Source:
Pioneer Period and Pioneer People of Fairfield Co., Ohio.
by C. M. L. Wiseman
Publ. F. J. Heer Printing Co., Columbus, O.  1901

Transcribed by Sharon Wick

THE HISTORIC ZANE FAMILY

     THE first men to make a substantial or public improvement in what is now Fairfield County were Ebenezer Zane, his brother Jonathan and son-in-law John McIntire.  Zane was employed by the United Sates government in 1796 to open a road from Wheeling, W. Va., to Maysville, Ky.  The work was completed the following year.
     Ebenezer with his Indian guide "Tomepomehala" and perhaps others, inspected the route and blazed the way.  He then left the execution of the work to Jonathan Zane and John McIntire.
     For this work he received in part compensation, a section of land near the "Standing Stone," on the Hockhocking river.
     In the year 1800 his sons, Noah and John, laid out the town of Lancaster and on Nov. 10, of that year made a public sale of the lots.  The sons held a power of attorney to make the sales and the deeds therefor.  John Zane was then 20 years of age and Noah 26 years.  It was some years before the lots were all disposed of.  In the year 1814, Emanuel Carpenter Jr., purchased of Zane's heirs, that part of his section south of the town, beginning at the alley between Chestnut and the present Walnut street, for $6,782.
     The founder of a city, deserves more than a passing notice.  Ebenezer Zane and his two brothers Silas and Jonathan, were the first settlers of the Ohio valley, below Pittsburg.

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     He was a frontiersman of rare ability, an able energetic and influential man; and during his life one of the foremost men of the frontier or of the Ohio valley.
     The Zane family were originally from Denmark, but the American ancestor came to America from England with William Penn.  He was a Quaker and for some years prominent in the new settlement.  Zane Street, Philadelphia, was named for him.  Becoming obnoxious to his Quaker brethren, he cut loose from them and emigrated to Virginia, settling on the south branch of the Potomac, near what is now Moorefield, Hardy Co., W. Va., then known as Berkeley County, Virginia.  There his descendants, the five men, who are the subjects of this sketch were born.  Ebenezer, Silas, Jonothan, Andrew and Isaac, and one known sister, Elizabeth.
     Ebenezer was born Oct. 7, 1747, and grew to manhood in the Potomac valley.  There he was united in marriage to Elizabeth McColloch, a sister of four famous brothers, frontiersmen and Indian fighters, Abraham, George, Samuel and John McColloch.  Of these, Samuel was a distinguished man in the public service and a soldier of marked ability.  In 1767 Ebenezer Zane, Silas Zane and Jonathan made preparation to seek a new home in the Western country; and in the spring of the following year, Ebenezer, with his brothers, his family, his negro slaves and other chattels, bid adieu to one of the most beautiful of Virginia valleys and took up their line of march for the West.  They followed an old trail from Cumberland to Red Stone, now Brownsville, Pa., where they tarried, and spent the winter.

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     In the spring of 1769 the three brothers built cabins at the mouth of Wheeling creek on the Ohio and staked off claims.  To this place, before the close of navigation, Zane brought his family, negroes, cattle and horses, by rude boat, of pioneer construction.  This was the founding of the city of Wheeling.
     Ebenezer Zane was fortunate in his wife.  No pioneer was ever blessed with a better helpmate.  She was a brilliant, capable woman, equal to any emergency, and a leader in the trying times in which she lived.  She was born Oct. 30, 1748, and was about one year her husband's junior.  She was a very capable nurse and could dress a gunshot wound with skill, using the knife when necessary.
     The Zanes were wise woodmen, they understood the Indians and knew how to manage them.  If their advice had been heeded on more than one or two occasions, many valuable lives would have been saved. Col. Zane was the recognized leader in his new settlement during his life.  He commanded at Fort Henry in the siege of 1777, and when the Indians again visited the Fort in 1782, he placed his brother Col. Silas Zane in command of the Fort, while he, with others, took their places in his own block house, sixty yards from the Fort, where their ammunition was stored.
     Col. Zane and his brothers owned all of the good land for two miles on both sides of the Ohio at Wheeling.  In 1806 he laid out the town of Bridgeport, and in 1835 his grandson Ebenezer Martin laid out the city of Martin's Ferry above Bridgeport.
     Col. Ebenezer Zane died in the year 1811, aged 64 years, and his body was buried in the cemetery at Bridgeport.  A plain stone slab marks his resting place.  Col. Zane was a disbursing officer in the army

