COUNTY FAIR
Pg. 96 - 106

     The Fairfield County Agricultural Society was first organized in 1851, and held its first Fair in October of that year.  John Reeber was President, and John S. Brazee, Secretary.  The first Fair-ground was on the west side of Columbus street, on lands belonging to John Reeber, lying a little south of the Reservoir.  The Fair was a flattering success; but, owing to the disordered and lost state of the papers, it has been impossible to obtain statistics of that, or several of the subsequent years.  Never-
[pg. 97]
theless, the society has held its annual Fairs, viz.: in the month of October, for twenty-five consecutive years, and has grown into one of the best County Fairs in the State.
     In 1852, Mr. Reeber, as President, was vested by the Board with power to purchase permanent Fair-grounds, which he accomplished by buying a part of the farm of Thos. Wright, deceased, at the foot of Mount Pleasant, on its western side.  The purchase was made from John A. Fetters, Administrator of Thos. Wright, and on very advantageous terms to the society.  The first purchase was twelve or fifteen acres, perhaps less.  Subsequently the Widner place was purchased and added to the west of the grounds, and two or three acres from Mrs. Van Pearce on the north, thus making the aggregate of twenty-two acres, which is the present Fair-ground.
     The trotting park, amphitheaters, exhibition halls, music stand and all other appointments of the grounds are of the best, and have been engineered and executed by skillful and competent men.  From the first the citizens of Fairfield County have taken the matter of their Fair in hand with a pride and zeal, nowhere surpassed; nor has the interest at any time seemed to flag in the least.
     During the last six or seven years a systematic course of bookkeeping has been kept up, from the pages of which some extracts are here introduced.  I deem it right, however, first to say, that Mr. Reeber, first President, served in that capacity for several years, then was out, and subsequently again elected.  I would be glad to introduce the names of the various men who, for the first sixteen or eighteen eyas, filled the principal offices of the society, but for the want of records at hand I am unable to do so.
     In 1868, which begins the regular records, John S. Brazee was President, and John G. Reeves, Secretary.
     In 1869, John Reeber was elected President, and John G. Reeves continued Secretary; John C. Weaver, Treasurer.
     In 1870, John Reeber was President; John G. Reeves, Secretary; and John C. Weaver, Treasurer.
     In 1871, B. W. Carlisle was President; John G. Reeves, Secretary; and John C. Weaver, Treasurer.
     In 1872, Andrew J. Musser was President; John G. Reeves, Secretary; and William Noble, Treasurer.
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     In 1873, Andrew J. Musser was President; John G. Reeves, Secretary; and William Noble, Treasurer
     In 1874, Joseph C. Kinkead, was President; John G. Reeves, Secretary; and William Noble, Treasurer
     In 1875, Joseph C. Kinkead, was President; William Davidson, Secretary; and William Noble, Treasurer.
     In 1876, T. H. Busby was President; William Davidson, Secretary; and S. J. Wolf, Treasurer.
     The first financial showing on the available records is the total cost of the erection of the two amphitheaters, in the year 1873, which was $2,115.57.
     In 1874, the Art of Horticultural Hall was erected at a total cost, as shown by the report of the Building Committee, of $3,111.59.
     Other improvements and expenditures for the same year, not including premiums awarded, amounted to $927. 39.
 

     This was the settlement on the 1st of December, 1874, which shows the financial condition at the beginning of the year 1875.
     The total amount paid by the Society in the items of premiums, as shown by the Treasurer's report, was $2,800.50.
     The receipts of the Society for the year 1876, from all sources, as furnished by the Treasurer, J. S. Wolf, was $6,001.31, and the expenditures for all purposes, for the same year, $5,888.42, leaving a balance in favor of treasurer of $112.89.
     The Society is reported in a flourishing condition, and out of debt.

GENERAL SANDERSON'S NOTES.

