WAYNE COUNTY OHIO - "Arise Wild Land" by Lindsey Williams [Page 6] *************************************************************************** OHGENWEB NOTICE: All distribution rights to this electronic data are reserved by the submitter. Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted material will require the permission of the copyright owner. *************************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Beverly bevwayne@gte.net April 26, 1999 *************************************************************************** This information is from a copy of "Arise Wild Land" by Lindsey Williams, as related to Rittman and Sterling. Lindsey Williams was the newspaper editor/owner of the Rittman paper and he was President of the Historical Society there as well. All proceeds from the book went to the Historical Society. The publisher is Atkinson Printing in Wooster Oh. *************************************************************************** picture: Covered wagons brought first settlers. CHAPTER 2 FIRST SETTLERS The Northwest Territory beyond the Ohio River was ceded to the United States by the Treaty of Paris ending the Revolutionary War. Yet, U. S. sovereignty was stoutly resisted by both the British and Indians, allies in the recent conflict. General "Mad Anthony" Wayne had to be called from retirement to drive out the British and pacify the Indians. This he accomplished at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. He consolidated the victory with the Greenville Treaty the next year. The British withdrew to Canada, and the Indians were given $20,000 worth of trade goods immediately with a promise of $9,500 more each year. The Indians agreed to withdraw north of a line from Fort Recovery, Ohio in the west to Fort Laurens (Bolivar, Ohio) in the east. Nevertheless, the Indians continued to obstruct settlement with violence. To obtain a lasting peace, the government "extinguished" by purchase the Indians' claim to exclusive occupation of northern Ohio. The treaty of Fort Industry (now Toledo) in 1805 stipulated a payment of $4,000 immediately and $1,000 annually "forever hereafter" to be distributed among the various tribes in the area. In addition, the Indians were to be allowed to hunt and fish there "so long as they shall demean themselves peaceably." Signing for the Delawares was Chief Pappellelong, or Beaver Hat, who had his principal village on Apple Creek, near Wooster. The land thus acquired - between the Greenville Treaty line and the Connecticut Western Reserve boundary on the 41st parallel (now Rittman's northern city limit) - was thereafter known as the New Purchase. The U. S. government then began dividing the territory into townships and sections for sale to settlers at $2 per acre. An additional inducement to take up land in the wilderness was a five-year remission of taxes. The surveyor who laid out Milton and Chippewa townships in the summer of 1807 was Ezekiel Hoover who, interestingly, lived in Milton Township of Trumbull County. Several families from that place, including some Hoovers, moved here later. A land office was opened in Canton, and settlers began moving into the New Purchase slowly. The many Indians were troublesome. There was frequent friction over theft and general distrust by both sides over occasional killings. Chief Beaver Hat, for example, was a bitter enemy of the whites. When drunk he would flourish a tring of dried human tonques which he boasted were from 13 white victims. One day in 1810, while on a hunting trip along the Tuscarawas River near Clinton, Beaver Hat taunted a settler named George Harter with the gruesome trophy. Harter threatened the old Indian and was widely thought to have killed him inasmuch as Beaver Hat was never seen again. It was not until the War of 1812, when the last British agents gave up agitating the Indians, that settlers started to move west in numbers. They reached the rather isolated and swampy Milton Township in 1813. The land agent at Canton was Thomas Gibson. His records now are preserved in the state auditor's offce, Columbus. Land speculators, typically, were the first buyers of choice tracts, but they never cleared the land nor lived on it. The first to "take up" land in Milton Township were the Kiefer brothers from Somerset County, Pennsylvania. They bought adjoining farms south of the center swamp. They probably came through to Wooster on the wagon road from New Lisbon and then north on the War Path, widening it where necessary to get through. The first settlers north of the swamp, in what now is Rittman, were William Doyle of Jefferson County, Ohio, and John Coleman (Coolman) of Stark County, Ohio. Both took title to tracts July 23, 1814. It is believed they reached their new homes over the same trail-road later followed by Martin Fritz, previously described. Priority of ownership is considered significant, yet it would be unfair to attribute frontier initiative and courage to a single "path finder". Customarily a group of family and friends migrated together for safety and mutual assistance. Such was the case in Milton Township. Records indicate that eight families in each of the two settlement areas here bought their land within a month of their neighbors. It also is likely they arrived on the scene close together. Following are the first buyers as shown on land agent lists until 1816 when the land office was moved to Wooster: First Purchases in Southern Sections of Milton Township 1813 Oct 19 Stephen Harris, assigned to Michael Kiefer 1814 Nov 1 Michael Kiefer, Somerset Co., Pa Nov 10 Jacob Keifer, Somerset Co., Pa. Nov 12 Joseph Yoder, Somerset Co., Pa. David Stutzman, Somerset, Pa. Nov 27 Henry Harshbarger, Somerset, Pa. Dec 1 David Baughman, Mifflin Co., Pa. Andrew Shrock, Huntington Co., Pa. Stephen Yoder, Tuscarawas Co., Oh. Christian Garver, Stark Co., Oh. Dec 4 Isiah Bowen, Stark Co., Oh. 1814 Mar 9 Christian Garver Apr 5 Gardner Fulton, Fayette Co., Pa. Apr 7 George Vaneman, Stark Co., Oh. Apr 12 John Allison, Washington Co., Pa. Apr 16 George Miller, Washington Co., Pa. Thomas Hays, Washington Co., Pa. Apr 19 Andrew Waggoner, Westmoreland Co., Pa. Apr 21 James Wiley, Washington Co., Pa. May 2 John Grive, Wayne Co., Oh. May 19 Christian Yoder, Somerset Co., Pa. John Yoder, Somerset Co., Pa. May 23 Joseph Campbell, Franklin Co., Pa. George Miller June 21 David Stutsman, Mifflin Co., Pa. Sept. 22 Jacob Miller, Mifflin Co., Pa. Oct 28 Philip Hoff, Westmoreland Co., Pa. George Hoff, Westmoreland Co., Pa. Nov 2 David Allison, Washington Co., Pa. Samuel Slemons, Washington Co., Pa. Nov 3 Benjamin Jones, Union Co., Pa. Nov 4 Henry Kohn, Mifflinburgh, Pa. Michael & John Lincoln, Union Co. Nov 7 Jacob Fleckinger, Somerset Co., Pa. Nov 9 Stephen Fisher, Jefferson Co., Pa. Christopher Watkins, Steubenville, Oh. Dec 6 John Wiley, Washington Co., Pa.