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of Lord Dunmore and attained the rank of Colonel.  His daughter Catherine was born June 27, 1769 and married Captain Absalom Martin of the U. S. Army.  Ann was born May 27, 1771, Sarah was born Feb. 23, 1773, and married John McIntire, a shoemaker.  Noah was born Oct. 1, 1774, Rebecca was born Oct. 10, 1776.  She married John Clarke.  Harriett or Esther was born Oct. 8, 1786, and married Elijah Woods.  Daniel was born Oct. 25, 1788, Jesse, Oct. 5, 1790, John was born April 30, 1780, Samuel was born May 12, 1782.
     Jesse and John died while yet young men, Noah lived in Wheeling as late as 1835, Daniel lived and died on Wheeling Island.  His son Daniel lives there now, near the suspension bridge.
     Samuel Zane married Elizabeth Bloomfield and lived and reared a large family west of Bridgeport, three sons, and eight daughters.  His daughter Cynthia E., was the first wife of Dr. J. L. Rankin of Bemen, Ohio.  Their son resides in New Mexico.  Martha married Frank Burton of Brownville, Licking County, and now lives a widow in Columbus.  Virginia married Samuel R. Klotts of Lancaster, now of Columbus.  Emma married George Brown of Somerset, Ohio.
     Alice Josephine married Dr. Lewis Gray and they now reside in Columbus, O.
     Catharine married Ezekiel Mills of Barnesville, Ohio, moved to Iowa and both died there.
     Sarah married Ferdinand Moeller of Zanesville, Ohio, and moved to Newport, Ky.
     Narcissa married Samuel Robinson of Zanesville, and moved to Burlington, Iowa.
     Benjamin Franklin, son of Samuel, was a bachelor and died in Columbus, Ohio.

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     Ebenezer, son of Samuel, married Ellen Barnett of Camden, Preble County, Ohio.  Their son, Lewis Pearl is a clerk in the wholesale grocery of Samuel Butler, Columbus, Ohio.
     Austin Bloomfield Zane, son of Samuel, married Mary Barnett of Camden, Ohio.  They live in Columbus, Ohio.  Their son, Lewis B., is in the cigar business with his father in Columbus, Ohio.
     Austin B. was a soldier in the Union army from Licking County, Ohio.
     Rebecca Crawford, a daughter of John and Esther Woods, was born on a farm near Martin's Ferry and now lives, 82 years of age, in Bridgeport, Ohio.  John Clark and wife, Rebecca, lived on a farm in Wheeling creek, three miles west of Wheeling, Belmont County, Ohio.  Rebecca, a maiden daughter, lives there now.
     Of Colonel Silas Zane we know but little, in addition to what has been written.  He was a bold, able and gallant co-laborer with his pioneer brothers.  Of Andrew Zane, we know still less.  He was killed while crossing the Scioto, presumably by the Indians.
     Elizabeth Zane, sister of the five brothers, was born in Berkeley County, Va., in 1759.  She was educated in Philadelphia, and prior to the siege of Ft. Henry in 1782, where she immortalized herself; came to Wheeling on a visit.  She was a beautiful girl and throughout a long life she was an accomplished and handsome woman, and withal modest and unassuming.  In 1782, when Ft. Henry was invested by hundreds of savages, the supply of powder became exhausted and it was necessary for some intrepid individual to make the attempt to secure a supply form Zane's block-house, sixty yards distant.  This young

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school girl volunteered to undertake the perilous duty.  Her uncle objected but she insisted.  Braving the fire of hundreds of rifles she made her way to the block-house.  There Colonel Ebenezer Zane tied a table cloth about her waist and emptied into it a keg of powder.  With this burden she bravely faced what seemed certain death and reached the Fort unharmed.  Her valor saved the brave, unselfish deeds are recorded and read.
     She married a Mr. McLaughlin, and he dying she married a Mr. Clark.  A son of the latter was living as late as 1877.
     She is said to have died in St. Clairsville in 1847.

JONATHAN ZANE

     Jonathan Zane was identified with his brother, Ebenezer, throughout his life and was one of his most useful and trusted assistants.
     He was a famous hunter and marksman and was employed as a hunter by Lord Dunmore for his army.  He superintended the construction of Zane's trace.  He was guide and scout to the army of Gen. William Crawford in his expedition against the Indians at Sandusky.  He was invited to a council of war before the fatal battle and advised a retreat.  He knew the Indians better than Crawford and he gave good reason for his advice.  He married and reared a large family in Wheeling, where he outlived his more famous brother many years.

ISAAC ZANE.

