OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Tidbits of Ohio -- Part 18B ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES(tm) NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives remain the property of the contributors, who retain publication rights in accordance with US Copyright Laws and Regulations. In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, these documents may be used by anyone for their personal research. They may be used by non-commercial entities so long as all notices and submitter information is included. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit. Any other use, including copying files to other sites, requires permission from the contributors PRIOR to uploading to the other sites. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgenwebarchives.org ************************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 March 12, 2005 ************************************************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio And Then They Went West Know Your Ohio by Darlene E. Kelley Tid Bits - Part 18 B ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++= Ohio's Early Salt Industry at Sciota Today, salt is a commodty that is so abundant and inexpensive that most people give little thought to it. The Division of Geological Survey estimates that the Silunian rock salt beneath eastern Ohio could supply the entire nation for 32,000 years. But on the Ohio frontier in the late 1700's and early 1800's, salt was a precious commodity that had to be brought by packhorse across the Appalachian Mountains and commanded a price of 4 to 6 dollars a bushel. It is no wonder that natural salt-water springs, known as licks or salines, were of intense interest and importance to the pioneers. One of these licks, know as the Sciota Saline or Sciota Salt Licks, along Salt Lick Creek in Jackson County fiqured prominently in the development of Ohio. This lick is an area where naturally occurring salt water, known as brine, flows at the surface as a salt-water spring. It has existed at least since the Pleistocene Ice Age because numerous bones of extinct animals were found at this site. Salt had been obtained at the saline for at least 8,000 years, as indicted from archaeological excavations by W.C. Mills at Boone Rocks in 1905. At the time of its exploration, the Scioto Saline was the most important mineral industry in the State. Not only was it the reason for the founding of Jackson at this location, but the availability of salt led to early establishment of a prosperous agricltuarial and livestock industry in the lower Scioto River drainage area. European traders and explorers may ave known of the existence of the Scioto Saline as early as 1740 because there was a Fench trading post at the mouth of the Scioto River at that time. Christopher Gist, a surveyor and explorer for the Ohio Company of Virginia, made mention of it in his journel compiled during the winter of 1750/51. He noted " The Indians and Traders make salt for their horses of this water, by boiling it; it has at first a blueish colour, and somewhat bitter taste, but upon being dissolved in fair water and boiled a second time, it becomes tolerable pure salt." The Scioto Saline is marked on the well-known Lewis Evans map of the Middle Brittish Colonies issued in 1755. The Ohio country was opened to settlement following the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 and the signing of the Greenville Treaty the following year. Joseph Conklin of Mason County. Kentucky, is credited with establishing the first on going salt operation by a European settler at the saline. There was at the time no enforced regulation of the salt lands between 1795 and 1803, and " squatters rights " prevailed. On April 13,1803, soon after Ohio became a State, the legislature passed " An Act regulating the public salt works." The provisions of the Enabling Act of 1802, which was passed to create the Sate of Ohio, forbade the State to sell salt lands, which consisted of a full 6-mile-square township. The State Legislation provided for an agent to lease lots to be used for cultivation as well as collect fees for manufacturing salt. Each lessee had to have a minimum of 30 salt kettles, bu could not exceed 120 kettles, and had to pay 12 cents per gallon capacity in the first year of operation. In 1804 this charge was dropped to 4 cents, in 1805 to 2 cents, and by 1810, to 5 mills. (1/1000 mills to a U.S. Dollar ). The earliest method of obtaining salt at the Scioto Saline, employed by Native Americans and the earliest pioneer operations, was to dig shallow pits into the Sharon sandstone during low water when the rock was exposed in the stream bed. These pits would slowly fill with weak brine, whic was dipped out and boiled over fires. The initial attempt to increase salt production was to deepen these rock pits from a foot to two to six to eight feet. The pioneer salt boilers soon discovered that brine would accumulate in deeper pits, up to 30 feet deep, that could be dug into unconsolidated sediments that filled part of the valley of Salt Lick Creek. These pits or wells were cased at the surface with a hollow black gum log