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 HISTORICAL SKETCH^ ' 
 
 RELATING TO THE 
 
 ORIGINAL BOUNDARIES AND EARLY TIMES 
 
 OF 
 
 FRANKLIN COUNTY; 
 
 PREPARED FOR THE 
 
 J'ranMin ^ountg :|)tonter Jaaoriation, 
 
 AND DELIVERED BY 
 
 JOSEPH SULLIVANT, Escu, 
 
 SATURDAY, JUNE 3d, 1871. 
 
 
 COLUMBUS: 
 
 OHIO STATE JOURNAL PRINT. 
 1871. 
 
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 V::, 
 
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 .A-IDIDK^EJSS. 
 
 One of the main objects of our Asso-. 
 ciation is to gather up and preserve the 
 incidents of our early settlement, and 
 collect authentic materials for the future 
 historian of this county. 
 
 As my contribution to so desirable an 
 end, I now propose to give a sketch of 
 the original boundaries of the county, 
 and show the political divisions to 
 which it has, from time to time, been at- 
 tached, and trace it down to its present 
 dimensions. 
 
 In doing so, I must necessarily adopt 
 a chronological order, and even then 
 touch but lightly, for were I to attempt 
 the briefest account of all the events 
 that led to the settlement of the county, 
 or to give the most meagre detail of the 
 many interesting facts connected with 
 its history and progress, it would re- 
 quire a volume rather than the paper I 
 have prepared for the occasion which 
 brings us together this day; a day in 
 which we propose to revive the memories 
 of the past, to renew and strengthen the 
 bonds of neighborly fellowship, and, if 
 possible, give our children some idea of 
 the early times, and how hardly the 
 Pionoers won this country, which the 
 present generation are so peacefully en- 
 joying. 
 
 A little less than one hundred years 
 ago, ail this great western country, 
 now divided Into many populous and 
 flourishing States, was but a howliDg 
 wilderness, almost unknown and untra- 
 versed by civilized man. 
 
 The original thirteen States, the "E 
 Pluribus Unum," were colonial depend- 
 encies of the crown of Great Britain, 
 which, long before, had granted char- 
 ters and established colonies in the new 
 world, among the most important of 
 which was Virginia. 
 
 With a liberality equal to the igno- 
 rance of the geography of the country, 
 the western limits of this colony were 
 extended to the Southern Sea ! Under 
 this broad title, Virginia claimed and 
 subsequently exercised a sort of jurisdic- 
 tion over a vast territory comprising 
 what now constitutes the States of Ohio, 
 Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin 
 and Minnesota. France also claimed 
 large portions of the country by the 
 right of discovery and settlement, and 
 disputed the title of Great Britain and 
 contended with her for supremacy on 
 the North American continent; and by 
 establishing her line of military posts, 
 stretching from the Gulf of St. Lawrence 
 west to the Mississippi, along our north- 
 ern borders, she hemmed in and retarded 
 the English settlements, and greatly 
 harassed them by aid of the Indians, 
 who were generally the allies of France 
 in the long and bloody wars that en- 
 sued. 
 
 The French post at the forks of the 
 Ohio, known as Fort DuQuesne, domi- 
 nated Western Pennsylvania and West- 
 ern Virginia, and was the key to the 
 country south of Lake Erie; and we can- 
 not wonder at the long struggle between 
 the English and French for the posses- 
 sion of this important position. 
 
 In an attempt to take this post the 
 English General Braddock suffered a 
 most disastrous defeat, and our own 
 Washington distinguished himself by 
 his gallantry and good conduct on this 
 sad occasion. The French abandoned 
 this post in the winter of 1758-9, and 
 soon afterward the Fnglish took posses- 
 sion of the ruins, and near by erected 
 Fort Pitt, named after the great Eng- 
 lish Minister, and under the shadow and 
 protection of Fort Pitt arose the village, 
 now the city of Pittsburgh, and immN 
 gration and settlements began to grow 
 rapidly in Western Pennsylvania and 
 Virginia, notwithstanding the continued 
 hostility of the Indians. 
 
 There are reasons for believing that 
 even before 1750 there were white men 
 who passed through this region. Chris- 
 topher Gist, an agent of an English and 
 Virginia land company, certainly trav- 
 eled through this central region in 1750, 
 and I have reasons for thinking that he 
 passed over or very near the present site 
 of Columbus. 
 
 Probably the first educated white 
 persons who came to the State with a 
 view of permanent residence, were those 
 conscientious and self-denying men who, 
 impelled by a noble philanthropy, left 
 behind them the security and comforts 
 of civilized life and ventured into an un- 
 broken wilderness, and among an un- 
 known and savage people, with the hope 
 of rescuing them from barbarism and 
 turning them toward Christianity. 
 
 With this object, and under the pa- 
 tronage of the Moravian church, of 
 which he was a minister, David Zeis- 
 berger and others penetrated into 
 the present State of Ohio and located 
 themselves on the Tuscarawas branch 
 of the Muskingum, and, on May 3, 1772, 
 established their mission of Schonbrun, 
 and soon afterward, those of Guaden- 
 hutten, Salem and Lichtnau, in the pres- 
 ent county of Tuscarawas. 
 
 Of the success of these Christian men, 
 of their discouragements and privations, 
 or of the sad and tragical fate that 
 finally overtook them and their Indian 
 converts, I shall not attempt any ac- 
 count. 
 
 Save these Moravian brethren, there 
 were no white men in the State of Ohio, 
 unless a few transient traders among the 
 Indians; but that there was a popula- 
 tion around the old French posts of 
 Detroit, Vincennes, Kaskaskia, and other 
 places, requiring the forms and pro- 
 tection of law, is evident from the fact 
 that the House of Burgesses, of Virginia 
 (corresponding to our House of Repre- 
 sentatives), in 1769 established the coun- 
 ty of Bottetourt, making the Blue Ridge 
 its eastern and the Mississippi river its 
 western boundary, including Western 
 Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michi- 
 gan, Wisconsin and Minnesota — a pret- 
 ty ample territory, it must be admitted, 
 for one county, — and rather inconven^ 
 ient we would think in these days, for 
 the people to travel over 700 miles to 
 their county seat, which was fixed at 
 Fincastle, in the valley of Virginia. 
 
 T.jff* 
 
Bat the authorities very wisely took 
 into consideration these inconveniences, 
 for the act establishing the county — 
 which was named after one of the G >v- 
 ernors of the colony of Virginia — recites, 
 •'And whereas, the people situated on the 
 Mississippi, In the said county of Bot- 
 tetourt, will be very remote from the 
 Court House and must necessarily be- 
 come a separate county as soon as their 
 numbers are sufficient — which probably 
 will happen in a short time. Be it there- 
 fore enacted by the authority aforesaid 
 (House of Burgesses) that the inhabit- 
 ants of that part of the said coun'y of 
 Bottetourt which lies on the said wa- 
 ters, shall be exempted from the pay- 
 ment of any levies to be laid by the said 
 county court, for the purpose of build- 
 ing a court house and prison for said 
 county." 
 
 During the long contest between the 
 French and English for the possession 
 of the great western territory, the In- 
 dians were the allies of France, 
 and the western frontiers and 
 border settlements of Pennsylvania and 
 Virginia were constantly harassed and 
 retarded by marauding parties of the 
 savages, who marked their invasions 
 with fire and blood. 
 
