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NATIVE AND EARLY SETTLERS.
(Source: History of Madison Township, Franklin
Co., Ohio - 1902)
Chapter IV
"I hear the tread of pioneers
Of nations yet to be
The first low wash of waves where soon
Shall roll a human sea."
- WHITTIER.
The first
occupancy of this continent by man as is
uncertain as the date of man's origin.
Many scientists now admit man's presence
here as a contemporary of the mastodon and
other extinct animals.
Who built the ancient mounds and earthworks with their
rich store of implements and utensils is a
sealed volume. To present students
they are still a "nameless people" and hence
for want of a better name are called Mound
Builders. Where they came from, and
when, are equally as mysterious and obscure
problems.
The Red Man's traditions shed no light and are
worthless on the subject.
It is quite likely that the country was mostly
open and unwooded during the dominion of the
Mound Builders, and that the center of their
population was in Ohio.
It is certain that most of these ancient works have
been built for more than five hundred years;
this is proven by the fact that trees of
five centuries' growth are found upon them.
There are other circumstances that point to
even a much longer period of residence here.
Their influence over nature in the
domestication of wild animals and in the
transforming influence of certain plant
life, such as maize, tobacco and cotton
indicate a very long period. Some of
the plants domesticated by these people have
been in cultivation so long that they would
perish only for the fostering care of human
hands.
The fact that during the Middle Ages no investigations
were tolerated and that every reference to
such discovery was burned and obliterated,
makes it doubly difficult to find solutions
now.
Many theories have been advanced to solve the
mysterious uncertainty; Bancroft, in
his Native Races, among others mentioned the
following ones: Father Duran, a
native of Spain, wrote in 1585, "My opinion
and supposition is that these natives are
the ten tribes of Israel that Salmanazer,
king of the Assyrians, made prisoners and
carried to Assyria in the time of Hoshea,
king of Israel, and in the time of
Hezekiah, king of Jerusalem, as can be
seen in Esdras, Book Fourth. Chapter
Third, they went to live in a land, remote
and separated, which had never been
inhabited, to which they had a long and
tedious journey of a year and a half.
L'Estrange contraverted this theory,
but concluded that Shem was the
progenitor of the American; and says:
"Shem was ninety-eight years old at the
time of the flood and was not present at the
building of Babel." It is claimed by
some that the word Peru has the same meaning
as Ophir, the grandson of Heber, from
whom the Hebrews derived their name, then
setting up the theory that Solomon's
ships, on the voyages, which lasted
sometimes for three years, went to Peru for
the "gold of Ophir." The conjecture of
some has been that the Queen of Sheba
came from this continent.
Others claim that Noah's long and aimless voyage
in the ark encouraged his immediate
descendants to construct similar vessels and
undertake voyages. These falling in
the adverse winds and currents were driven
to these shores and being unable to return
they became the colonists.
Ignatius Donnelly, in his Atlantis,
published a score of years ago, attracted
renewed attention to the theory based on
Plato's "fabled island of Atlantis."
It is related that the priests of Egypt told
Solon of an island continent which furnished
an almost continuous land passage across the
Atlantic ocean. The Azore islands, it
is claimed, are the mountain peaks of this
submerged island.
The Book of Mormon, said to have been discovered by
John Smith, September 22, 1827, in a
mound called Cumorah, Ontario county, New
York, tells that the colonization of America
took place soon after the confusion of
tongues at Babel.
Some claim that the remnant of the inhabitants of Tyre,
who escaped the siege of Alexander the
Great, 332 B. C., sailed to America and
landed in Florida, and in proof of their
theory quote Ezekiel 27; 26.
Still others point to the similarity between
the architecture and sculpture of Mexico and
Central America and Egypt for a solution of
the problem. Some advocate
Carthaginian, Phenician or Greek
colonization. The narrowness of the
channel at Behring Straits has invited
others to look in that quarter for a
solution. Among the arguments
presented are for a Tartar colonization,
nothing the resemblance in manner of life
and physical appearance of the natives on
both sides of the channel. Others
argue for a Japanese and still others for a
Chinese colonization. Others refute
all these theories and claim the race is
indigenous; others that God created an
original pair of human beings here as He did
in the old world; still others look to
evolution.
Most of these conclusions have very little to stand
upon except the productiveness of an
imaginative mind.
There are several pre-Columbian discoveries that rest
on documentary evidence, although each of
these have their disputants.
In the writings of the early Chinese historians is
found the statement that in the year 499 A.
D. Hoei-Shin, a Buddhist
priest, returned to China fro a long journey
to an island which he called Fusang, on
account of the many trees of that name
growing there. It has been assumed
that this country was Mexico or California.
