OHIO STATEWIDE FILES OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List ----------------------------------------------------------------------- USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 140 Today's Topics: #1 History of Knox County Pt 2 [leaann1@bellsouth.net] #2 History of Knox County Pt 3 [leaann1@bellsouth.net] ------------------------------ X-Message: #1 Date: Mon, 08 Mar 1999 23:08:51 -0800 From: leaann1@bellsouth.net Subject: History of Knox County Pt 2 Historical Collections of Ohio Henry Howe LL.D. Knox County At an early day the Indians, in great numbers, came to Mount Vernon to trade. They encamped on the river bank, and brought large quantities of furs and cranberries to dispose of for goods. The whites of the present day might take some beneficial hints from their method of trading at the store in this place. They walked in deliberately and seated themselves, upon which the merchant presented each with a small piece of tobacco. Having lighted their pipes, they returned the residue to their pouches. These were made of whole-mink skin, dressed with the hair on, with a slit cut in the throat as an opening. In it they kept also, some kinnickinnick bark, or sumach, which they always smoked with their tobacco, in the proportion of about three of the former to one of the latter. After smoking and talking awhile together, one only at a time arose, went to the counter, and taking up a yardstick, pointed to the first article he desired, and inquired the price. The questions were in this manner: "How many buck-skins for a shirt pattern?" or "cloth for leggings?" etc.; according to their skin currency. A muskrat skin was equal to a quarter of a dollar; a raccoon-skin, a third of a dollar; a doe-skin, half a dollar; and a buck-skin, "the almighty dollar." The Indian, learning the price of an article, paid for it by picking out and handing over the skins, before proceeding to purchase the second, when he repeated the process, and so on through the whole, paying for everything as he went on, and never waiting for that purpose until he had finished. While the first Indian was trading, the others looked uninterruptedly on, and when he was through, another took his place, and so on in rotation, until all had traded. No one desired to trade before his turn, an all observed a proper decorum, and never attempted to "beat down" but, if dissatisfied with the price, passed on to the next article. They were cautious not to trade while intoxicated; but usually preserved some of their skins to buy liquor, and end their visit with a frolic. The early settlers in the town all felt as one family. If one got a piece of fresh meat, he shared it with his neighbors, and when a person was sick, all sympathized. At night, they met in each others cabins, to talk, dance and take a social glass. There was no distinction of party, for it was a social democracy. At their weddings, a puncheon table, formed like a bench, without a cloth, was covered with refreshments. These were plain and simple: wild turkeys, that had been gobbling about in the woods, were stewed and eaten with a relish; corn that had grown on the river flats, made into "pone" served as wedding cake; while metheglin and whiskey, the only articles probably not indigenous, were the beverages that washed them down. Their plates were either of wood or pewter, perhaps both, and no two alike; their knives frequently butcher knives, and their forks often of wood. A dance was the finale of their festivities. They made merry on the puncheon floor to the music of the fiddle. Cotillions were unknown, while jigs, four handed reels, the double shuffle and break down "were all the rage." After Mount Vernon was laid out, the settlers from the region roundabout were accustomed to come into town on Saturdays, to clear the stumps out of the streets. Early in the afternoon they quitted work, and grew jolly over a large kettle of stew. This was made as follows: First a huge kettle, of gallons capacity, was placed upon the ground, resting upon three stones, and a fire kindled under it. In it was put two or three buckets of water, a few pounds of maple sugar, a few ounces of allspice, which had been pounded in a rag, a pound of butter, and, finally two or three gallons of whiskey. When boiled, the stew was taken off, a circle was formed around, and the men helped themselves liberally, with tin cups, to the liquor, told hunting stories, wrestled, ran, hopped and jumped, engaged in foot races, shot at mark for goods or tobacco purchased at the