OHIO STATEWIDE FILES OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List Issue 70 ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES(tm) NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgenwebarchives.org ************************************************************************** OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 05 : Issue 70 Today's Topics: #1 Fw: Tid Bits - Part 46 B. ["Ohio Archives EV1" To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <01c001c55f68$06bf8760$11f4d2cc@margaret> Subject: Fw: Tid Bits - Part 46 B. Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ----- Original Message ----- From: "Darlene & Kathi kelley" To: Sent: Saturday, May 14, 2005 12:32 AM Subject: Tid Bits - Part 46 B. Contributed for Use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley May 14, 2005 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Historical Collections of Ohio And Then They Went West Know Your Ohio by Darlene E. Kelley Tid Bits - Part 46 B. Notes by S.Kelly ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Part 46 B. Arrives at Fort Washington In continuation of Israel Donalson's narrative previous, he contintinues; " I followed down the Miami, until I struck Harmar's trace, made the previous fall, and continued on it until I came to Fort Washington, now Cincinnati, Ohio. I think it was on the Sabbath, the first day of May; I caught a horse, tied a piece of bark around his under jaw on which there was a large tumor like a wart. The bark rubbed that, and he became restless and threw me, not hurting me much however; I caught him again, and he again threw me, this time hurting me badly. How long I lay insensible, I don't know; but when I revived, he was a considerable distance from me. I then traveled on very slow, my feet entirely bare and full of thorns and briers. On Wednesday, the day that I got in, I was so far gone that I thought it entirely useless to make any further exertion, not knowing what distance I was from the River; and I took my station at the root of a tree, but soon got into a state of sleeping, and either dreamt, or thought, that I should not be loitering away my time, that I should get in that day; of which, on reflection, I had not the most idea. However, the impression was so strong that I got up and walked on some distance. Then I took my station again as before, and the same thoughts occupied my mind. I got up and walked on. I had not traveled far before I thought I could see an opening for the river; and getting a little further on I heard the sound of a bell. I then started and ran, ( at a slow speed undoubtedly ); a little further on I began to preceive that I was coming to the river hill; and having got about half way down, I heard the sound of an axe, which was the sweetest music I had heard for many a day. It was in the extreme out-lot; when I got to the lot I crawled over the fence with difficulty, it being very high. I approached the person very cautiously till within about a chain's length undiscovered; I then stopped and spoke; the person I spoke to was Mr. William Woodward, (the founder later of Woodward High School.) Mr. Woodward looked up, hastily cast his eyes round, and then spoke. " In the name of God," he said, " who are you ?" I told him I had been a prisoner and had made my esacpe from the Indians. After a few more questions he told me, to come to him. I did so. Seeing my situation, his fears soon subsided; he told me to sit down on a log and he would go and catch a horse he had in the lot and take me in. He caught his horse, set me upon him, but kept the bridle in his own hand. When we got into the road, people began to inquire of Mr. Woodward, " who is he -- an Indian ?" I was not surprised nor offended at the inquiries, for I was still in Indian uniform, bare headed, my hair cut close, except the scalp and foretop, which they had put up in a piece of tin, with a bunch of turkey feathers, which I could not undo. They had also stripped off the the feathers of about two turkeys and hung them to the hair of the scalp; these I had taken off the day I left them. Mr. Woodward took me to his house, where kindness was shown me. They soon gave me other clothing ; coming from different persons, they did not fit me very neatly; but there could not be a pair of shoes got in the place that I could get on, my feet were so swollen." