OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Tidbits of Ohio -- Part 18C ************************************************************************ 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 14, 2005 ************************************************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio And Then They Went West Know Your Ohio by Darlene E. Kelley Tid Bits - Part 18 C. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Part 18- C Traxler Settles at Portsmouth In the meantime settlement had commenced about a mile above the mouth of the Big Scoto, on a high and attractive site. One Emmanuel Traxler, a German, had come to that locality as early as 1796 and built the first house within the present limits of Portsmouth. He had considerable means with him, and located with the express view of laying out a town, but hesitated to go far until he could enter his land in a regular way. But Mr. Traxler delayed to long, for the moment the land office was opened at Chillicothe in 1801, Henry Massie, a brother of Nathaniel who laid out that town, purchased several sections of land all around Traxler's claim, and in 1803 made the first plat of Portsmouth. It is said the name of the town was given by Massie at the request of Capt. Josiah Shackford, who was on the ground at the time of the purchase, and that he promised, if Massie complied with his request, to help build up the town. Thus Maj. Henry Massie, the surveyor, the land speculator and keen promotor, became the founder of Portsmouth, instead of the plodding German Carpnter and builder, Emmanuel Traxler, who soon went northward into Jackson County, where he died. Major Massie and Captain Shackford worked for their pet town with good results for many years. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Water Logged Alexandria Sinks About two years after Scioto County was organized and Alexandria became seat of Justice, that town was well under the Ohio River, and on Christmas day of 1808 it was three feet beneath its waters. Year by year as the floods recurred, the migrations to Portsmouth increased in number and frequency until 1816, when the new courthouse was ready for occupancy in the new county seat, Alexandria sunk out of sight, water logged and dreary. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The Origin of Jackson At the time another county seat was coming into sight, in the newly created County of Jackson. The house of William Givens, at the Scioto Salt Works, had been selected for the place of holding court until a permanent seat of Justice could be selected. The foregoing state of affairs resulted in the platting of the Town of Jackson --- known as the " north half " -- in May. 1817. That part of the original site was surveyed by a Mr. Fletcher, of Gallia County, and in 1819 the south half was laid out by Dr. Gabriel McNeel, a prominent physician of the county at that day, as well as its first surveyor. The courthouse was built on a crest of the town site, the gradual slope of which affords excellant drainage-- a marked contrast to the first county seat of Scioto. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Lawrence County and Burlington Although a few settlers straggled into what is now called Lawrence County previous to 1800, mainly Pennsylvania Dutch and Virginia Scotch-Irish, they were chiefly hunters and wanderers, without intention of permanent settlement. But sufficient remained to warrent a county organization in 1816, its name being adopted in honor of Capt. James Lawrence, a native of Burlington, New Jersey, and a gallant naval officer of the War of 1812. During the fall of the following year a town was laid out as the county seat, located at the southern extremety of the county and the southernmost bend of the Ohio River, also named Burlington. It was nearly opposite Catlettsburg, Kentucky. There the seat of Justice remained for thirty-five years. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Ironton and its Furnace Men In the meantime Ironton, ten miles to the northwest, had become the metropolis of the iron industries of the Hanging Rock Region, John and Thomas W. Means, John Campbell, Robert Hamilton, William Firmstone and others having established the fame of its furnaces throughout the country. To elucidate that statement we can do no better than to reproduce a newspaper article published in 1887, giving an account of the pioneer labors of John and Thomas W.Means, father and son, in the establishment of the first iron furnaces in the region. " In 1819, " says the paper, " there went from Spartensburg, South Caralina, to Manchester, Adams County, on the Ohio side of the river, a certain man named John Means, carrying his slaves with him. He was an Abolitionist, but not being able to manumit his slaves in his native state he sold his possessions there and, with his family and negroes, emigrated to the nearest point where he could set them free. " In 1826 John Means built a charcoal furnace near his home and began the manufacture of pig iron. The Union, as he named it, was the first iron furnace north of the Ohio in this district. In Ashland your correspondant met Thomas W. Means, a son of the pioneer furnace builder. This gentleman, now eighty three years old, has a vivid recollection of those days and hardships which all who made iron had to endure