in order to prevent an inflow of surface water. Soon after government control and regulation of the licks began, the salt boilers set up crude furnaces to increase efficiency and production. These furnaces consisted of a 4-foot-deep trench over which were set two rows of 12 to 15 gallon kettles. Wood was used as a fuel and heat passed beneath the kettles, bringing them to a boil. These furnaces operated 24 hours a day and required constant attention. Wood had to be cut and fed to the fires and brine had to be replenished in the kettles. The second site that gained notority was Boone Rocks, a 57 foot high cliff of Sharon standstone in the northwest part of the city of Jackson, adjacent to the present day municipal sewage treatment plant. The bed of Salt Lick Creek ran close to the base of this cliff. Boone Rocks derives it name from an unsubstantiated story about the famous pioneer, Daniel Boone. Supposedly, Boone was brought to the saline as a captive of the Shawnee, but escaped by leaping from the cliff to the branches of a tree growing at its base. Early Survey geologists Caleb (sometimes listed as Charles) Briggs, Jr., and Samuel P. Hildreth were the first observers and interpreters of the geologyof the Scioto Saline. Since their reconnaissance in 1837, there has been very little geological inquiry into the geology of the salt licks, probably because the licks were of little economic interest after their demise about 1815. Later geological focus in the area was on coal, sandtone, iron ore, and other mineral commodities. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Early Settlers of Scioto Valley The saline mines, although not strong, they did serve a good purpose by bringing comparatively cheap salt to the early settlers and drew the attention to outsiders of the advantages of settlement in that section of the State. Probably the first pioneer and permanent settler in the Lower Scioto Valley was Samuel Marshall, who came down the Ohio River in company with Gen. Anthony Wayne, in the fall of 1795. After the Treaty of Greenville, in February, 1796, Mr. Marshall selected a claim about three miles above the mouth of the Scioto nearly opposite the mouth of Tygart's Creek. There he built his cabin of puncheons and installed his family, consisting of a wife and four children. James Keyes, in his " Pioneers of Scioto County." has this to say of Marsall; " The very first of these ( true pioneers of Scioto County ) was Samuel Marshall. He came to this country and built a small cabin about two miles above where Portsmouth now stands. This was in February, 1796. He passed down the river the year before in company with General Wayne when on the way to make his celebrated treaty with the Indians. He stopped at Manchester where Nathaniel Massey had built a small stockade for the protection of his surveyors, and had likewise laid out a town of that name. " Mr Marshall had sold his property in Pennsylvannia for about ten thousand dollars and taken his pay altogether in continental money. He wished to invest a portion of his money in government lands, but he had to wait until the lands were ready for market. While thus waiting, he moved up from Manchester and built his house. He had a large family of children, some of them grown up. His eldest daughter Nancy, was married to William Rollins and had two children. " As is the case in all new countries, marriageable young women are scarce and men plenty, so while he waited in Manchester for the treaty to be made with the Indians, two more of his daughters got married-- one to a man by the name of Washburn, who settled in Adams County, and the other to Thomas McDonald, a brother to the celebrated scout, John McDonald. It is well known to all who are conversant with the early history of this country that Colonel John McDonald and Duncan McArthur were, with several others, appointed to act as scouts and keep the Indians at bay while the boats were passing down the river." In Howe's History of Ohio, credit is given this Thomas McDonald with building the first house in Scioto County. " He came to Scioto County, perhaps with his father-in-law, but did not build a house or make any long stay, but went up the Scioto and settled near Chillicothe. "To sum the matter and place it in a nutshell: We claim for Samuel Marshall credit of being the first settler in Scioto County, who came there with the intention of making it his permanent home; that he built the first cabin and raised the first crop of corn; that the first person married in the County was his daughter, and the first child born in the county was his. We know this claiming a good deal for the Marshall family." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Isaac Bonser, Forerunner of Sciotoville Isaac Bonser, a young backwoodsman and surveyor, had already made a claim for a tract of land at the mouth of the Little Scioto. In the spring of 1795, he crossed the mountains of Pennsylvannia, in the interest of citizens of that State, and marked some pieces of land in that locality with his tomahawk, supposing that he would thus be entitled to it by priority of discovery. At the time te survey of the French Grant had just been completed, but there was no vestage of a settlement between Gallipolis and Manchesther, although surveyors were everywhere abroad in the Ohio county. Mr. Bonser's report to his Pennsylvannia friends and supporters was so favorable that four families accompanied him to the location at the mouth of the Little Scioto in the spring of 1796; they did not arrive at their destination, however, until 10th of August. The heads of the five families which thus formed one of the pioneer colonies of the Scioto Valley, although they settled at the mouth of the Little Scioto at what is now Sciotoville, were Isaac Bonser, Uriah Barber, John Beatty, William Ward and Ephraim Adams. When these five families located, they found that Samuel Marhall and John Lindsey had moved up from Manchester a few months before, and erected cabins near their claim. A Lindsey son and a Marshall married soon afterward, their union being the first in the county. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ John Lindsey, Marshall's Close Friend Although Samuel Marshall and John Lindsey were evidently industrious and well maening, they were not men of sound business judgement, and met with not a few financial misfortunes. Their mutual attachment was strong and lasting, and in death their remains were not far parted. A few years before his decease in 1816, Mr. Lindsey sold his improvements in the narrows below the Little Scioto and selected a burial place at the summit of a hill about a quarter of a mile south of the Scioto Furnace. Mr. Marshall, dying shortly afterwards, chose to be buried besides his old friend and fellow-worker. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Major Bonser, A Stayer Isaac Bonser, cultivated his land above the Little Scioto, and built several mills there and elsewhere. He lost considerable money through the rascality of one Col. John Edwards, who obtained control of a large tract of land embracing the present site of Sciotoville, and after involving various purchasers, moved over into Kentucky and let them clear up the titles as best as they could. Mr. Bonser was one of his victims, but quicky rebounded from his tempory embarrassment. When Scioto County was organized in 1803, Mr. Bonser was one of its leading men. He was particularly interested in the militia, and was elected major of one of its ten battalions. In those days two musters a year were held, on which occasions he acted as field officer. In the War of 1812, his oldest son was taken prisoner at Hull's surrender of Detroit, and he himself marched at the head of his battalion to the relief of the American troops. The Scioto contingent got as far as Sandusky, and then turned back, as the enemy had been driven off. This military record attached to Mr. Bonser the title, by which he was familiarly known, Major. Major Bonser was a Jacksonian democrat and his party sent him to the Legislature in the fall of 1827. The last years of his life were passed in farming and in the management of his little mill. He died about 1847-- by no means rich,but to his last day. a model of industry and usefulness. One of his most substancial acts was, in partnership with Uriah Barber, the building of the State Road from Portsmouth to Galipolis, soon afterr Ohio had been admitted to the Union. It lay nearly all the way through a dense forest. They had to cut the stumps so low that a wagon could pass over them, and to clear everything out so as to make a good road. They surveyed and measured the distance and marked every mile tree; and their thorough, honest work was in evidence for many years. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Alexandria Founded About three years after the first settlers commenced to locate at the mouth of the mouth of the the Little Scioto and on the French Grant, a new town sprung up on the Ohio River just above the mouth of the Big Scioto. Mention has been made of the survey of the site of that place, Alexandria, in 1787. This tract, comprising of 600 acres, was located by Alexander Parker for his brother, Col. Thomas Parker,of Frederick County, Virginia, and, as stated, the survey ws made by a party headed by John O'Bannon, deputy surveyor. Although it is said that a part of the town site, which had been cleared and cultivated to corn by the Indians, it was a round dozen of years before there was any recorded sale of town lots; according to an endorsement on the original Alexandria plat of sale of lots commenced in June, 1799, which date is accepted as the beginning of the town. Among the first inhabitants in Alexandria was Judge John Collins, William Russell, John Russell, Joseph Parrish, John Logan, William Lowry, Stephen Smith, James Munn, and William Brady. Between 1801 and 1804, David Gharky, John Simpson, Elijah Grover, William Jones and Samuel G. Jones settled in that place. It was soon discovered that Alexandria was on such low ground -- the highest part only fifty feet above low-water mark-- that any unusual rise of either the Ohio or the Scioto was almost sure to flood it. When Scioto County was created in 1803, however, Alexandria became its seat of justice. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ to be continued in part 18 C.