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Nathaniel Massie Biography Nathaniel Massie was born in Goochland County, VA., December 28, 1763. His father, a farmer in easy circumstances, and of plain good sense, educated his sons for the practical business of life. In 1780, Nathaniel, at the age of 17, was a short time in the Revoluntionary Army. After his return he studied surveying, and in 1783 left to seek his fortune in Kentucky. He first acted as a surveyor, but soon joined it in locating of lands. Young Massie soon became an expert surveyor, and it was a matter of astonishment ( as he was raised in the dense population east of the mountains ) how soon he acquired the science and habits of the backwoodsmen. Although he never practiced the art of hunting, he was admitted by all who knew his qalifications as a woodsman, to be of the first order. He could steer his course truely in clear or cloudy weather, and compute distances more correctly than most old hunters. He could endure fatigue and hunger with more composure than most of those persons who were inured to want on the frontier. He could live upon meat without bread, and bread without meat, and was perectly cheerful and contented with his fare. In all the perilous situations in which he was placed, he was always conspicuous for his good feeling and happy temperament of his mind. His courage was of a cool and dispassionate character, which, added to great circumspection in times of danger, and gave him a complete ascendancy over his companions, who were always willing to follow when Massie led the way. He also soon became intereted with General James Wilkerson in speculations in salt, then an article of great scarcty in the west, with what pecuniary sucess, however, is unknown. He was employed as surveyor by Colonel R.C. Anderson, principal surveyor of the Virginia Military Lands, and for a time was engaged in writing in the office of Colonel Anderson, who had the control of the land warrants, placed in his hands by his brother officers and soldiers. A very large amount of these, so as soon as the act of Congress of August 1790 removed all further obstruction, he placed in Massie's hands to enter and survey on such terms as he could obtain from the holders of them. As the risk of making entries was great, and it was desirable to possess the best land, the owners of warrants, in most cases, made liberal contracts with the surveyors, given by the proprietors to the surveyors. If the owners preferred paying money, the usual terms were ten pounds, Virginia currency, for each thousand acres entered and surveyed, exclusive of chainman's expenses. These terms cannot appear extravagant, when we consider that at that time the danger encountered was great, and the exposure during the winter severe, and that the price of the first hand land in the West was low, and a immense quanity in market. The locations of land warrants in the Virginia Military District between the Scioto and the Little Miami rivers, pior to 1790, were made by stealth ( an act of moving or proceeding ). Every creek which was explored, every line that was run, was at the risk of life from the savage Indians, whose courage and perserverance was only equaled by the perserverance of the whites to push forward their settlements. In 1791, Massie made the first settlement within the Virginia Military District at Manchester. During the winter of 1792-93, he continued to locate and survey the best land within a reasonable distance of the station on Manchester. In the fall of the year 1793, Massie determined to attempt a surveying tour on the Scioto River This, at this time, was very dangerous undertaking; yet no danger, unless very imminent, could deter him making the attempt. For that purpose, he employed about thirty men, of whom he choe three as his assitant surveyors. These were John Beasley, Nathaniel Beasley, and Peter Lee. It was in this expedition Massie employed for the first time Duncan McArthur and Israel Donalson as chainmen or markers. In the month of October some canoes were procured and Massie and his party set off by water. They proceeded up the Ohio to the mouth of Scioto River, thence up the Scioto to the mouth of Paint Creek. While meandering the Scioto, they made surveys on the bottoms. After reaching the mouth of Paint Creek, the surveyors went to work. Many surveys were made on the Scioto, as far up as Westfall. Some were made on the Main, and others on the north fork of Paint Creek, and greatest parts of Ross and Pickaway Counties in the district were well explored and partly surveyed. Massie finished his intended work without meeting any disturbance from the Indians, except one time, where one of his Chainman, was captured and taken captive. They had given them a hard chase, but they ( Indians with chainman as captive,) however, escaped Massies attempt to retreive his chainman. The party returned home delighted with the rich country of the Scioto Valley which they had explored. During the winter of 1793-94, Massie, in the midst of the most appalling dangers, explored the different branches to their sources, which ran into the Little Miami River, and thence passed in a northeastern direction to the heads of Paint and Clear Creeks, and the branches that form those streams. By these expeditions he had formed, from personal observation, a correct knowledge of the geographical situation of the country composing the Virginia Military District. During the winter of 1794-95, Massie prepared a party to enter largely into the surveying business. Nathaniel Beasley, John Beasley, and Peter Lee were again employed as the assistant surveyors. The party set off