because of free-trade tendencies and the laws. In 1837, he leased the Union Furnace of his father, and ever since he has been connected with it as lessee and owner. At first they made from three to four tons a day, and when they increased the output to thirty tons a week it was considered a wonderful performance. " Speaking of those days, Mr. Means said: ' When I leased Union Furnace, corn sold for twelve and a half cents a bushel and wheat sold for twenty-four to twenty-six cents. Wages for competent laborers were only ten dollars a month. I made a trip to New Orleans and saw wheat sold there for a quarter of a dollar a bushel, and corn on the cob at the same price per barrel. " We used only maple sugar in those days, and paid for the commonest molasses thirty-two cents a gallon. Our woolen goods were woven on hand looms. It took six yards of calico to make a dress, and the material cost half a dollar a yard. There are more people in Irontown now than there were then in the county. We saw no gold and little silver coin, except in small pieces. Our circulation was chiefly bills of state banks, and those were continually breaking. From 1854 to 1861 I kept my furnace going, but sold very little iron-- only enough to keep me in ready money. " Charcoal iron was then worth from $ 10 to $14 per ton. In 1863 I had an accumulated stock of 16,000 tons. Next year it advanced to $40, which I thought a fine lift, but in 1864 it netted me $ 80 a ton. For eight years before the war nearly all the furance owners were in debt, but creditors didnot distress them, for they were afraid of iron, the only asset they could get, and so they carried their customers the best way they could, hoping all round for better times. We are all right and so is the country, if the fools will quit tariff meddling." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ More of Lawrence County The Hanging Rock Iron Region extending into West Virginia, Kentucky, and the southern most part of Ohio is the vast mineral region containing iron ores, coal, limestone, and fire clay. Ironton, founded by the famous iron master, John Campbell, is in this region. During the Civil War, all production of the Hecia furnaces worked at capacity to furnish iron for the war. Seventeen of the Charcoal Iron furnaces were located in Lawrence County. They produced Pig Iron which was used to manufacture many items,from household goods to war machines and hardware. The iron produced by the regions furnaces from 1818 to 1916 was found to be not only better that other irons produced in the United States, but also superior to te best English made iron. The Hecia Furnace product was found to be of superior quality needed for great strength and durability equaled by two other furnaces--- one in Spain and other in Asia Minor. The Union Furnace, the first in Lawrence County,was built by John Means in 1826, several miles north of Hanging Rock. This was also the first furnace North of the Ohio River. The last furnace in Lawrence County to cose down was the Pine Grove furnace. Growing conditions in Lawrence County were fond to be excellant for growing fruit trees, including the apple. In 1816, Joel Gillette went to Rufus Putnam Nursery in Marietta, Ohio, and picked up a bundle of apple seedlings to take home for planting on his farm in Rome Township. While he was planting the seedlings, he noticed one quite different from the rest. He gave this worthless " worthless " twig to his young son, Alanson, who then planted it on the river bank about two miles above Procterville. After a few years, Joel Gillette's orchard was producing well. Alanson remembered is tree he had planted, went to check on it, and found it loaded with beautiful bright red apples, clustered as thick as grapes. The same apple became known by the name of the township in which it was grown-- being called the Rome Beauty. It is a hearty late ripening apple that keeps well and is good for baking and cooling and eating fresh. The popularity of the Rome Beauty Apple is such that it spread out of Lawrence County nd has become a standard product in many apple orchards, not only in our country but in others as well. Big and small boats of all kinds moved up and down the Ohio River delivering quantities of people and cargo to the docks and landings of Lawrence County. There were skiffs, flat boats, packet boats, passenger boats, and ferries to recall a few. Two of the well known names in the Riverboat Business, Davidson and Bay are found in the following quotes from material written by David F. Thomas, another Lawrence County Riverboat man. " Between 1860-1880 men born in Lawrence County, Ohio controlled approximately 75% of thepacket boat trade on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Mr. W.F. Davidson from South Point, Ohio, was the largest single owner of boats in his day, owning more than 40. Records show that Lawrence County, Ohio men at one time controlled more steamboat property than any other County on inland rivers; and some of the best pilots, masters and engineers came from Lawrence County, Ohio. " George Bay lived in Procterville, and his brother William lived in Irontown, Ohio. They were well known all over the western waters as the leading steamboatmen on the Ohio River." ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Tid Bits to be continued in part 19.