 These incursions were continued after 
 the fall of the French power, and the 
 murders were so frequent and the inse- 
 curity of life so great that the colony of 
 Virginia determined to strike a vigorous 
 blow and secure the peace and quiet of 
 their own settlements by carrying the 
 war into the heart of the Indian coun- 
 try, which was the present State of 
 Ohio. 
 
 Accordingly an army of three thousand 
 men was raised and equipt to operate 
 against the Indian towns on the Scioto. 
 
 The whole was under the command of 
 Lord Dunmore, the Governor — but the 
 army marched in two divisions, with 
 the intention of forming a junction be- 
 fore reaching the Indian towns. The In- 
 dians, with great sagacity, determined 
 to attack, and, if possible, defeat these 
 divisions separately. One division of 
 the Virginia army, under the command 
 of Col. Lewis, marched down the val 
 ley of the Kanawha towards the Ohio 
 river. 
 
 The Indians, in pursuance of their 
 plan, went to meet these troops and give 
 them battle before they crossed the Ohio 
 and penetrated further into their coun- 
 try. 
 
 The troops having arrived at Point 
 Pleasant, (situated at the junction of the 
 Great Kanawha and the Ohio,) were, 
 with great fury, attacked by the com- 
 bined forces of Indians, about sunrise on 
 the morning of October 10th, 1774; the 
 battle raged all day until night put an 
 end to the conflict. 
 
 Victory declared for the disciplined 
 forces of the white men — a victory gain- 
 ed at a great loss of men, and particular- 
 ly of the officers of Lewis' army — and 
 the result was equally bloody and dis- 
 astrous to the Indians, who withdrew 
 in sullen disappointment from the battle- 
 field and retreated to their own country. 
 
 On the part of the Indians the battle 
 
 of Point Pleasant was undoubtedly the 
 best planned and most systematically 
 and hardly contested in the annals of 
 Indian wai fare. 
 
 Colonel Lewis continuen his march, 
 and on the 24th of October arrived at 
 the Pickaway plains and encamped on 
 Congo creek. 
 
 In the meanwhile the other division of 
 the army, under Dunmore, arrived at 
 the Ohio river below Wheeling, and 
 building boats, descended the river to 
 the mouth of the big Hockhocking, 
 where they built Fort Gower; and from 
 thence marched up the river, through 
 the hilly and broken region of Athens, 
 Hocking and Fairfield counties, into the 
 present county of Pickaway, and estab- 
 lished Camp Charlotte, on Si ppo creek, 
 not far from the Shawnee towns on the 
 Scioto, at or near the present site of 
 Westfall. 
 
 The two armies under Lewis and 
 Dunmore here joined, presenting a force 
 too great for the Indians to contend 
 against with any hope of success. Ac- 
 cordingly negotiations were entered up- 
 on which soon resulted in a treaty of 
 peace. 
 
 It was on this occasion that the cele- 
 brated speech of the Indian Chief Logan 
 was said to have been sent in and which 
 was soon afterward published in Thom- 
 as Jefferson's "Notes on Virginia." 
 
 In relation to the battle ol the Point 
 and the subsequent treaty, I had a most 
 interesting and graphic account from 
 the lips of Simon Kenton, who used to 
 be a visitor at my father's house, in my 
 boyhood. 
 
 On one of these visits, being fresh 
 from the reading of Jefferson's Notes, 
 and knowing that Kenton had taken 
 part in the battle, and was present at 
 the treaty, I asked him about them. He 
 gave an interesting account of the fight, 
 remarking that the Indians fought more 
 like devils than men. 
 
 At the treaty, not being fully assured 
 of the pacific intentions of the Indians, 
 and apprehendiug there might be treach- 
 ery, the officers were upon the alert and 
 the troops stood to tbeir arms, ready at 
 any moment to resist a sudden attack. 
 He said the approach of the Indians to 
 the treaty ground was the most impos- 
 ing sight he ever saw; over five hundred 
 mounted warriors came riding over the 
 prairie in single file — he said it was a 
 long string, and he thought they would 
 never get done coming. They were in 
 full paint — one half the face red, the 
 other black. I asked what this signified. 
 He said it meant they were equally for 
 peace or war — they were indifferent 
 which — but this was a piece of bravado, 
 and happily peace prevailed. 
 
 As to Logan's speech, Kent:>n said 
 Logan was not present. He was not then 
 even supposed to be on the waters of the 
 Scioto, but somewhere in the neighbor- 
 hood of Wheeling; and as to the speech, 
 there was none of his at the treaty, and 
 he never heard of it until months after- 
 wards. 
 
 But I call your attention to this an- 
 cient army on the Pickaway plains, for 
 the reason that Kenton said Dunmore, 
 
 tt^tft 
 
while there, dispatched a company of 
 men to destroy the Mingo town and en- 
 campments at the forks of the Scioto. 
 Another account says this force was 
 under the command of Captain Craw- 
 ford, and dispatched early in November 
 to destroy the Mingo towns up the 
 Scioto. 
 
 I have seen, within a few years, a 
 newspaper extract from the diary of a 
 Virginian officer, present with Dun- 
 more's army, stating the same fact of a 
 force sent up the Scioto to destroy the 
 Mingo towns at the forks of said river. 
 
 The Mingoes, sympathizing with Lo- 
 gan, and perhaps participating in his 
 enmity, were not represented at the 
 treaty on the Pickaway plains, and I 
 suppose it was for this reason an expedi- 
 tion was seut against them. 
 
 Now the significant fact is, that the 
 forks of the Scioto was the junction of 
 the Whetstone with that river, and was 
 so known and marked on the 
 maps of the early surveyors. 
 
 There were three Indian encampments 
 or villages in this vicinity; one on the 
 high bank near the old Morrill house, one 
 and a half miles below the city, from 
 which the party was sent out to 
 capture my father and his party, on 
 Deer Creek, in 1795; one at the west 
 end of the Harrisburgh bridge, and the 
 principal one on the river below the 
 mouth of the Whetstone, near the Peni- 
 tentiary, where formerly stood Brickie's 
 cabin and now stands Hall & Brown's 
 warehouse. 
 
 The location of these villages I had 
 from John Brickie, Jeremiah Armstrong 
 and Jonathan Alder, who had been cap- 
 tives among the Indians. 
 
 Alder was a visitor, in my boyhood, 
 at my father's house and afterwards at 
 mine, and I had many of the incidents of 
 his life as related by himself, which after- 
 wards, at my suggestion, were written 
 out. 
 
 In his boyhood Alder had been cap- 
 tured in Virginia by a marauding party 
 of Indians, was brought into Ohio and 
 adopted into a tribe, and when grown 
 up married and lived among them. 
 He lived on Big Darby, died there and 
 was well known to our earlier settlers, 
 and is, no doubt, remembered by many 
 here to-day. 
 