from Manchester well-equipped to prosecute their business, or should occasion offer, give battle to the Indians. They took the route of Logan's Trace, and proceeded to the place called the Deserted Camp on Tod's Fork, of the Little Miami. At this point they commenced surveying, and surveyed large portions of land on Tod's Fork, and up the Mami to the Chillicothe town ( now in Clarke County ), thence up Massie's Creek and Ceasar's Creek nearly to their heads. By the time the party had progressed thus far winter had set in. The ground was covered with a sheet of snow from six to ten inches deep. During the tour, which continued upwards of thirty days, the party had no bread. For the first two weeks a pint of flour was distributed to each mess once a day, to mix with the soup in which meat had been boiled. When night came, four fires were made for cooking, that is one for each mess. Around these fires, till sleeping time arrived, the company spent their time in the most social glee, singing songs, and telling stories. When danger was not apparent or immediate, they were as merry a set of men as ever assembled. Resting time arriving, Massie always gave the signal, and the whole party would then leave their comfortable fires, carrying with them their blankets, their firearms, and their little baggage, walking in perfect silence two ot three hundred yeards from their fires. They would then scrape away the snow and huddle down together for the night. Each mess formed one bed; they would spread down one the ground one-half of the blankets, reserving the other half for covering. The covering blankets were fastened together by skewers to prevent them from slipping apart. Thus prepared, the whole party crouched down together with their rifles in their arms, and their pouches under their heads for pillows, lying spoon-fashion, with three heads one way and four the other, their feet extending to about the middle of their bodies. When one turned, the whole mass turned, or close range would be broken and the cold let in. In this way they lay till broad daylight, no noise and scarce a whisper being uttered during the night. Massie would call up two of the men in who he had the most confidence and send them to reconnoiter and make a circuit around the fires, lest an ambuscade might be formed by the Indians to destroy the party as they returned to the fires. This was an invariable custom in every variety of weather. Self-preservation required this circumspection. Sometime after this, while surveying on Ceasar's Creek, his men attacked a party of Indians, and they broke and fled. After the defeat of the Indians by Wayne, the surveyors were not interrupted by the Indians; but on one of their excursons, still remembered as " the starving tour." the whole party, consisting of twenty eight men, suffered extemely in a driving snowstorm for about four days. They were in a wilderness, exposed to this severe storm, without hut or tent or covering, and what was still more appalling, without provision and without any road or track to retreat on, and were nearly 100 miles from any place of shelter. On the third day of the storm, they luckily killed two wild turkeys, which were boiled and divided into twenty-eight parts, and devoured with great avidity, heads, feet, entrails and all. In 1796, Massie laid the foundation of the settlement of the Scioto Valley, by laing out on his own land the now large and beautiful town of Chillicothe. The progress of the settlements brought large quantities of his land into market. Massie was high in the confidence of St. Clair; and having received the appointment of Colonel, it was though him that the militia of this region were first organized. Colonel Massie was an efficient member of the convention which formed the State constitution. He was afterwards elected Senator from Ross, and at the first sessin of the State legislature, was chosen speaker. He was elected first major-general of the second division of the Ohio militia under the new constitution. General Massie was at this time one of the largest landowners in Ohio, and selected a residence at the falls of Paint Creek, Adams County, where he had a large body of excellant land. In the year 1807, Massie and Colonel Return Meigs, were competitors for the office of Governor of Ohio. They were the most popular men in the State. Colonel Meigs received a small majority of votes. The election was contested by Massie on the grounds that Colonel Meigs was ineligible by the constitution, in consequence of his absence from the State, and had not since his return lived in the State a sufficient length of time to regain his citizenship. The contest was carried to the General Assembly, who, after hearing the testimony, decided that Colonel Meigs was ineligible to the office, and that General Massie was duly elected Governor of the State of Ohio. Massie, however desirous he might have been to hold the office, was too magnanimous to accept it when his competitor had a majority of votes. After the decision in his favor, he immediately resigned. After this he, as often as leisure would permit, represented Ross County in the Legislature. He died Nvember 03, 1813, and was buried on his farm. His character was well-suited for the settlement of a new County, dstinquished as it was by a uncommon degree of energy and activity in the business in which he was engaged . His disposition was ever marked with liberality and kindness. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ General Massie was anxious to effect a settlement in the Adams County area, so he offered land to the first twenty-five persons who would join him in making a settlement there. The agreement was made December 01, 1790. Those who signed were: John Allison; Andrew Andersen; John Black; John Clark; John Ellison; Robert Ellson; Mathew Hart; John Lindsey; Nathaniel Massey; John McCutchen; Henry Nelson; J.P.C. Shanks; Alien Simmeral; Samuel Smith; Thomas Stout; George Wade; Josiah Wade; William Wade; Zephaniah Wade; Jesse Wethington. [ These were the first signers and taxpayers ] Done in the presence of John Beasley & Jas. Tittle. When the first court was organized July 1798 the commissioners appointed were; James Scott, Henry Massie and Joseph Darlington and the assessors appointed were; Simon Reeder, Aaron Moore, Noble Grimes, James Edison, Thomas Dick and John Watts. Some who paid taxes in Adams County in 1798 were; Aaron Armstron; John Burns; John Conrad; Amos Dunavan; John Garey; John Garvey; John Graves; Philip Lewis; Robert Mitchell; Providence Moore; Wm Newman; Elija Queen; Robt Ralston; George Rex; David Rupe; John Sanders; Michael Stultz; Thomas Tolbert; Christian Waggoner; and Joseph Wolsey. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Tid Bits continued in part 47. ______________________________ ------------------------------ X-Message: #2 Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 03:22:12 -0400 From: "Ohio Archives EV1" To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <01c601c55f68$242b6b70$11f4d2cc@margaret> Subject: Fw: Tid Bits - Part 47 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ----- Original Message ----- From: "Darlene & Kathi kelley" To: Sent: Saturday, May 14, 2005 2:12 PM Subject: Tid Bits - Part 47 Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley May 16, 2005 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Historical Collections of Ohio And Then They Went West Know Your Ohio by Darlene E. Kelley Tid Bits - part 47 Notes by S. Kelly ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Tid Bits - part 47. Life in the Backwoods of Adams County The Pioneers of Adams County, Ohio were a class of honorable and moral men and women. They represented some of the best families of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, and the Carolinas. They were hardy, industrious, and fugal people, who had come determined to make a home for themelves and their generations in the Great Northwest. The first settlers could have not have sustained themelves had it not been for the wild game that was in the county. This was their principal subsistance; and this they took at the peril of their lives, and often many came near starving to death. If they obtained bread, the meal was pounded in a mortar or ground in a handmill. Hominy was a good substitute for bread, or parched corn pounded and sifted, then mixed with a little maple sugar and eaten dry, or mixed with water was a good beverage. On this course fare the people were remarkably healthy and cheerful. No complaints were heard of dyspepsia; and if the emigrants had come to these backwoods with the ailment, they would have not been troubled long with it; for a few months living on buffalo meat, venison, and good fat bear meat, with the oil of the raccoon and opossum mixed with plenty of hominy, would soon have effected a cure. Their children were fat and hearty, not have been fed with plum pudding, sweetmeats, and pound cake. A more hardy race of men and women grew up in this wilderness than has ever been produced since; with more common sense and enterprise than is common to those who sleep on beds of down, and feast on jellies and preseves; and although they had not the same advantages of obtaining learning that the present generations have, yet they had this advantage; they were sooner thrown upon the world, became acquainted with men and things, and entirely dependant on their own resources for a living. A boy at the age of sixteen was counted a man of labor and hunting, and was ready to go to war; now, one of that age hardly knows the road to mill or market. Their attire was in perfect keeping with their fare. The men's apparel was mostly made of the deer's skin. This, well dressed, was made into hunting shirts, pantaloons, coats, waistcoats, leggins, and moccasins. The women sometimes wore petticoats of this most common and useful article; and it supplied almost universally the place of shoes and boots. If a man was blessed with linsey hunting shirt and the ladies with linsey