History of Perry County, Ohio

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F 497.P4M38

History of Perry County, Ohio.

3 1924 011 492 505

^-^"^^^^

Entered According; to the Act of Congress
fn the Year 1902

BY CLEMENT L. MARTZOLFF

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress
at Washing^ton.

"A few moments before crossing the far-famed
battle field of Montmirail, I met a cart rather
strangely Irden; it 'was drawn by a horse and an ass,
and contained pans, kettles, old trunks, straw-bot-
tomed chairs, with a heap of old furniture. In front,
in a sort of basket, were three children, almost in a
state of nudity; behind, in another, were several hens.
The driver wore a blouse, was walking, and carried
a child on his back. A few steps from him was a
woman. They were all hastening toward Montmi-
rail, as if the great battle of 1814 were on the eve of
being fought.

I was informed, however, that this was not a
removal; it was an expatriation. It was not to Mont-
mirail they were going — it was to America. They
were not Hying to the sound of the trumpet of war —
they 'Mere hurrying from misery arid starvation. In a
word, it was a family of poor Alsatian peasants who
were emigrating. They could not obtain a living in
their native land, but had been promised one in Ohio."
— From Victor Hugo's "The Rhine."

To my Alsatian grandparents, paternal and maternal, who
were among the pioneers of Perry county, and who may have
been the ones seen by Victor Hugo, this volume is respect-
fully dedicated.

FOREWORD.

Apology for the existence of this book will not be hidden
under the multi-repeated quotation, "of the making of many-
books," etc., or the "filling of a long felt want."

It is written because the author "wanted" to write it.

It is being published because friends have generously
subscribed for it.

I believe that there is room for a small volume containing
in brief, the main facts concerning the history and industrial
development of this county.

We teach our children about happenings in remote ages,
in countries of which they know nothing, and allow the occur-
rences transpiring before them to pass by unnoted.

Every teacher can testify to the woeful ignorance of the
youth, as to local affairs, while every school examiner can
truthfully say the same about the teachers.

It is my belief that in this book has been collected much
that will prove a source of information and interest to many.
The subject is not in any manner exhausted. A vast amount
more could have been written, but the aim has been to ex-
clude all matter of secondary importance.

To acknowledge, individually, the assistance received from
friends, in the way of data, would require more space than
can be devoted to it. I am under the deepest obligation to
them, and but for their suggestion and aid this volume would
not have been possible.

Clement L. Martzolff.

New Lexington, Ohio, June 18, 1902.

CONTENTS.

PAGE.

Meridian Monuments 1

Drainage 1

Water Shed 3

Elevations Above Sea Level. 4

Buckeye Lake 4

Geological Divisions of the County 5

Drift Region 6

Lake Ohio 8

Pre-Glacial Drainage 8

Terraces ^ 10

Rocks of Perry County as to Structure 11

Vertical Section of Rocks of Perry County 16

Vertical Section of Sub-strata at New Lexington Depot. 16

Vertical Section of Strata at Moxahala 16

Vertical Section of Rocks at McCuneville 18

Generalized Section of Perry County Strata 19

Limestones 21

Fossils from the Maxville Limestone 22

Iron Ores 25

Coals 27

Buried Channels 29

Clays 30

Petroleum and Gas 30

Saltlicks 82

Lidey's Rocks 33

High Rocks 33

Bear Dens 33

Why Rush Creek Bottom is Flat 34

The Mastodon 35

Birds of Perry County 35

Animals 39

Forests 40

Big Sassafras 41

Pre-Historic Race 41

Children of the Forest 49

a. Buffalo Trails 50

VIII CONTENTS.

PAGE.

b. Monongahela Trail 50

c. Shawnee Run Trail 51

d. Flint Ridge Trail 52

e. Scioto Beaver Trail ^ 53

f. Moxahala Trail 53-

g. The Last Conflict 54

h. The White Man's Foot 57

i. The Last of His Race 58

y. Treaty of Fort Stanwix 58

Under the Banner of St. George 58

Under the Lilies of France 59

In the Province of Quebec 62

Boutetorst County 63

In the County of Illinois 63

First White Man in Perry County 64

Land Surveys - 65

Scioto Land Scheme 68

Zane's Trace 70

Refugee Tract 77

The Heroes of the Forest 78

The Evolution of Perry County 82-

Village Settlements 84

Organization of the Townships 93

Section Sixteen 96

Churches 98

a. Lutheran and Reformed 99

b. Presbyterians lOO

c. Dunkers 101

d. Baptists 101

e. Methodists 102

f. Bible Christians 103

g. Disciples '. 103

h. United Brethren 103

i. Mennonites 104

y. Catholics 104

Schools 107

a. Madison Academy 112'

b. St. Aloysius' Academy 11.3

Mills 113

Oil Works 114

CONTENTS. IX

PAGE.

The Old Salt Kettle 115

McCuneville Salt Works 115

Tobacco Houses 116

Lime Kilns 117

An Old Time Pottery 118

Blast Furnaces 119

Coal Mines '. 122

Oil Wells 123

The Inventor of the Revolver 124

Perry County in War 125

Perry County in Congress. . .• 129

The Removal of the County Seat 130

Public Buildings 133

Underground Railroad 135

Morgan's Raid 136

Population of Perry County 141

Constitutional Conventions 141

Col. James Taylor 142

Stephen Benton Elkins 144

The Knight of the Pen 146

o. Biography of MacGahan, by Judge M. W. Wolfe. 150

6. Funeral and Burial of MacGahan 159

c. The Article that Caused the Russo-Turko War. . . 163

d. Poem, by Col. Taylor ^ 170

Jeremiah M. Rusk 173

William Alexander Taylor 175

James M. Comley 178

Gen. Philip H. Sheridan 181

a. Sheridan's Ride 184

Rev. Father Zahm 189

Dr. Isaac Crook 188

The Oldest Woman in Perry County 191

Perry County's First Historian 192

Poem, "Beauty of Our Hills" 195

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE.

Portrait of Author Frontispiece

Lidey's Rock Opposite 32

The Big Sassafras " 32

The Stone Fort " 42

The Wilson Mound " 44

The Roberts Mound " 44

Earth Works , North of Glenford " 46

Flint Implements, One-fourth Size " 48

Hematite Objects, One-third Size " 48

Ceremonials, Gorgets, Banners, Stones, etc.. " 50

Pipes Attached to Antlers of Deer "' 52 '

An Indian Grist Mill " 52

A Scene on the Moxahala " 54

Where Ebenezer Zane is Buried • " 76

A Scene in New Lexington in 1873 " 86

Peter Overmeyer " 78

Old Lutheran Cemetery at Somerset " 98

An Old Time Meeting House " 98

Bishop Fenwick Discovering a Catholic Family

in Perry County " 104

The New Home in the Woods of Perry Co " 76

Church at Chapel Hill " 106

Old Stone Church " 106

Madison Academy " 112

Old Salt Kettle " 112

McCuneville Salt Works " 114

Old Tobacco House " 114

Remains of a Maxville Lime Kiln " 116

An Old Time Pottery " 116

A Ghost of Departed Industry — Baird Furnace. " 118

A Model Coal Mine — Congo " 118

Coal Tipple at Congo " 86

Power House at Congo " 122

In the Corning Oil Field " 122

Monument to 31st O. V. I., New Lexington. .. " 124

r

XII IHUSTRATIONS.

PAGE.

Old Court House at Somerset Opposite 134

Old Court House at New Lexington " 136

Old Temple of Justice — ^The New Court House. " 136

Old Perry County Infirmary " 138

A Station on the Underground " 138

Stephen B. Elkins " 144

The Knight of the Pen " 146

Birthplace of MacGahan " 158

The Resting Place of Bulgaria's Liberator " 158

A Grubber " 174

Jeremiah Rusk " 172

Where Uncle Jerry Rusk was Born " 174

Col. W. A. Taylor " 178

Gen. James M. Comley " 180

The Hero of Cedar Creek " 182

Early Home of General Sheridan " 186

Priest and Scientist — Father Zahm " 186

Catherine Cavinee " 190

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, OHIO.

Meridian Monuments.

Persons visiting the New Lexington Fair have no
doubt noticed the two granite monuments situated
about the middle of the grounds. Some have the idea
that they mark the geographical center of the county.
This is not the case. The westward one was planted
by Philander Binckley about thirty years ago, to cor-
respond to the true meridian. On account of the
variation of the magnetic pole, it was found necessary
in 1898 to again locate it. The County Commission-
ers contracted with John Avery to place the new monu-
ment.

He planted it at the south end of the line bearing
north 30 degrees, west, 627.8 feet distant from the
southeast corner of the southwest quarter of Section
No. 5, Tp. No. 15, Range No. 15.

The geographical latitude is 39 degrees, 44 min-
utes north. The geographical longitude is 5 degrees
and 1 1 minutes west from Washington. The variation
of the Magnetic Meridian from the True Meridian is
28 minutes to the north.

Drainage.

Buckeye Lake and three rivers receive the waters
of Perry county. These rivers are the Scioto, the
Muskingum and the Hocking. Walnut Creek, a tribu-
tary of the Scioto has one of its sources in the western
part of Thorn township. The Big Swamp originally
discharged its waters into the Licking river, and is

a HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

therefore a part of the Muskingum basin. The prin-
cipal stream emptying into Buckeye Lake is Honey
Creek. All four of the drainage systems, as far as
Perry county is concerned, have their sources in Thorn
township. Walnut Creek flows toward the west.
Honey Creek to the north. Jonathan or the Moxahala
to the east and Rushcreek to the south. Hopewell
township is drained by Jonathan and Rushcreek. Mad-
ison is drained by Jonathan. The principal tributaries
of north Jonathan Creek are Turkey Run and Buckeye
Creek in Clayton. The remainder of that township fur-
nishes the sources of small streams that flow into the
east branch of Rushcreek or the south fork of Jona-
than. The northeastern part of Reading is drained by
Hood's Run into the Moxahala. The western part is
-traversed by tributaries of Rushcreek, while the east
branch of Rushcreek gets the southern part. Harrison
-township is mostly in the basin of the south fork of the
Jonathan, as is Bearfield with the exception of the
south side where Sundaycreek has its origin. A branch
of Wolfe Creek, in Morgan county also rises in the
southeast of Bearfield. The east branch of Rushcreek
and the south fork of the Moxahala get the waters
of Pike. Jackson has many feeders for east Rush-
creek. Little Mondaycreek has its beginning in this
township at the Gordon Cross Roads, where the Lex-
ington and Logan road crosses the old Monongahela
Indian trail. Mondaycreek is aptly named. Both
streams of that name receive her entire drainage.
Big Mondaycreek and the west branch of Sunday-
creek get Saltlick's rainfall. Big Mondaycreek has
also a tributary in Coal. Indian Creek rises in the
•eastern part of that township and flows into Sunday-
<:reek over in Athens county. Pleasant throws her

HISTORY OF PERRY COL NTY. -i

waters into the south fork of the Moxahala and to
Sundaycreek. Monroe is entirely drained by the last
named stream.

Water Shed.

The Perry County Divide extends in an irregular
line from the northwest to the southeast. It begins
in Thorn township separating the streams that flow
into Buckeye Lake and Jonathan's Creek from Rush-
creek and Big Walnut. Somerset is situated on it.
Passing through Clayton township it sweeps to the
east toward McLuney. The C. & M. V. Tunnel cuts
it east of New Lexington. Then turning toward the
west again it completes a horse-shoe by circling south
of New Lexington. The T. & O. C. railroad tunnels
it about a mile south of the county seat. It continues
westward as far as Bristol. This place occupies the
summit of a ridge from wnich five streams have their
sources. — Turkey Run of Rushcreek, South Fork of
Jonathan, Little Mondaycreek, Big Mondaycreek and
a branch of Sundaycreek. The water-shed south
of Bristol turns toward the northeast, forming the
ridge between the South Fork of Jonathan and Sun-
daycreek. Passing south of Moxahala the T. & O. C.
R. R. has made through it the longest tunnel in
Perry county. The dividing ridge leaves the county
at Porterville. It is 114 miles long and passes through
nine townships : Thorn, Hopewell, Reading, Clayton,
Harrison, Pike, Saltlick, Pleasant and Bearfield. Its
average elevation is about 450 feet above Lake Erie
and about 1,000 feet above sea level.

4 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

Elevations Above Sea Level.

Feet.

Corning, Depot ""^'i

McLuney, Depot 905

Moxahala, Depot 821

New Lexington. Depot 856

New Lexington Court House 946

New Straitsville, Depot 792

Rendville, Depot 742

Summit LaRue's Gap, Shawnee 909

Somerset, Court House 1 , 159

j\[axville. Limestone 776

Roseville. Depot 783

Gore (near county line) 703

Monday Creek Station (on county line 689

Winona Furnace (on county line) 743

Great Coal Vein at New Straitsville 870

Buckeye Lake.

Buckeye Lake, formerly known as Licking Reser-
voir, is the only body of water of which our county
can boast. It now contains about thirty-six hundred
acres. It is partly natural and partly artificial. The
natural part consisted of three or four little lakes of
pure clear water, well stocked with fish. Situated as
it is along the line of the Terminal Moraine, there is
no doubt that it is the result of the great ice sheet
that came down from Canada long ago.

When Christopher Gist encamped upon its shores
in 175 1, he named it the Buflfalo Lick, or the Great
Swamp. The first settlers, about the year 1800, found
wild plums and red thorn-berries growing along its
shores in profusion. The center of the original lake
was quite deep with a cranberry island floating upon
its surface.

In the year 1825, when the Ohio Canal was dug,
quite a good deal of the surrounding land was flooded

HISTORV OF PIIRRV COLXTY.

to enlarge the lake that it might become a feeder to
the canal. At Millersport is what is known as the
'■('cep cut." It is about three miles long.

Buckeye Lake is one of the prettiest little sheets
of water in the State. Its banks are shaded with trees
that bend over it. and its placid surface, glinting in
the sunlight, is a pleasing contrast to the "rock ribbed"
hills. Here the Isaac Waltons and the Ximrods dis-
port themselves and the man can leave the harass-
ment? of business and hie himself to this little "Touch
of Nature," and lull himself into sweet forgetfulness.

Geological Divisions.

The great line extending throughout the State
from north to south and dividing the Carboniferous
from the Sub-carboniferous regions, passes in an
irregular path through a portion of our county. It
strikes our count}' near the Hopewell-Thorn boundary
and its course is approximately south till it reaches
tho northwest comer of Jackson. Here it sweeps
north, east and then south. Junction City is its east-
ern extremity. It then continues in a southwesterly
direction leaving- the county at the southwest corner
of Section i8 in Jackson to^^'nship. East of this line
are found the coal measures. Xone are found west
of it.

Our strata rise to the northwest at the rate of
about thirty feet to the mile. It follows then that
rock lying three hundred feet beneath the surface at
a given elevation in the southeast of the county,
would appear on the surface, at the same elevation,
ten miles northwest. For example, ^NlcCuneville and
^laxville ha^e aoproximateh' the same altitude. At
i\I:Cuneville the Sub-carboniferous or ^laxville lime-

G HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

Stone, is one hundred and ten feet beneath the creek
bed-. At ]\Iaxville the lime appears in the bed of the
creek.

The Sub-carboniferous lime as its name implies
underlies all our coal measures. When the Maxville
lime makes its appearance on the tops of the hills, it
is useless to look for coal there. So, the line we have
described, theoretically marks the out-crop of the Sub-
carboniferous lime on the tops of our hills. (See
Map.)

Drift Region.

Our county may also be divided into two other
geological divisions, viz: the Glaciated or Drift Re-
gion and the Non-glaciated. North of the Great Lakes
is the Laurentian Highland. This highland was once
a lofty range of mountains. It was then, with them,
just as it is with high mountains today. On their
snow-capped summits, ice was formed and it pitched
in frightful avalanches to the valleys below, carrying
with it masses of rock, from their deep scarred sides.
Glaciers, or river-like fields of ice were thus pushed
out further and further toward the southland, taking
with them the granite, which they ground and pol-
ished with their tremendous weight. This vast river
of ice passed, in many places over the soft bed-rock
and we can yet see the grooves and scratches on its
surface.

The climate must have been somewhat cooler in
that time, than now, or the glacial sheet could not have
come so far south. But finally it reached a point where
it began to melt. As it receded toward the north, it
left scattered over the land, millions upon millions of
tons of granite boulders, many of immense size, peb-
bles and earth. The pebbles and earth mixed with

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 7

lime and other rock gathered in its journey, constitutes
the soil in the entire "Drift Region." It is very fer-
tile and is known as "Till."

The line marking the southern extremity of the ice
region is known as the "Terminal Moraine." It ex-
tends in a general easterly and westerly direction
throughout the United States. In Ohio its trend is
northeast and southwest. This "Terminal Moraine"
passes through Perry county. In Thorn township cari
be found evidences of the ice. The boulders or "nig-
ger heads" can be found lying promiscuously about.
The fertility of its soil is dependent upon the "till,"
which is often found to be 90 feet in thickness.

It is a coincidence that the "Terminal Moraine" in
Perry county is practically the same line that divides
the Carboniferous from the Sub-carboniferous areas.
(See Map.) There are some exceptions and these
have been designated as "drift loops." (See Map),
These "loops" may have been caused by subsequent
erosion and drifting of streams. There is no doubt
but that our streams have not always had the same
course that they have now. The "Drift" extended
much farther in Perry county than most people sup-
pose. The finding of a granite boulder, weighing al-
most a ton, in Section 16, Jackson township occasioned
some surprise. Such a rock could not have been car-
ried by water.

This Ice Sheet scraped out the Great Lakes, to-
gether with the thousands of smaller ones in the north-
ern part of the United States. The natural part of
Piucke\e Lake is a remnant of the weakened power of
the glacier. What a pity that the ice did not cover
all of Perry coimt}-. Its fertility throughout would
then have been equal to Thorn township.

O HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

Lake Ohio.

Prof. G. Frederick Wright, Oberlin, O., who has
obtained a world-wide reputation, as authority on gla-
cial phenomena, says that at one time, when the ice
began breakingf, it formed a dam at Cincinnati, to the
height of about 550 feet. This would cause the water
to back up the trough of the Ohio and its tributaries,
to the height of the dam. It is estimated that this dam
covered an area of 20,000 square miles. During the
summer months the dam would break and the floods
would sweep down the valley with terrible velocity.
It is interesting to note that the northern tributaries
of the Ohio have their sources in the glaciated region.
This accounts for the presence of glacial pebbles along
many of our streams, beyond the ice covered tract.
There are evidences of streams that then existed and
poured a vast volume of water and deposited "till" on
their ancient shores. The channels of these old
streams are now known as "gaps." This Lake Ohio
extended into Perry county. Prof. Wright's map
marks Logan as the northern limit of the lake, on the
Hocking river. Judginp^ from this level, the lake
reached to Maxville on Little Mondaycreek, to near
Shawnee and McLuneville on Big Mondaycreek, and
to Corning on Sundaycreek. It must have backed up
a considerable distance 'on Jonathan's Creek, at least
to the Perry county line.

Pre-Glacial Drainage.

By George W. DeLong.

Scientists have found much evidence that the pre-
glacial drainage of a large portion of the state of
Ohio was very different from its present drainage.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. U

For our present discussion we need to note only a few
of these changes. There seems to be very good reasons
to believe that the Muskingum river flowed from Dres-
den by way of Hanover, Newark, the Licking Reser-
voir and Thurston, and joined the Scioto north of
Circleville.

The Hocking river flowed north from Rock-bridge,
Hocking county, and joined the Muskingum near
Canal Winchester. Northern Perry county was in-
cluded in this pre-glacial drainage area.

All the upper streams of the North Branch of the
Moxahala. including Turkey Run flowed to the north-
west and discharged their waters into the Muskingum
at some point near the present Licking Reservoir.

The South Branch of felie Moxahala, which was
joined by Bucke}e Creek at Darlington, flowed along
the present line of the C. & ^L V. R. R., from that
point to Zanesville. and, having joined its waters with
that of the Licking river, united with the Muskingum
at some point north or west of Zanesville. The differ-
ent branches of Rushcreek flowed approximately along
their present courses and joined the Hocking near
Lancaster.

When the great ice-sheet came down from the
north, carrying with it a large amount of drift and
till, the streams described above were dammed up in
their courses and lakes formed at Zanesville, in Thorn
and Hopewell townships in Perry county, and at Lan-
caster.

The waters of the Lake at Lancaster found an out-
let over the low ridge at Rock-bridge and joined the
southern half of the Hocking.

The lake at Zanesville found an outlet in the low

10 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

ridgfe near the Muskingum and Morgan county lines
and thus turned this stream to the south.

The lake in northern Perry county found an outlet
in the low ridge east of Mt. Perry and having united
with Buckeye Creek at Fultonham joined the south
branch at Darlington and this formed the present
Moxahala River which drains so large a portion of
Perry county.

The Moxahala turned to the east at Darlington
and after cutting its way through the hills, joined the
Muskingum some miles below Zanesville. In time the
outlets of these lakes cut canons in the ridges over
which they flowed and thus the lakes were drained.

Terraces.

We quote from Prof. G. Frederick Wright, Ober-
lin. "Ahiiost without exception, the streams flowing
southward from the glaciated area show marks of
former floods from fifty to a hundred feet higher
than any which now occur. Gravel deposits from
fifty to a hundred feet higher than the present flood
plain, line the valley of everyone of these streams,
riot only where they lie in the glaciated region, but
through much of their course after they have emerged
from the glaciated into the unglaciated region.'' This
can be noticed in Thorn township, along the valley of
Jonathan Creek. Has anybody in Thorn township
ever noticed it? It is in these terraces that the so-
called palaeolithic implements have been found, which
show that man lived here before the ice came. Gold
is often found in these terraces. It is called "Drift
Gold." Some of it was discovered along the Licking
river several years ago.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 11

Rocks of Perry County as to Structure.

1. Massive Rock. As Granite.

2. Crystalline Rock. As Flint.

3. Stratified Rock. As Sandstone or Shale.

4. Fossiliferous Rock. As Limestone.

5. Sedimentary Rock. As Sandstone.

6. Conglomerate Rock. Pebbles cemented to-
gether.

7. Decomposed Rock. Crumbled.

8. Concretionary Rock. As kidney iron ore.

Massive rocks are such as have been produced from
within the crust of the earth in a molten condition.
Most of them consist of two or more minerals. Their
chemical constituents are silica, magnesia, lime, potash,
soda, magnetic iron and phospate of lime. Igneous
or Eruptive, is another name for massive rocks.

The granite found in the drift region, is a repre-
sentative of the massive rock inTPerry county.

Crystalline rocks are those that are formed mainly
by chemical deposits. They are frequently found in-
terstratified with other kinds. They are being formed
constantly by mineral springs, or in the bottom of in-
land seas and lakes. The most common Crystalline
rock in Perry county is Flint or Chert.