Two discoveries are accredited to the Irish;
one to "White Man's Land," claimed to be
located on the Atlantic coast from North
Carolina to Florida, the other when St.
Patrick sent missionaries to the "Isles of
America," which would place the date of the
latter prior to 493 A. D. The Norsemen
discovery in 1002 A. D. is familiar.
The Welsh discovery by Madoc in about
1170 A. D. of the coast of Mexico or
California. In 1380 A. D. it was
claimed the Venecians established a church
in Greenland. The Portugese date their
discovery of New Foundland about 1464 A. D.
The discovery of the Poles is given as 1476
A. D.
The writer has spent many of his leisure hours in the
study of the earthworks and implements of
these people, and has many times let his
imagination look in on their domestic and
outdoor life. He has often sat with a
stone pipe or axe or other of their relics
before him trying to lure it to unfold its
mysterious history.
A conservative view of the consensus of the conclusions
of those who have had the best opportunities
to give these investigations intelligent
study seems to be that they are of old world
origin; that they came in installments, some
coming from the southeast, others from the
northwest, meeting in the Ohio and
Mississippi valleys where they were
amalgamated, as is proven by the finding of
the crania of the long heads and of the
short heads with their intermediate types in
the same mound; that they became populous
and widespread; that they evolved a system
of government which controlled multitudes;
that they were in the main agriculturists,
although they had a division of labor by
which some devoted their time to special
trades; that they developed a civilization
and culture of no mean type, as is shown by
their domestic utensils, artistically formed
and decorated vessels, cloth, implements and
earthworks; that they mined copper, which
they made into ornaments and implements;
that they quarried mica for mirrors; that
they worked salt mines and flint quarries.
The finding of copper from Lake Superior,
mica from North Carolina, lead from
Missouri, and shells from Florida, all in
the same mound, indicates their wide-spread
commerce.
The next race - the American Indian - most likely the
descendant of the Mound Builders, has less
fixed homes, leading nomadic lives, from the
fact that most of their time was devoted to
hunting and fishing. As far as we are
able to learn to Indian villages were
located in this township, although a
flint-worker's shop must have been located
in the neighborhood of Asbury Church,
judging by the large number of flint chips
found there. The early settlers in
Violet township, Fairfield county,
remembered a small village of some twenty or
thirty wigwams located on the north bank of
Little Walnut creek about one mile east of
Winchester. In a year or two after the
first settlements the Indians left, and
while they still occasionally passed through
the township they scarcely ever molested any
one or attracted any attention. One of
their trails leading from To-be-town
(Royalton) to Cranetown (Upper
Sandusky) passed over the farm of Irvin
E. Stevenson. The prominent
imminence on this farm no doubt furnishing
them a good view of the surrounding country.
One thing is certain, they did not make
proper use of the rich soil by cultivating
it. After game sought the deeper and
more unvisited forests of the unexplored and
uninhabited country farther west and north
they seemed to realize the inevitable and
yielded their old familiar haunts to the
"pale face's power to make the "desert
rejoice and blossom as the rose."
The early settlers came not from wealthy and luxurious
homes, neither did they come from the
indolent class.
Many of them had no competence except healthy bodies
and determined wills. They came
seeking homes of their own, rather than
continue as tenant to a class whom they
feared might oppress and emaciate them, as
had been done by the landlord system in
Europe, with which they were familiar and
which they abhorred.
They knew full well that in seeking a home in the
western forest they were sacrificing many
comforts, which they could not hope to
secure for many years, if at all in their
generation; they knew that they were facing
sickness in a malarious climate; they must
have, at least in part, considered the great
hardships and privations to be endured.
Congress strengthened the ordinance of 1785 by the
execution of the great "Compact" of 1787
establishing, as Salomon P. Chase in
his Preliminary Sketch of the History of
Ohio says, "Certain great fundamental
principles of governmental duty and private
right as the basis of all future
constitutions and legislation, unalterable
and indestructible." Mr. Chase
further remarks, "Never, probably, in his
history of the world did a measure of
legislation so accurately fulfill, and yet
so mightily exceed the anticipations of the
legislators." Faith in a country
governed by such provisions as this
ordinance contained inspired a courage and
hope that here, where slavery was excluded
and where property rights were sacred they
would perpetuate the principles of freedom
and liberty that moved their ancestors to
come to America. The early settler
therefore came with a purpose to enter a
tract of land, which at once made him an
interested citizen who would have every
incentive to seek and hold fast to the very
best in government and morals for himself
and family. They were mostly persons
in the same circumstances, so very little
distinction in modes of life existed among
them; but had there been distinctions the
perils and hardships to be mutually endured
would have made them akin. Their
manner of living compelled them to seek and
avail themselves of each other's help.