 In one of the personal narratives to 
 which I have alluded, he told me he had 
 heard from the older men of this tribe 
 that, in the fall of 1774, when all the 
 male Indians of the upper village, except 
 a few old men, had gone on their first fall 
 hunt, one day about noon, the village 
 was surprised by the sudden appear- 
 ance of a body of armed white 
 men, who immediately commenced 
 firing upon all they could see. Great 
 consternation and panic ensued, and the 
 inhabitants fled in every direction One 
 Indian woman seized her child, of five 
 or six years of age, and rushed down the 
 bank of the river and across to the 
 wooded island opposite, when she was 
 shot down at the farther bank. The 
 child was unhurt amid the shower of 
 balls and escaped into the thicket and 
 hid in a large hollow sycamore standing 
 
 near the middle of the island, where the 
 child* was found alive two days after- 
 ward, when the warriors of the tribe re- 
 turned, having been summoned back to 
 the scene of disaster by runners sent for 
 the purpose. This wooded and shady 
 island was a favorite place for us boys 
 when we went swimming and fishing, 
 especially when we were lucky enough to 
 hook Johnny Brickie's canoe; and I have 
 no doubt the huge sycamore is well re~ 
 membered by many besides myself. 
 
 This interesting incident connects our 
 county directly with the old colonial 
 times. 
 
 The next year after Dunmore's expe- 
 dition to the Pickaway plains, the thir- 
 teen colonies revolted from the governs 
 ment of Great Britain. 
 
 The Declaration of Independence and 
 the war of the revolution followed soon 
 after, and, although the Indian depreda- 
 tions continued against western Vir- 
 ginia andPennsylvania and other frontier 
 settlements, it was impossible for the 
 government to give much attention or 
 protection to the western country. 
 
 Immigration from 1775 to 1785, was 
 mostly confined to Kentucky and Ten- 
 nessee, and their population continued 
 to increase notwithstanding the war, 
 and of course, much more rapidly after 
 peace with Great Britain. 
 
 In 1778 the Virginia House of Bur- 
 gesses decreed that the citizens of Vir- * 
 ginia who are already settled, or may 
 hereafter settle, on the western side of 
 the Ohio, shall be included in a distinct 
 county, which shall be called Illinois 
 county. 
 
 I believe the county seat was fixed at 
 Kaskaskia, Illinois. Ohio formed but a 
 small part of this great county. There 
 were, as yet, no white inhabitants in 
 the State, except the Moravians already 
 mentioned, and a few traders among the 
 Indians. 
 
 In order to cement and strengthen the 
 then feeble confederation of the States, 
 Virginia generously ceded to the general 
 government on March 1, 1784, all her 
 rights and claims northwest of the Ohio, 
 reserving only a certain body of land to 
 satisfy and reward her own brave and 
 patriotic citizens who had fought in the 
 war for independence. 
 
 This body of land was bounded on the 
 south by the Ohio river, on the east by 
 the Scioto, on the west by the Little 
 Miami, and on the north by a line uniting 
 the head waters of these two streams. 
 
 The officers and soldiers of Virginia 
 were empowered to appoint a surveyor 
 general and open a land office, and they 
 accordingly selected Colonel Richard C. 
 Anderson, an officer of the revolution, 
 who proceeded to the falls of the Ohio 
 and opened his office on the present site 
 of Louisville, Kentucky. 
 
 The lands in the Virginia Military 
 District of Ohio, were thrown open for 
 entry in 1787, to satisfy the claims of 
 the officers aDd soldiers, and soon after- 
 ward the hardy and adventurous deputy 
 surveyors, of whom my father, Lucas 
 Sullivant, was one, entered upon their 
 
perilous work betwixt the Scioto and 
 Miami. 
 
 This munificent and magnanimous 
 gift of Virginia of an immense body of 
 lands, equal in advantages and fertility 
 to any on the globe, and of a territory 
 sufficient for an empire, was accepted 
 by the United States government in 1787, 
 and by the famous ordinances of that 
 year, all of the territory northwest of 
 the Ohio was forever secured and con- 
 secrated to freedom. la all this vast 
 region slavery and involuntary servi- 
 tude, except for crime, was forever pro- 
 hibited. The wisdom of this act, secur- 
 ing so grf at an area for the full exercise 
 and development of all the powers and 
 faculties of the white man, when de- 
 pendent on his own exertions, is well ex- 
 emplified in the fact that Ohio, Indiana 
 and Illinois, in the race of progress and 
 production of wealth, have outstripped 
 the generons mother who gave them 
 birth. 
 
 Having accepted this great grant from 
 Virginia, the Congress of the United 
 Statestook steps to organize civil govern- 
 ment within it and established the North 
 Western Territory, and General Arthur 
 St. Clair, a distinguished officer of the 
 revolution, was appointed Governor 
 thereof, in October, 1187. 
 
 Many of the officers and sol- 
 diers of the war for independence, 
 after so many years of ar- 
 duous service, found themselves at 
 its close in an impoverished condition, 
 and turned their attention to the west as 
 a field offering the best opportunity for re- 
 trieving their broken fortunes on the new 
 and fertile lands there being offered for 
 settlement. But as these lands could be 
 had from the Government only in large 
 bodies, various companies were formed 
 for this purpose. Among others, the 
 Ohio Land Company obtained, by pur- 
 chase, a grant of a million of acres upon 
 the Ohio and Muskingum, and in 1787 a 
 colony left Massachusetts to settle on 
 these lands 
 
 Tnis company was under the direction 
 of General Rufus Putnam, and as they 
 reached the Ohio river at so late a peri- 
 od it was not deemed prudent to proceed 
 further; they encamped for the winter, 
 and having built boats they next spring 
 descended the river, and, on April 13th, 
 1788, landed near Fort Harmar, which 
 had been erected a short time befsre. 
 They proceeded to erect block houses 
 and stockades and laid out the town of 
 Marietta. 
 
 John Cleves Symmes and others, of 
 New Jersey, also obtained by ourchase 
 a large body of land on the Ohio, be- 
 tween the Big and Little Miami, and in 
 the fall of 1788 settlements also 
 commenced on his purchase at Cincin- 
 nati, Columbia and Symmes, or North 
 Bend; but the small military detach- 
 ment which had been sent out for the 
 protection of the infant settlements on 
 the Miami, having soon afterward estab- 
 lished their headquarters at Fort Wash- 
 ington, Cincinnati grew up around it 
 and soon took the lead of all the settle- 
 ments in that region. 
 
 Gov. St. Clair arrived at Marietta and 
 
 by proclamation of July 27, 1788, erected 
 the county of Washington, and fixed 
 the county seat at Marietta, and defined 
 the boundaries of this first county, 
 as follows: South by the Ohio river, east 
 by Pennsylvania and Virginia, north by 
 Lake Erie, west commencing at the 
 mouth of the Cuyahoga river, thence up 
 the stream, over the portage, to the Tus- 
 carawas, and down It to Fort Laurens, 
 (near the present town of Bolivar, Tus- 
 carawas county,) thence west to portage 
 of Miami, thence to the head of the 
 Scioto, and down that stream to its 
 mouth, to include the whole eastern 
 half of the State, and eastern half of 
 Franklin county 
 
 January, 2, 171)0, Gov. St. Clair pro- 
 claimed Hamilton county, with county 
 seat at Cincinnati. 
 
 This county, the second one erected 
 within the limits of Ohio, was bounded 
 south by the Ohio river, east by the 
 Little Miami, on the west by the Big 
 Miami, aud on the north by a line due 
 east from the Standing-stone Fork of 
 said river to the Little Miami. 
 
 About the same time, the country 
 west of Hamilton county was divided 
 and made into the county of St Clair, 
 with Kaskaskia, Illinois, for Its county 
 seat; and the county of Knox, with Its 
 seat of justice at Vincennes, Indiana. 
 These counties, with a part of Wayne, 
 subsequently formed the Territory of 
 Indiana. 
 
