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Source:
From The Heritage Collection Biography and History from Unigraphic -
The Household Guide and Instructor with Biographies
History of Guernsey County, Ohio
with Illustrations
VOLUME II
Cleveland: T. F. Williams.
1882
CHAPTER IV.
EARLY SETTLEMENT
Pg. 425
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Before Muskingum county was
organized in 1804. Guernsey was a part of Washington county,
and had been since 1788. Prior to the adoption of the new
State constitution in 1851, there was considerable agitation about a
new county, to be formed out of parts of Guernsey, Tuscarawas and
Coshocton, with New Comerstown as the county seat. But that
instrument rendered such movements hopeless.
The origin of the term Military Land District is from
the fact that Congress, in 1798, appropriated certain lands to
satisfy claims of the officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary
war. These lands were surveyed into townships five miles
square, and these again into quarter-townships containing four
thousand acres, and some subsequently into forty lots of one hundred
acres each, for the accommodation of soldiers and others holding
warrants for that number of acres. What land was not required
for the satisfaction of military warrants was subsequently sold by
act of Congress, and the designation of Congress Land given it.
In 1803 Congress granted to the State one thirty-sixth of all the
lands in the United States military district for the use of schools
in the same. As the population of the townships warranted they
were named, having previously been designated by numbers. In
1812 the Legislature provided for a road from Cambridge to
Coshocton. The Marietta and Cleveland road was completed
earlier.
It is probable that a few squatters were in the
territory now constituting Guernsey county as early as 1796, but the
permanent settlement cannot be said to have begun until 1798.
Guernsey county now contains about five times as many inhabitants as
there were in the whole State of Ohio in that year. The
southern part of the county was first settled. The first
township to have a permanent white resident was Cambridge.
That first resident, the pioneer of Guernsey county, was a Mr.
Graham, who came into the wilderness in 1798 and located where
the water-tank of the railroads now stands. This was then the
only dwelling between Wheeling and Zanesville. In about two
years George Beymer, from Somerset, Pennsylvania, moved here,
and these two persons kept a house of entertainment, and a ferry for
travelers on their way to Kentucky. In 1803 Mr. John
Beatty, from Loudoun county, Virginia, bought the tavern, which
was on the "Zane trace." The "Zane trace" was a blazed path
through the wilderness from Wheeling to Chillicothe, on the west
bank of the Scioto river. Ebenezer Zane marked the
path, and for his services received three sections of land at the
crossing of the rivers - one on the Muskingum, one on the Hocking,
and one on the Muskingum, one of the Hocking, and one on the north
bank of the Scioto - with the right to erect toll-bridges or ferries
over the Ohio and Muskingum rivers. Zanesville was located
upon his section at the crossing of the Muskingum, and from him
takes its name.
The land district of which Guernsey county is a part,
was surveyed west of the seventh range, into townships of five miles
square, and quarter townships of two and a half miles square,
between the years 1798 and 1894. Zaccheus Biggs, as
deputy surveyor, made a part of the
[Pg. 426]
survey, and George Metcalf, then a young man, formed one of
the surveying party. Naturally of a romantic disposition, the
latter returned home and recounted to his friends in glowing terms
the attractions of this then "Western wild." Especially was he
charmed with the beauty of the present site of Cambridge, as it was
spread out before him, covered with gigantic poplar and oak, and
ravines of pure water. The spirit of adventure and fascination
attending a camp life became the subject of thought and the theme of
conversation, until he prevailed upon Jacob Gomber, whose
daughter he married, and Zaccheus Beatty, brother-in-law of
Gomber, to purchase the quarter township of land (four
thousand acres) upon which Cambridge is located.
The survey of the land district was completed in 1804,
and the land subject to entry, at the land office at Zanesville, at
$2 per acre. Settlements were soon made in different parts of
the county, and land entered, with reference to future settlement,
by persons from Western Pennsylvania and Virginia. On Wills
creek, north of Cambridge, the Oldhams, Mathers,
Gibsons, Leepers and Furneys; in the east, the
Brattons, Wiricks, Beymers, Moores, and
Robinsons; in the south, the Burts, Reeds,
Chapmans, Thompsons, and Lowreys; in the west, the
Speers, Marshalls, Bays, and Conners.