dresses, and the children with the same, it was counted of the first order, even if the linsey was made from the wool of the buffalo. On some occasions the men could purchase a calico shirt; this was thought to be extra, for which they paid $ 1.50 or $ 2 in skins or furs. And if a woman had one calico dress to go abroad in , she was considered a finely dressed lady. Deer's hair or oak leaves were generally put into moccasins and worn in place of stockings or socks. The household furniture consisted of stools, and bedsteads made with forks driven into the ground and poles laid on these with the bark of the trees, and on this beds made of oak leaves, or cattail stripped off and dried in the sun. They rocked their children in a sugar trough or pack-saddle. The cooking utensils consisted of a pot, dutch oven, skillet, frying pan, wooden trays and trenchers, and boards made smooth and clean. The table was made of a broad slab. And with these fixtures there was never a heartier, happier, more hospitable or cheerful people. Their interest were one, and their dependence on each other was indispenable, and all things were common. Thus united, they lived as one family. They generally married early in life, the men from eighteen to twenty one, and the girl from sixteen to twenty. The difficulties of commencing the world were not so great; and as both parties were contented to begin with nothing, there was no looking out for fortunes, or the expectations of living without labor. Their affections were personal and sincere, which constituted a chief part of their domestic happiness, and endeared them to home. The sparkling log fire in the backwoods cabin, the gambols of half a dozen cheerful, healthy children, and the smiles of the happy wife and mother, made an earthly paradise. [ The early records of Adam County contain but few divorce cases. In commenting on this fact, a judge in the judicial district once remarked that there is not a case of divorce on the records where courting was done in a flax-patch or sugar camp; at a quilting or apple cutting. And we might add or " white bladin' cane." according to the observation of Judge Mason.] Nothing could produce more hilarity than a backwoods wedding. Most generally all the neighborhood, for miles around, were invited. And if it were in the winter, there would be a log heap or two somewhere near the cabin. Around these fires the men assembled with their rifles; the women in the cabin; and if there was a fiddler in the neighborhood, he must be present at an hour stated. The parson, if one could be had, if not the justice of the peace, called the assembly together, then the couple to be married. After the ceremony was over, and all had wished the happy pair much joy, then, if it could be had, the bottle passed around; the men then went, some shooting at a mark, some throwing of the tomahawk, others to hopping and jumping, throwing the rail or shoulder stone, others to running foot races; the women were employed in cooking. When dinner was ready, the guests all partake of the very best bear meat, venison, turkey, etc. This being over, the dance commences, and if there is no room in the cabin, the company repair to or near the log fires; there they dance till night, and then they mostly return home; yet many of the young people stay and perhaps dance all night on a rough puncheon floor, till their moccasins are worn through. The next day is the infare; the same scenes are again enacted, when the newly married pair single off to a cabin built for themselves, without twenty dollars' worth of property to begin the world with, and live more happily than those who roll in wealth and fortune. The chimmeys of the cabins were built on the inside by throwing on an extra log, three and a half feet from the wall. From this it was carried up with sticks and clay to the roof and some two feet above it. The whole width of the cabin was occupied for a fireplace. And wood ten or twelve feet long could be laid on; when burned in two in the middle, the ends could be pushed up, so as to keep a good fire through a long winter's night. When there was but one bed in the cabin, it was no sign that you could not have a good night's rest, for after supper was over, and the feats of the day about hunting were all talked over, the skins were brought forth, bear, buffalo, or deer, and spread down before a sparkling fire, and a blanket or buffalo robe to cover with; you could sleep sweetly as the visions of night roll over the senses, till the morning dawn announced the approach of day. There were no windows, and but one opening for a door. This was generally narrow, and the door was made of tw slabs, or a tree split in two and then hewed to the thickness of six or eight inches, then set up endwise and made with a bevel to lap over. The fastenings consisted of three large bars fastened to staples on the inside walls. The floor, if not earth, was of hewn slabs, and covered with clapboards. These cabins, if there was some care taken in putting down