 The eight years succeeding the settle- 
 ment at Marietta and In the Miami 
 Valley, were signalized by great ac- 
 tivity and hostility of the Indians 
 against the settlers in the Ter- 
 ritory, and also in Kentucky, and 
 although the settlers had erected 
 block-houses and stockades for safety, 
 and protection, there were always In- 
 dians lurking about to pick off strag- 
 glers or the unwary, and many whites 
 were killed or captured, and formal and 
 frequent attacks were make upon the 
 stations and sieges undertaken by large 
 and formidable bodies of savages. The 
 insecurity of life was so great, and the 
 difficulties and obstacles to settlement 
 so many, and the aid and protection 
 from the Government so little and so 
 tardy, that there was great danger of 
 the total withdrawal of the white set- 
 tlers and abandonment of the whole ter- 
 ritory. 
 
 I cannot better illustrate the condi- 
 tion of the country, at this time, than by 
 quoting from Judge Burnet's Notes on 
 the New Terrieory. 
 
 When speaking of the great activity 
 and incessant attacks of the Indians, he 
 says : "These frequent predatory move- 
 ments of the savages, following in such, 
 rapid succession, produced universal 
 alarm throughout the country; and the 
 settlers began to think they would be 
 compelled to abandon it. They had 
 given up all the conveniencies and com- 
 forts of civilized life, to which they had 
 been accustomed, which, in their opin- 
 ion, was an ample consideration for any 
 and every advantage, anticipated from 
 their change of location. But when, in 
 addition to this, life was in perpetual 
 
5 
 
 danger, there could be no motive induc- 
 ing them to continue in such a state of 
 imminent exposure. Men of influence 
 and reflection, in every part of the fron- 
 tier country, saw and felt that vigorous 
 and immediate measures were necessary 
 to save the American settlements from 
 being deserted by their inhabitants, or 
 broken up and laid waste by the sav- 
 ages. 
 
 "It would be a tedious undertaking, 
 if it were practicable, to enumerate or 
 detail the hostile movements of the In- 
 dians and their numberless depredations. 
 During all this time small parties were 
 constantly lurking in the neighborhood 
 of the white settlements and stations, 
 watching for opportunities to plunder 
 and murder. They came frequently into 
 the villages by night and carried off 
 horses and other property undiscovered. 
 The depredations were so frequent that 
 the inhabitants were constantly on the 
 alert, and found it necessary to keep up 
 a guard, when clearing and cultivating 
 their grounds. It was not safe to venture 
 into the woods unarmed, and even at 
 Cincinnati, in sight of Fort Washington, 
 it was found prudent to attend church 
 on the Saboath, armed and prepared to 
 repel an attack." And all this was true 
 of Marietta, Manchester and other settle- 
 ments. 
 
 Under these circumstances several ex- 
 peditions were fitted out to operate 
 against the Indians on the Scioto, 
 Miami and Wabash, with varying suc- 
 cess, but the murders and attacks of the 
 Indians continuing and the settlers 
 clamoring for the protection so strangely 
 neglected by the Government, it was at 
 length determined to send out a force 
 under General Wsyne against the Indi- 
 ans, and he left Fort Washington, in 
 Hamilton county, in the latter part of 
 September, 1790, with about 1500 men, 
 mostly militia from Pennsylvania and 
 Kentucky, with a few regulars, or dis- 
 ciplined soldiers. 
 
 Harmar's campaign was an unsuc- 
 cessful and unsatisfactory one, and he 
 returned to Fort Washington with his 
 army broken and demoralized. 
 
 In 1791, two expeditions, one under 
 Scott, of Kentucky, the other under 
 command of Colonel Wilkinson, were 
 sent against the Eel River and Wabash 
 Indians, and destroyed their villages 
 and growing crops. The Government, 
 in the meanwhile, had determined to 
 strike an effectual blow and secure peace 
 and safety for the harassed settlers, and 
 for this purpose an army of 3000 men 
 was organized and placed under the 
 command of Governor St. Clair. On 
 the 17th of September, the troops, to 
 the number of 3300, left Ludlow's Sta- 
 tion for the Indian towns, proceeding 
 slowly and building forts on the way. 
 Having early in November reached the 
 vicinity of the Indians, he was attacked 
 early on the morning of November 4th; 
 a desperate battle ensued, but St Clair's 
 forces were compelled to retreat, having 
 suffered a loss of more than half of the 
 officers and 875 men. 
 
 This disastrous defeat cast a terrible 
 gloom over the feeble and struggling 
 settlements. 
 
 The expeditions against the Indians 
 and the destruction of their towns and 
 provisions, greatly exasperated them, 
 and the unfortunate issue of the cam- 
 paigns under Harmar and St. Clair 
 greatly emboldened them, and they were 
 more troublesome than ever. 
 
 The Government, now thoroughly 
 aroused to the exigencies of the occa- 
 sion, empowered Gen. Anthony Wayne 
 to raise an army, which he was to com- 
 mand and which should be adequate to 
 the occasion. 
 
 It would be Interesting to follow 
 in detail the operations of this brave 
 officer, but our time forbids, and we 
 must content ourselves by saying they 
 were crowned with success, and pro- 
 ductive of the most important re- 
 sults, and we can only give a very brief 
 outline. 
 
 General Wayne was appointed to the 
 chief command, and he proceeded to 
 Pittsburg in the summer of 1792, and 
 spent the time until the next spring in 
 drilling and disciplining his troops; in 
 April they descended the Ohio to Fort 
 Washington, and employed the time in 
 collecting supplies and making roads. 
 
 He marched in October; in Decem- 
 ber erected Fort Greenville, (now Green- 
 ville, in Darke county,) and went into 
 winter quarters; and a detachment of 
 his army built Fort Recovery and garri<- 
 soned it, on St. Clair's battle ground. 
 
 In the meanwhile, negotiations were 
 opened with the Indians to secure peace 
 and establish boundaries. This con- 
 sumed several months. 
 
 He continued his preparations and 
 maintained a defensive and offensive po- 
 sition in the Indian country, and on 
 June 30th was attacked by a large In- 
 dian force, under Little Turtle, chief of 
 the Miamis; they fought all day and part 
 of the next, when the Indians were de- 
 feated. 
 
 Reinforced in July with several hun- 
 dred mounted Kentucky troops, under 
 the command of General Scott, he moved 
 on the 28th with about 3000 men, and on 
 the 8th of August, 1794, he arrived at the 
 Auglaize and Maumee, in the Indian 
 country, where he built Fort Defiance, 
 and soon afterwards moved on near to 
 the rapids of Maumee, where was fought 
 the decisive battle of the Fallen Timbers, 
 breaking forever the Indian power in 
 the Northwest. 
 
 Negotiations and a treaty of peace fol- 
 lowed, and the celebrated Greenville 
 treaty truce was agreed upon at Gen. 
 Wayne's headquarters at Greenville, 
 now in Darke county. And August 3d, 
 1795, the Wyandots, Potawatomies, Mi- 
 amis, Delawares and Shawnees, of 
 Ohio, and other Northwestern tribes, 
 agreed to deliver up all captives and to 
 bury the hatchet and keep peace forever. 
 