     After nearly a full year's research, I have at last, and just when my manuscript was nearly completed, succeeded in unearthing a copy of General George Sanderson's pamphlet, pub-
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lished in 1851, by Thomas Wetzler, and entitled "A Brief History of the Early Settlement of Fairfield County."
     The pamphlet embodies the substance of a lecture delivered by the General in 1844, before the Lancaster Literary Society, but with extended additions.  Extracts of his lecture have already appeared in this work; but, so indispensable to a complete history of Fairfield County are the notes of George Sanderson, that I proceed here to give copious quotations from the pages of the book just come to hand.  I give them literally and full, although much of their matter is a repetition, in part, of the same points already incorporated in this work.
     General Sanderson, as has previously been said, was identified with Fairfield County from its very beginning until his death in 1871.  He was, moreover, a man of careful observation and wonderful memory, and during the large portion of his life a public man in offices of trust and responsibility.  I proceed with the extracts.
     "The present generation can form no just conception of the wild and wilderness appearance of the country in which we now dwell, previous to its settlement by the white people; it was, in short, a country
          'Where nothing dwelt but beasts of prey,
           Or men was fierce and wild as they.
     "The lands watered by the sources of the Hockhocking river, and now comprehended within the present limits of the County, were, when discovered by some of the early settlers of Marietta, owned and occupied by the Wyandot tribe of Indians, and were highly prized by he occupants as a valuable hunting ground, being filled by almost all kinds of game and animals of fur.  The principal town of the nation stood along the margin of the prairie, between the mouth of Broad street and Thomas Ewing's canal-basin, and extending back as far as the base of the hill south of the Methodist Church.  It is said that the town contained in 1790 about one hundred wigwams, and five hundred souls.  It was called Tarhe, or in English, Cranetown, and derived its name from that of the principal chief of the tribe.  The Chief's wigwam in Tarhe stood upon the bank of the prairie, near where the fourth lock is built on the Hocking Canal, and near where a beautiful spring of water flows into the Hocking river.  The wigwams were built of the bark of trees set on poles, in the
[100]
form of a sugar-camp, with one square open, fronting a fire4, and about the hight of a man.  The Wyandot tribe at that day numbered about five hundred warriors, and were a ferocious and savage people.  They made frequent attacks on the white settlements along the Ohio river, killing, scalping and capturing the settlers without regard to age, sex or condition.  War parties on various occasions attacked flat-boats descending the river, containing emigrants from the Middle States seeking new homes in Kentucky, by which, in many instances, whole families became victims to the tomahawk and scalping-knife.  *   *   *   *   The Crane Chief had a white wife in his old age.  She was Indian in every sense of the word, except her fair skin and red hair.  Her history, as far as I have been able to learn it, is this: Tarhe, in one of the predatory excursions along the Ohio river, on the east side, near Wheeling, had taken her prisoner and brought her to his town on the Hocking river.  She was then about eight years old; and, never having been reclaimed by her relatives or friends, remained with the nation, and afterwards became the wife of her captor.   *    *    *    *    *  
    "On the 17th of May, 1796, Congress, with a view no doubt to the early settlement of their acquired possessions by the treaty of Greenville in 1795, passed an act granting to Ebenezer Zane three tracts of land, not exceeding one mile square each in consideration that he would open a road on the most eligible route, between Wheeling, Virginia, and Limestone (now Maysville), Kentucky.  Zane performed his part of the contract the same year, and selected one of his tracts on the Hocking, where Lancaster now stands.  The road was opened by only blazing the trees and cutting out the underbrush, which gave it more the appearance of an Indian path, or trace, than a road, and from that circumstance it took the name of "Zane's Trace" - a name it bore for so many years after the settlement of the county.   *   *   It crossed the Hocking at a ripple, or ford, about three hundred yards below the turnpike-road, west of the present town of Lancaster, and the turnpike-road, west of the present town of Lancaster, and was called the 'Crossing of Hocking.'  This was the first attempt to open a public highway through the interior of the North-western Territory.
     "In 1797, Zane's trace having opened a communication between the Eastern States and Kentucky, many individuals
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from both directions wishing to better their conditions in life by emigrating and settling in the 'back woods,' then so-called, visited the Hockhocking for that purpose, and finding the country surpassingly fertile - abounding in springs of purest water, determined to make it their new home.
     "In April, 1798, Captain Joseph Hunter, a bold and enterprising man, with his family, emigrated from Kentucky and settled on Zane's trace, upon the bank of the prairie west of the crossings, and about one hundred and fifty yards northwest of the present turnpike-road, and was called 'Hunter's Settlement.'  Capt. Hunter cleared off the underbrush, felled the forest trees, and erected a cabin, at a time when he had not a neighbor nearer than the Muskingum and Scioto rivers.  This was the commencement of the first settlement in the upper Hockhocking Valley; and Captain Hnnter is regarded as the founder of the flourishing and populous County of Fairfield.  He lived to see the county densely settled and in a high state of improvement, and paid the debt of nature about 20 years ago.  His aged companion, Mrs. Dorotha Hunter, yet lives  (in 1851) enjoying the kind and affectionate attentions of her family, and the respect and esteem of her acquaintances.  She was the first white woman that settled in the valley, and shared with her late husband all the toils, sufferings, hardships and privations incident to the formation of the new settlement, without a urmur or word of complaint.  During the spring of the same year, Nathaniel Wilson, the elder; John Green, Allen Green, John and Joseph McMullen, Robert Cooper, Isaac Shaeffer, and a few others, reached the valley, erected cabins, and put in crops.
     "In 1799, Levi Moore, Abraham Bright, Major Bright, Ishmael Due and Jesse Spurgeon, emigrated with their families from Allegheny County, Maryland, and settled near where Lancaster now stands.  Part of the company came through by land from Pittsburg, with their horses, and part of their horses and goods descended the Ohio in boats to the mouth of the Hockhocking, and thence ascended the latter in canoes to the mouth of Rush Creek. The trace from Wheeling to the Hockhocking at that time was, in almost its entire length, a wilderness, and did not admit the passage of wagons.  The land party of men, on reaching the valley, went down to the mouth of the Hockhocking and assisted the water party up.  They
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were ten days in ascending the river, having upset their canoes several times, and damaged their goods.
     "Levi Moore settled with Jesse Spurgeon three miles below Lancaster.  The Brights and Due also settled in the neighborhood.  These pioneers are all dead except Mr. Moore.  He resides near Winchester, in Fairfield County, blessed with all this world can give to make him happy."   *    *   *
     "James Converse, in 1799, brought from Marietta, by way of the Ohio and Hocking rivers, nearly a canoe load of merchandise, and opened a very large and general assortment of dry goods and groceries, in a cabin at Hunter's Settlement.  He displayed his specimen goods on the corners of the cabin, and upon the stumps and limbs of threes before his door, dispensing with the use of flags altogether.  He of course was a modest man.
     "The General Government directed the public domain to be surveyed.  The lands were laid off in sections of one hundred and forty acres, and then subdivided into half and quarter sections.  Elenathan Schofield, our late fellow-citizen, was engaged in the service.
     "In 1800, 1801 and 1802, emigrants continued to arrive, and set lements were formed in the most distant parts of the county.  Cabin-raisings, clearings and log-rollings, were in progress in almost every direction.  The settlers lent each other aid in their raisings and other heavy operations requiring many hands.  By thus mutually assisting one another, they were all enabled in due season to provide themselves cabins to live in.  The log-cabin was of paramount consideration.  After the spot was selected, logs cut and hauled, and clapboards made, the erection was but the work of a day.  They were of rude construction, but not always uncomfortable.
     Here the General introduced an extract from Kendall's Life of Jackson, descriptive of log-cabins, that pleases me so well, because so perfect a picture of those primative buildings throughout the entire pioneer age of the West and North-west, that I most gladly give it place.  All who lived in the West fifty years ago will recognize every feature of the picture:

FROM KENDALL'S LIFE OF JACKSON
Pg. 102 - 104

     "The log-cabin is the primitive abode of the agricultural population throughout Western America.  Almost the only tools
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possessed by the first settlers were axes, hatchets, knives, and a few augurs.  They had neither saw-mills nor carpenters, bricks nor masons, nails nor glass.  Logs notched and laid across each other at the ends, making a pen in the form of a square or parallelogram, answered the purpose of timber and weather-boarding, and constituted the body of the structure.  The gable-ends were constructed of the same materials, kept in place by large poles, extending lengthwise the entire length of the building.  Up and down upon these poles, lapping over like shingles, were laid clap boards, split out of oak logs and resembling staves, which were kept in their place by other poles laid upon them, and confined at the gable-ends.  Roofs of this sort, well constructed, were a sufficient protection from ordinary storms.  The crevices between the logs, if large, were filled with small stones, chips, or bits of wood, called chinking, and plastered over with mud inside and out;  If small, the plastering alone was sufficient.  The earth was often the only floor; but in general, floors were made of puncheons, or slabs split from logs hewed smooth, and resting on poles.  The lofts, or attics, sometimes had puncheon floors, and rough ladders were the stairways.  Chimneys were built of logs rudely dovetailed from the outside into those constituting one end of the structure, which were cut to make room for a fire-place, terminating at the top with split sticks, notched into each other, the whole thickly plastered with mud on the inside.  Stones laid in mud formed the jambs and back walls of the fire-places.  The doors, made of clap boards, or thin puncheons pinned to cross-pieces, were hung on wooden hinges, and had wooden latches.  Generally they had no windows; the open door and broad chimney admitted the light by day, and a rousing fire or grease-lamp was the resource by night.  In the whole building there was neither metal nor glass.  Sometimes a part of a log was cut out for a window, with a piece of sliding puncheon to close it.  As soon as the mechanic and merchant appeard, sashes of two or four lights might be seen set into gaps ct through the logs.  Contemporaneously old barrels began to constitute the tops of chimneys, and joice and plank sawed by hand took the place of puncheons.
     "The furniture of the primitive log-cabin was but little superior to the structure.  They contained little beyond puncheon benches, and stools or blocks of wood for tables and chairs;
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a small kettle or two answering the manifold purposes of buckets, boilers and ovens, and a scanty supply of plates, knives, forks and spoons, all of which had been packed on horse back through the wilderness.  Bedsteads they had none; and their bedding was a blanket or two, with bear and deerskins in abundance."
     General Sanderson resumed:
     "The early settlers were a hardy and industrious people, and for Frankness and hospitality have not been surpassed by any community.  The men labored on their farms, and the women in their cabins.  Their clothing was a simple and comfortable kind.  The women clothed their families with their own hands, spinning and weaving for all their inmates the necessary linen and woolen clothing.  At that day no cabins were found without their spinning-wheels, and it is the proud boast of the women that they could use them.  As an evidence of their industry and saving of time, it was not an unfrequent occurrence to see a good wife sitting spinning in her cabin upon an earthen floor, turning her wheel with one foot and rocking her babe in a sugar-trough with the other. 
     "The people of that day, when opportunity offered (and that was not often), attended to public worship, and it was nothing new nor strange to see a man at church with his rifle - his object was to kill a buck either going or coming.