Stratified Rocks are such as lie in layers one over
the other. Perry county rocks are all classed among^
the stratified except those brought in by the ice sheet.
The strata of the county lie in much the same way as
they did when they were deposited on the old sea floor
or the bed of the inland sea. They have not been dis-
turbed by orogenic agencies and the faults that may be
found by borings can be accounted for, in other ways.

Fossiliferous Rocks contain fossils. The word

12 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

"fossil" etymologically means "dug up." For many
years it included any mineral substance, but its mean-
ing is now restricted to include the remains of plants
and animals preserved in rocks. Our Fossiliferous
Rocks are shales and limestones.

Fossils are formed by the decay of animal cells and
the mineral constituent taking the place of the organic
matter. Our limestones are particularly fertile in fos-
sils. They consist of shells of various forms of sub-
marine life. Our shales have also an abundance of
fossils. The imprint of leaves and stems of trees are
especially plentiful. Somjctimes the track of a bird is
found. Even sandstone contains them in places. They
do not occur frequently, however, as there is not suf-
ficient plastic material in sandstone to hold the fossil
intact. The writer is the possessor of a beautiful fossil
in sandrock. It contains four fern leaves. Even the
midrib is plainly visible. The fossils found in the
coal measures of the county are best known. Many
beautiful specimens have been discovered. Impressions
of fern leaves, branches and trunks of trees, are of
frequent occurrence. They are mostly to be found
in the slate over the coal. In the shales that often
accompany some of the lighter coal measures of the
county may be found excellent fossils of plant life.
About a mile east of Junction City the writer found
the fossiliferous stem of a plant, fifteen feet in length
and was not able to get it all for the road workers had
destroyed some of it. The Junction City High School
pupils afterward found another one, a part of which
they placed in their cabinet of collections. Another
Perry county fossil is yet to be mentioned. But it is
an alien. It was brought in by the glacial drift. Scat-
tered throughout the drift region, especially in the

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. IB

northern part of the county, along the terraces of Jon-
athan Creek are found numerous remains of coral
formations. Some of them are very beautiful, but
they are mostly small fragments.

Outside of the drift, the Perry county rocks are
mostly sedimentary. The limestones were formed by
the siftings of organic matter to the bottom of the an-
cient ocean. The sandstones, likewise rose from the
sea, formed by the small particles of sand that settled
from above. **

The Conglomerates consist of pebbles, cemented to-
gether. By silicious matter mixing with them and by
pressure, they were crowded into a compact mass.
Conglomerates are found in abundance south of Glen-
ford at the Old Stone Fort.

The geologist Heilprin tells an interesting story
of how a friend of his, an old sea captain, had sent him
a bolt, that had no doubt come from a wrecked vessel.
The bolt having been buried in the sand, the rust from
the iron acted as a cement to the small pebbles about it.
A sheath of pebbles was thus formed and the bolt
could be slipped in and out of its pebbly sheath with
ease. This explains the process of making conglom-
erates, or "pudding stone" as it is sometimes called^

Decomposed Rocks. — All our rocks are to a great-
er or less extent decomposed. The process of decom-
position is constantly going on. The mechanical action
of water, the alternate contraction and expansion of
particles of rock, and the work of the frost, are the
silent laborers in the disintegration of the rock masses.
The presence of iron in a great many of our native
rocks is one of the surest methods of decomposition.
The oxidation of iron in the sand rocks and shales of
Perry county has done as much in tearing down its

14 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

hills after the water had exposed their sides, as any
other agency. Some of our rocks were never
solid ; especially is this true of the shales. They, con-
taining little or no sand, had not sufficient weight in
themselves to become compact. Containing very little
plastic material that could cement them, they are very
easily eroded. They are altogether of the nature of
decayed wood. In Pleasant, Bearfield and Monroe
townships, especially in the latter, we find quite a num-
ber of hills that are capped with shale deposits. Some-
times we find on ridges, the remnants of these old
shale beds standing oyt by themselves. All has been
eroded except a small part which may easily be mis-
taken for an artificial earthwork.

Concretions are plenti-ful among the sedimentary
rocks. The Concretionary Rocks of Perry county are
mostly of the iron ore variety, although concretions of
clay and limestone may also be found. These forma-
tions were caused by the collection of a mineral around
a center. They assume different shapes, usually spher-
ical or elliptical. They are dispersed irregularly
through other strata.

Ferruginous or iron nodules are frequently found
in clay. They form quite often about some organic
body, such as a fragment of plant, shell or bone. The
writer, accompanied by his pupils, on a Geological
Field Day, found an excellent specimen of iron nodule,
about a mile south of Junction City. In the bed of a
stream was found a stratum of pure clay or soapstone,
The appearance of a circular rock of a different color,
upon the surface of the white stone attracted instant
attention. The clay stone being soft, it was an easy
matter to remove it from the concretion, for such it
proved to be. Upon removal it was found to be some

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 15

six inches long, about two and one-half inches in dia-
meter at one end, gradually tapering toward the other
The center of it looked like the heart of a tree. The
conclusion was that when the clay stone was softer, a
branch of wood lodged in it. As the wood decayed,
particles of iron, percolating through the soap stone
would take the place of the wood cells, until finally the
iron had completely substituted itself. It was in real-
ity an iron fossil. We were further convinced of the
truth of our conclusion by finding a six-inch vein of
the purest iron ore in the bank about three feet above
the clay stratum. These iron concretions are some-
times known as "kidney ore" from their shape. Upon
breaking them, open, a hollow center is found, usually
containing a little clay dust. In these cases the center
around Avhich the concretions were made, has decayed,
and as they are formed by building layer upon layer
from the outside, the original becomes a cavity. The
iron nodule referred to above was not formed that way,
It built toward the center. The incasement of the
wood by the clay prevented the concentric layers from
being laid upon it from the outside. The bark of the
wood would decay first. Its cells would be filled by
the iron. The ferruginous material, always being
present, would enter the wood from above. The
harder center decayed more slowly and only the finer
particles of iron could find lodgment there and conse-
quently the branch of the tree was almost perfectly
reproduced.

16 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

Vertical Section of Rocks of Perry County.

2. Glacial Drift.
I. Carboniferous.

6. Upper Barren Coal Measures.

5. Upper Productive Coal Measures.

4. Lower Barren Coal Pleasures.

3. Lower Productive Coal Measures

2. Conglomerate Series.

I. Subcatboniferous Limestone.

Vertical Section of Sub-Strata at New Lexington
Depot.

Alluvial, 16 feet.
Black Flint, 16-3.5.
Black Clay, 19.5-3.5.
Limestone, 23-10.
White Clay, 33-92.
White Sand, 125-15.
Black Shale, 140-100.
Sand, 240-12.
Shale, 252-38.
Sand, Salt, Course, 290-55.
White sand, fine, 345-200.
Gray sand, medium, 545-5.
Shale, 550-300.
Brown shale, 850-33.
Berea sand, 883-28.
Bedford shale, 911.
(Courtesy, E. W. Dean).

Section of Strata at Moxahala.

42. Coal. (70).

41. Fire clay and shale.

40. Limestone.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 17

39. Sandy shale.

38. Limestone.

37. Fire clay, shale and iron.

36. Sand rock.

35. Fire clay.

34. Sand rock.

33. Shale.

32. Iron ore (Iron Point).

31 Fire clay.

30. Sand rock.

29. Shale iron ore.

28. Coal (Stallsmith) (Upper Freeport) (6
and 7).

27. Fire clay (Upper Freeport or Bolivar clay).

26. Sand rock.

25. Iron ore ("Sour Apple"), Limestone shales,
(Upper Freeport or Buchtel Ore).

24. Coal (Norris) (6a) (Lower Freeport).

23. Fire clay with iron ore (Lower Freeport
Limestone).

22. Sand rock.

21. White shale.

20. Sand rock.

19. Shale, with ore (Lower Freeport Sandstone).

18. Coal, Great Vein (Middle (Upper) Kit-
tanning) (Upper New Lexington).

17. Fire clay and sand rock.

16. Iron ore (Phosphorous Ore of Hamden
Furnace) .

15. Sandy shale.

14. Fire clay.

13. Coal, "Lower Moxahala" (No. 5) (Lower
New Lexington).

2 H. p. c.

18 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

12. Fire clay and sand rock (Kittanning sand-
stone and clay).

11. Ore (Ferriferous Limestone) (Baird Ore).

10. Sandy shale.
9. Fire clay.

8. Sandy shale.

7. Sand rock.

6. Shale.

5. Coal.

4. Sandstone and shale.

3. Cherty limestone and coal.

2. Sandstone and shale.

I. Coal.
The Vertical Diststeice through which these strata
pass is about 350 feet. — Ohio Geological Report.
{The parentheses are the authors).

Section of Rock at McCuneville.

(Including Surface Horizons and the Strata Disclosed
by Borings for Salt.)

18. Shales and sandstones.

17. Iron ore.

16. Sandy shale.

15. Limestone capped with ore.

] 14. Sandy shale.

13. Coal.

12. Sandstone and shale.

1 1 . Coal.

10. Shale and sandstotie.

9. Coal No. 6, Great Vein (Middle (Upper)
iCittanning) (Upper New Lexington).

8. Shales with iron ore.

7. Coal with ore below.

6. Sandy shale or sandstone.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 19

5-

Shell ore lo feet below coal.

4-

Iron ore.

3-

Coal.

2.

Shales and sandstone.

I.

Coal.

o.

Blue limestone with ore.

I.

Shales.

2.

Coal.

3-

Shales.

' 4-

Coal.

5-

Sandy Shales.

6.

Maxville Limestone.

7-

Sandstone and shale, with salt water.

8.

Shale.

9-

Black Shale.

ID.

White sandstone.

II.

Salt water in Waverly Sandstone.

12.

Red shale.

13-

Gray sand-rock.

14.

-Dark shale.

15-

Hard shale.

The

Vertical Section of Surface Horizons

IS

about 300 feet.

The depths of the wells were about 900 feet.

The Maxville Limestone is no feet, below the
surface.

The Great Coal Vein is 150 feet above the surface
of wells. — Ohio Geological Report.

Generalized Section of Perry County Strata.

43. Fresh Water Limestone (Ferrell's Hill).
42. Ames Limestone — Found on tops of hills in
Bearfield and Monroe.

41. Evving Limestone or iron ore.

20 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

40. Patriot Coal.

39. Cambridge Limestone — on the hill above
Crooksville .

38. Upper Mahoning Sandstone.

37. Coal (No. ya) — traceable on tops of hills in
eastern part of county (Mahoning Coal).

36. Mahoning sandstone and shale.

35. Iron Point Ore.

34. Shales.

33. Upper Freeport Coal (Stallsmith) (Workable
at Hamburg) (No. 7).

32. Upper Freeport or Bolivar Clay.

31. Upper Freeport Limestone or Buchtel Ore.
(Shawnee), (Sour Apple).

30. Lower Freeport Coal (6a) (Norris).

29. Lower Freeport Limestone.

28. Lower Freeport Sandstone.

27. Middle (Upper) Kittanning — Great Coal
Vein — Upper New Lexington — No. 6.

26. Fire Clay and Sand rock.

25. Phosphorous Ore of Hamden Furnace.

24. Sand Shale.

23. Lower Kittanning Coal (No. 5) (Lower New
Lexington) (Lower Moxahala) (Mined at Redfield).

22. Kittanning Clay and Sandrock.

21. Ore (Ferriferous Limestone) (Baird Ore)
(Clarion Coal, sometimes wanting) (4a).

20. Shales and Clay.

19. Putnam Hill Limestone (Flint Beds at New
Lexington). ,

18. Brookville Coal (Tracings found in drill-
ing) (4).

17. Shale and Clay.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 21

1 6. Tionesta Coal (Cannel Coal of Monday
creek).

15. Tionesta Clay (Worked at Roseville).

14. Upper Mercer Ore and Limestone.

13. Upper Mercer Coal (3a).

12. Upper iMercer Clay.

II. Sandstone or Shale.

ID. Lower Mercer Ore and Limestone.

9. Lower Mercer Coal (Seen on hill at Junction
City) (3).

8. Lower fiercer Clay.

7. Block Ore of Junction City.

6. Massilon Sandstone and Shale.

5. Quakertown Coal (Found in Mondaycreek
north of Maxville).

4. Sandstone.

3. Sharon Coal.

2. Conglomerate.

I. Sub-Carboniferous Limestone (Maxville).
(Courtesy, S. W. Pasco).

Limestones.

The geological basis of Perry county is the Sub-
carboniferous or Maxville Lime. The geological apex
is the Ames Limestone that is found on the tops of the
hills in Bearfield and Monroe townships. In all, our
county carries six principal limestones. In the order
of their ascending scale they are :

1. The Maxville (white).

2. Zoar (blue).

3. Hanging Rock (gray).

4. Shawnee (buff).

5. Cambridge (black).

6. Ames (crinoidal).

22 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

There are several accessory seams but they are un-
important.

But little is known of the Maxville Lime. It shows
in but a few isolated patches, and its appearance is
varied in the different exposures. The Maxville ex-
posure, however, is the most characteristic. It is of a
white or li?ht drab color, very fine grained and breaks
with a conchoidal fracture, which makes it valuable
for lithographic stone. It contains ninety per cent,
carbonate of lime and can therefore be utilized for
plaster and furnace flux. It is a stratum of about ten
feet and lies exposed in the bed of the creek. It has
been used for plastering purposes for over half a cent-
ury. (See Lime Kilns).

When Baird Furnace was built, the lime from Max-
ville was hauled a distance of three miles, where it was
used as flux for the furnace. The Maxville deposit is
not rich in fossils, but when found they are usually
very fine specimens. The sub-carboniferous Lime has
also been quarried in Reading township near the Mays-
ville pike. It is also found at Fultonham.

LIST OF FOSSILS FROM THE MAXVILLE LIMESTONE.

1. Zaphrentis. A small, undetermined, curved,
conical species.

2. Scaphiocrinus decadactylus.

3. Productus pileiformis.

4. Productus elegans.

5. Chonetes. Undetermined species.

6. Atliyris subquadrata.

7. Athyris trinuclea.

8. Spirifer (]\Iartinia) contractus.

9. Spirifer. L^ndetermined fragments of perhaps
two species.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 23

10. Terebratula. An undetermined, small, oval
species, showing the fine punctures under a lens.

11. Aviculopecten. Undetermined species.

12. Allorisma. Undetermined fragments, appar-
ently like A. antiqua.

13. Naticopsis. A small undetermined species.

14. Straparollus perspectivus.

15. Bellerophon sublaevis.

16. Pleurotomaria. A small, undetermined cast.

17. Nautilus. A small, undetermined, compressed,
discoidal species, with very narrow periphery trun-
cated.

18. Nautilus. A large, sub-discoid, undetermined
species, with an open umbilicus, and only slightly em-
bracing volutions, that are somewhat wider trans-
versely than dorso-ventrally, and provided with a row
of obscure nodes around, near the middle of each side.

The writer, in company with Supt. DeLong, in the
summer of 1901, found an excellent specimen of the
last named fossil, at Maxville.

About a hundred feet above the Maxville stratum
is the very persistent horizon of the Zoar or the Blue
Limestone. It has an average thickness of about three
feet. It is not so compact as is that at Maxville and
it weathers readily. It is of no use as a building stone
and it is so rich in silica, that it cannot be utilized for
furnace flux. In fact its silicious tendency is often so
great that it is known as flint. It is highly fossilifer-
ous and carries with it a great amount of iron. Where
the iron predominates it has been mined for iron ore.
This was the case at Junction Cit)'. where it was known
as "block-ore." Its horizon is in the valley below Baird
Furnace, from where it was first taken for flux. As it

24 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

proved a failure for that purpose, it was subsequently
mined as block-ore and its iron extracted.

The Hanging Rock or Gray Limestone is found
throughout the southern part of the county, at least
as far north as Bristol. Throughout the remainder,
of the county, it is represented by the Putnam Hill
Limestone, which is quarried at New Lexington under
the name of Flint or Chert. This lime is highly fer-
riferous, and in many places is known as iron ore.
Where it appears as such it has been designated as the
Baird Ore and it is what was used at Baird Furnace
and at others of the smelting works near the Perry
county line. It lies about one hundred and ten feet
above the Zoar Lime and is quite persistent. We find
its horizon at McCuneville where it is denominated
"bastard lime."

Something over a hundred feet above the Gray
Limestone we find the Buff, Shawnee or Upper Free-
port. It is rich in carbon and was therefore used as
a flux in the Shawnee furnaces. It is only a few feet
in thickness, is non-fossiliferous, and carries several
accessory seams which are better known as iron ores.

The Cambridge Limestone is a fossiliferous stra-
tum of about two feet. It is often known as flint and
this is especially true in our county. It is found in the
eastern townships and its most westward outcrop is
north of Rehoboth in Clayton township. It was this
lime that was used in paving the streets of Crooksville.

The Ames Limestone almost misses Perry county.
In the extreme eastern part we find it only on the very
tops of the highest hills. It is highly fossiliferous,
consisting mostly of crinoid stems. It is from this
fact that it is called by geologists "crinoidal lime-
stone."

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 25

Iron Ores.

With the exception of the Ames Limestone, each
of the six strata mentioned in the foregoing, carries
with it an iron ore. In fact iron often substitutes itself
for the lime. There are, however, some other seams
of iron ore in the county, since we have not less than
fourteen well recognized strata.

The first one we find in the scale is at Maxville,
where it lies over the Sub-carboniferous Lime. The
same stratum can be found in the same relative posi-
tion in Reading and ^ladison townships. This ore is
known as the ^laxville Block.

Lying about fifteen feet below the Zoar Limestone
is found the Lower Main Block Ore. This was mined
extensively at Junction Cit}-.

Just over the Zoar Limestone is a seam that is
always present but at times so thin that it is not work-
able. It is the most widely distributed ore of the
Hanging Rock District. Its name is the Main Block
Ore.

About thirty feet above the latter can be found a
valueless vein in the most of our hills. It is sometimes
called the Rough Block Ore.

From ten to twenty feet above the last named, an-
other Block Ore occurs. It is carried by the Gore
Limestone, an accessory of the Zoar. We find this
seam in the extreme south of the county. At Mc-
Luneville the lime with it is almost an ore in itself,
since it contains twentv per cent metallic iron.

Tliirt}" feet higher in the scale, in the south of the
county, is the vein that corresponds to the Putnam Hill
Limestone at Xew Lexington. At the latter place

26 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

about ten feet below the Lime is a kidney ore which
is its accessory.

The next vein is the Limestone Kidney Ore. It
can be found at McCuneville in connection with a lime,
wnence its name.

The most important of all our ores comes next.
It rests upon the Hanging Rock Limestone. It is bet-
ter known, however, as the Baird Ore. It was the one
most generally used, since at one time, more than sixty
furnaces in southern Ohio utilized it.

Above this is the Black Kidney which is not always
present. It occurs in patches and is of little value in
our county.

Passing above the Great Coal Seam and closely
connected with the Norris Lime is an ore by the same
name.

Thirty feet in ascent brings us to the ore invested
with the Shawnee Limestone. It has been mined
extensively at New Straitsville, and has received its
name therefrom.

The Sour Apple Ore received a Perry County ap-
pellation because of the presence of an apple tree near
its outcrop in the neighborhood of Moxahala. It was
laden with luscious looking fruit, but the members of
the Geological Survey were somewhat disappointed
when they tested it.

The greatest of all our ore deposits is the one that
lies about one hundred and fifteen feet above the Great
Coal Seam. Its general name is the Black Band. It
is locally named the Iron Point or the Bowman Hill
Ore. It was mined at Bristol, Moxahala, and also
on the Hone farm east of New Lexington. Its aver-
age thickness was found to be from three to five feet.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 27

In many places it showed a frontage of seven and eight
feet.

There are a few unimportant strata in connection
with the Cambridge Lime. They are for the most part
valueless in our county.

Coals.

The lowest coal measure in our county is the
Sharon, overlying the conglomerate of the Sub-car-
boniferous Limestone. Its outcrop can be seen in the
bed of Mondaycreek, northeast of Maxville. It is usu-
ally a thin vein but in Section 14, Hopewell township,
there is a small area that can be mined. It must be
remembered that the Maxville Limestone can be seen
topping the hill above Glenford on the farm of Plum
Reed.

The Quakertown is the next seam in the ascending
scale. It lies about fifty feet above the Sharon and is
very thin. It can be seen in the ravines of western
Mondaycreek and Jackson townships. At times it has
been found to be two feet in thickness and farmers
have quarried it.

Connected with the Lower Mercer Limestone is a
thin stratum of coal which has received the same name.
It is less than a foot thick.

Above this is the Upper Mercer which is known in
many places as the " 16-inch vein."

The Tionesta Coal (3b) is found on Coalbrook in
Mondaycreek where it has been known for years as
Cannel Coal. It is rich in oil and has a thickness of
two feet. The outcrops of this coal are also found
throughout southern Jackson.

Twenty feet above the Putnam Hill Limestone is a
vein often wanting. It is from eighteen to twenty-two

28 HISrORY OF PERRY COIXTY.

inches thick and of a good quality. In the clay bank
at the New Lexington Brick Plant and several miles
north of this point the horizon is plainly shown. It
lies beneath the Ferriferous or Baird Ore. In the ore
diggings in Mondaycreek it was often found.

We now come to the workable coal measures. The
Lower Kittanning may be considered the base of such
coals. It is known by different names — No. 5, Lower
New Lexington, and Lower Moxahala. It has been
mined at New Lexington and is now mined at Nugent-
ville and Redfield. At Bristol Tunnel it was worked
in the same hiH with the No. 6 above it, and was loaded
over the same tipples. It is about four feet thick and
is a valuable steam coal.

The most general coal and the one most valuable
is the Great Coal Vein or Middle (Upper) Kittanning.
This is the seam mined at Shawnee, New Straitsville,
Congo and Baird Furnace, where its thickness is from
ten to fourteen feet. At Dicksonton, McCuneville,
McLuney and along the C, S. & H. R. R. in Bearfield
township it is only about four feet. It is known too
as the Upper New Lexington.

In many places, about fifty feet above the Great
Vein, is often found the mere tracings of a seam. It
is the Lower Freeport or 6a. In Perry county it is
locally known as the Norris Coal, because it was for-
merly mined at Millertown by a man of that narne.
It often reaches a maximum thickness of six feet but
it usually is much less.

The Upper Freeport Coal is not known in the
western or northern part of the- county. It is a seam
of about five feet and is mined at Hamburg. Its local
name is the Stallsmith. Its rank in the series of coals
is No. 7.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 29

On the tops of the hills in the southeastern part of
the county is often noticed a thin streaking of coal
"blossom." It is the horizon of Coal No. "ja. This is
the highest of the coal strata in the county. This seam
was once mined near Chapel Hill under the name of
the "patriot coal."

Buried Channels.