 The time intervening from the settle- 
 ment at Marietta had been a state of 
 war greatly retarding and embarrassing 
 the settlement of the country, but now 
 peace being secured, immigration began 
 to increase steadily, and September,1796, 
 Wayne county, which was the fifth, was 
 established, including the northern half 
 of our present State, Northern Indiana, 
 
e 
 
 and all of Michigan, with the county 
 seat at Detroit. 
 
 In 1796-8 the territory was rapidly flill- 
 ing with Immigrants, and new settle- 
 ments were begun in many places. And 
 in 1797-8 settlements were made at 
 Franklinton, on Alum creek, and on 
 Darby, in this county. 
 
 Adams county was proclaimed July 
 10th, 1797, with the county seat at Man- 
 chester, a village on the Ohio, establish- 
 ed by Nathaniel Massie in 1790. This 
 county extended across the entire State, 
 from the Ohio to the Indian boundary 
 line on the north, and including our 
 territory, we, of course, fell under the 
 jurisdiction of Adams county. 
 
 Each year the settlers pushed further 
 into the wilderness, aud August 20th, 
 
 1798, Ross county was proclaimed, with 
 the seat of justice at Chillicothe, which 
 had been laid out in the summer of 1790, 
 and we now fell within the territory 
 constituting Ross county (named after 
 James Ross of Pittsburg.) 
 
 It having been ascertained in 1798 that 
 the territory contained five thousand 
 white male inhabitants, and was there- 
 fore entitled to enter upon the second 
 grade of territorial government, accord- 
 ing to the ordinance of 1787, tne Govern- 
 or, St. Clair, issued his proclamation 
 calling upon the people to elect Repre- 
 sentatives to a General Assembly. This 
 was done, and the members elect met in 
 convention at Cincinnati, February 4th, 
 
 1799, and nominated ten persons for a 
 Legislative Council, of whom five were 
 to be appointed by the President of the 
 United States. This appointment was 
 made and both branches of this first Leg- 
 islature, met at Cincinnati, September 
 16th, 1799; and having organized, pro- 
 ceeded to the transaction of much im- 
 portant business and the enactment of 
 laws made necessary by the change from 
 a dependent condition upon the will of 
 the Governor and his Judges, to one of 
 greater freedom and independence. 
 
 At this session the Legislature elected 
 General William Henry Harrison a dele- 
 gate to represent the territory in Con- 
 gress. This was in October, and Imme- 
 diately thereafter he proceeded to Phila- 
 delphia, where Congress was sitting, and 
 entered upon his duties. He retained 
 this place but a short time, for during 
 this session Congress erected the territo- 
 ry of Indiana, of which Harrison was 
 made the Governor. 
 
 The question of forming a state gov- 
 ernment was agitated in 1802, and was 
 favored by the people, and petitions were 
 prepared and forwarded to Congress, 
 asking for permission, which was 
 granted April 30, 1802; and in the fall 
 delegates were elected to a convention 
 and empowered to form a constitution. 
 They met In Chillicothe on the first 
 Monday of November, and after a short 
 Bession formed a constitution satisfac- 
 tory, at least, to themselves; for it la a 
 remarkable fact that this Instrument 
 was never submitted to or adopted by 
 any vote of the people. It was acqui- 
 esced in, however, and the State grew 
 and flourished for nearly fifty years un- 
 der it. 
 
 The Legislature, elected under the 
 constitution, met in Chillicothe, March 
 1, 1803, and Ohio took her place in the 
 Union with Edward Tifiiu as Governor; 
 and thus ended our territorial connec- 
 tion. 
 
 Franklin county was organized April 
 30, 1803, at the first session of the State 
 Legislature, with boundaries: Begin- 
 ning on the western bouudary of the 
 20tti range of townships east of the 
 Scioto river, at the corner of sections 
 24 and 25, in the 9th township of the 
 21st range, surveyed by John Mathews; 
 thence west until it intersects the east- 
 ern boundary line of Greene county; 
 thence north with said line until it inter- 
 sects the State line; thence easterly with 
 said line to the northwest corner of 
 Fairfield; thence with the western bound- 
 ary of Fairfield to the place of begin- 
 ning; including a part of the present 
 Pickaway, Madison, Clarke, Chamraign, 
 Union, Lotran, Delaware and Marion 
 counties. But the original boundaries 
 of this county will be better understood 
 by the aid of the large diagram map I 
 have prepared for this occasion. ^ 
 
 In the early years the Indian troubles 
 greatly retarded the settlement of the 
 Northwest territory, but besides this va- 
 rious other causes were in operation, 
 chief among which was the vicious 
 method adopted for the sale and dispo- 
 sition of the lands acquired by the mu- 
 nificent grant of Virginia, by which the 
 general government obtained title to all 
 the Northwest territory. 
 
 All east of the Scioto and between the 
 Big aad Little Miamis the lands were 
 open to purchase only in immense bod- 
 ies, of which only compmies of wealth 
 could avail themselves, and in this way 
 Cutler and others in Massachusetts 
 formed the Ohio Land Company, and 
 obtained by purchase a million of acres 
 on the Ohio and Muskingum, which 
 were first settled by the colony under 
 the. lead of Putnam. 
 
 So also John Cleves Symmes and oth- 
 ers obtained In the same way a largs 
 grant betwixt the Big and LittleMiamis. 
 
 In the Virginia Military District, 
 which included the western half of our 
 county, the land had been surveyed into 
 large tracts and was In the hands of 
 large land holders and non-residents, 
 which for a long time prevented rapid 
 settlement of the county on the west side 
 of the Scioto; a difficulty from which 
 that district has not recovered in 
 seventy years, for it is not yet 
 equal In development to the eastern 
 half of the county, where the lands 
 were subdivided and sold in smaller 
 tracts. 
 
 Previous to 1800 It was impossible for 
 men of moderate means to buy a home 
 in the territory, for the smallest body of 
 land offered for sale by the government 
 was one section, or six hundred and 
 forty acres; but in this year a half sec- 
 tion, or three hundred and twenty acres, 
 could be purchased, and at the land offi- 
 ces in Cincinnati, Marietta, Steubenville 
 and other places the lands were rapidly 
 bought up; and subsequently, when a 
 quarter section, one hundred and eighty 
 
 *A large map was exhibited. 
 
I 
 
 acres, could be had for two dollars an 
 acre on five years credit, the county be- 
 gan to settle with great rapidity, for it 
 enabled men to become freeholders and 
 cultivators of their own lands, who had 
 hitherto been leaseholders and tenants, 
 working for the benefit of others. 
 
 At first our roads were mere traces 
 through the woods, and long afterward 
 were of the poorest description, without 
 bridges, and notwithstanding the cordu- 
 roys, were almost impassable during 
 winter, and I remember that wagons 
 were stalled by the mud betwixt Frank- 
 linton and Columbus, and that they re- 
 mained until they were dried out by the 
 spring sun and winds. 
 
 bait, nails, iron, hard and hollow ware 
 were brought from Pittsburg on pack- 
 horses, and as late as 1828, the chief 
 mode of transporting our goods or our 
 products was by the great Conestoga 
 wagons, with their four and six horse 
 bell teams. 
 
 There was scarcely any demand or 
 market for our produce, which had to be 
 floated off down the river by means of 
 Orleans boats, as they were called, after 
 the place where they went for a market. 
 
