STATEMENT OF WILLIAM MURPHY, OF WALNUT TOWNSHIP.
Page 203

     My father, William Murphy, came from Virginia in about 1800, and settled in the north part of what is now Walnut Township, one mile south-east of the present village of Millersport.  Two brothers came with him and settled in the same neighborhood - Edward and Benjamin.  My grandfather, William Murphy, was also of the same company.  My uncle Edward afterwards went further east and settled one mile west of the present village of Rushville.
     At the time of the arrival of our family there, the whole country was unbroken and uninhabited, save by wild beasts and roving bands of Indians.  James Homer bought the lands lying between our settlement and where Millersport is.  Soon after our settlement my father's cabin became a preaching place, and the Rev. James Quinn, of the Methodist denomination, was one of the preachers who held meetings there.  At this time, June 1877, not one of the original pioneers is living.
     The first school I remember was in 1824.  It was kept in a little log-pen, with the usual log-cabin fixtures of that time.  John Griffith was the first teacher I went to.  He was followed by John Granthum in the same house.  There were no female teachers employed at that time; at least not in that neighborhood.
     The first mill I went to was on Licking Creek, and stood on the borders of the present town of Newark.  It was owned by John Buskirk.  Newark was then a log cabin village.  My father took his grain to the mill in a wagon with wooden wheels called "truck-wheels."  They were made by sawing off, with a cross cut saw, sections of a very large oak tree, of the thickness of about four inches, with holes made in the center for the axle-tree.  If they were not kept well greased, the creaking they caused when in motion could sometimes be heard a mile or more.  He generally drove a four-horse team to his truck wagon.
     I was not familiar with the wildest condition of the country, only through the representation of my parents and others.
     My father killed a panther on the Muddy Prairie, where Amanda now is.  He killed sixty-three wolves and received bounties for their scalps from the State.  Of raccoons, foxes and wild-cats, he killed six hundred, with also about six hundred muskrats.  He took the skins to Winchester, Virginia, on pack-horses, realizing for them money enough to enter three quarter-sections of land, embracing the farm on which I now live.  He likewise traded extensively with the Indians for their peltries.  The Indians got the impression that he had cheated them, and one occasion when they returned to the neighborhood he kept himself hid until they went away, though they made no attempt to disturb him.

STATEMENT OF THOMAS CHERRY, OF WALNUT TOWNSHIP.
Page 204

     My age is seventy-nine years.  I came to this neighborhood about 1810, and have lived here ever since.  At the time I came the settlers in this region were:
     William Hane, Samuel Crawford, Andrew Crager, James Homes, William Bowman, William Murphy, Mathias Miller, William Pugh, Henry Eversole.  This was in 1810.  Soon after came Abel Williams, Peter Hauer and David Keller.
     When the war of 1812 came on, a great many from the settlement went into the service.
     The first death that occurred in the neighborhood after I came was that of Samuel Crawford, and the next that I can remember was Andrew Crager.  The first marriages after I came were Lydia and Jane Cherry; Lydia married Robert White, and Jane married Robert McArthur.
     Nearly every man in the country owned a good gun, and a great many of them were hunters.  All kinds of wild game abounded in the forests.  William Murphy and William Bowman were distinguished hunters.
     At one time William Murphy heard that Indians were about, and he kept himself out of the way, for he had heard that they charged him with cheating them, and he was afraid of them.  But nothing ever came of it.
     Squirrels , crows and black-birds destroyed the corn so fearfully that it was difficult some yeas to save enough for bread.  Raccoons, likewise, often caused a scarcity by preying upon the corn when it was in roasting-ears.
     I killed a bear where Millersport stands.  I had to shoot him five times before he gave in.  At my last shot, he was coming at me with extended mouth, but my ball took effect, and, I believe, saved my life.  I killed fifty odd deer in one winter, four of them in a single day.  I caught a great many foxes by the chase.  I could walk several miles and roll logs all day, and then walk home at night and not feel much tired.
     At one time I took my breakfast at home, and then walked thirty miles to Columbus, or rather to Franklinton, and took dinner at two o'clock.  When I first visited the site of the present Columbus, it was all in woods.  At one time when there was a general squirrel-hunt, my brother Nathaniel killed eighty-four in one day.
     I have owned a great deal of property, and lost it all.  I never sued a man in my life, and was never sued.
     My father died in 1863, and my mother two years before that.  I had four brothers, all residing in Walnut Township, and all died in the township.  Their names were: John, Nathaniel, William and James;  and five sisters: Lydia, Jane, Betsy, Rosanna and Mary.  Four of my sisters were buried here and one near Chillicothe.  I was the third in age, and am the only one living.
     When I came here the site of Millersport was a thick woods.  The village was laid off by Mathias Miller.
     The "Big Reservoir" was a marsh.  The upper end of it was a like and a cranberry-marsh.  It was called "the lake."  It became the reservoir when the Ohio Canal was made.
     During the early days and years of the settlement, the people lived very much on wild meat, particularly venison and wild-turkey, and on corn-bread, vegetables and rye-coffee.  They also made use of spice-wood and sassafras teas.  Milk and butter were always plenty.  When cows and horses were turned out to graze in the woods, bells were put on them to make it easy to find them.  They seldom strayed far away.
     The women spun and made all the family clothing, and the shoes were made by the men of the settlement, a few of whom were shoemakers.  There were small tan-yards that furnished the leather.  We dressed deer-skins and made pantaloons of them.  We had hatters who made wool and fur-hats.  In summer we went barefoot, and got our shoes about Christmas.

RECOLLECTIONS OF MRS. MARY RADIBAUGH,
OF GREENFIELD TOWNSHIP.
Page 206 - 207

     I came from Berks County, Pennsylvania, in the year 1805, and settled in Fairfield County, at first fourteen miles down Hocking, then in Pleasant Township, and afterwards in Greenfield, where I have been residing thirty-six years.  My father was Jacob Zeller Radibaugh  He died in Greenfield Township in 1841.  Of those who came out with our family from Pennsylvania, were: Benjamin Boucher, Frederick Klinger, and their families.  They both settled down Hocking, within Fairfield County, and are both dead.  There were but few cabins in Lancaster when we came.  It was all a wild wilderness country.  Our neighbors down Hocking were Mr. Watts and John Zeller.  In Pleasant we lived in the Ewing settlement.  My husband's father was George Radibaugh.  He owned the farm now belonging to William Rigby, joining Frederick Seitz on the south.
     The elder Radibaughs who lived in Pleasant were Nicholas and George.  They settled there previous to 1810.  They have both deceased, and their descendants are largely represented in the county.
     Down Hocking we lived in a small log-cabin that had oiled paper for window-lights.  Newspapers were often used for that purpose, and hog's-lard and bear-grease for oiling them.  We had no mills very near us, and the small ones, that were some distance away, often failed for want of water, so that breadstuffs were sometimes very scarce.   Sometimes several weeks passed when scarcely anybody in the whole neighborhood had a pound of meal or flour.  In these times of scarcity we used pounded hominy and vegetables.  Nearly every cabin had its hominy-block.  Venison and wild-turkey meat were always plenty.
     The Indians often came about, but we were not afraid of them, and they never disturbed anybody.  Wild animals of all kinds were plenty.
     The first wedding I attended was Mary Cisco to Jas. Philips.  The next was my own, in 1811.  The first death which occurred in the neighborhood was that of Adam Sellers, a small boy.
     The first religious meetings that were held in our neighborhood down Hocking, were held at my father's cabin by the United Brethren.  My father was a Brethren preacher.  I am 82 years old.  The early settlers of Fairfield County that I knew have all passed away.