During the year 1805 the survey of Cambridge was made,
and the first house built on the town plat; it stood on the Shaw
property, and was occupied by John Beatty, father of
Zaccheus, who was the first domiciled citizen of the town of
Cambridge. Zaccheus Beatty was granted the right to
erect a toll-bridge over Wills creek, which was built this same
year, south of the cabin before mentioned, which was enlarged and
opened a s a toll-house and place of entertainment. The travel
soon sought this route from the west and south, the "Zane trace"
being continued from Limestone south and west to Maysville and
Cincinnati. The "Bridge-house" now became a notable place, and
the cabin gave place to a larger house. This house, under the
management of Thomas Stewart, was the great tavern of early
days up to the completion of the National road, when its glory faded
away; but it stood a monument of the past, until torn down to make
way for the "iron horse."
The public sale of lots of the town of Cambridge took
place in June, 1806. A few days before this sale Thomas,
John, Nicholas and Peter Sarchet, brothers, and Daniel
Ferbrache, Their brother-in-law, all from the
island of Guernsey, in Europe,
arrived at a tavern on the old Wheeling road near St. Clairsville,
on their way to Cincinnati. Being worn down by the hardships
and fatigue incident to the trip - a long ocean voyage in an
emigrant ship, and thirty days' travel from Norfolk, Virginia,
through the wilderness, over hills and mountains, in wagons and on
foot - they determined to remain and rest, while Thomas came
on and looked at the site of Cambridge, which they had seen
advertised upon the trees by hand-bills. Thomas Sarchet
went ahead and took a look at the place and its surroundings.
He returned not well pleased with what he had seen, and determined
to push through to Cincinnati. But circumstances changed their
decision. The teams having had several days' rest, were of
course expected to move off briskly, but not so; when itched up they
refused to stretch a trace. They then hired another team and
with much labor and whipping arrived at Cambridge upon the very day
of the sale of lots. Disgusted with land travel and
horseflesh, generally, they ended their journey. Thomas
bought the two corner lots, now the Marsh and "Times"
lots, and the six out-lots now owned by Meredith and
White. John Sarchet bought the three lots opposite, now
owned by C. J. Albright, Mrs. Lindsey, C. L.
Madison, and Shonfields. These lots were then the
best and nearest corner lots to the square, the owners holding the
lots immediately around the square out of the market for higher
figures. Upon the "Times" lot a cabin was built in which all
the families passed the first winter. This cabin was the
second house on the town plat. In the spring of 1807 came
James Bichard, William Ogier, Thomas Naftel, Thomas Lenfestey,
and Daniel Hubert, all heads of families; and Peter Corbet,
Peter and John Toroade, Nicholas Podwin and John Robin,
young men, all from the
island of Guernsey. These families went into camp along
the run in Lofland's bottom until cabins were built.
During this year and the next came Jacob Gomber, Zaccheus Beatty,
George Metcalf, Wyatt Hutchison, George Tingle, Daniel Mottee,
Andrew
[Pg. 427]
Ferguson, Thomas and John McClary, Robert Bell,
and William Hooks, with their families, all of whom can be
called first settlers. With the Beatty family came
Toby the first "colored individual." Now the sound of the
axe was heard from "early morn to dewy eve," and the fall of 1808
found cabins or hewn log-houses built on lots No. 2, 6, 9, 13, 14,
15, 16, 21, 22, 24, 29, 31, 32, 50, 51, 55, 57, 58, 61 and 66.
That there was to be a town of Cambridge became a fixed fact.
The proprietors gave the name after an ancestral town in Maryland,
and Wills creek was named after a creek in the same State.
All classes of the mechanics arts essential in starting
a town in the backwoods were represented among the first settlers -
carpenters, wagon-makers, blacksmiths, cabinet-makers, shoe-makers,
and weavers. To build a cabin was but the work of a day.
Many accounts are given where the timber was taken from the stump,
the cabin raised, roofed and floored with puncheons during the day
and a regular "house warming" had at night. The first hotel
opened to the public in the town proper was by George R. Tingle,
on the present site of the Tingle mansion. Travelers
were notified that it was a house of security and safety by the sign
of hte crossed keys. A little later George Metcalf
opened the Mansion house, now the Sidle house, then a
one-story building; and Captain Knowls opened the "Travelers'
Rest" in the old log-house that stood on the Webster lot. At
the close of the War of 1812, and for years after, Cambridge could
boast of six hotels in good running order, with open bars, where
whiskey was sold at three cents per drink. The The first store
was opened by John and Thomas Sarchet in the room now
occupied by T. C. Marsh for the sale of cigars and tobacco,
in which was retailed dry goods, groceries, and the regular "old
hardware" by the gallon. The first brick house was built by
John Sarchet on the Shonfield corner. The sawed
lumber used in the construction of the first house was whip-sawed by
two Scotchmen named Landy and Miller, who had erected
a mill on the Presbyterian church lot, where lumber was sawed.