 There was but little use for corn, even 
 to feed cattle and hogs, for the cattle 
 found subsistence in the abundant range, 
 and hogs lived all winter in the woods 
 and fattened on the mast of hickory 
 nuts, acorns and beechnuts, and in 1825, 
 1000 bushels of corn would have over- 
 stocked and glutted the market o. Co- 
 lumbus, where no purchaser could be 
 found to pay cash for such an immense 
 quantity. 
 
 At an earlier period there were few or 
 no mills, and the early settlers had to go 
 to Dyer's mill on Little Darby — bells' 
 at Dublin, or down to Kinnikinick in 
 Ross county, and therefore handmills, 
 graters and hominy mortars were 
 brought into frequent requisition to fur- 
 nish the material for bread. 
 
 Salt was scarce and high — $3 to $5 
 per bushel — as it was brought from 
 Pittsburg and Wheeling on pack horses 
 Iron was also scarce and high, and the 
 nails used in the first buildings in 
 Franklinton were hammered out by 
 hand. 
 
 There were few or no American cot- 
 tons, and English Manchester long- 
 cloths, and India muslins and Calicuts, 
 and printed goods supplied our stores, 
 and it took a good two horse load of 
 corn to buy five yards of India calico, 
 which was considered a full dress pat- 
 tern, or enough of fine linen to make a 
 shirt. But fortunately a broad-cloth 
 coat or a silk or satin dress was consid- 
 ered both fashionable and genteel after 
 ten years' wear 
 
 Blankets and coarse woolens were also 
 dear, and after the first stock of clothing 
 was exhausted the settlers fell back upon 
 the coarse flax linen, spun and woven 
 by the industrious pioneer mothers, who, 
 when wool was afterwards to be had, 
 made blankets and coverlets and the lin- 
 sey woolsey for themselves and family. 
 As for th'e men, buckskin hunting shirt 
 and breeches were not uncommon, and 
 were warm and comfortable, except 
 when they were wet. 
 
 There are persons here to-day who can 
 remember when there was not a sheep in 
 Franklin county. 
 
 Even early in the territorial times 
 there were enactments for encouraging 
 the introduction of sheep, by a bounty 
 laid upon the scalps of wolves and pan- 
 thers. These laws were adopted and 
 amended by the State Legislature, and I 
 suppose that, in the first fifty years from 
 the settlement of the State, several 
 thousand dollars were paid for those 
 killed within the borders of Franklin 
 county. 
 
 The surface of the county, with a few 
 exceptions, was covered by heavy for- 
 ests, requiring prodigious labor to open 
 and cultivate a farm; but notwithstand- 
 ing the necessity for constant physical 
 labor and great attention to material 
 things, the early settlers were not un- 
 mindful of their mental and moral im- 
 provement, and to supply their wants in 
 these particulars, schools, churches and 
 newspapers were established. 
 
 In February, 18Q6, the First Presby,- 
 terian Church, and, I believe, the first 
 church of any kind in the county, was 
 organized in Franklinton, with James 
 Hoge as pastor. Of this church my 
 mother was a member, and Robert Cul- 
 bertson and William Read elders. Lucas 
 Sullivant, William Domigan, John 
 Dill, Joseph Hunter and Joseph 
 Dickson were trustees. Of members, 
 Elders, Trustees and Pastor, none are 
 now living. Of the early members of 
 this congregation, the Reads, Nelsons, 
 Shaws, Mooberys, Taylors, Longs, Liv- 
 ingstons, Pughs, and others, east of the 
 Scioto, traveled on horseback along the 
 bridle paths, over the present site of Co- 
 lumbus, to reach ^the old church in 
 Franklinton. 
 
 The first regularly incorporated church 
 was that of St. John's, in Worthington, 
 and our Methodist brethren were not 
 backward in the good work, for they 
 established preaching stations at an 
 early day. 
 
 Of newspapers, the first in the county 
 was established by Joel Buttles, in 1811, 
 at the town of Worthington ; and this 
 paper, the Western Intelligencer, is the 
 progenitor, by lineal ascent, of the present 
 Ohio State Journal. The other was the 
 Freeman's Chronicle, edited and pub- 
 lished by James B Gardiner, in Frank- 
 linton. June, 1812. Of these early news- 
 papers, I have here specimen copies. 
 
 At the organization of the State, no 
 place was fixed as the seat of govern- 
 ment, and for several years the Legisla- 
 ture met in different towns; but early in 
 the year 1812, after a hard contest with 
 other localities, it was determined that 
 the seat of government should be fixed 
 at the high bank of the Scioto river, 
 opposite the town of Franklinton. 
 
 This result was accomplished by the 
 good management, within -ithe Legisla- 
 ture, of our able Senator, Gen. Joseph 
 Foos, assisted outside by a strong lobby 
 of the friends of Starling, Kerr, Mc- 
 Laughlin and Johnson, the proprietors; 
 but, above all, by the liberal donations 
 of Lucas Sullivant, and his guarantee 
 of other subscriptions, to a large 
 
amount, and which he afterward had to 
 pay. 
 
 The State House having been com- 
 pleted, the legislators met in Colnmbus 
 for the first time in the winter of 1816. 
 
 Upon the same day in June, 1812, on 
 which the town lots ®f Columbus were 
 offered for sale, war was declared against 
 Great Britain. 
 
 The Ohio troops were placed under the 
 command of General Hull, marched to 
 Detroit and soon afterward surrendered 
 to the British. This unlooked for re* 
 suit spread a gloom over the whole State, 
 and indeed over the whole country. A 
 season of great distress and alarm fol- 
 lowed; for our county was now open to 
 an irruption of the bloody savages. 
 
 The citizens of Franklinton and of the 
 county responded promptly, and more 
 than once marched to the northern 
 border, and at a time when their services 
 were most needed to attend to the grow- 
 ing crops. The county troops were 
 several times marched to Sandusky and 
 assisted in repelling attacks and raising 
 the siege of Fort Meigs. The Franklin 
 County Dragoons, under the command 
 of the gallant Captain Joseph Vance, 
 distinguished themselves. 
 
 For the first year and a half the war 
 was carried on in a very feeble and vacil- 
 lating manner, and the people of this 
 county were harassed and interfered 
 with in all their operations, by the fre- 
 quent and unnecessary calls for troops 
 upon very trivial occasions. The war 
 deranged the business of the country, 
 which was still more embarrassed by tne 
 great issue of paper money by the banks 
 of the State, and this currency soon be- 
 came depreciated, and finally much of it 
 utterly worthless. 
 
 Much of the land east of the Scioto 
 had been bought on credit. These pay- 
 ments were every day becoming due, 
 and the Government importunate and 
 exacting. Many of the occupants had 
 purchased with the hope of being able 
 to make enough off their farms to meet 
 these deferred payments; but there was 
 little or no demand for their produce, 
 and no way of getting it to market. It 
 must be admitted the county was sickly 
 and the agues and fevers of thoBe days 
 were no light matters. Under these cir- 
 cumstances no wonder that many be- 
 came discouraged and surrendered their 
 possessions after years of unrequited 
 toil and labor. 
 
 The same state of affairs existed in 
 other parts of the State, as respects the 
 Congress lands, and so great was the 
 indebtedness of the purchasers that the 
 collection seemed likely to bankrupt the 
 State, and Congress remitted this in- 
 debtedness, I believe, to the amount of 
 fifteen or twenty millions. 
 