The Ohio strata of rocks are usually persistent.
There have been no orological convulsions to twist the
strata from where they were originally deposited. The
general dip to the south east is regular. Any departure
from the established method is apt to cause consider-
able conjecture. Borings for coal have revealed the
fact that often it is absent or very thin. The cause of
this is, in many cases, the presence of an ancient chan-
nel, now buried under the silt of subsequent ages.
^^'^hen the water poured through these channels, just
after the Carboniferous Age, it eroded through the
coal measure and carried it away, just as our streams
are doing to-day. In the course of time these chan-
nels were filled with gravel and sand — by the setting
back of the water in them and the stopping of their
currents. All through southern Ohio there is ample
evidence of these ancient water courses, showing that
they are continuous and connected, forming a system
of drainage. The Muskingum River runs in a' great
measure over such a buried channel. This has been
discovered by building dams in the river. Our county
has such a water course. The diagram on the map
shows its approximate course, without its tributaries.
Many tracts of land where coal was supposed to exist
have been found to be utterly destitute of that mineral.
The miners at the Congo mine frequently find that the

30 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

coal is absent. We are thus able to follow the devious
windings of this ancient stream, that plowed its way
through the strata, when old Mother Earth was some-
what younger than now.

Clays.

Clay is the product of the decomposition of felspar
through the agency of the atmosphere. There are two
classes of clays and both are represented in our county,
viz : clays proper, and shales. All shale becomes clay
when moistened. Soap-stone is a clay stone and slate
is only a harder variety of the same substance.

As to varieties, clays may be divided into Fire Clay,
Potters Clay and Brick Clay. There are no less than
a dozen well recognized strata of clays in Perry county,
all of which are workable. All varieties are repre-
sented. Their relative positions may be seen by ex-
amining the vertical sections of horizons in different
parts of the county. Many of these seams are of great
thickness and the supply is inexhaustible.

Petroleum and Gas.

The Oil and Gas field is in the Townships of
Monroe, Pleasant and Bearfield. The surface of this
territory lies in the Lower Productive and Lower Bar-
ren Coal Measures. As has been stated in previous
topics-, the Ames Limestone has its horison on the tops
of the hills. The Sundaycreek valley, which is the
deepest in the neighborhood, cuts its way through the
Great Coal Vein north of Corning. Corning, itself, is
at the level of the Upper Freeport Coal.

The oil is found in the Berea sand, which has been
found to have an average thickness of about 30 feet.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 31

Through the courtesy of Mr. Geo. DeLong, the fol-
lowing "log" of a well drilled on his lot in Corning
is given. The top of the well lies at the base of the

Mahoning Sandstone. The elevation is practically
the same as given for the Corning Depot. (See ele-
vations).

Thickness Total

of Stratum. Thickness.

Feet. Feet.

Shale 25 25

Bastard Lime 15 40

Sand 10 50

Coal (No. 6) 10 60

White Slate 65 125

Sand 15 140

White Slate 25 165

Blue 10 175

Sand 10 185

Slate 50 235

Shale 35 270

Sand 30 300

Black Shale 10 310

Lime 25 335

Shale with Concretions 100 435

Slate 25 460

Limestone (?) 30 490

Shale 35 525

Salt Sand 30 555

White Slate 100 655

Slate and Concretions 25 680

Shale 15 695

Little salt sand 20 715

White slate 100 815

Slate and Concretions 100 915

Brown Shale 40 955

Black Shale 38 993

Top Berea 993

Bottom of Berea 1 ,008

32 HISTORY OF TERRY COUNTY.

The Berea sand is of a light gray color, tine
grained, and usually a pure quartz. The "pay streak"
or the part containing the oil and gas ranges in thick-
ness from 3 to 8 feet.

The wells are cased throiigh the salt sand at a depth
of about 555 feet. The amount of salt water found in
the Corning field, especially in the eastern part, is
wonderful. It seems to have some effect on the gas
pressure. The western part of the field, in the vicinity
of Oakfield, is practically free from salt water. Here
is where the strongest gas poducing wells are.

Near Junction City has been bored the deepest
well in the county. It reached the Clinton Limestone
at a depth of 3090 feet. It is in the Clinton rock
that gas is found in the Sugar Grove field. The fol-
lowing is the approximate depth and thickness of
the various strata.

Feet.

To the Berea sand 826

Thickness of the Berea, to the shale 40

Thickness of sahle to the Niagara 1 , 154

Thickness of Niagara to Shale 930

Shickness of shale to Clinton 140

The Clinton is about 30 feet thick. A small
amount of oil was found in this rock.

Saltlicks.

Our county is moderately well supplied with Salt-
licks. The largest and best known is the one at Mc-
Cuneville. Near Baird Furnace, 'in Mondaycreek,
on Salt Creek, is another one, but it is small. At the
"Lick School House" in Clayton is another. Likewise
there is one in Harrison. Several smaller ones are
to be found in various parts of the county. Salt water
is found in abundance in all of our oil and gas wells.

LIDEVS RUCKS.

>

1

I,*.- ^'

THE BIG SASSAFRAS.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 3?

Lidey's Rock.

Among the bits of Natural scenery in our county
is Lidey's Rocks, in southern Reading township. The
wildness and picturesqueness of the scene is in sharp
contrast to the surrounding country. Here a small
stream has eroded the rocks in such a way as to give
a person a very good idea of how the water can chisel
in minature, thousands of fantastic forms.

These rocks served at one time as a shelter for
hunting parties of Indians. Under one of the ledges-
of rock can yet be seen the mortar in which they
cracked their hominy. This locality is now a favorite
resort for picnic parties.

The High Rocks.

Near the Old Stone Fort at Glenford, is quite a
beautiful example of the erosive power of water. The
rocks here belong to the conglomerate series that over-
lies the Sub-carboniferous or Maxville Limestone. At
this place the water has eroded the softer portions
away and has left standing tall, Titanic-like pillars
that are at least seventy feet in height. The cause-
ways between these masses of rock wind about in
devious ways and thereby lend to the enchantment
of the place. These rocks are seldom visited, but
they deserve more attention, for in many ways they
surpass Lidey's Rocks.

The Bear Oens.

In southern Jackson township are the Bear Dens.
The mass of sand rock has been left here in a miscel-
laneously confused heap. There is beneath one of
these rocks, a narrow opening which leads to a series
3 H. p. c.

34 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

of large chambers. It is asserted by old settlers that
it was once the haunt of numerous bears when Bruin
was monarch of the Perry county woods and wan-
dered through its mazes in search of mast and wild
honey.

Why Rushcreek Bottom is so Flat.

In going from New Lexington toward Bremen, one
can not help but notice how near to the tops of the
hills Rushcreek is. On either side of this valley, the
creeks have cut their channels much deeper. Lower
Rushcreek is especially flat and marshy, while its en-
tire course is subject to frequent inundations. The
reason of this is apparent when we examine the soil
ibetween Junction City and Bremen.

The soil of bottom lands is always the same as that
ot the hills, lining either side. Such is not the case
with Rushcreek. This soil is that of the neighborhood
between Rushville and Pleasantville. It accordingly
contains considerable "till" and other "drift" materi-
als. At Rushville, Big Rushcreek "rushes" through a
break in the hill which it has made. The narrow pass-
:age would cause the water to run swifter at this place.
iReaching the flat territory, just south of this "break,"
ihe water would spread in every direction. Little
Rushcreek would consequently receive a considerable
share of this back-water, with its accompanying silt.
The water then subsiding very slowly would leave the
detritus behind. In this way it is estimated that lower
Rushcreek valley was filled to a height of sixty feet.

HISTORY' OF PERRY COIINTV,

The Mastodon.

The fact that the remains of many Mastodons have
been found in Ohio, leads us to the opinion that Perry
county must have known about these immense moun-
tains of flesh. After the Ice Age, a dense growth of
vegetation sprang up. The Mastodon being herbiv-
brous would naturally seek for places where food
was abundant. Northern Perry would be of especial
^alue to him. The land was swampy; the vegetation
was of quick growth, thus making it toothsome. It is
in such places that the remains have been found.

We may be sure that one of his kind once browsed
in Thorn township, near the Big Swamp. Parts of
his skeleton have been found along Jonathan's Creek.
Eleven of his teeth, weighing from ten to seventeen
pounds each, adorn the private museums of their find-
ers. A part of a rib, measuring about forty inches has
been picked up in the alluvial plain of the Moxahala.
As the stream changes its course, other parts of the
frame of this ancient Perr\- county citizen may be
unearthed.

Since the above was written, the author has learned
that the tooth of one of these mammoth creatures was
picked up in the neighborhood of Chapel Hill.

Birds of Perry County.

1. Black Throated Loon — Gavia arcticus.

2. American Merganser — JNIerganser Ameri-
can us.

3. Hooded Merganser — Lophodytes cucullatus.

4. Mallard — Anus boschas.

5. Black Duck — .\nas obscura.

3t) HISTORY OF PERRV COUNTY.

6. Gadwell — Chaulelasmus strepera.

7. Baldpate — Mareca americana.

8. Green-winged Teal — Nettion carolinensis.

9. Blue-winged Teal — Qurquedula discors.

10. Cinnamon Teal — Qurquedula cynoptera.

11. Shoveller ^ — Spatula clypeata.

12. Pintail — Dafila acuta.

13. Wood Duck — Aix Sponsa.

14. Redhead — Aythya americana.

15. Canvas Back — Aythya vallisneria.

16. American Scaup Duck — Aythya marila.

17. Lesser Scaup Duck — Aythya afEnis.

18. Ring-necked Duck — Aythya collaris.

19. American Golden-eye — Clangula americana.

20. Barrows' Golden-eye — Clangula islandica.

21. Buffle-head — Charitonetta albeola.

22. Ruddy Duck — Erasmatura jamaicensis.

23. Lesser Snow Goose — Chen hyperborea.

24. Greater Snow Goose — Chen hyperborea ni-
valis.

25. Blue Goose — Chen caerulescens.

26. American White-fronted Goose — Anser albi-
frons gambeli.

27. Canada Goose — Branta Canadensis.

28. Brant — Branta bernicla.

29. Sandhill Crane — Grus mexicana.

30. Virginia Rail — Rallus virginianus.

31. American woodcock — Philohela minor.

32. Wilson's Snipe — Gallinago delicata.

33. American Golden-plover — Charadrius do-
minicus.

34. Kildeer — Aegialitis vocifera.

35. Bob-white — Colinus virginianus.

36. Ruffled Grouse — Bonasa umbellus.

HISTORY OF I'KKUV COUNTY. 37

37. Wild Turkey — Aleleagrisgall opavo fera.

38. Mourning Dove — Zenaidura macroura.

39. Turkey V ulture — Catliartes aura.

40. Marsh Hawk — Circus hudsonius.

41. Red-Tailed Hawk — Buteo borealis.

42. Broad-winged Hawk — Buteo platypterus.

43. Pigeon Hawk — Falco Columbarius.

44. American Sparrow Hawk — Falco sparverius.

45. American Barn Owl — - Strix pratincola.

46. American Coot — Fulica americana.

48. Short-eared Owl — Asio accipitrinus.

49. Screech Owl — Megascops asio.

50. Great Horned Owl — Bubo virginianus.

5 1 . Snowy Owl — Nyctea nyctea.

52. Black-billed Cuckoo — Coccyzus ery throph-
thalmus.

53. Belted Kins-fisher — Ceryle alcyon.

54. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker — Sphyrapicus va-
rius.

55- Red-headed Woodpecker — Jilelanerpes ery-
throcephalus.

56. Northern Flicker — Colaptus auratus luteus.

57. Whip-poor-will — Antrostomus vociferus.

58. Nighthawk — Chordeiles virginianus.

59. Chimney Swift — Chaetura pelagica.

60. Ruby-throated Hummingbird — Trochilus co-
lubris.

61. Kingbird — Tyrannus tyrannus.

62. Crested Flycatcher — ]\Iyiarchus crinitus.

63. Blue Jay — Cyanocitta cristata.

64. American Crow — Corvus americanus.

65. Bobolink — Dolichonyx oryzivorus.

66. Cowbird — Molothrus ater.

-38 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

67. Yellow-headed Blackbird — Xanthocephalus
xanthocephalus.

68. Red-winged Blackbird — Agelaius phoeniceus.

69. Meadowlark ■ — Sturnella magna.
Orchard Oriole — Icterus spurius.
Baltimore Oriole — Icterus galbula.
Rusty Blackbird — Scolecophagus carolinus.
Purple Finch — Carpodacus purpureus.
American Goldfinch — Astragilinus tristis.
Tree Sparrow — Spizella monticola.
Swamp Sparrow — Melospiza georgiana.
Cardinal — Cardinalis cardinalis,
Rose-breasted Grosbeak — Zamelodia ludo-

70,

71
72

73
74
75
76

17
78
viciana

79
80
81
82

83

84

85
86

87
88

89
90

91
92

93

94

linus.

95
96

97

Scarlet Tanager — Piranga erythromelas.
Purple Martin — Progne subis.
Rarn Swallow — Hirundo erythrogaster.
Tree Swallow — Tachycineta bicolor.
Bank Swallow — Clivicola riparia.
Water Thrush — Seiurus noveboracensis.
Mockingbird — mimus polyglottos.
Catbird — Galeoscoptes carolinensis.
Brown Thrasher — Harporhynchus rufus.
House \A^ren — Troglodytes aedon.
Wood Thrush — Hylocichla mustelina.
American Robin — Merula miigratoria.
Bluebird — Sialia sialis.

Ring-necked Pheasant — Phasianus torquatus.
English Sparrow — passer domesticus.
Red-bellied Woodpecker — Melanerpes Caro-

Chippin.c; Sparrow — Spizella socialis.
Field Sparrow — Spizella pusilla.
Towhee — Pipilo erythrophthalmus.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 6\)

98. Indigo Bunting — Cyanospiza cyanea.

99. Red-eyed Vireo — Vireo olivaceous.
100. Yellow-throated Vireo — Vireo flavirons.
loi. Blue-headed Vireo — Vireo solitarius.

102. Yellow Warbler — Dendroica maculosa.

103. Bald Eagle — Haliaectus leucocephalus.

104. Downy Woodpecker — Dryobatespubescens
medianus.

105. Bronzed Grackle — Quiscalus quiscula aeneus.

106. Great Blue Heron — Ardea caerula. Green
Heron.

107. Whooping Crane — Grus americana.

108. Passenger Pigeon — Ectopistes migratorius.

109. Kentucky Warbler — Geothylpis formosa.

1 10. White-breasted Nuthatch — Sitta carolinensis.

111. Tufted Titmouse — Parus bicolor.

112. Wood Pewee — Contopus virens.

113. Phoebe — Sayornis phoebe.

Animals.

The virgin forests of Perry county afforded ampk
haunts for all animals characteristic of this latitude.
The woods \vere full of them. The bear was unques-
tionably the undisputed monarch of the wilds, as he
ambled over our hills and valleys. The panther was a
close second in point of rule, as he crouched on the
hmb of a giant oak, ready to spring upon the timid
deer when the latter bounded through the underbrush.
Wildcats and catamounts were plentiful. The wolf
made the night hideous with his cry. The smaller ani-
mals, such as the fox, squirrel, rabbit, raccoon and
opossum, fairly swSrmed. Wild turkeys made this
their feeding ground. Prairie chickens nested and
brooded in the tall grass. Pigeons in countless num-

40 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

bers roosted in the tree tops and scores of varieties of
olher birds twittered and sang and made gay the forest
world. In the creeks whole "fleets" of ducks were
convoyed by their leader, while in the dark under-
brush lay the deadly rattlesnake ready to sound his
warning, or the copperhead to strike his fangs into
the intruder.

The Indian had not destroyed them all and long
after the white man came they were far from being
scarce.

Forests.

With but few exceptions the entire area of our
county was covered with forests. The oak was the
giant, found iii every part of the county. It was then
as now, the most plentiful of our trees. The oak
was not a favorite among the settlers of the county,
because, before the days of saw-mills, timber that
could be split more easily was utilized. The tall, ar-
rowy poplars or tulip trees, thus came to be the prime
favorite for building purposes. There were "chestiiut
ridges" in every township. On the low lands, the pon-
derous button-wood or plane-tree changed his coat
twice a year. The walnut selected his habitat in the
rich soil of the valleys. The shell-bark hickory annu-
ally cast its fruitage on the ground. Grape vines
threw their trellis work from bough to bough, and
each year, paid their tribute to Mother Earth. Nestled
in the coves of the hills were hundreds of sugars,
through whose veins was coursing the saccharine fluid
that had never as yet poured forth its fountain of
sweetness. The buckeye grew along the creek banks
in the southern townships. Cedars bastioned the rocky
hill-sides of Madison where the Moxahala cut its way
toward the sea.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 41

The flora of the county was profuse. It is said that
in the hills, west of Sugar Grove in Fairfield county
■are a greater number of plant species that can be found
in any similar area in Ohio. Lying contiguous to that
section, our county partakes of some of its abundance.
Lily pads covered the Great Swamp, cranberries grew
on its nuarshy banks, Jack-in-the-pulpits nodded be-
neath their canopies, bulrushes grew on the creek bot-
toms, while wild flowers bedecked the mossy ledges
and sent out their "sweetness on the desert air.'' It
was a dark, dense world, where only wild animals and
wilder men could live. But through the uncounted
ages, while empires and dynasties rose and fell, while
men strutted about for their brief day on the stage of
ancient civilization, the giants of our hills were making
ready for the Pioneer's ax and the mould of the wood
was gathering slowly for the plow of the Hero of the
Forest, who, out of the experiences of the older times,
should lay the foundations of a newer and stronger
Commonwealth.

The Big Sassafras. — What is said to be the larg-
est sassafras tree in Ohio, grows in Section 13 Pike
township, near the Dean schoolhouse on the Moxahala
road. Its shape is more that of an oak or chestnut
than a sassafras, which usually grows tall and crooked.
This tree has a girth of over fourteen feet.

Pre-Historic Race.

^'As o'er the verdant waste I guide my steed,
Among the high rank grass that sweeps his sides,
The hollow beating of his footsteps seems
A sacrilegious sound. I think of those
Upon whose rest he tramples. Are they here —

42 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

The dead of other days? And did the dust
Of those fair solitudes once stir with life
And burn with passion ? Let the 'mighty mounds
That overlook the rivers, or that rise
In the dim forest crowded with old oaks,
Answer. A race, that has long since passed away.
Built them; a disciplined and populous race
Heaped with long toil, the earth, while yet the Greek
Was hewing the Pentelicus to forms
Of symmetry, and rearing on its rock
The glittering Parthenon. These ample fields
Nourished their harvests; here their herds were fed.
When haply by their stalls the bison lowed
And bowed his maned shoulder to the yoke.
All day the desert murmured with their toils,
Till twilight blushed and lovers walked and wooed
In a forgotten language, and old tunes.
From instruments of unremembered form,
Upon the soft winds a voice. The red man came —
The roaming hunter-tribes warlike and fierce.
And the mound builders vanished from the earth.''

— Bayard Taylor.

"Who were the Mound Builders?" This in the
minds of most people has never been satisfactorily an-
swered except to the answerers themselves. There
are many theories extant. A few are plausible ; many ■
are superlatively nonsensical.' Most of the latter are
hastily built deductions, based an fragmentary evi-
dence. The remainder are evolved in the fertile and
highly imaginative minds of theorists. The origin of
the Pre-historic Race of America has been attrib-
uted to every nation known to ancient civilization. It
has been asserted that they came from the Nile ; that
these transplanted Egyptians built the mounds in the
western world, in rude copy of the pyramids in the
land of the Lotus.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 43

Others maintain that they were the lost Children of
the tribes of Jacob. Some say they were Phoenicians ;
others, Scythians; while still others are equally cer-
tain that they were of Welsh extraction. Voltaire had
the evolutionary idea, that it isn't necessary to believe
they came from anywhere; that they were native to
the soil the same as the beaver or the bison.

It is not our intention to discuss any of these the-
ories or attempt to answer the original question. It
must be said, however, that the subject of archaeology
is being studied more systematically than ever and
that men are analyzing the subject from a scientific
standpoint, and that the "relic hunter" is not now being
cited as authority.

It is not out of place, however, to say here, that
it is being generally conceded that the mounds and
earthworks left by these unknown people are not so
old as was formerly believed ; that the Mound Builder
and Indian do not belong to different races ; and that
the Mound Builders were not such a highly civilized
race as has been thought. We hive been able to learn
only a few of the things concerning these people. All
else is conjecture. We know only, that somebody at
some time built these strange works. W^e can only
look at them and wonder.

These people lived in our county. They built their
mounds and fortifications. We can but describe them
as we find them, then the reader can draw his own con-
clusions. That will be satisfactory to him at least.

There are over a hundred mounds, fortifications,
earthworks and village sites in Perry County. The
most interesting and best known of these is the "Stone
Fort" at Glenford. This fortification belongs to the
class of "Hill-top Enclosures," and is the best example

44 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

of its kind in the state. Caleb Atwater came over from
. Circleville about 1840 and then published a glowing
description of it in the first book ever written on Ohio
Archaeology. Archaeologists from all over the land
have visited here and the concensus of opinion is that
it is one of the most wonderful of fortifications. This
enclosure was evidently erected for defensive purposes.
Its area is a fraction over zj acres. It is made en-
tirely of stone. The pieces are of various sizes. None
are larger than what can be easily carried and many
are much smaller. The present condition of the walls
shows only a win-row of stones. Many have been
hauled away. When originally built the wall must
have averaged from seven to ten feet in height. The
entire length of the rampart is 6,610 feet. Within the
enclosure is a stone mound, 100 feet in diameter and
12 feet high.

No stones are found within the enclosure. They
were evidently utilized in building the work.

Whoever it was that erected this wall, certainly
^'knew their business." They took advantage of the
natural surroundings. The hill upon which it was built
is something over 200 feet above the creek level. The
sides of this hill are covered with the conglomerate that
overlies the sub-carboniferous limestone. This same
stone composes the cap-rock of the hill. Where its
stratum appears, water has eroded deep embrasures,
thus forming natural passage ways. The loose stones
were heaped along the edges of the solid rock, so in-
creasing the height. With the exception of the south-
eastern corner, the hill has no connection with the sur-
rounding hills. The top could only be reached by
climbing the bluffs. At the point, or corner before
mentioned, there is a narrow, depressed ridge, leading

THE \\'lI-Si.>N HOUND.
(Courtesy of Ohio .Arcliaeologi 'al and Historical Society.)

THE ROBERTS MOUND.
(Courtesy of Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society.)