The descendants of Dusouchett are now called the
Sarchets. The French pronunciation was not easy to the
English tongue, and time has brought the name to its present form.
wild animals abounded in great numbers, Bears, wolves
and deer were plenty, and both State and county paid a bounty of two
dollars per scalp for wolves.
The first place of religious worship was at the house
of Thomas Sarchet, where the settlers from the island of
Guernsey held what was called French meeting. William Ogier
was n ordained minister of the Methodist Episcopal church, and
Thomas Sarchet a licensed exhorter, who in turn conducted the
exercises. From this nucleus of Guernseymen sprang the
Methodist Episcopal congregation, and this society was soon attached
to the Zanesville circuit. Except the Methodist Episcopal
society, no religious bodies had regular services for many years.
After the erection of the court-house the Methodists had religious
services every Sabbath in the grand jury room. The first
church building erected was by the Seceders, about the year 1826, on
the Captain Anderson lot.
CAMBRIDGE.
Cambridge is well situated,
topographically speaking. It occupies the sides and summit of
a hill, surrounded by beautiful valleys and hills, a country
prolific with the products of nature and the results of unceasing
energy. A portion of the town is cut of by Wills creek, and is
called West Cambridge, although not within the corporation of
Cambridge. The town boasts, and well it may, of the finest
school building in the State, taking into consideration the size of
the town. Religiously speaking, the town is well cared for, as
there are seven church edifices, wherein large congregations
assemble, besides several religious societies that as yet have no
building that they can call their own. The population is not
much of a mixed character, as there are but few foreigners for the
size of the town; the African element, however, comes to the front
in bold relief.
The are three newspapers - The Times, edited by
David D. Taylor the postmaster, is a stalwart Republican sheet.
The Jeffersonian, as its name indicates, belongs to the Bourbon
element. The Herald, edited by W. B. Hutchinson, is of
a neutral character.
The buildings of the town until after the war were,
generally, old landmarks of the early days. Since the war,
however, Cambridge has experienced a new birth, and now there are
more
[Pg. 428]
houses on Steubenville street than were in the whole city when the
civil war began. The manufacturing enterprises are centered in
a foundry, a steam flouring-mill, two planing-mills, and two boot
and shoe factories. There are several coal banks in close
proximity to the town, which for years have added very materially to
its prosperity. There was a bent wood factory started here in
1880.
THE CAMBRIDGE SCHOOLS.
In the winter of 1809-10 the
first school in Cambridge was taught by John Beatty, a
Virginian, and a brother of Colonel Zaccheus Beatty, one of
the founders and original proprietors of the town. It was held
in one of the several small cabins which stood on the north bank of
Wills creek, where the old bridge crossed that stream. He was
succeeded by his sister, Mrs. Sarah McClenahan who taught a
school in one of hte rooms of her father's dwelling house, which
stood on lot number sixty-two. The next schools were held in a
log building that stood on lot number twenty-one, and were taught by
John W. Kipp, who afterwards compiled a speller that was
published; Elijah Dyson, the first sheriff of Guernsey
county, and a man by the name of Acheson During the
winter of 1813-14, a school was taught in the same place by
Thomas Campbell, the father of the late Rev. Alexander
Campbell of Bethany, West Virginia. From regular school
building or any system of education established. Anybody who
desired to teach, got up a subscription paper proposing to teach a
school upon certain terms - these usually being fifty cents per
scholar for thirteen weeks - and the branches taught were the
alphabet, spelling, reading, writing and arithmetic. The
parents gave little attention to the schools. The teachers,
generally, were not very profound scholars; they went in on their
muscle, and if they succeeded in maintaining their authority no one
complained.
Upon the organization of the public schools in 1836,
Cambridge became school district number nine. Andrew Magee
was the first district school teacher. In 1843 Thomas and
William Brown taught what was called the academy.
From 1847 to 1849 a school was taught in the school
building, now the McConnehay property on Steubenville and
Pine streets. William Morton taught this school.