 From 1816 to 1826, was a period of 
 great depression, from which time the 
 business of the country began to revive, 
 and soon after the completion of the 
 canals Franklin county entered upon a 
 career of prosperity that has never been 
 checked. 
 
 From my brief and chronological pre- 
 sentation, it will be perceived that the 
 first county of the Northwest Territory, 
 
 established within the present limits of 
 the State, was Washington county, 
 which included all of our county east of 
 the Scioto. The second county was 
 Hamilton, lyiug betwixt the two Mi- 
 amis, with the Little Miami for its east- 
 ern boundary. The third county was 
 Wayne, which included a large part of 
 Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, all of 
 Michigan and a part of Minnesota, with 
 its county seat at Detroit. Now the 
 southern line of Wayne county was a 
 line drawn west from Fort Laurens and 
 continued until it intersected the east 
 line of Hamilton county, which is here 
 declared to be "a due north line from 
 the lower Shawnee towns upon the Sci- 
 oto river." It is evident, therefore, from 
 this, that, betwixt the time of establish- 
 ing Hamilton county, in 1790, and that 
 of Wayne, in 1796, the eastern boundary 
 of Hamilton had been greatly extended. 
 This is also confirmed, if we refer to the 
 alteration in the western boundary of 
 Adams county in 1798. 
 
 Now, whether we assume the lower 
 Shawnee towns on the Scioto at the 
 mouth of the river, to be intended, or 
 those in the vicinity of Westfill, in 
 Pickaway county, the due north 
 line forming the eastern boundary of 
 Hamilton would include the greater 
 part of the present Franklin county, and 
 must have passed just east of the spot 
 where we are now assembled. So that 
 it will be seen that our territory 
 has been attached to seven dis- 
 tinct political divisions in succession, 
 as follows: Bottetourt, Illinois, Wash- 
 ington, Hamilton, Adams, Ross and 
 Franklin — with eight different county 
 seats — Fincastle, Virginia, Kaskaskia 
 Illinois Marietta.Cincinnati, Manchester, 
 on the Ohio, Chillicothe, Franklinton, 
 and Columbus. 
 
 Being a native of the county I have 
 witnessed much of its changes and pro- 
 gress, and would be glad to enter into 
 details of many interesting events, and 
 make references, by name, to the early 
 settlers of the county; bHt this must 
 now be postponed to another occasion, 
 for the limited time allotted to me pre- 
 cludes any other than the most general 
 treatment of my subject. 
 
 But some of the incidents and names 
 of the earliest settlers I hope to set forth 
 in a biographical sketch which I am 
 preparing, of a leading pioneer of this 
 county, my father, Lucas Sullivant, who 
 was surveying on the west side of the 
 river in an early day, and who laid out 
 the town of Franklinton and formed the 
 first settlement in the county, in 1797. 
 
 It will scarcely be credited by those 
 of this generation, that, within the life- 
 time of some who are here present ton 
 day, there was a time when the seeming- 
 ly interminable forest stretched away 
 lrom the summits of the Alleghanles, 
 league after league toward the setting 
 sun — that St. Louis was an assemblage 
 of three or four hundred traders in furs 
 and peltries. The site of Chicago was a 
 wet prairie, and Louisville was only a 
 small village at the falls of the Ohio, 
 and the place of our beautiful Queen 
 City of the Ohio was a hamlet of log 
 
huts, under the shadow and protec- 
 tion of the stockades and blockhouses of 
 Fort Washington; and all beyond the 
 Mississippi was a terra incognita. 
 
 Throughout the vast region compris- 
 ing the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
 Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, 
 the only white men were clustered 
 around the sites of the old trading sta- 
 tions and military posts, and the whole 
 white population of the State probably 
 did not more than equal that of one of 
 the wards of our city. And here the 
 wild beasts of the forest and the savage 
 Indians roamed at will. The fertile val- 
 ley of the Scioto was a favorite place of 
 the Shawnees, where the natural prairies 
 furnished grass and food for their po- 
 nies in winter. 
 
 The flat betwixt Columbus and Frank- 
 llnton,and the field on the right as you go 
 to Green Lawn, had been cultivated by 
 the Indian women from time immemo- 
 rial; for it is to be remembered that 
 the noble savage man scorned manual 
 labor and reserved his energies for the 
 chase and the pastime of war. From 
 these fertile spots, where bounteous 
 nature yielded abundant products 
 with little or no labor, they gathered the 
 luscious green corn in its season, and 
 celebrating the annual corn dance 
 according to their own manner made 
 offerings and did homage to the Great 
 Spirit for this precious gift to His red 
 children. 
 
 It is but eighty-three years since 
 the settlement of this State began, 
 on the banks of the Ohio, at 
 Marietta, and subsequently in many 
 places the hardy pioneers won their 
 farms from rugged nature and a savage 
 foe; literally with the ax in one hand 
 and the rifle in the other. But happily, 
 many have lived through the privations 
 and difficulties of frontier life, and wit- 
 nessed the transformation of the wilder- 
 ness into fruitful and smiling fields, and 
 seen the wigwam of the savage give 
 place to secure and happy homes, 
 the abodes of civilization and refine- 
 ment. 
 
 In my childhood the howl of the wolf 
 was a frequent lullaby, and the fear of 
 Indian massacre disturbed my mother, 
 as it did many another mother in the 
 land. But the wild war-whoop of the 
 bloody savage no longer breaks upon 
 the startled ear and disturbs the slum- 
 ber of the lonely settler. 
 
 The efforts of King Philip and Pow- 
 hattan on the Atlantic waters, and the 
 grand and statesmanlike conceptions of 
 Pontiac and of Tecumseh in the west, to 
 interpose an armed and active Indian 
 confederation to stay the advance of the 
 white man, have all proved vain. So, 
 also, the hopes of Zeisberger and his 
 self-denying brethren, with the king and 
 counselor of the Delawares, as to the 
 founding of a great christian republic 
 among the Indians, which was to gather 
 into one united and consolidated nation 
 all the scattered and wandering tribes of 
 the west, and so preserve them as a dis- 
 tinct and peculiar people, "have vanished 
 like the baseless fabric of a dream." 
 
 Of all the tribes that then inhabited 
 the State none are left; not a single coun- 
 cil fire remains in all this region; one by 
 
 one they waned before the presence of 
 the white man, and the nations that once 
 surrounded them have utterly perished, 
 or the feeble remnants retired before the 
 ever advancing and remorseless tread of 
 our own race. 
 
 Fifty years ago, when the primeval 
 forest still covered the greater part of 
 the State of Ohio, it required no little 
 courage and energy to undertake the 
 making of a farm in Franklin county. 
 
 The present residents of our towns and 
 city, seeing only the beautiful country 
 and highly cultivated fields of their im- 
 mediate vicinity, and enjoying the va- 
 rious and abundant products of these 
 same fields, have little idea of the prim- 
 itive life and the circumstances which 
 surrounded the early settlers, or that it 
 has taken the self denial, the industry 
 and incessant toil of over two genera- 
 tions to bring the face of the country 
 into its present inviting and pleasing 
 condition. 
 