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 45

to higher PTOund, beyond. On this higher ground is
the Wilson Mound, i8 feet high and covering one
acre of ground. From the Wilson Mound can be seen
the earth enclosure to the north and the Roberts
Mound, ■■ east of Glenford. The easiest approach to
the fort would have been by the Wilson Mound. The
builders, however, took the extra precaution to dig a
circular moat and to build a wall to protect this point.
The diameter of this moat-enclosure is about 150 feet.
Good springs of water are easily reached from the
fort. Characteristic flint and stone implements have
been found in abundance. If this fort were built for
defense there certainly were no bloody battles fought,
or the cemetery would be present. At Fort Ancient
in Warren County, are two burial places, — one within
and one without the fort. None has ever been dis-
covered at the Stone Fort.

The Wilson Mound, mentioned above, is one of the
best in the county. It belongs to the "Platform" class
of mounds. It has never been thoroughly explored.
Several shafts were sunk into it and it was found that
the mound was at least half stone. Many of the stones
showed signs of fire. A considerable amount of ashes
and red clay was found, through which were mingled
scraps of bone and pieces of mica.

The Roberts Mound, east of Glenford, is the larg-
est east of the Scioto River. This structure is 120 feet
in diameter and 27 feet high. There are no trees upon
it, but old settlers say that sixty-five years ago a very
large white oak grew upon its crest. This mound is
remarkable because a layer of large flat stones was
found under the earth and lining the walls. This was
for the purpose of holding the wall and preventing

46 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

wash. In this mound were found skeletons partly
cremated.

Just north of Glenford on a hill atbout loo feet in
height, is a fortification and several moiinds. South
of the fortification is a circle enclosing a bird with
wings outspread. This circle is 652 feet in circumfer-
ence, 31 feet wide and 4 feet high. The Gateway, 23
feet wide, faces toward the north. The bird effigy
from head to tip of tail is 48 feet ; one wing is 122 feet
while the other is 1 1 r feet. The body is 20 feet wide.
The total length from tip to tip is 253 feet. Excava-
tions were made in the bird effigy and ashes were
found.

The flint instruments found in the county were all
made of Flint Ridge material. Nearly every knoll in
the northern part of the county was a workshop. The
Perry County mounds do not show the high degree
o± advancement that the pre-historic inhabitants of the
Scioto region evinced. No copper and very little mica
has ever been found in our mounds. Everything
points to their belonging distinctively to the stone age.
At New Lexington could be seen in the flint quarries,
places where these former citizens of Perry Counti'
secured and shaped the raw material.

The presence of the Mound Builders in our county
is shown by the following :

Thorn Township has 3 circles, 22 earth mounds, i
village site, i mound group, i enclosure.

Hopewell, 10 mounds, 3 enclosures.

Madison, 3 earth mounds.

Reading, 15 earth mounds, i village site.

Clayton, 4 earth mounds.

Jackson, 2 earth mounds, i stone mound, i village
site;

119

:^iK

(^o

— T O

11?

3^

--A

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 47

Pike, 3 earth mounds.

Saltlick, I earth mound.

Monroe, i earth mound, i stone mound.

Monda}creek, 3 earth mounds, i village site.

Harrison, 5 earth mounds.

Reference has been made to the fact that the pre-
historic race belonged to the Stone Age of civiliza-
tion. The material from which they fashioned their
implements came from various sources. The "Drift
Region" was amply capable of furnishing all of the
granite needed for their axes, celts and gouges. The
only difference between a stone axe and a celt is that
the axe has a groove for fastening a split stick for a
handle, while the celt has no such groove. The latter
was used with the hand alone, for stripping the skins
from animals or dividing bones at the joints. They
were often made from hematite which could be pro-
cured in southwestern Ohio or West Virginia. The
pestle made from granite is a common find. It is often
conical or bell-S'haped, made to fit the hand. Its use is
too manifest to enter into a description. Corn has
been found in these mounds. We conclude, therefore,
that one use of these implements was to crack that
grain.

Small pieces of hematite, slate and quartz are often
found, with grooves cut into their edges, or in the case
of slate, a hole is perforated. These were probably
used as sinkers, for the Mound Builders really fished.
Bone fish hooks have been found in abundance, not in
our county, particularly, but in the Scioto Valley.

One of the interesting productions of these people
is the ceremonial stones made of slate. They are of
various shapes but usually flat. They are, with but few
exceptions, perforated. They are known by the dif-

fn^^m

I'lAS [' iML'LKM i-:.\ rs. I i\i-:-im )rR'ru sizi-:.

( CourtcS}- of Ohio Archaeological and Historical Societx J

HEMATITE (Hl.IECTS. OXE-TIIIKU SIZE.
(Courtesy of Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society.)

HISTORY OF PERRY' COUNTY. 49"

The Children of the Forest.

It goes without saying that the forests of Perry
County were at one time the hunting grounds of the
Indian. The lack of navigable streams, possibly de-
terred it from making for them a permanent home.
The valleys of the Muskingum, the Scioto, the Miami
and the Maumee were the chief centers of Indian popu-
lation. The tide of Indian warfare had at different
times given this region into either the hands of the
Algonquins or Iroquois. When the white man first
penetrated the Ohio solitudes, he found the Shawne ;s
on the banks of the Scioto, the Wyandots on the San-
dusky and the Delawares on the Muskingum. At a
little later date, we find Wyandots on the lower Mus-
kingum and on the Hock-Hocking. It seems that a
portion of the Sandusky Wyandots must have crept
through between the Delawares and the Shawnees and
made their abode partially in southeastern Ohio. By
looking at a map it will be seen that Perry County
was in their pathway. The result is that several of
the most important "trails" with their tributaries passed
through our county. It is certain that Perry County
furnished excellent hunting-grounds. Our woods
were heavily timbered, our valleys and rocky caverns
furnished excellent retreats for game. Our streams
were full of fish. There were wild turkeys on Turkey
Run, wild pigeons at Pigeon Roost and bears on Bear
Run. There were wild ducks at the Great Swamp,
while the timid deer placidly slaked his thirst in our
brooks or sought the "salt-licks" in the valleys. We
can clearly see why the sombre colored native would
long to linger in these "happy hunting-grounds
making side excursions from the regular beaten "trail."
4 H. p. c.

30 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

They were no doubt as successful in capturing that
"big" fish with a bone hook as our modern Isaac Wal-
tons are with the latest improved "tackle." They
probably had as big stories to tell, too, when they
reached home. As to shooting, our Nimrods with
their Winchesters would be put to shame.

Buffalo "Trails" — The first road makers in our
country were the buffaloes. Their immense bodies,
together with their countless numbers served to beat
a path through the forest. Their routes were along
the hill-tops and the water divides. The Indian, true
to Nature's instinct would doubtless have selected the
same course. Whether it was because the road was
partially made or for another reason, we do know, that
the buffalo and the Indian "trails" are practically the
same. There are reasons for this selection and it ap-
plies with equal force to both Indian and buffalo. The
summits of the divides were the driest. The winds
sweeping over them usually left them bare of snow in
winter. The hills were not so heavily timbered with
undergrowth, and they offered excellent outlooks for
an enemy.

The Monongahela Trail — Perry county was
traversed by an Indian "trail," however, before the
Wyandots. The principal "trail" in the county was
the Monongahela of the Shawnees. The Wyandots
used it later in part. It connected the Shawnee towns
on the Scioto with the Monongahela Valley. It was
the war path, or "through" route between the Shaw-
nee nation and the nearest settlement of whites, which
was in south-eastern Pennsylvania. Many white cap-
tives were brought from Pennsylvania through Perry
county, to the banks of the Scioto. This "trail" struck
the Muskingum at Big Rock^followed that stream till

CEREMONIALS, GORGETS, BANNER STONES, ETC.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 51

they came to Big Bottoms, near where the town of
Stockporti now is. At this place the whites built a
block-house (1790). The inmates were one day sur-
prised and twelve persons massacred. From this
place the "trail" crossed the ridges till it struck
Wolf's creek, which it followed to its source, which
is at Porterville on the boundary between Perry and
Morgan counties. Here it followed the "divide" be-
tween Jonathan and Sundaycreek and betAveen Rush-
creek and Mondaycreek throughout the county.

The road now known as the Marietta and Lan-
caster is in part located on the old Monongahela Trail.
Later it was known as the Wyandot Trail. The
Wyandots had a village at Marietta and one at Lan-
caster, under the shadow of Mt. Pleasant. When tl:e
state surveyed the old Lancaster and Ft. Harmar Road
the one made by the Shawnees and Wyandots gave
them the most direct route.

Sliazi'nee Run Trail — From this main "trail" there
were several subordinates or "loops'' that would lead
out and then gradually merge back again. Of course
the object was to scour the country more completely.
There was one of these tributaries that left the main
over in Morgan county somewhere and reached our
county in the neighborhood south of Corning, crossed
Sundaycreek, went up through ?»Ionroe township
following the stream known as Indian Creek west
to its source, by way of Buckingham and Hemlock,
passed through the low "gap" to Shawnee where they
had a village. The stream at Shawnee is known as
Shawnee Run and the town and stream stand as mon-
uments to the redman in Perry county. It is plain
why this route was selected. At McCuneville is the
old "saltlick" where deer and buffalo were wont to

52 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

go. The Indian followed them for a two-fold purpose
— to capture them and to get salt for himself. From
McCuneville it crossed the ridge, past where the old
Stone Church now stands, till they reached Salt Run
in Mondaycreek Township. Here was another "salt-
lick." Near the source of one of the tributaries of this
creek, they had a camping-place among some rocks.
The object no doubt was to be close to the "lick" that
they might watch for game. At this camping-place
may yet be seen their hominy-mill.

In a large rock is a hole shaped like an inverted
cone. Here they cracked their corn by means of rock
pestles. Many a time has the writer when a boy, left
the horse standing in the corn row and gone down
to this ancient "grist-mill" and in imagination, peopled
the little valley with Indian hunters returning from the
"lick" with deer slung across the shoulders and
squaws sitting on that very rock, preparing corn for
their meal of samp. After such flights it was pretty
hard to get back again to the prosaic work of plowing
corn. From here the trail went across the ridges to
the headwaters of Little Mondaycreek, which was fol-
lowed to a point below where Maxville now stands.
Here are yet evidences of a camping place on the farm
&i D. Hardy. Crossing the next ridge we find another
camp in what is known as Whiskey Hollow. ' Here
they planted their com and early settlers in Monday-
creek remembered when the Indians would come to
plant and harvest their crop. From here the trace
went over the ridge to one of the tributaries of Rush
Creek and then for Lancaster or Tarhytown as the
Indians called it.

Flint Ridge Trail — This trail left the main route
in the neighborhood of Porterville and struck for

PIPES ATTACHED TO ANTLERS OF DEER.

AN INDIAN " GRIST JIILL."

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 63

Flint Riclge in Licking county. It is doubtful if this
one touched Perry county. But it was very close to
the Muskingiim line. It passed through Roseville in
Melick's Grove. It may have gone through a part of
Madison township for it followed Jonathan's Creek.
At Flint Ridge it joined another trail that led from the
upper Muskingun to the Scioto. Again we can see
why this route was selected. Flint Ridge was the
flint quarry for all of the Indians between the Alle-
ghenies and the Mississippi, with but a few unim-
portant exceptions. Evidences can be seen of their
labor on every hand. The flint of this place must
have been of superior quality for arrow-making, for
specimens of Flint-Ridge arrows have been found
as far south as Tennessee. The flint forms the cap-
rock of a hill for a distance of ten miles and almost
its entire length is scarred with the trenches and pits
left by the ancient diggers.

Scioto-Beaver Trail — Another " trail " passed
through Perry county. It was the Scioto-Beaver, in
the northern part, just south of Buckeye Lake. No
doubt Christopher Gist on his first trip through Ohio
went over this trail. The townships of Thorn and
Hopewell were the scenes of considerable activity
among the "Children of the Forest." Stone imple-
ments, arrow-heads and amulets have been found in
great numbers.

Moxahala Trail — This trail crossed the iNIuskin-
gum at-Zanesville and made its way through the coun-
ty, by Sego, Somerset and Rushville to Lancaster.
Zane's Trace approximately followed this pathway.
It was however not well defined. The Indian hunter
leaving the established beat would naturally take t'le
high ridge between Jonathan and Rushcreek. It must

64 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

"be regarded as a loop from the main Scioto-Beaver
Trail. Jonathan's Creek or better the Moxahala was
favorite grounds for the Indian hunter. The fact
that it ploughs its way through limestone and offers
frequent fording places, may be one reason for mak-
ing it the crossing of the numerous trails.

The Indian name " Moxahala " means " Elk's
Horn." Look at your map and see why they called it
by that name. We can also see why the Jonathan of
Judge Spencer's " Legend of the Moxahala " built
his rude cave on this creek. The intersection of the
trails afforded him excellent opportunity to wreak his
vengeance for the murder of wife and little ones. The
story as told by Mr. Spencer is this: A man living
with his family on Otsego Lake in the east, was at-
tacked by the Indians. His wife and children were
massacred, his house burned and he himself severely
wounded. After recovering from his wounds, he set
out for the west with the fire of revenge burning
fiercely in his bosom. He vowed to kill every Indian
he could. On the Moxahala in Madison township
he built his hut among the limestones ledges and
here with only his faithful dog he watched for the red
man from his hiding place. He was discovered and
his tragic death is beautifully told by Mr. Spencer
in the

"the last conflict."

The sun had set; the crescent moon
With halo wan had followed soon ;
And Moxahala shadowed o'er
By Buckeye, beech and sycamore,
Flow'd gurgling 'neath the gloom of night;
And 'tween the leaves and rippled light,
Look'd, trembling, here and there a gleam
Of starlight on the dimpling stream.

o z .

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

With piercing glance and noiseless tread,
Quick from his hut the hunter fled,
(While Don. as steal thful, keeping nigh
Glared fiercely round with savage eye) ,
For having crossed the woody vale,
He came upon an Indian trail,
And all his deadly peril felt;
Well did he know the place he dwelt
Was sought hy Indians far and near —
To wreak revenge — for many a year.

The Shawnee chief had tracked the bear.
At last, e'en to his hidden lair. /

And, stealing from the bosky glen
With half a hundred ruthless men.
Before 'twas his the foe to take.
He mentally burned him at the stake
For many a murdered warrior's sake.
The red men, feeling sure the prey
Was in his fastness brought to bay.
Closed round the hut on every side;
And some the fiery brand applied.
While others, yelling, turn'd to bind
The dreadful foe they sought to find.
And rush'd within with tiger-bound —
Bitt, lo ! no captive there they fourid.

Hark ! ringing on the midnight breeze
Afar 'neath labyrinthian trees,
A rifle shrieks with sulphurous breath
Sending its message dire with death —
The Shawnee chief with dying whoop
Falls, quivering, midst the motly group.
Ha ! now amazement dumb appals —
A sharp report, — another falls —
Q pale-face Chief, away ! away !
Loud, fierce, resounds the deep-voiced bay
Of ghoulish forms, a horrid pack.
That, howling, bound upon your track
-With bow and spear, and gun and knife.
And tomahawk to take your life !

65

56 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

Away — away — go, seek the cave
Where oft before, your life to save,
With mystery deep, you did elude
The hordes that at your back pursued.
Ah, hark! They come with sounding tread
And whoops that echo wild and dread!

Dewy, and fragrant breath'd and pale.
Came morn, with wakening voice of bird
And bee, and cool leaf-stirring gale,
And squirrel's chirp, mid branches heard.
'Twas on a hillside's bluffy edge.
Where rocks stuck out with mossy ledge,
Where wavy-scalloped ferns between
The fissured rocks grew rich and green.
And delicate flowers to us unknown
Save — hid from man — in forests lone,
Bfoom'd 'neath the trees that, arching high.
Shut out the azure summer sky.

Where ivy wild and grapevines clung
To drooping shrubs that overhung
The lichen'd rocks and shady ground.
Beneath the ledge a passage wound,
That, to a cavern dark and small,
Led through a jagged, narrow hall.
There Jonathan the night before
Escaped the Indians in his flight;
He seem'd to vanish — be no more !
And they — with awe and sore affright
And superstitious fancy fraught
Deem'd 'twas a demon they had fought.
And hied them homeward full of thought.

But Jonathan lay cold and dead,
The cavern-floor his rocky bed ;
And on his bosom clotted o'er
With oozy drops of clottish gore,
A ball had left its circle red
And in his back an arrow-head,
With shaft prortuding, broke in two,

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 57

Had proved its fatal guidance true.
Yes, Jonathan, the pale-face Chief,
Had found at last that sweet relief —
Nepenthe for each earthly grief.
And e'en o'er him one mourner kept
His vigil — yea, and, haply, wept;
For think not man alone can know
The bliss of love, the pang of woe : —
With paws upon his master's breast
And plaintive howl of deep unrest.
His lonely dog, though all unheard,
Implored a look, a loving word.
And lick'd his master's cheek and hand.
And seemed to vaguely understand
His soul was in a happier land."

The White Man's Foot — By the Treaty of Green-
ville in 1795 the Indians gave up their claim to the
land that is now in Perry county and after the year
1800 -but few were seen within our boundaries. They
were then usually straggling parties who returned to
their ancient hunting-grounds as if loath to leave.
But the "white man's foot" had come and the days
of the "children of the forest" were numbered.

"I beheld, too, in that vision
All the secrets of the future.
Of the distant days that shall be.
I beheld the westward -fharches
Of the unknown crowded nations.
All the land was full of people.
Restless, struggling, toiling, striving,
Speaking many tongues, yet feeling.
But one heart^beat in their bosoms.
In the woodlands rang their axes.
Smoked their towns in all their valleys.
Over all the lakes and rivers
Rushed their great canoes of thunder.
Then a darker, drearier vision
Passed before me, vague and cloud-like;

58 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

I beheld our nations scattered,
All forgetful of my counsels,
Weakened, warring with each other;
Saw the remnants of our people
Sweeping westward, wild and woeful,
Like the cloud-rack of a tempest,
Like the withered leaves of autumn."

The Last of his Race — It seems that the very last
Indian seen in our county was killed by the white
settlers, in the neighborhood of New Lexington, after
that village had been laid out. He, it> appears, lingered
about the place for some time, and when he left was
followed by the civilized (?) white man, to the vicinity
of Brier Ridge, at the T. & O. C. Tunnel, where he
was shot. It might be well at this juncture to read
Miss Francis' " Lone Indian " which we used to read
at school out of the McGuffey Sixth Reader.

Treaty of Fort Stanwix — On October 2y, 1784,,
a treaty was concluded, at Fort Stanwix, New York,,
with the sachems and the warriors of the Mohawks,
Onondagas, Senecas, Cayugas, Oneidas, and the Tus-
carawas. The Six Nations here ceded to the Color.ial
government all their claims to land in Ohio. General
Lafayette was present at this treaty.

Under the Banner of St. George.

England claimed the whole of North America. She
is never modest about her claims. She based her claim
on the fact that John Cabot first discovered the conti-
nent. England did very little in the way of explora-
tion. That she thought herself the sole possessor of
the New World is evidenced from the fact that the
grants given to the colonies, especially Virginia, and
Connecticut extended from "sea to sea." And in the
case of Virginia from the wording of the charter it ex-

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. ' 59

tended to the North Pole. It reached for two hundred
miles "north and south of Point Comfort, up into the
land, throughout, from the sea to the sea, west and
northwest." Connecticut was given a strip, the width
of the state from "sea to sea." As has been stated
France, too, claimed the same land. The First Ohio
Land Company in 1748 might be said to be the immedi-
ate cause of the French and Indian W'ar, which was
possibly one of the best things that ever happened the
colonies. It not only freed them from subsequent in-
fluence of French institutions but it was the school
where they learned how to write the Declaration of In-
dependence. The battle of Quebec and the Treaty of
1763 made Perry county a part of England's Royal
domain and the banner of St.- George, figuratively
speaking, floated over the hills and valleys in Reading,
Pike and Mondaycreek.

Under the Lilies of France.

Did it ever occur to you that at one time the Flag
of France waved over Perry County? There may
never have been really a flag of that nation planted on
our hill-tops, but the Lilies of France kept watch over
our silent forests from where they were planted on the
steeple of some mission house or over the door of a
French trading station. The claim of France to this
territory was based upon the fact of her explorations.
While neither England nor her colonies had ever given
their consent to France utilizing the rivers and trade
of the vast region yet France was in actual possession
of it. As "possession is nine points of the law" we
must consider that at one time if there had been white
people here they would have really been subjects of
•the French king.

60 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

France had done four things that to her iriind gave
her an undisputed title to the region. The first was
the sending of the Jesuit missionaries who wandered
through the unbroken forests, dressed in their simple
garb, exploring the rivers, and building mission
chapels, from whose roofs went out to the natives

"The sound of the church-going bell.
The valleys and rocks never heard,
Never sighed at the sound of a knell.
Nor smiled when a Sabbath appeared."

The second was the discoveries of LaSalle. Robert
LaSalle, an ambitious young Frenchman, determined
to find out something about the interior of the Amer-
ican continent. In the year 1669 with a party of
French he sailed over the waters of Lake Erie and
crossing the portage of one of the three Ohio rivers
that find their sources near the head waters of the
streams that flow into the Lake, he descended either
the Muskingum, the Scioto or the Miami and reaching
the Ohio was the first white man to sail over the bosom
of the Oyo, the Beautiful River. That the French
based their right of ownership on the explorations of
LaSalle is evidenced from the answer of the haughty
commandant at Quebec to the demand carried by
Washington in 1753. "We claim the country on the
Ohio by virtue of the discoveries of LaSalle, and will
not give it to the English. Our orders are to make
prisoners of every Englishman found trading in the
Ohio Valley."

Another reason for their claim was the reiteration
of their title of possession. Eighty years after the
voyage of LaSalle and only thirty years before the
Second Mayflower landed on the banks of the Mus-
kingum there floated down the Ohio a gorgeously ar-

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 61

rayed fleet of boats. From the bow of one floating to
the breeze was the flag of France. The founding of
the Ohio Land Company the preceding year was no
doubt the occasion for sending out one Louis Celoron,
who crossing from Canada, embarked upon the Alle-
gheny. Arrayed in his "pomp and circumstance," his
companions clad in lace coats and doublets, he pro-
ceeded in solemn ceremony and much ostentation, as
only a Frenchman can, to bury certain leaden plates,
that would forever set at rest the real ownership of the
region drained by the Ohio and her tributaries. The
plate testified that in the year 1749 it was buried as a
monument of the renewal of possession. "His men
were drawn up in order. Louis the XV was pro-
claimed lord of all that region. The arms of France
were stamped to a sheet of tin nailed to a tree; the
plate of lead was buried at the foot, and the notary
of the expedition drew up a formal act of the whole
proceeding."- This ceremony was gone through with
at Wheeling, the source of the Allegheny, the mouth
of the Muskingum, French Creek, the Kanawha, and
the Great Miami. The plates at the Muskingum and
the Kanawha were afterward found — the memorials
of France's dream of an Empire in the New World.

The last reason for their claim was the fact that
France had actual possession of the territory. A chain
of forts extended from Montreal to New Orleans.
Their trading stations extended along that entire route.
They had spied out the land and foresaw its possibili-
ties in the way of trade. They never expected to col-
onize it. This fact alone made the Indian a firm ally.