He is entitled to notice in history as he is ranked as the best
mathematician and most thorough grammarian in Ohio. He taught
the boys, and Mrs. Karnes the girls. Mr. Morton
had about ninety boys in his classes, the names of most of whom were
afterward born upon the honorable rolls of the volunteers in the war
of 1861. The names of Moore, Rainey, Lofland, Metcalf,
Grimes, Salmon, Jefferson, Logan, Evans, Tingle, Brown, Bonnell,
Hirsch, etc., are upon the original rolls of the school.
Lemuel Bonnell was assistant teacher for a time.
The union school was organized in 1850, and William
M. Lyons, a younger brother of Lord Lyons, the late
minister from England to the United States, became the first
principal, at a salary of $35 per month. Mr. Lyons is
now living in Zanesville, Ohio, on a pension which he receives from
his brother. Then the school had but four rooms, the fourth
room being taught by the principal. Under principal Lyons
the teachers were Miss Lou Hill, Miss Kate McCluskey, and
Miss Dorcas Reed.
The principals from 1850 to 1853 were
William M. Lyons, James McClain, Miss Dorcas Reed, and
Joseph D. Tingle - salary $13 per month; from 1853 to 1857,
J. C. Douglass, Levi C. Brown, W. K. Gooderl, and C. C. B.
Duccan - salary, $40 per month; from 1858 to 1861, John
McClenahan was principal at $60 per month. In 1861 he
resigned his position to recruit a company for the Fifteenth Ohio
volunteer infantry, of which he afterwards became colonel. In
August, 1861, Samuel Kirkwood, now professor of mathematics
in Wooster university, at Wooster, Ohio, became the first
superintendent, at a salary of $450 a year; but Mr. Kirkwood
leaving before the year was out, John Speer finished his
term. He was succeeded by Thomas H. Smith, at a salary
of $600 per year, In August, 1866, Professor John McBurney,
now professor of natural science in Muskingum college at New
Concord, was elected superintendent, at a salary of $540 a year,
which was afterwards increased to $1,200. In 1880 he was
succeeded by Professor J. E. Williams, at a salary of $1,000
a year.
The high school was organized in 1869. The
following are the names of the teachers with the
[Pg. 429]
time they taught: Professor John McBurney, four years;
T. H. Anderson, one term; Rev. W. V. Milligan, three
years; William Fleming one month; Miss Means, three
years; J. H. Mackey, two terms; I. A. Tannehill one
year; E. L. Abbey, one year.
In 1872 the first class, composed of four girls, was
graduated. After the loss of the former school building, and
while the present building was in process of erection, the schools
occupied such rooms as could be procured for them, and were
subjected to every inconvenience. As a result there were no
classes graduated in 1873-74, but afterwards they were graduated as
follows: 1875, 8 girls; 1876, 2 boys, 7 girls; 1877, 3 boys, 2
girls; 1878, 5 boys, 6 girls; 1879, 3 boys , 8 girls; 1880, 5 boys,
11 girls; 1881, 4 boys, 7 girls, total, 22 boys and 53 girls.
Changes in classification, grading, course of study,
and methods of instruction and of examining have been made from time
to time, as the interests of the school seemed to require. The
present course of study embraces all branches of a thorough and
complete English education, together with German and Latin.
In 1860 a building in the east end of town was
purchased for $1,201 and finished for school purposes for $5,000,
making a total cost of $6,201. It contained five rooms, to
which two more were added in 1866. This building was destroyed
by fire Sept. 27, 1871. In January, 1872, lots Nos. 126, 127,
and 128 on Steubenville street were purchased and the present
building erected, at a total cost of $54,000. It was first
occupied Feb. 16, 1874. There were nine teachers when they
first went into the present building, but in a few days another room
was fitted up and another teacher engaged. Now twelve well
trained and experienced teachers are engage nine months in the year
in the instruction of six hundred and thirty children, at a cost,
for 1876, of $4,840; for 1880, $4,972. The present building
contains eleven large rooms, besides the superintendent's office and
his recitation room. Part of the basement is used as a store
room, and one room is fitted up as a dining room. The building
has a seating capacity for about seven hundred, but it has not the
capacity for as careful and accurate a system of grading as it
should have. However, it is one of the best in the State, and
reflects much credit upon the enterprise of the people of Cambridge.
The school tax is at the rate of nine mills, but the school is
worthy of its costly support.
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*
Guernsey is
an island in
the English Channel off the coast of Normandy. ... The jurisdiction
is made up of ten parishes on the island
of Guernsey,
three other inhabited islands (Herm,
Jethou and Lihou), and many small islets and rocks.
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