store, and occasionally enlivened the scene by a fight. Upon the organization of the county, there was a spirit of rivalry as to which should be the county seat, Mount Vernon or Clinton, a town laid out a mile and a half north, by Samuel Smith, then a place of the most population, now among the "things that were." The commissioners appointed to locate the seat of justice first entered Mount Vernon, and were received with the best cheer, at the log tavern of Mr. Butler. To impress them with an idea of the public spirit of the place, the people were very busy at the moment of their entrance, and during their stay, at work, all with their coats off, grubbing the streets. As they left for Clinton, all quitted their labor, not "of love," and some rowdies, who dwelt in cabins scattered round about in the woods away from the town, left the crowd and stealing ahead of the commissioners, arrived at Clinton first. On the arrival of the others at that place, these fellows pretended to be in a state not conformable to temperance principles, ran against the commissioners, and by their rude and boisterous conduct, so disgusted the worthy officials as to the apparent morals of the inhabitants of Clinton, that they returned and made known their determination that Mount Vernon should be the favorite spot. That night there were great rejoicings in town. Bonfires were kindled, stew made and drank, and live trees split with gunpowder. The first settler north of Mount Vernon was Nathaniel M. Young, from Pennsylvania, who in 1803, built a cabin on the south fork of Vernon River, three miles west of Fredericktown. Mr. Young and his neighbors being much troubled with wolves, got together and made a written agreement to give nine bushels of corn for every wolf's scalp. In the winter of 1805-6 Mr. Young, John Lewis and James Bryant caught forty one wolves, in steel traps and pens. Wolf-pens were about six feet long, four wide and three high, formed like a huge square box, of small logs, and floored with puncheons. The lid, also of puncheons, was very heavy, and moved by an axle at one end, made of a small round stick. The trap was set by a figure four, with any kind of meat except that of wolf's, the animals being fonder of any other than their own. On gnawing the meat, the lid fell and enclosed the unamiable native. Often to have sport for the dogs, they pulled out the legs of a wolf through the crevices of the logs, hamstrung, and then let him loose, upon which the dogs sprang upon him, while he, crippled by the operation, made but an ineffectual resistance. In the adjoining county of Delaware, a man, somewhat advanced in years, went into a wolf trap to render the adjustment of the spring more delicate, when the trap sprung upon him, and knocking him flat on his face, securely caught him as was ever any of the wolf species. He was unable to lift up the lid, and several miles from any house. There he lay all one day and night, and would have perished had not a passing hunter heard his groans and relieved him from his peril. -- ------------------------------ X-Message: #2 Date: Tue, 09 Mar 1999 00:08:01 -0800 From: leaann1@bellsouth.net Subject: History of Knox County Pt 3 Historical Collections of Ohio Henry Howe LL.D. Knox County Mount Vernon in 1846 Mount Vernon, the county seat, is forty five miles northeast of Columbus. It is beautifully situated on ground slightly ascending from Vernon River. The town is compactly and substantially built, and some of the dwellings elegant. Main, the principle business street, is about a mile in length, on which are many brick blocks, three stories in height. The view was taken in this street, at the southern extremity of the public square, looking north. On the left is shown the market and court-house; on the right the Episcopal Church, an elegant stone edifice, and in the center the tower of the old-school Presbyterian Church and the jail. This flourishing town contains two Presbyterian, two methodist, one Baptist, one Lutheran, one Catholic, and one Episcopal church; twenty dry-goods, six grocery, two hardware, three apothecary, and two book-stores; one fulling, four grist, and five saw mills; three newspaper printing offices, and had, in 1840, 2,363 inhabitants, and now has over 3,000. The railroad, constructing from Sandusky City to Columbus, will connect this place with those.--Old Edition ------------------- Mount Vernon, county seat of Knox, is forty miles northeast of Columbus, on the Kokosing River, the C.A.&C. ans S.M.