The stories of fertile valleys, of navigable streams,
and interminable forests had reached the practical ear

62 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

of the Anglo-Saxon colonists, who saw utility in quite
a different light. The French could not believe that
their efforts in exploration would be of such little
use to them and redound only to the good of the Eng-
lish. They made every effort to keep it a part of their
royal possessions. The defeat of Braddock gave them
temporary hope for its retention, but the fall of Quebec
shattered their hopes and the Lilies of France ceased
to wave over the hills of Ohio.

In the Province of Quebec.

The colonies that had land in the West had almost
as much trouble in keeping off the encroachments of
Great Britain as they had of France. It was but nat-
ural that they should think that the French and Indian
war was for the purpose of quieting the claims of the
colonies over against France. In this, however, they
were mistaken. England does not do things that way.
They forbade the colonies to make, settlements on these
lands. Virginia and Pennsylvania were not inclined
to obey. Parliament, therefore, to stop the encroach:-
ments, passed what is known as the Quebec Act. This
act made all the land in what is now known as the
Northwest Territory a part of the territory of Quebec.
Thus Perry County was a second time a part of Can-
ada, ruled by a Governor General. The colonists did
not like it very well and Virginia paid but little atten-
tion to it and never in her own mind thought that it
ever belonged to anybody but herself. England's ob-
ject in this was to keep down the growing power of the
colonies, and by having this vast region a part of Can-
ada, they hoped to maintain the Indians' allegiance,
which they did to a certain extent. This action of

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 63

<aeorge the Third was considered of such importance
that in the Declaration of Independence it was made
one of the grievances.

Boutetorst County.

Had your great-great-grandfather left Virginia in
1770 and settled where Glenford now stands, his friends
at home would have said that he had gone to live on the
Moxahala in Boutetorst County. Virginia would not
abide by the Quebec A'ct. The part she had taken in
the French and Indian war she thought ought at least
prevent her from losing her land that she obtained by
charter. In 1769 her Legislature passed an "Act,"
placing the territory north of the Ohio and east of the
Mississippi under her jurisdiction, as Boutetorst
County. The next year George Washington floated
down the Ohio to the mouth of the Great Kanawha to
select 200,000 acres of land for his soldiers, or their
widows, who had served with him in the French and
Indian war. This is as near as he ever came to our
county. It might be interesting to know that the Is-
land of Blennerhasset, famous in history and story, was
a part of this tract. While Virginia had, no doubt, the
better claim to this territory, yet under this "Act" her
jurisdiction was only nominal, for Great Britain still
claimed it a part of the Province of Quebec. It was
not until 1778 that she assumed complete control.

The County of Illinois in the State of Virginia.

As far as Land Grants were concerned, the land
that is now Perry County belonged to Virginia. The
old "sea to sea" grants to Virginia certainly included
our county. That was why the authorities of Virginia
took such an interest in keeping the French out of the

64 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

region north of the Ohio; why the Ohio Land Com-
pany was formed; why Christopher Gist was sent out
with the "Compass and Pen;" why Washington was
sent on his first public mission, and why Virginia
troops composed a part of the ill-fated army of Genera!
Braddock. It has been seen that considerable diffi-
culty was experienced as to who should have juris-
diction over the territory northwest of the Ohio. Dur-
ing the Revolutionary War, the land by the Quebec
Act was a part of Canada. The forts were in the
hands of the British. They incited the Indians against
the colonists. George Rogers Clark, a Kentuckian,
was sent with an army that captured the forts, drove
the British beyond the Lakes, quieted the Indians and
extended the control of the Commonwealth of Vir-
ginia, and Perry County with the rest of the territory
northwest of the Ohio again became a part of the "Old
Dominion" under the name of the County of Illinois.
This was in October, 1778. Patrick Henry was Gov-
ernor of Virginia and John Todd was made Lieutenant
Governor of the County of Illinois.

First White Man in Perry County.

In 1748 a company was formed in Virginia, entitled
The Ohio Land Company. The object was to survey
the lands and establish English Colonies beyond the
AUeghenies. They sent an agent to explore the region..
This agent we will recognize as no other than the
friend and companion of Washington, when he carried
the message from Governor Dinwiddle to the French
commander in 1753-4. Christopher Gist traveled
through leagues of almost unbroken forest, crossed
the Muskingum and Scioto rivers, and was kindly re-
ceived by the Shawnee Indians, who had a village on

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

65

the latter stream about seven miles south of Circle-
ville, where the hamlet of Westfall now is. The name
of their town was Chillicothe. Christopher Gist en-
camped one night on the shore of "Big Swamp," which
we now reco£?:nize as Buckeye Lake. No doubt he was
the first white man within the limits of Perry County.
Gist started from the forks of the Muskingum, where
Coshocton now stands, on January 15, 1751. By draw-
ing a straight line from Coshocton to Westfall, it will
be seen that it touches Buckeye Lake, where the village
of Thornport now stands.

Land Surveys.

On Alay the twentieth, 1785, the Continental
Congress passed what is known as the " Land Ordi-
nance of 1785." It provided for the survey of lands
in the territory northwest of the river, Ohio. The
surveys were made under the direction of the
Geographer of the United States. The lands were to
be surveyed into townships six miles square, bounded
by east and west and north and south lines, crossing
each other at right angles. The ranges of townships-
were to be numbered i, 2, 3, etc. from the Pennsyl-
vania line westward, and the townships in the ranges
I, 2, 3, etc. from the Ohio river northward. Further-
more, the townships should be cut up into lots one
mile square, each numbered from one to thirty-six,
beginning in the south east corner and running north
to sixth ; then beginning the next range with seven and
running to twelve, etc. The lines were to be suitably
marked by blazed trees and notches cut into their
trunks. In many of the woods of Perry county can yet
be seen the marks of the original surveyors.

66 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

The first " Seven Ranges " were surveyed as above,
but the remaining fifteen are different in the number-
ing of the sections. Our section numbers begin in
the north-east corner and run west to six; begin in
the next row of sections and run east to twelve, etc.

The surveying began in 1786. The Ranges only
extend to the Scioto River, for west of that stream
Virginia had retained the land for her Revolutionary
soldiers and it was never surveyed. The land in Perry
county was not ordered platted till May 18, 1796.
In 1799 General Rufus Putnam was made surveyor-
general and the work began at once. The land of
the Ohio Company had been surveyed. before. None
oi our county was in this Company's purchase. But
their tract did extend to the southern boundary of
Perry and joined the townships of Coal and Monroe.

In the first surveys, the variation of the needle,
which at that time was about two degrees east, was
seldom corrected. The result was that the north and
south lines would deviate to the west in going south-
ward. This would cause a section to be larger than its
northern neighbor. By the time the survey reached
Perry county, it was necessary to frequently correct
by starting from new bases, that the sections might
be kept something near the required size. The line
between Hopewell and Reading, and Madison and
Clayton was such a correction line as can be seen on
the map. There is similar correction between Clayton
and Pike and between Harrison and Bearfield. It
is the most noticeable, however, between Jackson and
Mondaycreek. The first five rows of sections in Mon-
daycreek are each exactly a mile square, but the west-
ern row contains over seven hundred acres in each sec-
tion. This irregularity in the lines was corrected by

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 67

a '■ correctional meridian " running north from the
Ohio river, to the northern boundary of Perry county.
The line on the west of Thorn township is this meri-
dian. But our county got none of its benefits. In
Vinton county the correction amounted to a mile
in many places.

The northern boundary of Perry county was the
northern limit of Congress Land. Licking county
belongs to the Military Bounty Lands, which was set
aside for Revolutionary soldiers. This Congress Land
was at once set up for sale. The most of it sold for
$1.25 per acre in half or quarter sections. The Land
Offices for the sale of land in this county were located
at Zanesyille and Chillicothe. The line separating
iViadison, Clayton, Pike, Saltlick and Coal from Hope-
well, Reading, Jackson, and Mondaycreek divided the
two Land Districts.

The Ordinance of 1785 further provided that,
'' There shall be reserved for the United States out
of every township the four lots, being numbered 8,
II, 26, 29 for future sale. There shall be reserved
the lot Xo. 16 of every township, for the maintenance
of public schools within the said township ; also one-
third part of all gold, silver, lead and copper mines,
to be sold, or otherwise disposed of as Congress shall
hereafter direct." Li Perry county none of these
reservations were made, with the exception of Section
16. In the Ohio Company's Purchase, Section 29
was kept for the support of a minister, and was known
as Ministerial Lands.

68 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

The Scioto Company Land Scheme.

When Dr. Manasseh Cutler was negotiating with
Congress for the land now known as The Ohio Com-
pany's Purchase, Col. William Duer of New York,
presented a land scheme to be worked in connection
with it for purposes of speculation. Col. Duer was
a man of influence and Dr. Cutler needed him to
help secure the passage of his Ordinance. So it was
that under the cover of the petition that the Ohio
Company presented for the absolute purchase of
1,500,000 acres, between the 7th and 17th ranges
of townships, there was also the option for the right
of purchase, or pre-emption, on over 3,000,000 acres
of land lying between the Scioto and Ohio Rivers,
to the west and north of the Ohio Company's Tract.
This would include all of Perry County. Not many
persons living in the^ county perhaps know that
the land upon which they are now living, was once
included in a great land scheme, in which the hard
earned francs of many French people, were lost in the
very first financial whirlpool, that made itself felt
within the confines of Wall Street. The Scioto Com-
pany was formed and had its headquarters in Paris.
Joel Barlow, author of the Columbiad, and later Min-
ister of this country to France was sent to Paris by
Col. Duer to prosecute the sale of land. He had with
him a description of the country from Dr. Cutler and
a map bearing the indorsement of the United States
Geographer.

Paris and France were ripe for anything. The
Revolution and the fall of the Bastile had turned the
country topsy-turvey. The French people naturally

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 69

erratic, imbued with their new ideas of liberty and
equal rights, grasped at any and every Quixotic project.

Barlow, assisted by an EngUshman, named Play-
fair, who is described as a man with a "good imagina-
tion," succeeded, by a glowing description, and many
other embellishments, in setting Paris aglow with the
craze. They told how delightful the climate was ;
how winters were unknown; how there were trees
from which sugar yielded itself spontaneously; and
how another tree yielded ready-made candles. They
said that venison was in abundance. And they told
the truth when they stated that there were neither
lions nor tigers to molest them.

The French seemed to have had quite as "good
imagination" as the Englishman, Playfair. They pic-
tured the new land on the banks of the River, Beauti-
ful, and the Scioto, as a veritable "milk and honey"
region. Nothing else was talked of in either social
or political circles. A man named Brissot came to
this country, and wrote a series of letters in such a
manner as to complete the popular delusion. He
corroborated the previous statements of Barlow and
Playfair. The people became wild with excitement.
Buyers were numerous. The thrifty middle class
were especially importunate. Many disposed of their
entire property that they might invest in the Promised
Land.

But the Scioto Company could not give a perfect
title. They themselves had nothing but an option. Bar-
low as agent expected from the sale of lands they
would be able to make the title good. The "imag-
inative" Playfair, belying his name, had the money.
Barlow was himself duped. The result was that Col.
Duer and the Scioto Company failed and their land

70 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

reverted to the government. The only thing that the
Scioto Company did, was the settling of Gallipolis,
with French immigrants in 1790. In 1795 the
United States Government gave 25,000 acres of land
in the south-eastern part of Scioto county for such
persons that had lost their property at Gallipolis by
insecure title. This is known in Ohio history as "The
French Grant."

Zane's Trace.

When Ohio was settled, the only highways were the
streams and the Indian trails. After the Revolution-
ary War the rich Ohio valleys became the goal of im-
migrants. It was likewise the Paradise of the red men,
who contested every acre of the soil. General St. Clair
having met defeat at their- hands, reported that the
greatest hindrance to military operations was the ab-
sence of roads, that their presence would be an incen-
tive to immigration, that it would hasten the settlement
of the country and be the best means of quieting the
Indians.

Congress at once acted upon the suggestion. The
President was authorized to contract with a responsible
party,for the opening of a road from Wheeling on the
Ohio, to Limestone, Kentucky, on the Ohio. This
road would pass through the best agricultural land
that was then open for settlement in the Northwest.
Virginians were flocking to the Military Lands, west
of the Scioto, to locate their claims. The valleys of
the upper Hocking and Muskingum were ideal places
for the settler's clearing and cabin.

The work of laying out this road wd.s entrusted to
Colonel Ebenezer Zane of Wheeling. Colonel Zane
was a man of considerable force of character and
played no small part in the settlement of the North-

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 71

west. He was an ideal frontiersman. He was thor-
oughly acquainted with the western wilds from the Po-
tomac to the Ohio. His brothers were men like unto
him and assisted him greatly in his undertakings.
President Washington could have found no better man.
As early as T769 he came to the present site of Wheel-
ing, recognizing at once its important geographical po-
sition. The next year he brought his family. Lord
Dunmore, then Governor of Virginia, had the great-
est confidence in Colonel Zane, and made him dis-
bursing agent at Wheeling. A fort was erected and
named Fort Finncastle in honor of the titled Governor
of the "Old Dominion." Zane was familiar with the
events that led to Dunmore's War, his sympathy be-
ing with Logan, Chief of the Mingoes, but he took an
active part in putting- down that war.

When the Revolutionar\- War clouds hung heavy
over the land, true patriot that he was, he did every-
thing in his power for the establishment of the new
nation. While he was never in the Continental army,
yet he served his country in a no less eminent degree.
Living as he did on the very edge of the frontier, he
saw that it was as important, that the territory North-
west of the Ohio should be held by the colonies as it
was to obtain their independence. For the latter with-
out the former would have crippled them and there
would have been no room for growth. The struggling
nation had no army to protect their frontier. It was
left for the most part to such men as Ebenezer Zane,
who voluntarily took it upon themselves to protect their
homes from the ravages of the red-men, incited by
British cupidity and revenge.

The very last battle of the Revolution was fought
at Wheeling. The name Fort Finncastle had been

72 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

changed to Fort Henry in honor of Patrick Henry the
first governor of the Commonwealth. Here on the
eleventh of September, 1782, the Indians and British
made an attack. Colonel Zane's house stood about
fifty yards from the fort. The people took refuge in
the fort but Zane an^ his family remained in their
house.- It was at this battle that Elizabeth Zane, a
sister, performed her heroic act. The defenders of the
fort suddenly discovered that the powder was ex-
hausted. There was a sufficient amount in Colonel
Zane's house, but how to get it was the question. At
this juncture, the girl volunteered to go, saying that
her death would not mean so much as a man's. The
gates were opened. The Indians saw her hurrying
across the open space, but their chivalry forbade them
firing on a "squaw." Hastily filling a tablecloth,
which she tied about her, she returned to the fort. She
had almost reached it, when her purpose dawned upon
the Indians and amid a shower of bullets, she passed
through the gates. The fort was saved.

During these years, Col. Zane had come into posses-
sion of considerable property. _ He owned the land
where Wheeling now is, Wheeling Island in the Ohio
river, the present site of Bridgeport and Martins Ferry
and a tract extending a considerable distance up Wheel-
ing Creek on the Ohio side.

Jonathan Zane, a brother, was a scout. In 1774 he
guided an expedition against the Indians on the upper
Muskingum. He served in like capacity on the ill-
fated expedition of Governor St. Clair. It is said that
if St. Clair had taken his advice, the result of the ex-
pedition might have been somewhat different. It is
but natural, therefore, that when Ebenezer Zane con-
tracted to cut the road through Ohio, that he should

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 73

have left it to his brother who was better acquainted
with wilderness ways. Jonathan Zane was assisted in
the work by John Mclntire who had married his sister.
For this work Col. Zane was to receive a tract of land,
one mile square for every navigable stream he should
cross, provided he should maintain a ferry. The work
was begun early in 1797. The road was nothing more
than a blazed bridle path, with some of the undergrowth
and fallen timber removed. This "trace" left Wheel-
ing, followed Wheeling Creek on the Ohio side, to its
source, and climbed to the high ridges of Belmont
county. Following this divide into Guernsey county,
it passed through Cambridge, and then headed for the
falls of the Muskingum at Zanesville. This was the
first navigable stream. Zane gave the tract of land
here to his brother, Jonathan and his brother-in-law,
Mclntire. This was to recompense them for their
services in opening the road. They in turn leased it to
William McCuUough and Henry Crook for five years.
These men kept the ferry and thus became the first
settlers of Zanesville. John Mclntire is really the
founder of Zanesville. He died in 181 5 and is buried
beneath the shadows of the Mclntire Children's Home,
which he founded. This was established as a schoql
for poor children of Zanesville. But upon the organi-
zation of the free school system, it was changed to an
asylum for unfortunate children, who here find a home
and an education. This home derives its revenue from
the Mclntire estate, which originally was the mile
square given to Zane by the United States Govern-
ment.

This trace struck Perry county as indicated on the
map. There is considerable conjecture as to where it
really did pass through the county. The writer has

74 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

been for three years gathering data on this first "high-
way" and he has found in Perry county more uncer-
tainty about the actual route, than in any same dis-
tance between WheeUng and Maysville. By many it
is supposed to be the same as the Maysville pike.
Others confuse it with the Old State Road surveyed
in 1809. And still others think that the old Drove
Road was the original Zane Trace. From such a di-
versity of opinion it is diflfcult to ascertain the ex-
act truth. The route as shown on the map does not
pretend to be infallibly true, but as far as can be
learned, it is approximately correct. The prevailing
idea that Fink's tavern, the nucleus of Somerset, was
on Zane's Trace, is hardly correct. And yet, the most
of the travel may have gone by way of Somerset. The
men who blazed the trail were not particular in hunt-
ing the best ground, although they usually aimed to
follow the ridges. The last statement would justify
the conclusion that Somerset was on the "Trace."
But on the other hand the streams served as their
guides. No white man had ever traveled the route
before. They knew the general directions only.
There is no doubt that the Somerset route would have
been the better one, and travelers soon found it out.
It is the opinion of the writer that the Zane men were
trying to find the headwaters of another stream, flow-
ing south, after they left Jonathan's Creek. They
passed through the neighborhood of what is now
known as Dead Man's School. Striking a branch of
Rushcreek in southwestern Hopewell, they might have
continued along it but for the fact that there is con-
siderable swampy land in that section. This would
cause them to change their course and take to the hills.
This trace passed over Rushcreek at the Rushvilles and

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 7&

following a southwest course, crossed the Hocking at
Lancaster. Here Zane established another section of
land. The little creek winding up through the alluvial
meadows of Fairfield county was considered navig-
able for "small boats." The town of Lancaster was
laid out in 1800, by John and Noah Zane, sons of Col.
Zane. From here the Trace continued toward Chilli-
cothe by passing near the present village of Amanda and
through Tarlton and the Pickaway Plains, crossing the
Scioto at Chillicothe, Here they were obliged to locate
their land on the west side of the river. Zane sold it
to Humphrey Fullerton. Caleb Atwater says in his
history of Ohio (1838) that Fullerton's widow yet
owned it. From Chillicothe, the road ran southwest,
crossing Paint Creek near the junction of the North
Fork and the Yocatangee, followed the latter stream
a distance and crossed Black Run, where it intersectd
Todd's Trace, which it followed to Maysville by way
of Manchester. In 1799 a post office was established
at Chillicothe. Mail was brought over the Trace once
a week. Gen. Sanderson of Lancaster was post-boy
between Chillicothe and Lancaster.

Zane's trace became the great highv/ayof emigra-
tion. Droves of pack horses were driven across it.
Many of the settlers of south central Ohio found their
way through the primeval forest by means of this
blazed path. The first settler of Pickaway county,
Caleb Evans, came through from Kentucky on Zane's
Trail. The first settlement in Highland county was
about half a mile north of Sinking Springs, on Zane's-
or rather Todd's Trace. Rude taverns were erected
for the accomodation of the guests. At Lancaster there
was one and at Zanesville, Mclntire's tavern became
famous for having once entertained Louis Philippe.

76 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

In 1798, a Mr. Graham located upon the site of Cam-
hridge, Guernsey county. His was the only dwelling
between Zanesville and Wheeling. Along this road the
itinerant preacher came with saddle bags and "pious
mien." By degrees the road was widened in part and
in many places it was changed altogether, until it is
almost lost.. The Wheeling and Maysville pike only
follows the Trace approximately. There are variations
of three miles and over. The Trace followed the high
ridges mostly and in many places went down precip-
itous bluffs. The pike goes around the hills. Zane's
road may well be said to be the initial step in the policy
of "internal improvements." It served its purpose well
and had much to do with the developement of the cen-
tral west. Along it sprang up the settlers' cabin and the
little clearings testified that the "white man's foot"
had come. It opened up the most fertile portion, that
was then accessible in Ohio. It was the connecting
link between the east and the settlements made in the
southwest.

Ebenezer Zane certainly deserves the credit of be-
ing one of the Founders of the Northwest. He died in
1812 and his body lies on Ohio soil. In the village of
Martins Ferry, Belmont county, is the Zane burying
ground surrounded by a brick wall. In this neglected
inclosure, situated on a terrace overlooking the Ohio,
as it begins to bend around the state, is a slab upon
V, hich are these words :

In Memory of Bbenezer Zane

who died 19th November, 1812, in the

66th year of his age.

He was the first permanent inhabitant of this

part of the Western World,

having first begun to reside here in the year 1769.

He died as he lived, an honest man.

WHERE EBENEZER ZANE IS BURIED. MARTIN'S FERRY, OHIO.

THE NEW HOME IN THE WOODS OF
PERRY COUNTY.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 77

The Refugee Tract.

During the Revolutionary War many of the people
living in Canada and other British Provinces, sym-
pathized with the American patriots in their efforts to
throw off the British yoke. For this "crime" of sym-
pathy their presence became obnoxious. to such of their
neighbors as SA\ore hy the "divine right of kings."
Things became so intolerable that they were obliged to
abandon their homes and take refuge among their
friends in the colonies. Their lands were confiscated.
They were thus rendered homeless. Many of them
entered the patriot army.

AVhen the war clouds had blo\^•n away and the in-
dependence of the colonies was assured, it was no more
than a matter of justice, that some means be inaug-
urated for the reimbursement of these faithful friends.

As early as April 23. 1783, and again oij April 13,
1785, Congress passed resolutions, that as soon as they
consistently could, ample grants of land would be made
to remunerate the Refugees for their sacrifices in the
cause of the colonies.

