill was
exerted to the utmost but all to no purpose as but very
few of those attacked recovered. From eight to ten
were buried every day." The Scioto Salt Works,
located in a low, swampy valley, was perhaps the
sickliest place in Southern Ohio, and the death rate was
very high. Even visitors who came to the works
after salt in 1798 sickened and died. There was
hardly any hope for anyone attacked, for there were no
doctors in the county until 1810, when Dr. Gabriel
McNeal came from Virginia, and the only medical aid
that could be secured had to be summoned by horseback
riders sent to Chillicothe or Gallipolis. For
eight years after the epidemic of 1798 there was a
comparative respite, but according to Atwater a fever of
the remittent type made its appearance in the autumn of
1806, extending from the Ohio River to Lake Erie.
"Its symptoms were chills in the forenoon between ten
and eleven o'clock, which were succeeded by a violent
fever afterward in an hour and a half. The fever
continued to rage until about six 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 of these organs at the
same time. By daylight there was a respite, but
not a total exemption from the urgency of these
symptoms. From information given us by many in the
circle around Chillicothe, one-sixth part of the
inhabitants died. In 1813 and 1814, there was a
like epidemic. But perhaps the worst year was
1823. Heavy and long-continued rains set in about
the 14th of November, 1822, and continued almost daily
until the first of the ensuing June. It is
computed that the country between the Scioto and the
Miami rivers had the twentieth part of its surface
covered with water during the months of March, April and
May. A fever commenced its ravages and continued
its course during the months of June, July, August,
September and the early part of October. It was of
the remittent type affecting more or less 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 light epidemic in the summer of 1827.
This was the last, but for forty years many suffered and
died from autumnal fevers. These caused the deaths
of many of the pioneers. Few of them left any
memorials except the few tombstones
Page 429 -
that survive, which show that they
died so young in years. Elizabeth Scott,
wife of a prominent citizen, died in 1822; Huldah,
wife of Edmund Richmond, died in August,
1823; Sheriff William White, died
in office in 1824; Hon. Jared Strong,
representative several terms, died in 1827; Absalom
Faulkner in 1829. With so many deaths among
the well-to-do, the death rate in other classes must
have been heavier. Rev. David C. Bolles,
one of the ablest ministers, died of fever Apr. 20,
1840, after a residence in the county of only about
eighteen months. Drainage was impossible while so
much of the forest remained, and the statistics show
that less than one-fourth of the county had been cleared
when the railroad came in 1853. The building of so
many charcoal furnaces later led to much wood chopping
and the charcoal pits leached into the creeks, thus
purifying the waters in a measure, while clearing the
land let in the sunshine, the foe of the mosquito.
Some neighborhoods, notably one in Jefferson Township,
suffered epidemics of sickness for many years, which was
supposed to be contracted from cows' milk and was called
milk sickness. This sickness was doubtless caused
by poisonous weeds which cattle ate when grass grew
short in August and September. Several weeds or wildings
are eaten by cattle, notably larkspur, in grazing in
woods, which have a deleterious effect. Even
today, typhoid fever occurs frequently in the country,
because so many farmers get their water supply from sipe
wells or shallow springs, whose waters become
contaminated so easily from the barn yard located too
often too near the source of the water supply.
There have also been cases of fever caused by the
upsetting and emptying of milk buckets suspended in
wells to keep the contents cool. The pioneers that
survived the perils of the woods lived to a ripe old
age, some of them reaching the century mark. Many
Welsh pioneers who came here after the partial
settlement of the county lived to be octogenarians.
In later years, there has been a marked increase in the
number of golden weddings, which is evidence that living
conditions are improving vastly.
END OF CHAPTER VI
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