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Clarington, on the
Ohio river, is in latitude 39 45' 30". At this point
low water is 47 feet above Lake Erie; 611 feet above tide
water; 49 feet above Marietta; 80 feet below the mouth of
Beaver river, 53- feet below Woodsfield.
EARLY
SETTLEMENTS.
The first permanent settlement in the territory, now within
the limits of the county, of which there is any well
authenticated history, was made in the year 1791. It
is probable that some improvements may have been made, in
the way of clearing up small patches of ground, prior to
that time, and as early as the permanent settlement at
Marietta, by settlers from the Virginia side of the river.
There are some evidences of this, but where or by whom is
unknown. Settlements were made on the opposite side of
the river as early as 1786, but the frequent depredations
and hostilities of the Indians prevented settlements on the
western shore. Ezekielton (now Sistersville, West
Virginia,) was laid out in 1800; but prior to that time
settlements had been made by the Caldwells, Scotts
and others. At thsi point, in 1804, a ferry was
established across the river, which is now known as Tuel's
ferry.
Philip Witten, a brother-in-law of the noted
scouts and Indian fighters, Kinsey and Vachel
Dickinson (having married their sister,) settled on the
Ohio river, in what is now Jackson township, in 1791.
He came there with his family from Wheeling and his
descendants still live on the same farm. Some of his
grand-children, still living, have a distinct recollection
of their grand-parents, and have heard them frequently tak
of their early settlement, and the hardships and dangers the
first settlers had to overcome.
The next settlement, in the order of time, was on
Buckhill bottom, in 1794, and was made by Robert
McEldowney, who was soon followed by Jacob Ullom
and others. Settlements were made at and near the
mouth of Sunfish creek and Opossum creek, by the
Vandevanters, Henthorns, Atkinsons and others, about the
years 1798-9. A settlement was made about where the
town of Calais now stands in 1802. An improvement was
made there in 1798, by Aaron Dillie, from Dillie's
bottom, Belmont county.
About the same time a settlement was made by Michael
Crow and others on Clear Fork creek,. Cline's
settlement on the Little Muskingum river, was begun about
the year 1805; the settlement near and around where
Beallsvile now stands was made about the same time, and
Dye's settlement in Perry township, in 1812.
More particulars of these early settlements are given
in the historical sketches of the several townships.
Few of its present inhabitants can realize the
hardships endured by the early settlers of the county.
Being without mills they were compelled to resort in the
early fall, to grating corn for bread, and when too hard for
that, to hominy, pounding it in large wooden mortars, called
"Hominy blocks," with iron wedges in the ends of round
sticks of wood for a pestle. "Hog and hominy," "johnny
cake," and wild game, and mush and milk, constituted their
chief diet. When hand mills were introduced they were,
indeed, a great acquisition; but a still greater were the
horse mills. The writer was old enough in 1829, when
the water mills were dried up, to take his "turn" at the
horse-mil, after a stay of a day and a night, sleeping on a
pile of unbroken flax laid on rails in a corner of the mill.
There were not markets or mills, at the period of the first
settlements, for grain or other farm produce nearer than
Wheeling or Marietta; and to those places from the
settlements along the river, long journeys in canoes had to
be made. Then every farmer had his flock of sheep and
his patch of flax. The wool was carded with
hand-cards, spun and woven at home, and made up into
garments for both sexes. The older people can remember
what nice suits were made for men of "fulled cloth," and
what nice gowns for women of "pressed flannel." The
flax was pulled and spread out in rows on the ground,
"rotted" and then" broken and swingled," and was thus
prepared for combing and the "little wheel," as the machine
was called on which the flax was spun, to distinguish it
from the larger machine for spinning wool. It was
woven into cloth for table-covers, toweling, sheeting and
shirting. The "tow" which was the coarse portion
combed out on the hatchel, was spun into coarse yarn of
which a cloth was made for summer suits for men and boys.
The tow shirt, so commonly worn, was, when new, an
instrument of torture to the wearer, as it was full of
prickly spines left from the woody parts of the stalk.
WILD ANIMALS.
Elk, deer, bears,
wolves, panthers, wild-cats, raccoons, red and gray foxes,
opossums, ground-hogs, black and gray squirrels, rabbits,
otters, minks, muskrats, and skunks were the denizens of the
primitive forests of the county. The writer remembers
to have seen a porcupine killed as late as the summer of
1829.
A deadly war was waged against the wolves by the
settlers, incited thereto by the number of sheep and pigs
killed by them, and the premium paid out of the county
treasury for their scalps. The last wolf killed in the
county was about the year 1832,and the last bear was caught
in a trap by Jacob Cline in 1825, on Big Lick run, a
branch of the Little Muskingum. George Barnhart,
an old hunter, living on the river, in what is now Lee
township, killed the last elk on the Witten Fork of the same
stream. The horns, which measured seven feet from tip
to tip, he sold to Jacob Bare, late of Ohio township,
deceased, and by him were sold to the captain of a
steamboat, for the pilot-house, after steamboats began to
navigate the Ohio.