Congress, however, had no land at its disposal, till
after the organization of the Northwest Territory in
1787. It was not till eleven years later that final ac-
tion was taken in the matter. On the 17th of April,
1798, Congress invited all "refugees" to file their
claims with the Secretary of War and give a true and
full account of their services and losses. Two years
were given in which to file them. At the expiration
of that time there were sixty-nine applicants. On the
report of the Secretary of War Congress on February
18, 1 801, appropriated about 100,000 acres. The land
selected was a tract four and one-half miles wide, ex-

78 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

tending from the Scioto on the west, toward the Mus-
kingum on tne east, as far as necessary to contain the
number of acres in the appropriation. There was
some discussion in Congress as to where it should be.
located. It was a question whether it should be taken
out of the Military Bounty or Congress Lands. It
was finally compromised by taking a part out of each.
The location was therefore made along the line be-
tween these two tracts. The northern boundary of
Perry county is that line. Two miles of the Refugee
Land is in Perry and two and one-half miles in Lick-
ing. On the east the Refugee Tract extended a short
distance into Muskingum County. The four north-
western sections of Madison township fall within the
limit. As far as we are able to learn none of the
patents issued to these claimants were ever located in
Perry County. Only 65,280 acres were needed to sat-
isfy the claims. To this must be added 5,000 acres
more for school purposes. About 30,000 acres re-
verted to the government.

Heroes of the Forest.

Our county had been traversed by white hunters for
some years before actual settlements were made. In
the year 1773, a Baptist missionary accompanied by a
trader named Duncan, is said to have traveled over the
path taken by Christopher Gist. Lewis Wetsell and
Simon Girty, famous hunters and traders, visited the
Indian town at Lancaster. To reach that place, it
would be necessary to follow some of the various
Indian trails through our county.

We are quite sure that traders stopped within our
borders for purposes of barter. In the eastern part
of Bearfield Township, near the Morgan County line.

PETER OVERMYER.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 79

is evidence of a trading post. Only a few years ago,
t.iere was found at this place, a Spanish coin of the
eighteenth century, some bits of iron and vermillion.
The latter, evidently, was to sell to the Indians for
decorative purposes.

The surveying of the land and the opening of
Zane's Trace had the effect of opening the land to
settlement.

Perry County had the advantage of some of the
other counties in that its hills were more healthful
than the flat lands of Fairfield and Pickaway. Who
the first permanent settler in our county was is not
definitely known. It is not probable that there were
any before the year 1800. In 1801, however, we know
positively, of several. A man by the name of George
Arnold had entered some land in Reading Township,
where the town of New Reading now is. He did not
settle on the land, but sold it to Christian Binckley, the
great-grandfather of Capt. T. D. Binckley, present
Representative from this county. He thus became the
first permanent settler, as far as known. He came
from ^^'ashington County, Maryland.

In .1802, several additions were made to the popu-
lation of our county. Among the first to arrive was
Peter Overmeyer, who came with his family from
Northumberland County, Psnnsylvania. It might be
interesting to note that he, too, was the great-grand-
father of our own Capt. Binckley, of New Lexington.
Peter Overmeyer was the father of the Peter Over-
meyer who died but a few years since, and grand-
father of J. B. Overmeyer, ex-treasurer of this county.
The younger Peter Overmeyer was three years of age
when he came to Perry County. Living to a ripe old
age, he had seen the growth of the entire county. He

80 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

had experienced the hardships of pioneer days, had
received his education in the crude way in which it
was to be got at that time, and no man was more able
to narrate the early experiences in the woods of Perry
County than he. His name deserves to go on the list
of the "Heroes of the Forest."

In the same year that Peter Overmeyer came to
Reading, other settlernents were made in the vicinity.
Robert Colborn settled east of Somerset. Frederick
Heck came to the neighborhood of Otterbein and
George Bowman took up his residence on west Rush-
creek. From this time the settlements were made
more rapidly. Fink and Miller, the proprietors of
Somerset, came in 1803. Soon small clearings began
to appear in the woods, the settlers' cabin was being
built and the smoke curled from the stick chimney.

The Pioneers had come mostly from the states of
Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland and New York.
The Pennsylvania Germans and the Virginians pre-
dominated. The method of bringing families and
household goods was by wagon or horseback. Often
the head of the family had come on ahead and had
the cabin ready for occupancy. If such was not the
case, the wagon in which they came served as their
home till the trees could be felled for the house.

These homes were made of round logs. The roof
was clapboards, held in place by long poles. The floors
were logs hewed on one side. Greased paper served
for windows. One end of the house was utilized for
the fire-place. The hearth consisted of flat stones.
Here the cooking was done with utensils few and
simple. A pot and skillet were deemed sufficient, and
the family that owned a "Dutch Oven" was considered
fortunate.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 81

The clothing was spun and woven by the women
from flax raised in the clearing'. Linsey-wolsey was a
common fabric. It was a mixture of wool and cotton.

The food was necessarily coarse and plain. Hom-
iny was a staple diet. For meats they depended in
part upon the animals of the forest. But hogs were
soon raised and "hog and hominy"' became popular.

These were the "Good old times" about which we
hear so much. To old people who live in the past,
this may be true. But they were hard times, never-
theless, in more ways than one. It was an experience
that few care to repeat.

In spite of the hardships and many disadvantages,
our pioneer fathers extracted their share of life's enjoy-
ment. People helped each other more then than now.
There were log-rollings and barn-raisings and com-
huskings. These were always made social affairs.

The settler's cabin had no newspaper and few
books. The Bible was one of these and its contents
was read and re-read, till it was committed to memory.
The long winter evenings were passed in work of vari-
ous kinds. The pioneer knew very little beside labor.
During the day, mother and daughters often helped in
the fields. In the evening, wool and flax were to be
spun, stockings knitted, clothes made, brooms from
hickory splints manufactured, harness mended, corn
shelled and dozens of other duties, then to go to bed
and sleep during the long winter nights and awake in
the morning, and find on the bed covers, a thin layer
of snow, which had sifted in through the clapboard
roof.

The men and women who came to the woods of
Perry County, cleared its forests, built for themselves
6 H. p. c.

82 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

and families their rude homes, extracted from the
land by dint of hard labor, food and clothing, and then
left to succeeding generations a heritage of material
wealth, independence of mind, and above all a high
type of manhood and womanhood, certainly may be
called "Heroes of the Forest."

Their work is done. The third and fourth genera-
tions now occupy the land they conquered. They now
sleep in the soil, wrested from the hands of untamed
Nature and around their narrow beds can be heard the
hum and buzz of the industry of a newer time for
which they laid the foundation.

"Careless crowds go daily past you.
Where their future fate has cast you,

Leaving not a sigh or tear;
And your wonder works outlast you —

Brave old pioneer!
Little care the selfish throng

Where your heart is hid,
Though they thrive upon the strong.

Resolute work it did.
But our memory-eyes have found you.

And we hold you grandly dear;
With no work-day woes to wound you —
With the peace of God around you —

Sleep, old pioneer !" — Will Carleton.

The Evolution of Perry County.

On July 27, 1788, Arthur St. Clair established the
County of Washington, with Marietta as the seat of
government. Washington County comprised the
whole eastern part of the state. Its western boundary
line began with the Cuyahoga River, which it followed
to its source, thence by the portage between that river
and the Tuscarawas to the forks of the latter with
the Muskingum. From this point a line was drawn

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 83

to the source of the Scioto, then along that river to its
mouth. Perry County was wholly in Washington
County.

On the ninth of December, 1800, the county of
Fairfield was organized. A part of Washington was
used in the erection of the new county. The present
townships of Thorn, Hopewell, Madison, Reading,
Cla>_ton. Jackson, Pike, Mondaycreek, Saltlick, Coal,
the four western sections of Pleasant and the four
western sections of Harrison, were incorporated in
Fairfield, while Monroe, Bearfield, the twelve eastern
sections of Pleasant and the eighteen eastern sections
of Harrison remained with Washington.

The county of Muskingum was established January
7, 1804. It was formed from Fairfield and Washing-
ton. The Perry County townships, taken from Fair-
field were iladison, Clayton and the four western sec-
tions of Harrison. The remainder of Harrison, which
belonged to ^^'ashington was also added to Muskin-
gum. It will be seen that the present county of Perry
was divided among three counties — Fairfield, Mus-
kingum and Washington. Fairfield had Thorn, Hope-
well. Reading, Pike, Jackson, Saltlick, Mondaycreek,
Coal and the four western sections of Pleasant. Mus-
kingum had Madison, Clayton and Harrison. Wash-
ington had Bearfield, Monroe and the twelve eastern
sections of Pleasant.

December 26, 181 7, is the date of the organization
of Perry Count}-. It was fifty-second in order of for-
mation and was erected from the counties of Washing-
ton, Muskingum and Fairfield. With but one exception
the present boundaries of the county were then estab-
lished. The house of Thomas Mains in Somerset was
designated as the place for holding court. The excep-

84 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

tion alluded to in the foregoing refers to the attaching
of a part of Licking to Perry. Most of the maps do not
show this. The northern boundary of Perry is usually
considered as a straight east and west line. On Feb-
rdary twentieth, 1837, the following act was passed by
the Ohio Legislature : "That the south half of sections
seventeen and eighteen, in township number seventeen
of range number seventeen, refugee, be, and the same
is hereby attached to Thorn township, in the county of
Perry, and shall from henceforth, be considered for all
purposes whatever, a part of said county."

The object of this transfer was on account of cer-
tain lands that lay north of the township line and
south of Buckeye Lake. Because of the body of water
between this land and the main part of Licking
County, as a matter of convenience to the owners, it
was given to Perry.

Village Settlements.

Lack of space precludes anything but a brief state-
ment of the village settlements in our county. The
dates here given are the official dates of the platting of
the towns. The villages usually existed before the
plat was made. Their growth was generally slow and
the several additions were made as the times demanded.
It is only in western states that the town is built on
paper first. Our mining towns have been of rapid
growth and some of them have declined quite as
rapidly.

The nucleus of our villages was generally a country
store, a ford in a stream, or a grist-mill. Then would
come the blacksmith, the cabinetmaker and shoemaker.
The store often served as tavern. Liquid refreshments
were handed out over the same counter with calico an 1

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 85

nails. There were many such settlements throughout
the county, with such dignified names as "Beanville,"
"X Roads," "Dogtown," "Hard Scrabble," etc., that
were never platted.

New Reading, in Reading Township, is in reality
the oldest town in the county. It was not laid out until
1805 and thereby lost its distinction of official priority
for Hanover was platted by Jacob Ditto in 1804. Its
life was short. One of the first acts of the Common
Pleas Court, upon the organization of the county, was
the annulment of the Hanover town plat. New Read-
in? was originally called Obermeyersettle, or, in Eng-
lish, Overmeyertown, from its founder, Peter Over-
meyer, who was among the first settlers in the county.
The town received its name from Reading, Penn;;j-i-
vania, the home of many of its first citizens. When the
county was organized in 1817 New Reading was a
competitor for the county seat. It is said that this is
the reason for the two rows of sections being taken oflf
of Richland Township, Fairfield County, and given to
Reading, thus making the latter a 48-square mile town-
ship. The town was so near the edge of the surveyed
township that it was thought to be detrimental to New
Reading's ambition.

At the end of the first decade, Reading Township
possessed the entire trio of Perry County villages.
Somerset dates from 1810. It was settled about six
years previously by Fink and Miller, who were Penn-
sylvania Germans. Fink's Tavern afterward became
famous for it was a mid-way stop between Zanesville
and Lancaster. On account of this fact the town was
at first called Middletown. The tavern stood near the
site of the present school building. The town was
named for Somerset, Pennsylvania. When the county

86 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

was organized in 1817, Somerset was one of the four
towns asking to be the capital. Because of its central
position to the majority of the- people, it was selected.

Thornville became a town in 181 1. Its originator
was Joseph McMullen. It too enjoys its second name.
At first the poetic name of Lebanon was given to it
but on account of another Lebanon in Ohio, it took
upon itself French airs, followed the English custom,
and christened itself with the plebeian name of Thorn-
ville. It has however made up for the deficiency in
its name, by being the most beautiful village in Perry
County. It verifies the sayings — "What's in a name ?''
"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet," etc.

The word Rehoboth means roominess. The orig-
inator of the Perry County Rehoboth, evidently had
that in mmd when he platted the village. To this day
can be seen the public square, which was one of the
characteristics of the first towns. But there was an-
other motive for making the square in Rehoboth, be-
side that of being artistic. When that town was laid
out in 1 81 5 by John and Eli Gardner, with prophetic
eye they saw the time when a new county would be
erected. That new county would need a capital, and
the capital would need a court house, and a court house
would not look well unless it fronted a public square.
True to its purpose it became a formidable rival to
Somerset. They were worsted in the contest and their
public square serves as la reminder of the ambition of
the thrifty citizens. When tobacco became the staple
crop of the county, Rehoboth was the center for this
trade. Had tlie county been organized twenty years
later, Rehoboth would to-day be the county seat of
Perry County.

A SU-:XE l.\ M-:\V LICXIM'.T! X, is

COAL TIl'l'LE AT CONGO.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 87

Bristol is located at an interesting point in the
county. Situated at the turn of the water-shed, the
waters of its vicinity find their way into the Muskin-
gum by South Fork, and into the Hocking through
Rushcreek, Big Mondaycreek, Little Mondaycreek and
Sundaycreek. Besides through its main street ran the
old Monongahela Indian Trail, along whose path the
Indian braves took their white captives to the Scioto
towns. Later the white surveyor stretched his chain
from Fort Harmar to Standing Rock and the Lancaster
and Marietta Road connected the Muskingum with
the plains of Fairfield. Bristol was at first named
Burlington. It too was a bidder for the court house.
Platted in 1816 it gave evidence of considerable
growth. The Commissioners, when they visited the
place concluded it was too far south. The town has
never recovered from this blow given it in its very in-
cipiency.

New Lexington became a town in 1817. James
Comley was its founder. The first house in town was
built by Jacob Barnthistle, a tanner. This house stood
where Kishler's Buggy Shop now stands. Soon other
buildings were erected but the growth was slow. The
name was given it in honor of the Lexington of Revo-
lutionar)- fame. After an exciting contest, lasting
seven weeks, it became the county seat in 1857.

Crossenville dates from 181 7, when William Cros-
sen laid it out in lots. It was for a number of years
quite a thrift}- village, carrying on a large tobacco
trade.

W'olf^own was a hamlet north of Junction City. It
was never platted but it contained a tannery and sev-
eral stores. It was sometimes known as "Hard
Scrabble."

88 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

We now pass over a period of eleven years, during
which time no new towns were erected in our county.
In 1828 Mt. Perry was platted. But Hendrick's Mill
around which the town grew was built in 1820.

Millertown, in Monroe Township, can boast of be-
ing the oldest village in southern Perry, unless we
except Bristol. It was platted in 1834 by Jacob Mil-
ler. During the Civil War, John Morgan, the cele-
brated Confederate cavalry leader, camped within its
precincts.

Straitsville, Saltlick Township, now Coal, was laid
out in 183s by Jacob and Isaac Strait. In its early
history it boasted of a few stores and a tavern. Dur-
ing the first three years of the Civil War, this town
was a recruiting station. Its quiet lanes were aroused
by the tocsin of war. Through its streets, companies
ot Perry County boys were marched and drilled in the
military art. From its station on the hill it looked
after the boys in blue as they went toward New Lex-
ington, to take the cars for the scene of conflict.

Where is Mount Hope? Jackson Township had
but one town, so at the Cross Roads where the Somer-
set and Logan Road crosses the Lancaster and Har-
mar Road, a town was platted in 1835 and named
Mount Hope. But the hopefulness of the place soon
vanished and no town was ever built. A postoffice
named Asbury existed for a short time. The place is
still called Mount Hope by the people of the com-
munity.

A town that once bid fair to succeed and enjoyed
for a time quite a lucrative trade, was Oakfield. It
was platted in 1838 by Job Tharp. It was the social
as well as the commercial center of the neighborhood.
Oakfield is located on the water-shed.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 89

When the Ohio Canal was built, and the Licking
Reservoir, laying in sight of Thornville, presented a
fine expanse of water, the thrifty farmers of Thorn
township concluded that a boat way should be cut
through the feeder, to the head of the lake, that they
might be able to ship their grain. This idea resulted
in the laying out of the town of Thomport in 1839.
This Canal scheme, like "Eliphalet Chapin's Wed-
ding " was not an unalloyed success. It soon ceased
operations and the great ware-house, that was built to
store their grain, stands now as a monument to these
days of yore.

Sego, our "String Town on the Pike," began
its official existence in 1846, when William Curry
built his blacksmith shop there. It gets its name from
a town in Africa. It was near this village that General
Ritchie lived, while in Congress and within it Dr.
Thompson, President of the Ohio State University,
lived when a boy.

Porterville is nearly in Alorgan county. Situated
on the county divide, it is surrounded by a fine farming
community. The town was platted in 1848 by John
Porter. It was also for a time called Ruskville, after
the famih- name of Jerry Rusk, who here played when
a bare-foot bo)'.

Saltillo, (properly pronounced Sawl-teel-yo) is a
name of Spanish-Mexican origin. Its beginning was
a tavern, which for many years served as a stopping-
place for travelers. In 1849 ^^ became a town. Its
proprietor was F. Bradshaw.

In the same year of the founding of Saltillo,
Chapel Hill, Monroe township, originated. This was
an Irish community, where in 1850, a Catholic Church
was erected, from which fact the town gets its name.

90 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

It was also called Thompsonville for a time in honor
of one of its founders.

Maxville, the only town of which Mondaycreek
can boast, was laid out in 1850 by William McCor-
mick, from whom it gets its name — Mc's ville. There
had been a store at this place for some years previous.
It was owned by Henry Keck.

At the end of the first half century of the county's-
existence there were within its bounds the following
post offices : New Lexington, Somerset, Buckeye Cot-
tage (Saltillo), Rehoboth, Thornville, IMt. Perry, Sego,
McLuney, Porterville, Whippstown, Oakfield, Max-
ville, Crossenville, East Rushcreek (now Junction
City) and Straitsville.

Middletown is midway between Somerset and Lo-
gan. A tunnel was being made through the hill south
of Middletown and this brought quite a number of
laborers there. A store was built and the town laid
out in 1853.

Clarksville, also in Jackson Township, was estab-
lished by Daniel Clark in 1854. St. Patrick's Church
is located here.

The building of Junction City, only a mile away,
totally and permanently eclipsed the older town, and
but for the church, you might pass through the vil-
lage and never know it.

Like a great many of our towns, McLuney was
a village before it was surveyed into streets and alleys.
In 1850, McLuney, already enjoyed the distinction of
having a post-office. It was not until 1855 that it
was organized. Its name is derived from the creek
upon which it is located.

We now pass over a period of fifteen years during^
which town building in Perry County seemed to be at

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 91

a Standstill. During the Civil War our commercial
activity was dormant and it was not till 1870 when
the coal and iron fields began to be developed, that
there began a period of renewed activity. Our
county was taking a new lease of life. There were
three periods of growth in the county. The first was
the establishment of the pioneer home. The village
then existed for the simple wants of the traveler,
hunting a new home, and for the pioneer settlement.
The second period was a period of growth in which
the productions of the soil began to appear more
abundantly than the settler could use for himself. The
village now existed to give a market for these super-
fluous products. The third period was that in which the
mineral wealth was utilized. Villages and towns
now served as convenient homes for the men working
in the mines.

Our next period will be one of manufacturing,
when our raw material will be converted into the fin-
ished article before it leaves us.

Before speaking of the towns built since 1870, it
might be interesting to note the following :

A PROPHECY FULFILLED.

Buckeye Blossoms, published in 1871 by Mrs. M.
E. Porter, has this to say of Perrj'^ County.

" This little county (Perry) comparatively un-
known, is destined at no distant day to become a
central attraction. Coal and iron are found in abun-
dance and of superior excellence ; and railroads are
being made and companies organized for the purpose
of mining these extensively. New Lexington on the
Cincinnati and Zanesville Railroad is the county-seat.
Oakfiekl and Somerset are very fine towns."

92 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

New Straitsville is the pioneer mining town of the
county, having been laid out by a mining company
in 1870. It had a phenomenal growth.

In 1871, Ferrara, a town with a distinctly Italian
name, was laid out between the present locations of
Rendville and Coming. Upon the organization of the
latter the name Ferrara disappeared.

A town had existed "for some time on the present
site of Junction City.

The post-office was known as East Rushcreek.
Later, George Wolfe laid out on his farm a village and
called it by the scriptural name Damascus. Mr. Ed-
miston also had an ambition to build a city and on an
adjoining farm he began a town, calling it Trio City,
because of the three railroads. These towns became
rivals and the matter was finally settled by a compro-
mise in 1872 and the present cognomen was received.
The place had been known as Wolfe's Station after
the C. & M. V R. R. was built.

Shawnee, the metropolis of the ooupty began its
existence in 1872. It was laid out by T. J. Davis.

McCuneville really dates back ^to 1829 when the
original salt works were erected. From that time
until its platting in 1873 by the McCunes it received
the name of the " Salt Works." When the McCunes
built their extensive salt plant here, it was intended to
name the town Salina, but there was already one town
in the State by that name. Then for a time it was
known as Tallyho. Tallyho is the huntsman's cry to
urge on his hounds. The fact that the old "salt lick"
\\'as a famous hunting ground, made the name quite
appropriate. But some man's name had to be per-
petuated and the ubiquitous "ville," like Banquo's

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 93

ghost showed itself and McCuneville was the unfort-
unate result.

Glenford, as a town existed for many years before
the plat was made. Its mill at the Ford of Jonathan's
Creek had long ground the farmer's grain. It was
not till the railroads ran through it that it began to
grow.

jMoxahala, on the South Fork of the Moxahala,
was a furnace town, laid out in 1873.

Crooksville, the "clay city" of the county, was or-
ganized in 1874. In recent years it has been of rapid
growth, and is now one of the most important towns
in the county.

Roseville, a much older town, is hardly to be con-
sidered a Perr\ County village. The part lying on the
Perry side is of recent growth. The town was origin-
ally called Alilford.

Buckingham was laid ont in 1873. Dicksonton
was built in 1873 and is now a deserted village.

Baird Furnace also belongs to the class of "has
beens."

Corning is our "oil city." It was laid out in 1878
by Joseph Rogers. Rendville ^\■as platted the next
year by Capt. T. J. Smith and ^^^ P. Rend.

The most recent of our mining towns is Congo.
It was built in 1891-92. It is a model mining town.

Organization of the Townships.

Bcarficid Township is so named because of the
numerous bears found there at an early date. It was
settled in 181 2 by James Black and was organized
in 1818 as an original township of Perry county.

Clayton Township is so called from one of its first

94 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

settlers. It 'was settled in 1806 and organized in 1810
•under Muskingum county.

Coal Tov.mship is the youngest in the county. It
was organized in 1872 by striking off thirteen sections
from Saltlick. It derives its name from the abundance
of the mineral of that name to be found in the hills.

Harrison Toumship was formerly a part of Clayton.
Hence it belonged to Muskingum county. It was
organized in 1820. It was named for General Harri-
son the Hero of Tippecanoe. The township was set-
tled about 1806.

