ASHLAND COUNTY OHIO
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ASHLAND COUNTY, part 4. By Henry Howe, LL.D.

	The knoll near the cabin being covered with dwarfed timber served the 
Indians as a shelter from which they fired, volley after volley into the 
cabin, wounding Nancy Copus, a little girl, above the knee and breaking the 
arm of Geo Launtz, a soldier, who had the satisfaction however of returning 
his compliments with a bullet which caused the Indian who had shot him to 
bound into the air and roll down the hill on the way to the "happy" hunting 
grounds of his fathers.
	The battle lasted about five hours, after which the Indians withdrew, 
carrying off their dead and wounded, but fired a parting salute into a 
flock of Mr. Copus's sheep, killing most of them.
	After the withdrawal of the Indians a soldier was despatched to the 
block-house at Beams' for assistance. Shortly after Capt. Martin, having 
been out with a party of soldiers on a scouting expedition, arrived at the 
cabin, too late to be of any assistance. An effort was made to pursue the 
Indians, but was abandoned as useless. Mr. Copus and the soldiers were 
buried in a large grave a rod to two from the cabin, under an apple tree. 
Capt. Martin then took the family and returned to the block-house. Mrs. 
Copus and her children remaining in the block-house several weeks removed 
to Guernsey county, but in the spring of 1815 returned to their cabin.
	The number of Indians engaged in this attack was estimated at forty-five, 
there having been discovered back of the corn field the remains of 
forty-five fires in holes scooped in the ground, to prevent observation, 
over which the Indians roasted ears of corn the evening before the attack.
	
	Two handsome monuments in Mifflin township now mark the resting-places for 
the victims of these tragedies. The Ruffner-Zimmer monument is ten miles 
southerly from Ashland, and the Copus monument twelve miles. They are so 
alike in structure that the engraving annexed give a correct idea of the 
other.  These monuments were erected, at an expense of nearly $500, near 
the site of the occurrences they commemorate. The project had its inception 
with Dr. S. Riddle, historian of the Ashland Pioneer Society, who 
interested its members, and the history of their dedication is thus given 
by him:
	The date for the unveiling of the Ruffner-Copus Monument was fixed for 
Friday, September 15, 1882, just seventy years to the day when the tragic 
scenes took place, and preparations were made for what was expected would 
be a memorable day in the history of Ohio. The expectations of the 
committee were more than realized. Early in the day the people began to 
arrive at the Copus Hill from every direction; a-foot, on horseback and in 
every imaginable kind of conveyance, until fully 6,000 had assembled in the 
forest overlooking the scene of the Copus battle. The day balmy -one of 
those pleasant fall days -and the thousands present came with baskets 
filled ready for the pic-nic. The exercises opened with music by the MT. 
Zion band, followed by prayer by Rev. J.A. Hail, then music, then the 
address of welcome by the gentleman above named. Rev. P.R. Roseberry 
followed in a few remarks, after which the venerable Dr. Wm. Bushenll, of 
Mansfield, and Andrew Mason, Esq. of Ashland in response to calls, 
entertained the audience. Mrs. Sarah Vail, daughter of James Copus, who was 
present at the time her father and three soldiers were killed, and who now 
resided hard by at the age of eighty-four years, was introduced to the 
multitude. Mrs. Baughman, a mother of A.J. Baughman, was also introduced to 
the audience; this lady's father, Capt. Cunningham, assisted in burying the 
dead at Copus Hill. A recess was then taken for the pic-nic and an hour 
later R.M. Campbell, Esq., of Ashland, was introduced and spoke at length. 
Hon. Henry C. Hedges, of Mansfield, was then introduced and made some 
touching remarks; at the close of his address the Huff Brothers Band played 
a dirge; following this, Dr. P.H. Clark of Ashland, delivered an 
appropriate address which was full of interest for the occasion; at its 
close a procession of vehicles to the number of about 1,200 was formed and 
passed by the Copus Monument as it was unveiled. The multitude then 
proceeded to the Ruffner monument, when it was also unveiled. Thus the 
ceremonies of the day ended; a day long to be remembered.
	Under the names of Copus and the slain soldiers was carved, at the 
suggestion of Miss Rosella Rice, of Perrysville, the name for the eccentric 
Johnny Appleseed, whom she knew well, and whose good deeds she has 
commemorated with her pen. A novel, founded upon these tragedies and the 
early times in this region, entitled "Philip Seymour, or Pioneer Life in 
Richland County," by Rev. James F. McGaw, published in Mansfield in 1857 
and 1883, has quite a local popularity.
	
	PERRYSVILLE, sixty miles northeast of Columbus, on the P. Ft. W. & C., 
railroad. It has churches: 1 Baptist, 1 Methodist, 1 Presbyterian, and 1 
Lutheran, and in 1880, 476 inhabitants. A correspondent send us some items:
	Perrysville was laid out June 10, 1815, by Thomas Coulter and was the 
second village established in the county. At that early day whiskey 
drinking was the general custom. At one period there were nine still houses 
in the township in active operation, and they were unable to keep up with 
the demands of the thirsty. Jeremiah Conine, on the present Van Horn farm, 
was the pioneer distiller. Hop picking was then an important industry; the 
hops sold for fifty cents a pound. Mrs. Betsy Coulter, nee Rice, in 1815 
opened the first school in her own home. She took spinning and weaving as 
part pay for tuition. Johnny Appleseed was a frequent visitor here. He was 
a constant snuff consumer and had beautiful teeth. He was smitten here with 
Miss Nancy Tannehill and proposed, but was just one too late; she was 
already engaged. He died March 11, 1845, in St. Joseph township, Indiana, 
at the house of Wm. Worth. When he died he had on for clothing next to his 
body a coarse coffee sack slipped over his head; around his waist parts of 
four pantaloons; over these a white pair complete. He was buried two and 
half miles north of Fort Wayne. The principal white settlers in this 
section in 1809 were Andrew Craig, an exhorter and local minister in the 
Methodist Church, who frequently preached to the Greentown Indians, James 
Cunningham, Samuel Lewis and Henry McCart.
	
	HAYESVILLE,  about seventy miles northeast of Columbus, is a fine trading 
town, in the centre of an extensive farming, wool-growing, and 
stock-raising district. Newspaper: Hayesville Journal, Independent, H.H. 
Arnold. Churches: 1 Methodist, 1` Presbyterian, 1 United Presbyterian. 
Population in 1880, 563.

	LOUDONVILLE, about sixty-five miles southwest of Cleveland, on the Black 
ford of the Mohican river, also on the P. Ft. W. & C. railroad. It is 
surrounded by a very productive agricultural district. Newspapers: 
Advocate, Independent, P.H. Stauffer, editor; Democrat, Democratic, J.G. 
Herzog, editor. Churches: 1 Methodist, 1 Baptist, 2 Lutheran, 1 Catholic, 1 
Presbyterian and 1 Evangelical. Banks: Farmers', J. Schmidt, president, 
J.L. Quick, cashier. Among the principal industries is one of the finest 
and best equipped roller-process mills in the State. Population in 1880, 
1,497. School census in 1886, 547; Elliott D. Wigton, superintendent. 
Savannah and Polk have each about 400 inhabitants.
	William B. Allison, the eminent member of the United States Senate from 
Iowa, was born in Perry township this county, March 2, 1829. He was 
educated at Allegheny College, PA and Western Reserve College, OH, 
practised law at Ashland and Wooster, and removed to Dubuque, Iowa in 1857.