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Ashland County, Ohio

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OHIO GENEALOGY EXPRESS

A Part of Genealogy Express

 

Ashland County, Ohio
History & Genealogy

Clear Creek Township
(Transcribed by Sharon Wick)

 
Clear Creek Township is located along the west border of Ashland County, Ohio, and from left to right is the first of the second tier of townships in the northern end of the county.  Its location in relation to some of Ohio's large cities is about eighty miles northeast of Columbus, the State's Capital, a similar distance southeast of Toledo, and about fifty miles southwest of Cleveland.  It lay as a speck within the great Northwest Territory set apart by Congress in 1787.  The intrusion of the white man, his eagerness to become possessor of the territory, and consequent treaties with the Indians had forced upon Congress a system of survey and the establishment of land offices where white settlers might purchase lands of their choice.  The nearest land office to the Township in question was at Canton, Ohio, some sixty miles distant.  Later, another was established at Wooster, about twenty-five miles southeast of Clear Creek Township.
  * Sprott's Hill - In the northeast quarter of Section 35, there is an elevation of land known as Sprott's Hill, being so named because of its location on the farm first settled by Captain Thomas Sprott, in 1823, when he, his four daughters, and three of his four sons immigrated to Clear Creek Township from Beaver Co., Pennsylvania, where Mrs. Sprott died in 1821.  Thomas Sprott was a noted brave and very active scout, serving under the celebrated Brady in Indian Wars on the Frontier.  When he came to Clear Creek Township he erected his home a few hundred yards southwest of the hill which bears his name.  The hill is supposed to have originated as a terminal moraine during the glacial period.  It covers an area of about five acres and is over ninety feet high.  On its comparatively flat surface, nearly thirty feet apart were two Indian burial mounds about five feet high, each having a diameter of nearly twenty-five feet at its base.  Immense oak trees on and around the mounds evidenced the many intervening years since the mounds were constructed.
     George W. Hill relates that curiosity persuaded members of the Sprott family to dig one of the mounds where, to their amazement, they discovered a large coffin built of flat stones.  Eagerly but carefully, piece by piece, they lifted the covering and therein lay, side by side, the remains of six or eight Indians, the bodies having undergone such careful preparation that they were in a state of good preservation.  On the stones over the top of the coffin they found numerous Indian treasures and about a peck of vermilion.  The Sprott boys, leaving everything just as they found it, reverently closed the mound.
     At his own request Thomas Sprott was buried upon one of the mounds at his death in 1839, his son, William, being buried beside his father in 1845; but about 1880, their bodies were removed to Savannah Cemetery.
     From the top of Sprott's Hill one may observe a landscape of rare beauty.  When the atmosphere is clear, it is possible to locate from the top of the Hill the towns of Ashland, West Salem, Nankin, Polk, and Savannah, besides the farms and homes of many persons.
     The following bit of verse came to mind at the close of a beautiful autumn day in 1932, after my mother and I, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. T. V. Simanton, of Ashland, Ohio, had delightfully spent the afternoon motoring throughout the southern portion of Clear Creek Township, familiar ground to Simanton since his childhood days:

Clear Creek's Scenic Beauty
Within its borders one may find
No snow-capped peaks nor wooded mountain sides,
Nor stretch of ocean's magic blue -
Its angry waves or slowly moving tides;
But pastoral scenes of beauty rare
Are over all our Township's surface cast,
Entwined midst field and winding roads,
Hills, valleys, streams and lakes and forests vast.
'Tis autumn, and today we climbed
And stood upon the summit of Sprott's Hill
To view or Clear Creek's farms and homes.
Wonderful picture!  How our hearts did thrill
Across great stretch of rolling lands
For miles and miles we gazed in ecstacy,
Pointing out homes and villages
Resting on hill, in vale, so peacefully;
Corn standing in long rows of shocks,
Yielding to huskers' hands their ears of gold;
New wheat fields, all so fresh and green,
With promise bright, the farmers' pride untold.
Large flocks of sheep and cattle herds
Contentedly in pastures roamed and grazed,
While myriads of beauty-spots
Came into view as silently we gazed.
And over all the beauteous scene
Was cast a mellow glow of richest hue,
Caught from the brilliant sun-kissed robes
With which the forests were bedecked anew.