Hopewell Township was organized in 1810. It
was settled early in the century by one Ridenour.
Origin of its name is unknown. But no doubt it was
significant of the feelings of the early settlers who
were mostly Germans. It was a venture, this settling
in a wilderness, but they "hoped well."

Jackson Township was organized as a part of Fair-
field county. The only authority that we have says
that it was organized about 1805. There is some
doubt about this. There can be no question why it
was called Jackson. But at that time (1805) General
Jackson was unknown to fame. It is true that he was
a' favorite in Tennessee, and that he had been in
the United States Senate where he neither made a
speech nor voted. At this time he was living the
quiet life of a farmer and listening to the schemes of
Aaron Burr, who tried to draw him into the net, into
which the unfortunate Blennerhassett fell. There
is one thing certain. If Jackson township was organ-
ized in 1805 it was named for another Jackson. If it
was named for the Hero of New Orleans it must have
been subsequent to 1805. Very few people settled

HIJTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 95

in that township prior to that time. From then, how-
ever, to 1820 the growth was rapid.

Madison Tozimship is an original one in this coun-
ty. It was settled about 1800 or a little later by Wil-
liam Dusenberry. It is named after James Madison
and was organized soon after the county.

Mondaycreek Tozimship was settled in 1815 by
Timothy Terrell. It was a part of Fairfield county.
It was organized in 1823. It is named from the two
principal streams flowing through it.

Monroe Tozcnship was also' organized in 1823. It
is named from the then President of the United States.
It was previous to this, a part of Bearfield for politi-
cal purposes. It was settled in 1814 by John Mc-
Donald and James Dew.

Pike Totimship was organized in 1814 by Fairfield
county. It was named for General Pike of the Revolu-
tionaly War. The first settler was John Fowler who
came from Maryland in 181 1.

Pleasant Tozi^'nship was organized in 1850. It
contains sixteen sections, taken as follows : Nine from
Bearfield, three from Pike, three from Monroe, and
one from Saltlick. The origin of its name is manifest.

Reading Tozciisliip was christened by Peter Over-
meyer, who came from Reading, Pennsylvania, in
1801. It was a part of Fairfield county and was or-
ganized in 1807. But when Perry county was organ-
ized, two rows of sections were taken off of Richland
township, Fairfield county, in order to give the ne\v
county the requisite area.

Saltlick Township was so called from the "salt-
Ifck" at McCuneville. It was settled by John Hazel-
ton and organized in 1823.

96 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

Thorn Township was organized in 1804 or a little
later by Fairfield county. It was named from the
numerous thorns that grew about the Great Swamp.
It was settled in 1801 by George Stinchcomb and
others.

Section 16.

The Ordinance of 1787 stipulated that "Section 16"
of every Congressional township should be reserved
for the maintenance of schools in that township. The
object of this school grant was not so much for the
furtherance of education by Congress as it was an in-
centive to settlers. This reservation was not open to '
sale or settlement, and consequently, the territorial Leg-
islature could do nothing with it. When Ohio became
a state these lands were granted to her to be disposed
of by the Legislature. There was thus left to Ohio
for school purposes the splendid endowment of 704,000
acres. The income only from this land could be used.
In consequence up to 1827 they were leased and rented
in various ways. The appraisement of their rental
value was often low and much mismanagement caused
the revenue to be of little value.

The Legislature finally in 1827 provided for their
sale. The money was turned into the State Treasury
and the township to which the section belonged should
receive six per cent interest. Much of it was sold at
once but in some parts of the state there are tracts yet
unsold. In our own county the first was sold in 1831
and the last in 1883. We have twelve "school sec-
tions." The townships of Pleasant and Coal, being
formed from other townships do not happen to have
Section 16 within their limits. The amount received
from their sale in Perry county was $27,829.33. This
gives the schools an annual income of $1,669.76. It

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 97

is divided among the twelve Congressional townships
according to the amount for which their respective
sections sold. The following is the sum each township
receives.

Bearfield $30 21

Clayton 143 95

Hopewell 117 14

Harrison 392 80

Jackson .~ 82 91

Madison 88 38

Mondaycreek 120 00

Monroe 39 30

Pike 258 54

Reading 168 60

Saltlick 107 56

Thorn 120 37

The above amounts do not represent the actual
sum each township can use for its schools ; for the po-
litical township is not always co-extensive with the
"survey township."

In the case of Bearfield, her $31.21 is divided per
capita for all petsons of school age, residing in Bear-
field and the nine sections given to Pleasant. Pleas-
ant township receives the per capita rate of Bear-
field for her children of school age in those nine
sections. Pleasant township also receives the per
capita rate of Monroe township, for the number she
has living in the three sections taken from Mon-
roe. In like manner she gets from Saltlick for the
one section and from Pike for the four sections.
Saltlick's $107.56 is divided among the schools of
Saltlick, Coal and Pleasant. Mondaycreek must pay
almost half of her revenue to Hocking county. Har-
rison and Madison must pay to Muskingum, while
7 H. p. c.

98 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

Reading, the most fortunate of all gets from Fairfield,
on account of those two rows of sections on the west.
Every one of school age in the county gets a share
of this income. Every school board gets its allotment.
A joint district between two townships is entitled to
an amount from the township in which the school
house is not situated.

It is a curious fact that in Thorn and Hopewell
townships, school lands were sold out of Section 15.
In the latter almost all of both Sectioiis 15 and 16 were
disposed of for the schools. The only reason we can
find for this irregularity, is that in many cases, Section
16 had been "entered" before the survey was properly
made. The law gave permission to take in lieu thereof
other land that had not been sold.

The setting aside of this land for the schools, is
one of the achievements for which the United States
Congress under the Articles of Confederation, deserves
no small honor. While the results have not been as
great as its promoters anticipated, yet it was an induce-
ment for the early settlers to found schools. One thirty-
rsixth of all the land for the dissemination of educa-
tion in a wilderness, gives us an idea of the character
of the men who labored for the struggling young na-
tion in the trying ordeal of post-revolutioniary days.
It is no wonder that Ohio should obtain and maintain
a prestige in the production of men, when in her very
incipiency, the means of developing the mind were not
overlooked in the struggle for life and home in the
forest.

Churches.

The church organizations have always been the
social centers in our county. The people who settled
Perry county were very religiously inclined. Soon

J^..iL... ,. . — .. ■

OLD LUTHERAN CEMETERY AT SI^MERSET.

AN OLD TIME MEETING HOUSE.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 99

after the first settlers the missionary came, not to con-
vert, but to gather the people into congregations.

To speak of all af the church communities in this
county would demand more space than the size of this
book will justify.

Only a short time elapsed after the settlement at
Overmeyer town, till there came Rev. William Foster
a Lutheran missionary from Pennsylvania. The first
sermon ever preached in the woods of Perry county
was in what is now the orchard owned by the late
George Weisman. In 1805, at New Reading, the first
congregation in the county, and the first of the Lu-
theran Church in the state was organized. This or-
ganization is yet in existence. The next year, 1806,
Zion's church of Thorn township was begun. This
was erected by the' Lutheran and German Reformed
.congregations, and is the second oldest in the county.
The Reformed minister was Rev. John King, who
settled in the county in 1803. He was the first, there-
fore, -to permanently locate here for Rev. Foster was
a traveling missionary. This Rev. Foster organized
the Lutheran church at Somerset in 1812. He died in
1815 and is buried in the Zion cemetery. The Somer-
set congregation , has a very interesting history. The
church was located in what is now known as the Old
Lutheran Cemetery. It was built of hewed logs and
had a gallery. It had also a pipe organ, built by Henry
Humberger. It was in this church, in 1818, that the
Joint Synod of Ohio was organized, and the first
preacher, Rev. Andrew Hinkle was licensed to preach.
The "Lutheran Standard," the official organ of the
Ohio Lutheran Synod was also for a time printed in
Somerset. At one time, the Lutheran Seminary, now
Capital University, was expected to be located here.

100 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY."

In fact, during the ministry of Rev. Lehman, a theo-
logical class was privately taught.

This congregation and most of the other Lutheran
Churches in the county was served by Rev. Chas,
Hinkle who is buried in the old cemetery.

The Thornville Lutheran Church was organized in
1810 by Rev. Foster in conjunction with Rev. King,
of the Reformed congregation.

Lebanon Lutheran Church at Junction City began
its existence in 181 5. For many years the Reformed
people also worshiped in it. The Lutheran and Re-
formed congregations jointly built St. Paul's at Glen-
ford in 1818.

The same year, the Shelly, or Good Hope Church
was organized. St. John's Lutheran Church in Mon-
daycreek was organized by Rev. Ffankenburg in 1841,
but preaching had been held in private houses and barns
for six years previous.

About a mile and a half east of Mt. Perry is the
United Presbyterian Church on Jonathan Creek.
This denomination was the third to organize a church
in the county. They date from 1807. Their services
were first held in a school house, or, if weather per-
mitted, in a tent. The first pastor was Rev. Abraham
Craig.

Unity Presbyterian Church, in Clayton township,
began its existence in the year 1809. The services
were, at the beginning, transient, both barns and houses
being utilized. In 181 1, Rev. James Culbertson of
Zanesville came once a month. The organization
proper was made in 1816, when Rev. Wright of Lan-
caster became pastor. The old log school house was
used at first. During his pastorate the log church was
built in 1826. Unity congregation had a wide influ-

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 101

ence. Her pastors were scholars. One was a gradu-
ate of Dartmouth and Yale, and another of Princeton.
Rev. Moore rests in the cemetery beneath the shadow
of the church, for which he labored so arduously. Rev.
Henry Beeman of New Lexington, came to Unity in
1866 and for some years served as its efficient pastor.

The Presbyterian congregation in New Lexington
was organized in 1837. Rev. Moore had preached to
the people before. This society deserves to be placed
in the list of pioneers.

The Dunkers or German Baptists, of whom there
were, and are now, quite a number in the northern part
of the county, worshiped in private houses in Thorn
township as early as 1810. In 1817 a congregation was
organized in Madison township near Mt. Perry.

Hopewell Baptist Church, on Zane's Trace, in
Hopewell township is the pioneer church of that de-
nomination. 1812 is the date of its organization. It
was for many years one of the most influential of all
the Baptist societies in the countr)-.

The Hazelton graveyard in Saltlick township is an
old landmark. The church that stood there not only
occupied a prominent position, geographically, but its
influence gave it prominence in another direction. The
Hazelton Baptist Church was the first in Saltlick town-
ship and the second of that denomination in the county.
The church has for many years been destroyed and the
congregation disbanded. The date of its beginning is
1820. John Hazelton for whom it was named was
a soldier of the War of 1812.

To walk from New Lexington to Hazelton's to
attend church was a little difficult, and it was not long
after the organization of the church in Saltlick town-
ship until the Baptists in the vicinity of New Lexing-

102 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

ton concluded that they, too, might support a church.
Accordingly, about 1821, the organization was ef-
fected. In 1825, they built their church of hewed logs.
It contained a gallery and was quite a commodious
building for the time. The present building stands
near the site of the first. It was built in 1845.

A Baptist congregation existed for some years at
Oakfield. It is worthy of being listed as a pioneer.
In 1814 they organized and built a church, but the con-
gregation was small and it soon disbanded.

An organized society of this denomination was at
Bristol in 1832. In the same year, Ebenezer, in Mon-
daycreek was founded.

The pioneer Methodist Circuit Rider early found
his way into the Perry county wilds. The Methodists
held services in the county as soon as any of the de-
nominations. But the first class was not begun till
181 1, when Rev. James B. Finley organized the con-
gregation at Somerset. This was followed the next
year by the formation of a class at Rehoboth. Church
services were held in the latter place in a private house
until 181 8, when a log church was built.

The same year that the Methodists organized at
Rehoboth, the Hopewell class or as it is better known,
the Chalfant's Church was formed.

The Fletcher, or Holcomb M. E. Church is in Bear-
field township. They built a church in 1825, but for
ten years, the congregation had met in private houses.

The first church in Harrison township was the Iliflf,
The log edifice was built in 1819, but that is not the
exact date for the genesis of the society. Bishop Iliflf
of the M. E. Church is from this place.

Madison has an M. E. Church, known as Bethel,

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 103

that antedates IHflf by one year. It organized in i8iS
and in 1819 ,they erected a hewed log church.

Zion Church in the same township is of later origin.
It began about 1834. It is in its cemtetery that General
Ritchey, ex-Congressman lies buried. New Reading
Af. E. Church was organized in 1825.

The New Lexington Methodist congregation was
organized in 1828. The services at first were held in
the old log Baptist Church. Eleven years later they
built their church which was destroyed by fire in 1875^
when the present brick structure was erected.

The .A.sbury M. E. Church in Monroe township
may also be classed among the pioneers. Its begin-
ning was in 1830.

The Bible Christians built a log church in 1820 in
Monroe township. A frame building was more re-
cently erected and services are still held.

The pioneer church of the Disciples was in the east-
ern part of Saltlick township where in 1830 a congre-
gation began its existence.

In 1847, with Daniel Rusk, the father of Jeremiah
Rusk, at the head, a congregation was organized at
Porterville. A log church was built which has since
been supplanted by a frame building. Daniel Rusk
is buried in the cemetery adjoining the church.

St. Matthew's Disciple Church near Mt. Perry was
organized in 1851. The society was disbanded in 1867
and re-organized in 1880.

A Disciple Church existed at Oakfield a few years
subsequent to 1848.

Otterbein United Brethren Church is situated on
the Pike, four miles west of Somerset. It is the first
church of that denomination in the county. It has al-

104 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

ways been a large and influential society and is yet
a strong organization. It dates from 1818.

Zion Church, in Jackson township, is only a few
miles from the mother church. Before a church home
was procured, church services were held in the woods.
When the frosts of autumn came, they would turn
log heaps. The date of the beginning of this society
is 1830.

The Mennonite Church in Mondaycreek is the only
representative of that denomination in the county.
The exact date of its organization is unknown. Its
members were mostly Germans and among them were
many of the first settlers of that community. The
date of its beginning is certainly before, 1830.

The first settlers of Perry county were mostly Prot-
estants. In the north where the German element pre-
dominated, there were mostly Lutherans, German Re-
formed and Dunkers. In the central and southern
parts of the county where the people were mostly Vir-
ginians the Methodists and Baptists were most numer-
ous.

However, among the first pioneers of the county,"
especially in the neighborhood of Somerset, were some
German Catholic families. To Bishop Fenwick be-
longs the honor of being not only the missionary priest
of Perry county but the very first to be settled in Ohio.
It is said that Bishop Fenwick in traveling through
Ohio reached the tavern of John Fink at Somerset,
and upon discovering that his host was a Catholic
celebrated Mass within the rude home of the pioneer.
This is as far as known the first mass ever said within
the bounds of the State. It was the genesis of the
Catholic Church in Ohio. Bishop Fenwick was a priest
of the Dominican Order which had established the

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 105

Convent of St. Rose in Kentucky. Dr. Fenwick was
ably assisted in his missionary work by his nephew,
Father Young.

The Ditto and Fink famihes had entered at the
land office, three hundred and twenty-nine acres of
land, located two miles south of Somerset. This they
donated to Father Fenwick for the express purpose of
establishing a Church and Convent of the Dominican
Order. Fathers Fenwick and Young were sent to take
care of this endowment.

They arrived at their destination about the first of
December 1818. On the sixth of the same month, the
little log chapel in the forest was dedicated. It was the
first Catholic Church in the state of Ohio. The congre-
gation consisted of but six families. Before the end
of the year an addition of stone was built to the log
chapel.

Holy Trinity Church at Somerset was organized
in 1820 by the Dominican Fathers. About this time
Catholics began to pour into the county. It was found
that Holy Trinity and St. Joseph's could not accomo-
date all. Arrangements were made to enlarge the lat-
ter and in 1829 a substantial brick edifice took the
place of the original.

St. Joseph's was the headquarters of the Dominican
Order in America. From its Convent walls, its preach-
ers, for preaching is what the Dominican priesthood
stands for, went into all parts of the country. With
the exception of the Pacific coast, St. Joseph's is yet
the American center of the Order. Most of the Cath-
olic congregations in the county were organized
through the agency of the priests at St. Joseph's.
WRHe all oi these congregations, with the exception
of Holy Trinity, have passed under the ecclesiastical

106 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

control of the Bishop of the Columbus Diocese, the
honor of their organization belongs to the Dominicans.

The Church and Convent were destroyed by fire in
1862. The present buildings were, then erected. For
a time St. Joseph's was also a college, where a purely
secular education could be received. It is now but a
Theological school. It has a magnificent library of
about ten thousand volumes. Many of these are quite
old and valuable.

The Convent is to be taken to Washington City.
At present the students begin their study at St. Rose's,
Kentucky, and complete it at St. Joseph's. After the
removal the initial work will be done at St. Joseph's
and its completion in the Capital City. The "Rosary
Magazine" at Somerset is published under the auspices
of the Order.

Father Fenwick who became Bishop of Cincinnati,
purchased land opposite the church in Somerset for
the purpose of founding a female academy. This
school was opened in 1830 in connection with a Con-
vent. Its success was unbounded till it burned to the
ground in 1866. Because of a generous offer from
Columbus, it was determined to accept the new loca-
tion. The well-known school, St. Mary's of the
Springs, in Columbus, is the successor of St. Mary's at
Somerset.

A few years subsequent to the founding of St. Jo-
seph's, a Catholic Church was built in the eastern part
of Clayton township. It was made of logs and was
used till 1833, when it was abandoned. The congre-
gation then met at Rehoboth,. in a large building that
had been erected for a grist mill. The motive power
of this mill was to be a perpetual motion. Th^; ar-
chitect didn't get the motion perpetuated and he was

CHURCH AT CIIAl'EL IIILF,.

C I-IJ S r(,.\E CHL'KCII.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 107

glad to dispose of the building. This was used as a
church till 1851, when a new one near McLuney was
built. The Rehoboth congregation then worshiped
at the new location. The McLuney church has in
turn been united with the new organization at Crooks-
ville.

St. Patrick's Church near Junction City is one of
the children of St. Joseph's. It was organized in 1830
by Father Young of whom mention has already been
made. The first building was of brick and was quite
small. The present edifice was erected in 1845. I*
is one of the largest church organizations in the county.

Chapel Hill is possibly one of the best known
churches in the county. It may hardly be considered a
pioneer church, since it was not organized till about
1850. Services are not held here now, and the building
is nearing a state of ruin.

The famous old Stone Church in western Saltlick
is, too, in a ruinous condition. The congregation dates
back to 1825. The building that is now falling to
pieces was built in 1839. It was a magnificent struc-
ture for its day and is one of the landmarks of south-
ern Perry.

Schools.

There were two factors in the development of edu-
cation in our county. The Germans built the school-
houses and the Irish furnished the teachers. In the
settlement of our county, the church in every com-
munity was the first institution to be organized; the
school was the second. The result was that the school
and the church were usually built near each other.
Often the church building was used for the school,
and more often the school-house served in the double
capacity. The primitive school-houses of the woods

108 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

were crude affairs. They were all built on the same
general plan. A pen was built of unhewed logs ; the
spaces between the logs were filled with "chinks" and
mud ; one end of the building was occupied by a huge
fire-place, in front of which half of the pupil, alter-
nately roasted and froze, that particular half being
dependent upon whether he sat with his face or back to
the fire. In this huge fire-place, the "dinners" would
often be placed to keep them from freezing. The
benches had no backs. There were low ones for the
little fellows and high ones for the big boys. These
benches were split from trees. The upper side of each
was "smoothed" with an ax, and splinters were often
numerous. The writing desks were along the walls
of the building. A log had been left out above this
place and when the opening was covered with greased
paper an elegant window was the result. Wooden pegs
were driven into the logs upon wliich their caps were
hung. The teacher sat upon a high chair, before a high
desk, opposite the fire-place. Behind him within easy
reach was an abundance of rods. If there was not a
sufficient supply to successfully impress the recalcitrant
pupil with the glories and benefits of an education,
there was no dearth of duplicates in the woods.

The writing pens used by the pupils were made of
quills, and one of the cardinal requisites of every
teacher was that he should be able to make a good quill
pen. The teacher "boarded 'round" and if he hap-
pened to be a genial sort of a personage his coming was
always welcomed. Only the elements of an education
were taught. The spelling-book was always required.
If you were not the possessor of a Reader, any book
you happened to have would serve quite as well. The
Bible was read and at times the Prayer-book made a

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 109

suitable reading book. It has been said that' the cele-
brated Hagerstown Almanac was often utilized.

In searching for the first school in Perry County,
we would naturally look toward New Reading, the
oldest settlement. A subscription school of three
months was conducted there during the winter of 1808.
But it was not the first school. It was the second.
The year previous, an English school was taught about
two miles east of Somerset. An English and German
school was taught in Somerset, the very first year of
the town's organization.

School was conducted within the present limits of
New Lexington, before the town was laid out. The
building was a log cabin that stood at the foot of
Brown street, near the spring that yet sends forth
its sparkling water. This was in 1815. Five years
later a school-house was built where the McClelland
Livery Barn now stands. At about the same time, the
rural districts began to arouse themselves and a school
began its operations near where Arthur King now
lives on the Logan road. "In 1830 Pike Township was
divided into districts, much in the way it is divided
now.

The first school in Madison \\"as taught about one
and a half miles south of Mt. Perry. No date can be
found for this school but it evidently was quite early.

Bearfield began to have schools about 1820.

Some of the early teachers were men who knew
very little about teaching. Again there were among
them some of considerable ability. They were for the
most part persons who would drop into a neighbor-
hood, teach their term of school and drop out again.
A few remained as fixtures.

110 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

In the Bethel Presbyterian Cemetery near Middle-
town, is buried one of these old time pedagogues. His
name was Colonel Thorn. For many years he taught
at Somerset, but finally, he like all teachers must,
sooner or later, dropped out of the ranks. For many
years afterward he was a familiar figure with his pecu-
liar "teacher ways."

Prof. Charles Nourse was for many years a prom-
inent teacher. In Somerset he taught a select school,
under the very dignified name of "The Somerset Col-
legiate Institute." Prof. Nourse afterwards became
principal of the New Lexington public schools. He
was one of the examiners of Perry County, and an
examination taken under him in 1866 is described as
follows : "There were thirty-two applicants — ten men
and twenty-two women. The applicants were ar-
ranged as a class in school and the examination pro-
ceeded orally. It seems that Prof. Nourse was the
only examiner present. The questions were given to
the head of the class and if answered correctly due
credit was given, if not it was passed to the next, and
so on through the class. When the examination was
completed, those who had passed successfully were
given certificates at once. At this examination all of
the ladies received certificates, but only four of the
men were successful. In giving out the certificates,
the examiner, who was evidently somewhat of a ladies'
man, remarked that it was no more than right to in-
dulge the ladies."