     Isaac Zane, the youngest of the Zane brothers when but nine years of age, was captured by the Wyandott Indians and carried to their home on the

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Sandusky.  The capture is said to have been made at or near his father's home, but under what circumstances we cannot state.  He was a captive for seventeen years and endured all of the hardships of savage life.  While a captive he often met white traders and scouts and was frequently useful to his own race, by giving advice or timely warning.  We known that he was released prior to the year 1785, for in that year he was guide and hunter to General Richard Butler, one of the commissioners to treat with the Indians of the Northwest territory.  For this service he was handsomely rewarded by the U. S. government, receiving several sections of good land on Mad river, near the present town of Zanesfield, Logan County, Ohio.  What he did until the year he settled upon these lands we do not know.  During this period a daughter married William McColloch, a nephew of the wife of Ebenezer Zane.  They moved to the present site of Zanesville, where on May 7, 1798, Noah Zane McColloch was born, the first child born in Zanesville.  From Zanesville they moved, presumably with Isaac Zane, to Mad river.  McCulloch was a soldier of the war of 1812 and was killed at Brownstown.
     His son, Noah Zane, lived a long and useful life in Logan County, O.  He was a man of fine mind, of superior intelligence, and a splendid conversationalist.  He was a leading citizen of Logan County and a friend and associate of the prominent men of Bellefontaine.  Frank McCulloch, late member of the Ohio Board of Public Works, is his son and therefore a great grandson of Isaac Zane and his Indian wife.  Samuel McColloch, Secretary to the Board of Public Works, is also a son of Noah Zane McCulloch.

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     General Isaac Gardner of Bellefontaine married a grand-daughter of Isaac Zane and his daughter married General Robert P. Kennedy.
     Mrs. Catherine Dawson of Yellow Springs is a great grand daughter of Isaac Zane.
     Sarah McIntire married for a second husband Rev. David Young, a famous pioneer Methodist preacher.
     The following well written sketch of the Zanes was found in an old newspaper.  The author is unknown, but is worthy of preservation, as is anything illuminating the lies of each historic characters as the Zane brothers.

EARLY HISTORY

     The Zane family was a remarkable one of early days, and some of its members are historical characters.
     There are four brothers, Isaac, Ebenezer, Silas and Jonathan Zane, who are captured by the Indians when they were boys and held in captivity for thirteen years.
     During the greater part of the period of their enforced detention the Zanes lived in what is now Eastern Ohio.  Isaac, Ebenezer and Jonathan were taken to Detroit by their captors and there exchanged or in some way set at liberty.  But the bonds that held Isaac, the remaining brother, were of a stouter sort than those of revenge or interest such as had caused the long captivity of his companions.  Isaac Zane was loved by the comely daughter of the Wyandot chieftain who was the leader of the tribe that held, the Zanes in custody.  Isaac was a young man and he wanted to be free.  Twice he escaped and twice he was brought back and treated with engaging

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tenderness by the Indian maiden.  But he thought more of liberty than of woman's love, and so made a third attempt to escape from the foes that held him in such high esteem that they could not bear to part with him.  For several days he traveled toward the rising sun, and finally reached Butler County, Pennsylvania, and was turning his course toward Pittsburg when he was met by some hostile Indians.

THE JAWS OF DEATH.

     He could run like a deer, but his pursuers were numerous and some of them who knew the country much better than he did managed to cut off his retreat, and he was made a prisoner.  This time he fell into the hands of Indians who were not at all disposed to treat him kindly.  He was securely bound and taken to the camp of Cornplanter, a famous chieftain.  The tribe which he led was originally ruled by an Indian Queen of singular power and beauty.  This woman, said the only living descendant of Zane to me recently, was a superior person.  She was born to rule and govern her people by the force of her character.  She was importuned by many a great chief, time after time, to become his wife, but she preferred to cling to her power and dignity.  She was the mother of Cornplanter a reputed son of a famous white man.
     When Isaac Zane was brought before Cornplanter he was accused of being an Indian-slayer, and was doomed to be burned at the stake.
     His face was painted black, which indicated that a horrible death was in store for him and he was told that the next morning would be his last.  The frightful death-whoop sounded through the camp at night

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and malignant squaws leered at the youthful prisoner and told him of the pain that they were preparing to inflict upon him.  He was unable to sleep until nearly daylight, when he fell into an uneasy slumber.  Before he awoke he saw in grateful morning vision that floated before his drowsy eyes, the slender figure of the Wyandot maiden who loved him and from whose affectionate demonstrations he had fled.  She smiled upon him and seemed to say "have hope."  The next moment he was roughly aroused by his captors and led out to die.
     A stake had been set in the ground, and he was fastened to it by a leather thong attached to his ling, with shrill outcries.  A number of squaws pulled out all of his finger and toe nails, and sharp lighted sticks were pushed into his bare arms and breast.
     Finally a big warrior approached with a firebrand to light the fagots, and half a dozen guns charged with salt and coarse powder were leveled at the victim's body.  The death dance was commenced and the fire had just been applied to the dry sticks when the war-whoop of the Wyandots rang out in the clear morning air, and a band of braves led by the chief's own daughter, dashed into the camp.  The maiden saw the awful peril of the man she loved, and she rode her pony straight to him and set him free with a single stroke of her knife.  The Wyandots claimed that Zane was one of their own people, and that they had adopted him thirteen years ago.
     The solid merits of the claim, coupled with the