They could not erect their cabin or clear
away the giants of the forest alone; they
must help each other, and no one ever failed
to respond unless sick or otherwise
disabled. When one family would
butcher or go to mill or make a successful
catch of fish or game, all the near
neighbors would be remembered with a
portion. Many other similar neighborly
acts, such as ministrations in sickness and
death, and indeed, kindly assistance and
sympathy in every experience of their
wilderness life knit them together in a bond
of friendship the durability and grace of
which can only be found in a community where
common privations and perils are experienced
for a long time. The effects of these
beautiful friendships thus formed are even
now held dear and sacred among the
descendants of many of the pioneer families.
The fact that they had to worship in log cabins and
barns, and were denied all of those peculiar
comforts and conveniences, as books,
pictures, etc., which cultivate and culture
the asthetic side of man's nature, gave them
a characteristic frankness and bluntness,
which might in older communities appear as
abrupt and unceremonious, perhaps even
inelegant. In principal they were
positive and firm as a rock, yet gentle and
considerate to man and beast.
The great majority were Christians, members of the
different denominations now represented in
the township. Their Christian
characters were unimpeachable, and their
lives, although partaking of their
surroundings and circumstances, exemplified
the highest virtues of true manhood and
womanhood.
Among the very first settlers was George Tongue,
who located on George's creek (perhaps this
stream is named after him) on the southeast
quarter of section No. 7, as early as 1802
or 1803.
By 1805 quite a number of others settled in the
township, among them John Kalb, Geo. Kalb
and wife, John Stevenson and family,
William Stevenson and family of five
boys and two girls, all from Maryland;
Stauffel Kramer, Charles Rarey and sons,
Adam, Benjamin, William, Charles and
George, and James, Samuel and
Robert Ramsey from Pennsylvania;
Elias Decker and family, William D.
Hendren and wife, Esau Decker and
Ezekial Groom from New Jersey;
Mathew and Samuel Taylor and
families from Nova Scotia; John Guffy
from Kentucky and others. From 1805 to
1810 many from the eastern states as well as
the adjoining counties of Ross and Fairfield
located in the township. Among them
were Lewis (Ludwig), Philip, George,
John, Michael, Adam and Jacob Kramer,
all brothers, and their families from
Pennsylvania; John Schoonover and
family, Ralph and Elijah Austin,
John Decker, John Craun, Jonathan Lee
and wife, Thos. Gray, Geo. Smith, Jacob
Weaver, John Tallman, John Sharp and
wife, Samuel Brown, Samuel Bishop, John
Swisher, Fredrick Peterson, Phillip Pontius,
Alex Mooberry and family, Abednego
Davis, Matthias Wolf, John and Jacob
Gander, Emmer Cox, Wm. Elder,
Billingsly Bull, Daniel Kramer, Abraham
Harris, Geo. Rohr and sons, Cubbage
Needels and wife, Henry Whetzel
and family, David Wright, John Wright,
Joseph Wright, James McClish, John Kile
and family, and a few years later, but early
enough to help bear the burdens and
hardships incident to a pioneer's life in
those days were Henry, Harmon, Andrew,
Daniel and John Dildine, Jacob
Rhodes, Henry and Fredrick Bunn,
Michael Rohr, Adam Havely, Christian and
Adam Sarber, the Daylongs, John
Rager, Zebulon and Elias Leigh,
George Seymore, Samuel Murphy, Peter Long,
Wm. Patterson, Wesley Toy, Phillip King,
Thomas Needels, John, Philomen and
Andrew Needels, ____ Farley, Edward Hathaway
and Greazy Harrison, ____ Horshor,
Wm. Fleming, Jacob Powell, ____ Francisco,
Wm. Perrin, Dr. Wm. Riley, and others
whose names cannot be recalled.
Few colored persons have ever lived in the township, in
fact so few that they have always attracted
the attention especially of the children.
Among the first and best known as Black
Charlie. (Chas. Hatten) who
when a boy was brought here by Wm.
Stevenson. After Mr. Stevenson's
death he lived with Anna B. Stevenson,
a daughter, until he died. He was
good-natured, polite, a friend of the
children, and always had a bright new penny
for them. He could speak "Pennsylvania
Dutch." Thomas Gray brought a
colored man with him from Maryland in about
1810, who was known as Black Sam.
Others, known to persons about Winchester,
were Yellow Nick (Nicholas Gossage),
Reuben and Samuel Gloyd. |
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