the logs close together and they were scutched, would make the sweetest and healthiest habitations than man can live in. They are much healthier than stone or brick houses. All the mills that the early settlers had was the hominy block, or hand mill. The horse mills or water mills were so far off that it was like going on a pilgramage to get a grist; and besides, the toll was so enormously high, one half, that it was preferred doing their own milling. Almost every man and boy were hunters, and some of the women of those times were experts in the chase. The game which was considered more profitable and useful was the buffalo, the elk, thebear, and the deer. The smaller game consisted of raccoon, turkey, oppossum, and groundhog. The panther was sometimes used for food, ad considered by some as good. The flesh of the wolf and wildcat was only used when nothing else could be obtained. On difficulty with the pioneers was to procure salt which sold enormously high, at the rate of $ 4 for 50 pounds. In the backwoods currency, it would require four buckskins, or a large bear skin, or sixteen coon skins to make the purchase. Often it could not be had at any price, and then the only way to procure it was to pack a load of kettles on our horses to the Scioto salt lick, and boil the water themselves. Otherwise they had to forgo its use entirely. Then they cured their meat with strong hickory ashes. The law of kindness governed our social walks, and if such a disasterous thing as a quarrel broke out, the difficulty was settled by a strong dish of fistcuffs. No man was permitted to insult another without resentment; and an insult was permitted to pass unrevenged, the insulted party lost his standing and cast in society. It was seldom we had any preaching, but if a traveling minister came along and made an appointment, all would attend, the men in their hunting shirts with their guns. The first settlers were attacked with a skin disease which produced a terrible itching. All newcomers to the settlement became afflicted with this disease. It was attributed to the water. Sore eyes prevailed to a very great extent, and influenza was a frequent scourge in the early spring of each year. I was then believed to be caused by the melting of the snow in the mountains. Fevers prevailed along the river bottom and the valleys of the larger streams due to the rise of creek and river water , there being no wells, and to the decay of vegetable matter in the newly cleared lands. For this reason the highlands were occupied by the pioneer in preference to the rich bottoms which could be purchased at the same price per acre, as the uplands. The bloody flux prevailed at frequent periods in the very early settlement of the county, produced by bad water and excess use of green vegetables, and unripe fruit, especially wild plums which grew in great abundance in the bottoms of all the streams. There were few, if any, physicians in the early settlement. In cases of fractures, some one in the neighborhood more skilled than others did the setting and bandaging. Cuts and bruises were simply bound up and nature sis the rest. Cases of childbirth were attended by the elderly women of the vacinity. The ills of the children were colds, bowel complaint and worms; horehound, catnip and the worm-wood were the remedial agencies. Among the other standard roots and herbs were senna serpentaria virginia, tormentilla, stellae, valerian, podophillum peltatum ( may apple ), percoon, sasaparilla, yellow root, hydrastis canadensis, rattleweed, gentian, ginseng, magnolia ( wild cucumber ), prickly ash, spikenard, calamint, spearmint, pennyroyal, dogwood, wild ginger (coltsfoot), sumac and beech drop. In the early days of the country all classes used whiskey as medicine and beverage, " Old Monongahela double distilled" was a staple article. Old and young, men and women drank it, and there was but little drunkeness. After the settlements were in the interior, there were hundreds of little copper stills set up along the spring branches, and much of the grain grown was comsumed in making the " old Monongahela" or something just as good. The whiskey and brandy in those days had one recomendation- they were not adulterated. But even the appetite of some overcome their discretion, and they became sots and eyesores to the community. It took and early Methodist preacher to give his reason for not becoming a member of a Seceder congregation as he had seen one of the elders carried home drunk and at the next Sabbath he again saw him at the communion table. Of all the early prominent families, nearly all got a start in the world in the whiskey business, in either its distillation, or by keeping a tavern or grocery where the cheif souce of profits was from liquor sold. But then it was fashionable, and fashion rules the world. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ To be contiued in tid bits- part 48. -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V05 Issue #70 ******************************************