History of Marion County, Ohio
CONTAINING
A HISTORY OF THE COUNTY; ITS TOWNSHIPS, TOWNS, CHURCHES,
SCHOOLS, ETC.; GENERAL AND LOCAL STATISTICS; MILITARY
RECORD; PORTRAITS OF EARLY SETTLERS AND PROMINENT MEN;
HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY;
HISTORY OF OHIO; MISCELLANEOUS
MATTERS, ETC. ETC.
~ILLUSTRATED~
CHICAGO:
LEGGETT, CONAWAY & CO.
1883.

PART V.
CHAPTER VI.

GRAND PRAIRIE TOWNSHIP
pg. 767

     A LITTLE more than a half-century ago, Grand Prairie Township lay in the indolence and silence of a summer noon-day, in which she had been basking for ages.  A few Indian wigwams and a few rude cabins of restless white men dotted the margins of her forests.  The purchase of these lands of the Indians by the United States in the year 1819, and the subsequent discovery of the extreme fertility of the soil soon changed the whole scene.  A constant tide of immigration flowed hither, and soon the lands were occupied by a hardy and industrious class of pioneers.

ORGANIZATION AND PHYSICAL FEATURES.

SETTLEMENT.

     The first permanent white settler was a MR. RIDENOUR, who came here from Ross County and located on the north side of the Little Scioto Rover where he built a cabin and made some meager improvements, and afterwards sold the premises to JAMES SWINNERTON, who with his family, came from Delaware County to this township in the early part of 1819.  Within a few years after MR. SWINNERTON came to this township, JOSEPH DRAKE, SR., and JOSEPH DRAKE, JR., also settled here, and in 1824, CAPT. JOHN VANMETER came.  He was a native of Berkeley County, Va., whence he came to this township.  MR. VANMETER served as Captain in the war of 1812.  His residence here was near Bentsfield.  His son WILLIAM VANMETER, who is now living, still resides in this township.

     BENJAMIN SALMON, a native of the State of Delaware, came during the same year, and ASA PIKE located here about the year 1826.  In the following year, HENRY MAY and family came here from Franklin County, Ohio, and located where JOHN A. MAY now resides.  MR. MAY at once opened a public house.  This inn, whose place and public character were designated by the picture of a black horse, became quite a popular stopping place, and so continued until about 1854.  HENRY MAY  died in 1838.