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beauty of the maiden who led the rescuing party, induced Cornplanter to set Zane at Liberty.
     He returned to his place of captivity in Ohio with the Wyandots, and was manly enough to marry the maiden, whose superb, savage love for him had led her to pursue him through the forests of Pennsylvania, where she snatched him from a fearful death.
     The Zanes were all children of the forest and their long residence with the red men unfitted them for the restful vocations of peace.  They were all splendid Indian fighters, and found ample employment in that line till they became middle aged men.
     After Isaac Zane married the Indian girl he lived for a time with her tribe and then became a scout in the Indian wars.  His services to the government were so valuable that he was given a large tract of land in Logan County.  After peace had been restored and the days of fighting had passed away, Isaac Zane moved to his land in Logan County, and there spent the rest of his days.  He is buried near Zanesfield, and has descendants still living in Logan and Champaign Counties.  Zane  and his Indian wife had four or five daughters and three sons.  The daughters were women of fine figure and engaging features, with skin of very light color.  The sons, on the other hand, of dark complexion, and looked much like Indians.  One of the sons, who was named after his father, married and was an excellent citizen.  The other, Samuel Zane, had the roving disposition of his savage ancestors.  The McCullochs, Gardiners and some of the Longs of Western Ohio, are descended from Isaac Zane and his Indian Princess.
     The writer of the foregoing sketch omits the name

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of Andrew.  He errs in stating that all were prisoners, Isaac was the only captive.

EBENEZER ZANE.

     The original proprietor of Zanesville, Ebenezer Zane, was a man who bore a very conspicuous part in his early history of the Ohio Valley.  I find letters addressed to him in the St. Clair correspondence, and there is no doubt that he was the most efficient help that the government found whenever it undertook to whip the Indians.
     Ebenezer Zane was practically the founder of Wheeling, Martin's Ferry, Bridgeport and Zanesville.  He was given a large tract of land along the Ohio river, extending northward from Wheeling creek for quite a distance, and one of his brothers took for his reward from the government of Wheeling Island, and a third brother owned land on the opposite side of the river.
     McIntire met Sarah Zane when she was fourteen years of age, and he married her before she was sixteen, in spite of the stern opposition of her father, Colonel Zane yielded with grace when he saw that his consent was no longer needed, and McIntire seems to have become a favorite with him.
     In 1796 Ebenezer Zane was authorized by Congress to construct a road from Wheeling, W. Va., to Maysville, Ky., then called Limestone.  His younger brother Jonathan and his son-in-law McIntire did most of the work.  All that was done was to mark out and clear a road that horsemen could travel.  It was afterwards improved.  For this work Zane was allowed, as compensation, to locate military warrants upon three sections of land not to exceed one mile

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square each.  He took one section where his road crossed the Muskingum at Zanesville, a second where it crossed the Hocking at Lancaster, and the third at the crossing of the Scioto, opposite Chillicothe.  The land about Zanesville he gave to his brother and John McIntire. 
     In this manner the site of Zanesville came into the possession of John McIntire.  He put his removable property on a flatboat at Wheeling, and came with his family to begin the settlement of the new town in 1799.  He was soon joined by a few families from Virginia, and soon a little town sprang up.  The first hotel was kept by McIntire.
     McIntire did not become an innkeeper because he wanted to earn a livelihood in that way, but rather to furnish an attractive place of entertainment for travelers.  His house was a double log cabin, with a wide passageway between the two ends.  He was a cordial, good-humored man, with a fine southern notion of hospitality, and his house was a very popular resting place for travelers.  McIntire's house stood at what is now the corner of Market and Second streets, a few rods from the river, in a grove of maple trees.
     When Louis Phillippe was roaming about America in a melancholy frame of mine while the dazzling star of Napoleon was rising to its magnificent zenith, the dejected monarch stayed for a time at McIntire's cabin.  Lewis Cass, referring to the incident in this book, says: "At Zanesville the party found the comfortable cabin of Mr. McIntire, whose name had been preserved in the King's memory, and whose house was a favorite place of rest and refreshment for all travelers who at this early period were compelled to traverse that part of the

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country.  And if these pages should chance to meet the eyes of any of those, who, like the writer, have passed many a pleasant hour under the roof of this uneducated but truly worthy and respectable man, he trusts they will unite in this tribute to his memory."