&N. Railroads. The magnetic Springs, a noted health resort, is about two miles north of the city. County Officers: Auditor, Curtis W. McKee; Clerk, Hugh Neal; Commissioners, Stephen Craig, Samuel T. Vannatta, W.D. Foote; Coroner, Samuel R. Stofer; Infirmary Directors, James O. McArtor, William H. Wright, John C. Hammond; Probate Judge, John M. Critchfield; Prosecuting Attorney, William L. McElroy; Recorder, Dwight E. Sapp; Sheriff, John G. Stevenson; Surveyoe, John McCrory; Treasurer, William H. Ralston. City Officers: mayor, W.B. Brown; Clerk, P.B. Chase; Solicitor, C.A. Merriman; Engineer, D.C. Lewis; Treasurer, W.B. Dunbar; Street Commissioner, W.B. Henderson; Marshall, Robert Blythe; Clerk Board of Health, M.M. Murphy. Newspapers: Tribune, Republican, John W Critchfield, editor; Democratic Banner, Democratic, L.Harper, editor and Proprietor; Republican, Republican, C.F. and W.F. Baldwin, editors; Knox County Democrat, Democrat, William A. Silcott, Proprietor. Churches; one congregational, one Methodist, one Methodist Protestant, one Presbyterian, one catholic, one Episcopalian, one Methodist Episcopal, one Colored Methodist Episcopal, one baptist and one Colored Baptist. Banks: First national, C. Delano, president, Fred D. Sturges, cashier; Knox County Savings, G.A. Jones, president, Samuel H. Israel, cashier; Knox National, Henry L. Curtis, president, John M. Ewalt, cashier. Manufactures and Employees- C.A.&C.R.R. Shops, railroad repairs, 125 hands; E.L. Black, plows and castings, 4; the Cooper Manufacturing Company, engines and saw-mills, 45; Mount Vernen Bridge Co., iron bridges, 100; Kokosing Mills, flour,etc., 20; Eagle Mills, flour; S.H. Jackson, carriages and buggies; Mount Vernon Linseed Oil Co.,; C.&G. Cooper, saw-mills, etc., 190; Mount Vernon Steam Laundry, laundrying, 10.--State Report 1888 Population 1880, 5,249. School Census 1888, 1,100; J.A. Shawan, school superintendent (and from 1883-1889, when he was given the same position in Columbus). Capital invested in industrial establishments, $1,009,150; value of annual product, $1,326,700.--Ohio Labor Statistics 1887. Census 1890, 6,027. The first jury trial in Knox County was in may 1808, it was that of the State of Ohio vs. William Hedrick; William Wilson, of Licking County, presiding. Judgment was rendered against the prisoner on four charges of theft. Besides fines and imprisonment, it was ordered that the "prisoner be whipped on his naked back." This was one of the few instances in the history of Ohio in which this barbarous mode of punishment was legally inflicted. Its degrading and brutalizing effect, both on the victim and the public, is apparant in the following account from Norton's spicy "History of Knox County." The judgment of castigation was executed upon the public square of Mount Vernon, shortly after the adjournment of court, in presence of all the people. Silas Brown was the sheriff, and it fell to his lot as such to serve the "legal process' upon the body of William Hedrick. There was a small, leaning hickory tree upon the east side of the public square, between the present Norton building (now occupied by Dr. Israel Green, druggist) and High Street, and a little south of where the jail was afterwards built, and this tree bent in such a way that a man could walk around under it. To this delectable spot the culprit was taken, and his hands stretched up over his head and tied to the tree, and the stripes were applied by the sheriff to his naked back. He was struck forty times with a heavy rawhide whip. The first few blows with the rawhide were across the kidneys. Mr. Bryant, one of the bystanders, at once called out to the sheriff to whip him elsewhere; that was no place to whip a man; he should strike higher up; and the rest of the lashes were applied across the shoulders. The criminal sobbed and cried piteously, and when released went off weeping and groaning. In many places the skin was cut and broken, and the blood oozed out, making a pitiable spectacle. And yet, such was the feeling against him, that few seemed to sympathize with the scourged. As he started off he said to the spectators: "You should not blame me for this, for it was not my fault." Bob Walker replied: "No, you wouldn't have stood up and been whipped that way if you could have helped it." At this prompt retort to Hedrick's explanation, or apology, the crowd laughed uproariously. -- LeaAnn http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Valley/8621/ -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V99 Issue #140 *******************************************