Deer in those early days were quite plenty, and there
was frequently a race between the pioneer and his good wife,
whether he could bring in a deer or she could get the
breakfast the sooner. But the clearing up of the
forests has driven away all these wild animals, save the red
foxes, minks, muskrats, squirrels, rabbits, 'coons,
'possums, skunks and ground-hogs.
Wild turkeys, too, were then quite numerous, and were
frequently caught in large numbers in turkey pens, built out
of rails or poles. A trench, several feet in length,
and leading into the pen, was dug, and corn scattered in the
trench and pen. Espying this, the turkeys would follow
up the trench, picking up the corn, and when once inside
they were safe enough- always looking up for a means of
escape - never downward. They formed quite an item in
the larder of the early settlers, as they were killed and
salted away like pork. But they, like most of the wild
animals, are seen here no more.
EARLY SCHOOLS.
It is considered
unnecessary to describe, specially, the school houses first
built in the county, or the character of the schools taught
therein. They were, like all others in the first
settlements of a wilderness. One description will
answer for all. The house was, generally, built in the
woods, of round logs; in size, sixteen by eighteen or twenty
feet, a puncheon floor, and chunked and daubed; a fire-place
occupied the entire of one end of the building, and for
light, a space was left unchunked and undaubed, between the
lots on three sides of the building, at the proper height,
and covered with paper, greased with hog's lard - glass was
a luxury that could not be afforded. The seats were
made by splitting logs of the desired length, cut from small
trees, smoothing the inner side, with legs inserted in the
under, or round side. The writing desks were made by
boring holes in the logs, before the greased paper,
inserting long pins therein, upon which boards were laid and
fastened. Thus we have a primitive school house.
The fuel was of great green logs, chopped in the forest by
the larger scholars, and rolled into the house in the
evening - ready for the morning. The first was large
and cheerful - the most pleasant thing of it all.
The teachers and the schools may be described in the
language of a correspondent- one who knew of what he write,
and hand experienced: "The teacher's equipage and a
gad about six feet long, a big rule an a dunce-block - these
for the scholars; and a print bottle of whisky in his
pocket, for the teacher. All these, combined, made a
lively school." Do the rising generation fully
appreciate the advantages they now have of good brick, or
frame school houses, and well and thoroughly trained
teachers, over their fathers and grandfathers, who had to
travel through sleet and snow, sometimes three and four
miles, to receive the first rudiments of an education?
If they advanced as far as the three R's - reading, 'riting
and 'rithmetic, they considered themselves good scholars.
If they could "go through the single rule of three,"
they were, indeed, finished scholars, and qualified to fill
any official position. What a change a few fleeting
years will, or have, made.
THE COUNTY SEAT.
The commissioners,
appointed by the Legislature, in 1814, to establish a
permanent seat of justice for the county, fixed upon
Woodsfield as the place. Prior to that time, and
before the county was erected, Archibald Woods, of
Wheeling, George Paul of St. Clairsville, and Levi
Barber, of Marietta, who owned lands in the territory
now comprised in the county, sought to have a new county
organized, and, accordingly, in 1812, selected the ground
where Woodsfield now stands, as the probable place for the
county seat; and, in that year, the town of Woodsfield was
surveyed and platted. It was then a wilderness - not a
tree amiss. It was properly named - whether for one of
the proprietors, or from its location in the woods, is a
question; but the better opinion is, that it was named for
Mr. Woods.
It is a tradition - it might be said with truth,
veritable history - that in order to get the streets, or a
part of them, cleared out, Peter Palmer, John
Baker, or John Winland suggested to Mr. Woods
to get a keg of French brandy and invite all the men and
boys within a circuit of five miles to meet on a certain
Saturday, and they would clear out Main street. This
was done. A general frolic was made of it, and the
first trees were felled.
The old citizens differ as to who built the first house
and where it was built. It is agreed that it was on
the east side of Main street and north of Main Cross street
- either on what is known known as Koehler's corner,
the saddler Smith lot, or Schumacher's corner.
The writer, from the testimony, is unable to say which it
was, but believes it was within the space named, and that it
was owned by Spencer Biddle and was the first tavern
in the town.
On the 4th of January, 1860, Hon. Wm. F. Hunter,
now deceased, read before the Monroe County Historical
Society, a paper entitled "Sketches of Monroe County," from
which frequent quotations are made. The reader must
remember that this paper was read twenty-two years ago.
"Woodsfield, forty years ago, consisted of eighteen
houses, six of which were hewed log houses -the rest were
cabins. But four of the original houses of the town
now remain, and but two occupy the sites they then did, one
of which is the residence of D. O'Connor, [since deceased,
and now occupied by his widow,] and the other is occupied by
Mrs. Eberlein [now torn down.] The logs of the
house now used by W. C. Kirkwood, [a brother of the
late Governor of Iowa, late U. S. Senator, and Secretary of
the Interior,] as a wagon-maker shop, stood, at that time,
where now stands the fine residence of Wm. Okey, esq.
It was then the best house in town, and was used for a
dwelling house and store. The court of common pleas
was also held in it for a short time. The body of the
house now occupied by Joseph Pool. [now gone.] then
stood on the back street, just below
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