     JOHN COOK and MR. CADWELL were also among the settlers of about this date; also, JACOB BENTSFIELD and family, locating here in 1828, on the bank of Rocky Fork, a little south of the center of the township.  He had secured the property of  MR. HUME, who had entered eighty acres of land here, built a cabin and made some other improvements.  Others in this locality were JOHN BUNN, JOHN COOK and CAPT. JOHN VANMETER previously noticed, and DAVID SALMON, who lived on the east bank of "Salmon Run," in a large log house, which is still standing.  The only living representative of the BURTSFIELD family, who came here at an early day, is JOHN BURTSFIELD, and he gives it as his recollection that ABNER BENT, who lived just north of the Scioto bridge, was here at the time of their meeting.  POWELL, RANEY STILLWELL and JOHN LANCE, with their families, came soon afterward.  MRS. CATHARINE BRETZ is also one of the early settlers of this township, and is still living.  She was born in Fairfield County, Ohio, Apr. 25, 1804, and was a daughter of JOHN and BARBARA BIBLER, who were also among the early pioneers of this township.  MRS. BRETZ is the widow of SAMUEL BRETZ. to whom she was married in 1828.  Five years later, they came to this township, arriving here in the spring of 1828, fully intending to go onto Seneca County and there locate, but they were persuaded by friends to remain in Marion County. MRS. BRETZ relates that they lived with DAVID HITE and family from the time they came in the spring until late in the fall. In the meantime, MR. BRETZ had purchased the farm upon which MRS. BRETZ still resides, and in the autumn erected a cabin, which approaching winter compelled them to enter before it was completed. The cabin, when they first moved into it, contained no windows; no floor was yet laid, except on that portion upon which a couple of bedsteads stood; the door was a mere hole through the wall, and there was no fire-place. MRS. BRETZ did her cooking out of doors, by a large stump. They had to carry or haul the water they used a distance of a mile or more. They lived in this manner for about two months, until other improvements were made. MRS. BRETZ thus relates an incident which occurred the evening after they had moved into their cabin:
     On the day after MR. BRETZ and his family had moved into their new home, one of their neighbors became ill, and MR. BRETZ was sent for to go as a messenger for DR. HOLLOWAY, at Marion. When MR. BRETZ returned to the house of the sick neighbor, he found the man in too bad a condition to leave, although the patient had been administered to by the physician.  Hence, he reluctantly consented to remain over night with the sick man, thus unavoidably leaving his wife and three small children alone for the night in the rickety and unfinished cabin, wholly at the mercy of the storms and the attacks of wild beasts. The neighbors were few, and MR. BRETZ did not return. The twilight of the evening deepened into utter darkness, and MRS. BRETZ had no opportunity of securing company, or even of calling aid in case of danger. It was autumn, and the fallen leaves, dead grass. brush and dry sticks were undergoing their annual burning. The night was a dismal one. The fierce blazing of the fire in the early part of the evening had aroused all the wild animals in the vicinity. Later, when the glare of the light was dying out, the howling of the wolves and the screaming of the panthers made the night hideous. To render MRS. BRETZ's situation more desolate and dangerous, the watch-dog had been frightened away. She, however, barricaded the door, and availed herself of all the means of defense at hand to prevent the intrusion of any unwelcome visitors, in the shape of either man or beast. These precautions were not ill-timed, for the entrance to the cabin had not more than been securely closed when a number of hungry wolves congregated, and with howling, snarling and snapping of teeth indicated plainly where they were seeking their prey. Growing more bold, they sought every aperture to effect an entrance, and their glaring eyes might have been seen through the crevices between the logs, as they howled with rage at their inability to enter. MRS. BRETZ and her little family sustained no bodily harm during that long, dreary night; but she rightly attributes it to her abundant caution, in thus early barricading and securing the door.
     Other settlers came to this township previous to 1832, all of whom cannot be mentioned; but among them were LEWIS JURY, ELEAZER PARKER, JOHN PAGE, CHANCY CLARK, WILLIAM POWELL, who came in 1828 and located on Rocky Fork; also  LANDY SHOOTS, DAVID BIBLER and family, who came in 1831.  MICHAEL CAMPBELL, who was born in Ross County, Ohio, in 1811, and who was ten a young man, came with MR. BIBLER, and family.  Young CAMPBELL remained with MR. BIBLER for a year or more, when he secured a position in a distillery in Crawford County.  Soon tiring of that kind of business, he left it, and afterward worked at several places  until, in 1837, he married MISS MARY BIBLER and moved upon the farm where he now lives.
     The first schoolhouse in this township was erected about 1832, near MRS. HORD'S place.  It was a log structure, of the most simple, primitive pattern.  The first teacher who taught there was probably ISAAC JAMES.

INDIANS.

RELIGIOUS

AGRICULTURAL

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES FOR GRAND PRAIRIE TOWNSHIP.
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     The following sketches of well-known citizens, with the introductory sketch just given, make up the history of Grand Prairie.

EMERY BREWER
ANDREW D. BRETZ
SILAS W. BRIGGS
EZEKIEL BROWN
JOHN BURTSFIELD
MICHAEL CAMPBELL
MRS. MARY (BUNN) COONROD
JACOB HARRIS
HON. ROBERT HILL
FREDERICK HINERMAN
BENJAMIN F. HITE
JACOB D. LUST
JOHN W. MALONE
WILLIAM B. McWHERTER
JOHN T. MONNETT
BARTON SHOOTS
JAMES SWINNERTON
MAJ. S. N. TITUS
DANIEL WALTERS
G. W. WALTERS

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