FIRST FUNERAL
Pg. 104

     "William Green, an emigrant, soon after his arrival sickened and died, in May 1798, and as buried in a hickory-bark coffin on the west bank of Fetters' Run, a few rods north of the old Zanesville road, east of Lancaster.  This wsa the first death and burial of a settler on the Hockhocking.  Col. Robert Wilson, of Hocking Township, was present and assisted at the funeral.  The deceased had left his family near Wheeling, and came on to build a cabin and raise a crop."

FOURTH OF JULY
Pg. 104 - 106

     "In 1800, for the first time in the Hockhocking settlement, the settlers - men, women and children - assembled on the knoll in the prairie in front of the present toll-house [the toll-house has since been removed farther west. - ED.] on the pike
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west of Lancaster, and celebrated the Anniversary of American, Independence.  They appointed no President, or other officers of the day - no orations delivered or toasts drank.  They manifested their joy by shouting, and "hurrah for America," firing off their rifles, shooting, and "hurrah for America," firing off their rifles, shooting at targets, and discussing a public dinner.  It may not be improper to say, that their repast was served up in magnificent style.  Although they had neither tables, benches, dishes, plates or fork, every substantial in the way of a feast was amply provided, such as baked pone, johnny-cake, roasted bear's meat, jerked turkey, etc.  The assemblage dispersed at a timely our in the afternoon, and returned to their cabins, full of patriotism and love the country.  It was my fortune to be present on that interesting occasion."
     Here General Sanderson spoke of several townships that were originally in Fairfield County at its first Organization, and when it embraced considerable portions of present adjoining counties.  These townships have not before been mentioned in this volume, and I here allude to them in the General's own language:
     "Reading Township was named by Peter Buermyre, a pioneer settler from Reading, Pennsylvania.  He also laid out the town of New Reading, in that township.  Somerset, the present seat of justice of Perry County, is situated in this township.
     "Pike. - This township was named in honor of General Pike, who gallantly fell in defense of his country, at Toronto, Canada, in the war of 1812.
     "Saltcreek Township formerly belonged to Fairfield, but now forms part of Pickaway County.  It was named Saltcreek from a stream watering its territory.  Tarlton, a flourishing village, is in this township.
     "Falls Township, now in Hocking County, was named from the great falls of the Hockhocking river.
     "Perry Township now in Hocking County, was so called in honor of Oliver H. Perry, the hero of Lake Erie in 1813.  This township was originally a part of Hocking Township."
    An Incident. - At the June term of 1802 (Court of General Quarter Sessions) - Emanuel Carpenter, Sr., Nathaniel Wilson and Amasa Delano, Justices, on the Bench - the Court ordered
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the Sheriff to take Alexander White, Attorney-at-Law, into custody, and commit him to prison for one hour, for striking Robert F. Slaughter, also an Attorney-at-Law, in presence of their Honors, when in session.  I note this circumstance to show that the Court, at that early period, did not suffer an indignity to pass unpunished.