 In the early times of which I speak it 
 was the prime object of the pioneers, 
 with many a sturdy stroke, to slash 
 down the grand old forests, and let the 
 genial and vivifying rays of the sun 
 upon a rich and virgin soil, where, in 
 spite of roots and stumps and ever re- 
 curring sprouts and bushes, they con- 
 trived to reap sufficient crops to keep 
 them well supplied with those great 
 staples and comforts of pioneer life — hog 
 and hominy. Even now we occasion- 
 ally hear our farmers grumbling about 
 dull times and the low price of 
 produce, but are there not many here 
 present who can remember when we had 
 but few and imperfect roads, with but 
 little home market and scarcely any 
 outside the State for our products — that 
 beeswax, ginseng and feathers were 
 about all the articles that would pay for 
 transportation to a distant market — 
 that our hogs and beef cattle were driv- 
 en afoot across the mountains, and after 
 a month or six weeks exposure to wind 
 and weather, iound a limited market in 
 Baltimore ? Or the enterprising of a 
 whole neighborhood would join togeth- 
 er and build a flatboat or ark, and after 
 loading it with a miscellaneous cargo of 
 their surplus produce, would float It off 
 to a perilous and uncertain market, 
 which would occupy months in its ac- 
 complishment ? Will they ever forget 
 the times when cord wood, delivered in 
 Columbus, was dull at 50 and 75 cents; 
 hay $3 to $4 a ton; flour $1 50 to $2 
 per hundred; pork $1 25 to |l 75; when 
 wheat was sold at 25 and 30 cents a 
 bushel, and corn was a drug at 8 and 10 
 ceuts; oats, potatoes, butter and eggs 
 scarcely had a market value at all; and 
 as for the sale of a bushel of turnips, or 
 a head of cabbage, it was an unheard of 
 transaction. 
 
 In looking back over these early times 
 I cannot but believe we were as happy 
 and contented as now, with all our pro- 
 gress; most certainly as honest as at 
 present, for we never heard of defalca . 
 tions In office, or rings to cheat the 
 Government out of revenue. Money was 
 scarce and hard to get, and the taxes 
 were often behindhand, but were honest- 
 ly paid. 
 We seemed to be mutually dependent 
 
10 
 
 and relied more on one another, and 
 there was more neighborly helpfulness 
 in rendering assistance, especially to the 
 new beginners, or those weak handed; as 
 witness the house raisings, social chop- 
 ping parties and log-rollings, huskings 
 and quiltings. There was certainly much 
 genuine hospitality, for although the 
 cabins had puncheon floors aud clap- 
 board roofs, the latch string was always 
 out, and no man ever refused or was 
 afraid or ashamed to share his humble 
 fare with a neighbor or a stranger. 
 
 The women were more accustomed to 
 spin flax and wool than to reel off street 
 yarn; were more familiar with the ryth- 
 mical thud of the loom, and the hum of 
 the big spinning wheel tban with the 
 piano, and did not disdain to be well 
 versed in all household affairs, and yet 
 were by no means deficient in beauty, 
 intelligence or refinement. The extrav- 
 agance, fast living, expensive habits and 
 mad strife to get rich at all hazards and 
 by any means, that, now seems to have 
 taken possession of all classes, was not 
 then manifest. The men of those days 
 never dreamed of getting rich by fat 
 offices, or by the sale of their political 
 influence, or off the public by fraudulent 
 and put up jobs. Politics was not yet a 
 trade, by which shysters and loafers 
 could live. Our early settlers expected 
 to thrive only by patient industry, and 
 not only believed in frugality and hard 
 work, but illustrated and supplemented 
 their theory by actual and daily practice. 
 
 It is in my recollection when the city 
 of Columbus had no existence, and its 
 present site was covered with forest, 
 where the deer and the wolf found shel- 
 ter and safety amid its solitude. 
 
 What marvelous changes I have 
 witnessed since I was a school boy, with 
 William and Nat. Merion, Elijah Backus, 
 Chris. Ransburgh and others in the old 
 frame building which stood on the cor- 
 ner of Town and High streets, where 
 now stands the commodious United 
 States Hotel ! 
 
 In these days of progress aud improve- 
 ment, of commodious and convenient 
 school buildings, with elegant seats and 
 desks, I do not know which would pro- 
 duce the greatest astonishment — to in- 
 troduce one of our high school boys to 
 the primitive log school house, with 
 the rough slab benches, where their 
 grandfathers received the rudiments of 
 an education, or to show one of the girls 
 the spinning wheel and loom with 
 which their grandmothers manufactured 
 their own becoming garments. 
 
 Mr. President, do we not recollect 
 when our beautiful capitol square was 
 full of stumps and used as a pasture by 
 the State officers, aud when we boys 
 went in to play ball, that we had to con- 
 tend for possession with McLean's old 
 horse and Osboru's cow? 
 
 Why, sir, it seems almost but yester- 
 day, since your brother William and 
 
 myself, with Robert and John Arm- 
 strong, Jim Adams, Lucius and Jack 
 Ball, Gus. Brown, John and Keys Barr, 
 Henry Butler, James and Robert Cul- 
 bertson, Moses Hoge, James Kooken, 
 John Kerr, James Livingston, Tom 
 Loftland, Henry Mills, Milt. McLain, 
 John Overdier, John and James Osrr 
 borne, Hiram Powers, Grove Parrish, 
 Ben Pike, William Piatt, Alf. Russell, 
 William Scott, John and Bob Wherry, 
 and others not now recollected, were 
 careering around like young colts, in 
 and out among the papaw bushes, near 
 by the academy, which stood on Third 
 street, near the present Second Presby- 
 terian Church. 
 
 What times we had in summer with 
 prisoners base, four holed cat, hop 
 scotch, round the stakes, and roley boley 
 — and in winter how we gathered the 
 corn oil' the outlots east of Fourth 
 street, betwixt Town and Rich, and 
 parched it on the old stove from Mary 
 Ann furnace. 
 
 With the hot blood coursing through 
 our veins we feared neither wind or 
 weather, and cared neither for Kiiiic 
 nor Kaiser, had no thought of the mor- 
 row, except from its anticipated pleas- 
 ures, and experienced no sorrows that a 
 night's sound sleep did not dissipate. 
 
 Our early days— how often back 
 We turn on life's bewildering track, 
 To where o'er hill and vailey, plays 
 The sunlight of our early days. 
 
 If all those who gathered with us in 
 the old Columbus Academy could have 
 come together years afterward, in the 
 full flush of manhood, what a tale might 
 have been told of fair promise unfulfilled, 
 of high hopes and youthful ambition 
 that came to naught, of griefs and bitter 
 disappointments, of hearts sore wouud- 
 ed and scarred in the rough conflict of 
 life. 
 
 Still, notwithstanding all this, the 
 pathway of those has not always been 
 through storm and shadow, for I am 
 happy to say that, to some at least, there 
 appears to have come a fair share of 
 such happiness and prosperity as seems 
 to be vouchsafed to us poor mortals. 
 
 That youthful band that were accus- 
 tomed to gather in to the instruction of 
 kind, patient, good Mr. Brown, our 
 teacher, were scattered far and wide, 
 and many now "Sleep the sleep that 
 knows no breaking." 
 
 As my thoughts so frequently, now, 
 travel back, and dwell with pleasant 
 recollections upon the companions and 
 playmates of the olden time— 
 
 "How oft, in the stilly night, 
 
 Ere slumber's chains had bound me, 
 Fond memory brings the 1 ight 
 Of other days around me." 
 
 And now, Mr. President, the days of 
 our youth have glided away, and you 
 and I, with eo many assembled here to- 
 day, are numbered with those who were 
 Pioneers fifty years ago. 
 
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 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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