No artist's brush, nor writer's pen
Could e're portray that grand autumnal scene
As from the summit of Sprott's Hill
It lay before us, peaceful and serene.

   
  INDIANS OF CLEAR CREEK -
     Before the Advent of white settlers, Clear Creek Township had been the hunting grounds of representatives of several tribes of Indians, principally the Delawares, Senecas, Wyandotts, Mingoes, Mohegans and the Ottawas.
     At certain seasons of the year, Clark Creek's streams, and especially its lakes were very attractive to Indian hunters and fishermen, and most of the trails crossing the Township led to, or traversed one or both of the Lakes.  Back through the years, and even occasionally at the present time, many specimens of the Indians' handiwork have been tossed up by the plowshare as men on farms bordering the Lakes tilled their fields.  On the home farm of Carey Boyd, southeast of Savannah, on which is a portion of the Lower Lake, there was once an Indian camping ground, and for years the successive owners of the land would plow up many articles of Indian handiwork such as stone battle axes, flint arrowheads, skinners, and other tools of Indian construction, and frequently bars of lead about a foot long and an inch wide would be found, having found, having been molded by the Indians for making bullets.
     In the home of Jacob McClain, a hatter, one of the very early residents of Savannah, the Indians found warm friends and visited the McClain home frequently to run bullets, sometimes leaving a papoose tied to a board standing against a large oak tree near by while they were inside.  On one occasion they ran out of lead.  One of the Indians sped away on swift foot and soon returned with a fresh supply.  He said he got it near a spring with a large oak tree beside it, but would not disclose the definite location, and where it came from is still an unsolved mystery.
     Once when some Indians came to the McClain home to run bullets, McClain was absent, having gone to Mansfield, a distance of about 20 miles, for a supply of salt.  Mrs. McClain had finished an attractive pair of knitted red wool mittens which hung from a rafter in her kitchen.  The Indians displayed great interest in the mittens and made so many peculiar gestures which Mrs. McClain could not understand that she became frightened and gave the mittens to them.  They went away happy, but upon his return McClain was greatly incensed over his wife's loss of the prized red mittens.
     One of the trails to the Lakes and thereabout was from an Indian camp near Greenwich, Ohio, about twelve miles distant.  A large old Indian named Turner was a frequent traveler of that trail.  He had lost one eye which had been struck by a diverted arrow when his bow split.  Turner became angry at a man by the name of Biddinger who lived near the Upper Lake and was determined to kill him.  He was frequently discovered lying in ambush to watch for Biddinger who knew his danger and was afraid to venture from his home.  Dave Duff, of Savannah, a man of enormous stature, and a sure marksman, was greatly distressed over Biddinger's predicament.  Dave Duff was at Savannah's old log Inn one day when a man stopped and told him that Turner was on the trail to the Lakes and would be at the river west of town before long.  Duff said nothing but picked up a gun and started out.  When he returned he was asked if he had seen Turner.  He replied, nonchalantly, that he looked through the sight on his gun and saw Turner on the middle of a foot-log across the river, - that he looked again and the Indian was gone.  That was all he would say, but Turner was seen nevermore about Savannah Lakes, to the great relief of Biddinger and his family.
     Clear Creek Township settlers experience less trouble with the Indians than in some other portions of Ashland County.  Abel and Acsah Bailey lost a small daughter scalped by a savage Indian.  Her mother heard the child's screams, but was powerless to save her.  It was a grewsome topic and the family seldom mentioned it.
     It was but natural that the intrusion of the white men aroused emotions of resentment and hatred in the minds of the red men who so long had claimed the territory as a portion of their happy hunting ground.  They could not be blamed.  But the kindness and friendliness of the pioneers was soon reciprocated by their red brothers and history relates no serious outbreaks of savagery and slaughter among the Indians within the bounds of Clear Creek Township.
    Only a few years lapsed until all the land of the Township was entered by white settlers.  The rapid changes of civilization forced the Indians to abandon the territory and journey "toward the setting sun," although Clear Creek's splendid hunting and finishing opportunities, and for several years the maple sugar season, attracted a few of the Indians to the community each springtime.
 

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