Our first schools were supported from the revenue
of school lands. These being insufficient, the fund was
augmented by private subscription. The pioneer
school law of Ohio was passed in 1821. It provided
for a tax, the division of a township into districts, and

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. Ill

the election of three men in each district to levy the
tax, build the school-house, employ the teacher and
be the judge of his qualifications. It was left to the
option of the electors whether they would make such
provisions or not. This made the district the unit and
the people of Ohio still cling to that idea. In 1825, a
law was passed, making it mandatory upon the town-
ship trustees to divide townships into school districts,
each district to elect three directors, who should build
a school-house, employ a teacher, make the needful
assessments and superintend the school. The teacher's
qualifications were to be determined by a Board of
County Examiners. In 1838 the law was enacted mak-
ing the township clerk superintendent of the township
schools. His duty was to visit each school at least
once a year and examine all matters "touching the
situation, discipline, mode of teaching, and improve-
ment thereof." At least six months of good schooling
was required.

In 1847 the celebrated Akron Law was passed.
This gave the right, to provide "for the support and
better regulation of the common schools in that town."
The next year this law was made general. And still
the next year the "Law of 1849" was applied to all
cities and towns. Under this law the modern High
School had its origin.

In 1853, a general law was passed, designating one
of the sub-directors a member of the township Board
of Education. It was practically as it is now with the
exception that the township board had no voice in em-
ploying the teacher. Its jurisdiction was only general.
This law also provided for the levy of one-tenth of a
mill upon the taxable property for the purpose of fur-

112 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

nishing libraries and apparatus for the common schools
of the state.

Under this provision $300,000 was spent during the
years 1854-55-56 and 59. The books were the cream
of the literature then extant and 400,000 volumes were
distributed throughout the state. There was lack of
system in their distribution and in many places they
were allowed to be lost. The cry of economy on the
part of the farmers was raised. It was for them and
their children that the library was inaugurated. The
law was repealed. It made no appreciable difference
in the taxes of any farmer and as a consequence he had
"cut off his own nose to spite his face."

Madison Academy. — The glory of Madison
Academy has departed. But it is still vivid in the
memories of the citizens of Mt. Perry. They delight
to tell of the palmy days, when their village was an
educational Mecca-; when their streets were filled with
young men and women, who had come to drink deep
at learning's fountain. Those were halcyon days —
the days when William D. Harper of the Chicago Uni-
versity, recited within the walls of the "Academy" and
William O. Thompson of our own State University,
came to Mt. Perry to attend church and Sunday School.

Madison Academy was founded in 1871 under the
direction of the Rev. James White. It was controlled
by the United Presbyterian Church. This denomina-
tion is particularly strong in that section. The Acad-
emy served somewhat as a feeder for Muskingum Col-
lege, at New Concord. But it had a better field of
usefulness in another way. In the days before the
High School era, the youth from the district school

jmadisdn academy.

SALT KETTLE OF lS2fi.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 113

repaired to its precincts for the benefits of a higher
education. It did its work well for many years. Mad-
ison Academy is of the past but its influence is of
the present. The building has been turned over to
the Board of Education in consideration of their main-
taining a Township High School.

A school of higher education for girls, that is at-
tracting some notice beyond the confines of our own
county is St. Aloysius Academy near New Lexing-
ton. It was organized in 1876 by Sisters of the Fran-
ciscan Order. It has had a steady growth, both in the
number of students and influence. The buildings have
been enlarged from time to time and its students go
out into life with nothing but praise for the efficiency
of instruction received from those sisters.

Mills.

The first manufacturing establishment of our
county was the grist mill. The mills were called "corn
crackers." Their motive power was the horse. There
were dozens of these in the county. A little later mills
were built along the streams. They were water mills
and they not only ground corn and wheat but also
sawed lumber. The saw resembled our modem cross-
cut saw, and it stood upright. The boards could not
be sawed off the logs entirely, and an ax was used to
complete the work. There was hardly a stream in the
county that had not several mills upon it. Jonathan
Creekjwas "lined" with -thefflT Hood's Run that flows
from Somerset toward the Moxahala had five within
as many .miles. The best known of these were tJiose of

8 H. p. c.

114 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

Parkinson and Hood, near Somerset. Little Monday-
creek had three within three miles. Big Mondaycreek
had several, while Sundaycreek and its tributaries and
the South Fork of the Moxahala and Rush Creek had
their quota. These old mills have disappeared as far
as their being used is concerned. The dilapidated
ruins of some are yet to be seen, while in many a far-
mer's field the boy of to-day looks with wonder at
two great, round pieces of rock with a hole in the
center of each. These are the burr stones that ground
the grain for our forefathers.

The presence of so many mills along our streams
in former days shows how abundant the running water
was and \vhat a change has taken place. Few of our
creeks could now furnish enough water. The cutting
of the timber is thought to be the cause of this change-
To James Moore of Bearfield Township, belongs
the honor of being the inventor of the portable saw
mill. It did its first work in Bearfield Township. It
was only an eight horse power mill, but it was a great
.step in the evolution of the manufacture of lumber.

Oil Works.

before the days of petroleum the tallow dip served
to light the pioneer cabin. Just before the Civil War
jt was discovered that a vein of cannel coal, which had
its outcrop in Mondaycreek Township, contained a
large percentage of oil.

On Coalbrook, a branch of Little Mondaycreek a
plant for the extraction of the oil was erected and for
many years did a thriving business. There are yet
living in Mondaycreek, many people who remember
seeing the surface of the stream covered with the re-
fuse oil from the Coalbrook oil works.

OLD SALT WORKS AT McCUNE\-ILLE.

A TOBACCO HOUSE.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 115

A similar plant existed west of Maxville. It was
more extensive and did a greater amount of business.
Large kettles were used in the extraction of the oil.
The abundance of petroleum coming from the Penn-
sylvania oil fields made the manufacture unprofitable.
The oil factories were razed to the ground and noth-
ing but the burnt earth and loose stones from the old
chimneys, yet remain to testify to this former Perry
County industry.

The Old Salt Kettle.

The picture of the large kettle is taken from one
that was used to boil salt water three-quarters of a
century ago. It was used at the "salt lick" where
McCuneville now stands. The Manufacture of salt
began in 1826 and continued for some time. But the
simplicity of manufacture was unequal to more ad-
vanced methods and it was discontinued. Nothing
remained but a stone chimney that stood for forty
years, as a monument of days of yore. But the old
kettles still exist. The writer knows of at least three,
yet doing service in the way of watering troughs or
for boiling water at butchering time.

The McCune Salt Works.

The picture represents the McCune Salt Works at
McCuneville. When the Straitsville branch of the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was built to Shawnee,
Mr. McCune of Newark, erectea a considerable plant
for the manufacture of salt. He expended about
$40,000 in boring wells and getting improved ma-
chinery. A town sprang up and it gave every evidence
of permanency. But the plant was bought by a "trust"

116 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

and it shut down never to operate again. Nothing
remains of these works and their past existence is
like the shadow of a dream.

Tobacco Houses.

The picture represents one of the last of its
kind. Fifty years ago the tobacco house was a fam-
iliar object. It has since gone into decay or been con-
verted into stables or sheds, till it is a difficult task to
find one in a good state of preservation. It has been
relegated to the past. But the sight of one, or its
picture, is an obj ect lesson in the history of the develop-
ment of the county. Without it the pioneer settler
would not have been able to pay his taxes, to buy the
farm necessities which he himself could not produce,
nor to pay for the land itself. Nothing that the
pioneer could produce had such a market value as
tobacco. The soil of the county, especially in the
southern part, was peculiarly adapted to its growth.
It had the added merit of being the easiest crop raised.
A very small patch of it yielded very large returns
in comparison with other crops. It could be planted
among the stumps of deadened trees and be cultivated
by hand. When the leaves were ready for gathering
they were stripped from the stalk and strung upon
long sticks. These were hung upon poks in the to-
bacco houses. The houses were built very high, that
the tobacco might be out of the reach of the flames.
The entire upper part, reaching to the rafters was
filled. Then a fire was started and the members of
the family took turns at watching. It required close
attention for a single spark striking the drying leaves
would often set it on fire and crop and building would
go up in smoke. This was always a calamity, for it

REJIATXS OF A ilAWlLLE I.OIE-KILN.

AX OLD TIME POTTERY,

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 117

meant that the pioneer family would have to go with-
out some things, and money would have to be borrowed
to pay the taxes "and probably for a payment on the
land.

Rehoboth and Maxville were the tobacco emporiums
of the county. Huge warehouses were erected at these
places, and the business that was done in a single day,
during the tobacco season, was greater than is now
done in the same village, in two months. It has not
been many years since the old warehouse at Maxville
was razed to the ground. The tobacco house occu-
pied a very prominent place in the industrial history
of the county.

Lime-Kilns.

The lime-kilns of Perry County were also factors
in the industrial progress of the county's early his-
tory. Before the mines had begun to pour out their
black streams of wealth, before the iron ores were
being utilized, the lime deposits were drawn upon and
changed into "coin of the realm" for their owners.
With the exception of the salt, the limestone was the
first mineral of the county to be used. Maxville was
the center of this industry. Here in the early thirties
the sub-carboniferous strata was quarried and burned.
Logan, New Lexington, Lancaster and all intermedi-
ate points, went to Maxville to get lime to plaster their
houses. The kilns were built of stone, placed against
a bank. The lime was poured through an aperture
in the top, and after sufficient burning it was raked
through an opening in the bottonij,,- Once, many of
these kilns were in operation at Maxville, but they
have all disappeared, and their site is now known only
by the presence of piles of burnt lime, around a depres-
sion in the earth. The picture here shown is such a

118 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

representation. There were also a few kilns west of
Carthon where the sub-carboniferous crops out near
the tops of the hills. The last kiln ceased to operate
in the county about 1885. The large quarries in the
northern part of the state where the lime was more
accessible, produced it more cheaply, although not
better in quality.

An Old Time Pottery.

"Turn, turn, my wheel! All things must change
To something new, to something strange;
Nothing that is can pause or stay;
The moon will wax, the moon will wane.
The mist and cloud will turn to rain,
The rain to mist and cloud again,
To-morrow; be to-day." — Longfellow.

The poet makes the potter sing truly, when he says,

"All things must change.
To something new, to something strange.
Nothing that is can pause or stay.''

There is no industry in which that truth is more
manifest than in the manufacture of pottery itself.
True, a great deal of the product is yet shaped by hand,
but the large concerns at Crooksville, employing scores
of men, the work being done by machinery that turns
out thousands where dozen were originally produced,
is in sharp contrast to the "old timers," where the clay
was ground by the family horse, and the wheel was
turned by the foot.The kilns were but overgrown
bake-ovens. Verily the world "do move."

The utilization of potter's clay has for over sixty
years been an important industry in the county. As
early as 1838, Caleb Atwater, Ohio's first historian,
in speaking of Perry county said, "A white clay is

A (UTi'ST (IF DKl'AKTEO IXDUSTRV. r.AlKll I-^TRXACE.

.MllI>I-:r. C'liAL MIXE, C(IX(~,(l.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 11&

found in abundance, suitable for pots and crucibles.
It stands the heat very well, growing whiter when it
is exposed to the greatest heat. It will one day be used
extensively in the manufacture of Liverpool earthen-
ware. It contains no iron and is almost infusible be-
fore the blow-pipe."

The neighborhood of Saltillo has furnished earth-
enware for a long time. Along Buckeye Creek and
the South Fork of Jonathan, the potteries were fre-
quent. About the time of the Civil War, a pottery was
conducted in Mondaycreek. It produced a good qual-
ity of ware.

Caleb At\\ater"s prophecy has proved to be true.
The clays of Perry county are the best in the world.
The manufacture of brick, stoneware or Portland
cement can here be made a source of great profit. The
abundance of clay, the presence of the coal fields,
and the railroad facilities are making Perry county
famous in the clay business. Perry county clay-ware
is shipped in car lots to the states of the west and
the south-west and the business bids fair to increase
as the years go by.

Blast Furnaces.

"And far in the hazy distance
Of that lovely night in June,
The blaze from the flaming furnace
Gleamed redder than the moon." — Longfellow.

At- one time the flames of seven blast furnaces in
our counts' lighted the mid-night sky. Just a few rods
across the Perry-Hocking line two others poured out
their molten mass of the useful metal.

The furnaces of Perrj' County were the first to
utilize the raw coal in the production of iron.

120 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

Baird Furnace, in Mondaycreek, was the pioneer
Furnace in'this region. Mr. Samuel Baird had charge
of the old char-coal furnace at Logan and became
thoroughly acquainted with the mineral resources
of southern Perry. Mr. Baird purchased quite a
tract of land in eastern Mondaycreek. for tlie purpose
of manufacturing iron from the native material. Many
experienced iron men thought it a rash undertaking.
The site of the furnace was three miles from a rail-
road. It would be expensive to get the product of
his furnace to market. But Mr. Baird knew "his
business." He built the furnace on an entirely new
plan. The stack was placed against the hill. The
coal was mined a few rods back of it and the track
from the mine led to the top of the stack. The na-
tive ore was taken from the hills and the Maxville
and Zoar limes were used as flux.

It was asserted that pig-iron could be manufactured
here cheaper than any place in the world. It was
doubted. In January, 1876, the American Manufac-
turer contained a description of this furnace and the
following estimate of the cost of a ton of iron.

Two and three-fourths tons of coal, at 50

cents, $1,375, say $1 40

Two and three- fourths tons of ore, at $2.25.. . 6 00
Three-fourths ton of limestone, at $1.30, or

$1.05. say 1' 10

Labor 3 00

Repairs 1 00

Interest and discount 50

Total $13 00

It is said that the iron trade at the time of the
building of Raird Furnace was in a depressed state,
but the price of stone-coal pig in the markets ranged

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 121

from $21 to $31 per ton. This still left a large margin
for profits. After one year's experience, Mr. Baird
further astonished the iron men with another state-
ment, as follows:

Ore from furnace land $3 85

Ore, if purchased $6 00

Coal 1 60 1 60

Limestone 1 00 1 00

Labor, repairs and interest -t 40 5 40

Totals $13 00 $1185

The cost of the furnace was $45,000. After con-
structing the road over which the iron was hauled by
oxen and counting the cost of construction as current
expense, the net profits of the first year's work was
$25,000 or 55 per cent of the original cost of the
furnace.

It is not surprising that other furnaces soon fol-
lowed. Gen. Thomas built one at Gore just across
the count}- line.

Another one, Winona, was erected a few rods from
the Perry line on Little Monday-creek.

Moss and JXIarshall built the Bessie Furnace near
Straitsville. This Furnace is yet running. It produces
a peculiar grade of iron which is in great demand.

Three Furnaces were built in Shawnee. They
were the Fannie, the XX and the New York. The
latter is the only one now running. At Moxahala,
another was operated until removed to Columbus.
Some of these furnaces have been entirely taken away
while others are falling into ruins from disuse. The
discovery of larger mineral fields and the decline in
tlie- price of iron has been the cause of the abandon-
ment of the extensive manufacture of iron in our
countv.

122 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

Coal Mines.

The greatest of our industries is coal mining. No
county in the State surpasses Perry in the produc-
tion of coal, nor in the use of modern appliances
necessary for its successful mining.

The pioneers of the county were in total ignorance
of the immense wealth that lay buried beneath them.
Many even did not know that there was coal here.
It had no attractions for the hardy settler who found
a sufficient supply of fuel in the forest around his
home. He had to cut the trees down in order to have
fields for cultivation. He had to burn the wood and
if he could use it to warm his home he considered
himself fortunate and counted it so much clear gain.

It is not known when the presence of coal in our
hills was first discovered. But as early as 1816 it was
used to a limited extent. It soon found its way into
some of the well-to-do houses in town, public buildings,
etc. Somerset got her supply from the mines in the
neighborhood of St. Joseph's. Dr. Ponjade, a French-
man, operated a mine near Rehoboth in 1830. At
about the same time the mines of Mondaycreek and
Saltlick were opened.

When the old Cincinnati, Wilmington and Zanes-
ville, now the C. & M. V. Railroad, was built coal min-
ing became of some importance in the neighborhood of
McLuney. The coal was shipped mostly to the towns
along that road.

The coal era of our county began in 1870.
Through the efforts of Col. James Taylor and others,
the vast mineral resources of the county were made
known to the world. Capital flowed here and rail-
roads were being built. The Baltimore and Ohio ex-

POWER HOUSE AT CONGO MINE.

THE CORNING OIL FIELD.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 123

tending into Saltlick, opened up that territory and
Shawnee is the result. The Hocking Valley Railroad
ran a branch to Straitsville and New Straitsville be-
came quite a village in a short time. The Atlantic and
Lake Erie, now the Ohio Central Railroad, pene-
trated into the Sundaycreek Valley, and Coming and
Rendville sprang up as if by magic. The Columbus
and Eastern, now the Columbus, Sandusky and Hock-
ing gave Clayton township access to the world and her
coal found a read}- market.

The coal field is in no wise exhausted. Towns are
still springing up, new mines are being opened and
it will be many a day before we can say of the coal
industry what we can of the iron.

The mine at Congo is one of the model mines of the
country. It has been operated about ten years and
tens of thousands of tons of the "Black Diamonds"
have passed over its screens.

Oil Wells.

It was a fortunate thing for Corning and vicinity
that petroleum was discovered when it was. In Au-
gust, 1891, the Toledo and Ohio Central Railroad was
suffering from a scarcity of water. A deep well was
being drilled at the round house. At a depth of
630 feet salt water was struck. This could not be
used. They accordingly cased off this water and
bored the well to a depth of 1 507 feet. They yet found
no water, and work ceased for a few days, when they
were surprised to find that oil had been thrown on the
top of the derrick.

This discovery caused the oil men to flock to the
territory and it was not long until derricks could be
seen on every hill. In June. 1892. the first well was

124 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

shot in section 14, Madison township with eighty
quarts of glycerine which had been brought by wagon
from Sistersville, W. Va.

The oil development began about the time of the
panic of 1893. Corning hardly knew what "Hard
times" were. It is estimated that there has been over
1,200 producing wells in the entire field. The flow of
oil is not so great as formerly. A pipe line carries the
oil to Marietta, a distance of thirty-four miles. This
line began operation in 1893. The oil had previously
been transported in tanks on cars. When the pipe
line first began to work the daily output from the field
was 500 barrels. In 1896 it had increased to 1,300
barrels daily. It is now considerably less.

According to official "reports, the Buckeye Pipe
Line in the seven years, from 1893 to 1900, had trans-
ported 2,227,303 barrels. The amount produced since
then would be a considerable augmentation to the
above figures.

The Inventor of a Revolver.

Several years before the Colt's Revolvers were in-
vented, Adam Humberger, a gunsmith in Somerset
had made three models. He was of an inventive mind
and somewhat of a genius in his line. On a muster
day in Somerset, sometime back in the thirties, he
tested the utility of his invention before several hun-
dreds of people, with great success. He, however,
never realized any pecuniary benefit from his inven-
tion. He also invented a com harvester but died be-
fore it was perfected.

MONUMENT TO 31ST O. V. I., NEW
LEXINGTON, OHIO.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 125

Perry County in War.

Our county need not be ashamed of her war record.
In every war in which our country has been engaged,
except the Revohition, Perry county has furnished her
quota. Beneath her sod rests men who were partici-
pants in that first great struggle of ours in which we
secured our independence.

Quite a number of the first settlers in the county
were Revolutionary soldiers. Christian Binckley, of
whom mention has already been made, came from
Maryland, where he had rendered important service to
his country.

Wm. Dusenberr}-, the first settler in Madison town-
ship, served in the army under Washington.

Daniel Devore, buried in a little cemetery east of
Coming, was also a member of the Continental army.

There are quite a number of others especially in
the north of the county.

During the War of 1812, Perry county, as such did
not exist. The men who enlisted from here were ac-
credited to Fairfield. It is not known how many sol-
diers were in that war from Perry county, but a few
are known. They were John Fowler, the first settler
of Pike township ; John Lidey, of Reading and Henry
Hazelton, of Saltlick.

When the ]\lexican War broke out, our citizens
were not long in answering the call of President Polk
for volunteers. Two companies were organized in
this county under Captains Noles and Filler. These
companies were taken to the scene of the war but they
were never in a pitched battle. They did ^ome fight-
ing with the guerilla troops only. There is one sur-

126 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

vivor of this War in Perry County, Mr. Joel Spohn,
of Reading.

When the news of the fall of Fort Sumter came to
New Lexington, Lyrnan J. Jackson, who was then
Prosecuting Attorney, resigned his office, and at once
began to raise a company. In a few days a sufficient
number had enlisted and they were mustered in as
Company E of the 17th O. V. I. They were under
Gen. McClellan and did service in West Virginia.
They were what is known as the "Hundred Day" men.

When President Lincoln called for volunteers for
three years, Major John W. Free, at once raised a
company in the southern townships. It took but a few
days until his men were ready to go to Camp Chase,
where they were mustered in as Company A of the
31st Ohio.

A few weeks later Col. W. H. Free, a brother of
the Major, had raised another company in Pike, Salt-
lick, Monroe and Clayton townships. His company be-
came Company D of the 31st.

In the meantime, Capt. Jackson's term of enlist-
ment had expired. He at once began to raise another
company, which became Company G of the 31st.

The Thirty-first Regiment did valiant service at
Stone River, fought with stubborn resistance at Chick-
amauga, swept over Mission Ridge, was with Sher-
man at Atlanta, and with him marched to the sea.

Capt. John F. Fowler of New Lexington, raised a
company which reported at Camp Chase and entered
as Company D, 30th O. V. I. This regiment was under
fire at the second Bull Run contest. The Perry county
company was in the hottest of the fight at South
Mountain, took an honorable part at Antietam, was
present at the investment of Vicksburg, participated

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 127

in the battle of Mission Ridge, went with Sherman to
the sea, was a part of the attacking force that stormed
Ft. McAllister, and then when the war was over,
marched in Grand Review in the Capital City.

The Sixty-second regiment was full of Perry Coun-
tians. There were three full companies from this
county and two other companies were composed mostly
of Perry men. This regiment saw service under Gen,
Rosecrans at the first battle of Winchester. It took
part in the bloody assault at Fort Wagner. It assisted
at the siege at Petersburg. Many of its men fell at
Deep Bottom and some saw the final conflict under
Grant at Appomattox.

Company H of the Ninetieth Regiment was re-
cruited in this county by Col. N. F. Hitchcock. This
regiment lost heavily at Stone River under Rosecrans.
It was with Thomas at Nashville when he was taking
care of Hood, that Sherman's campaign might be a
success.

The One Hundred and Fourteenth Regiment con-
tained two companies from Perry county. Company
G was composed mostly of men from Mondaycreek and
Jackson townships. Company I, was recruited in the
northern townships. This regiment was present at the
fall of Vicksburg and did service in Arkansas and
Texas. It suffered considerably with disease, caused
by the unhealthful climate. In the One Hundred and
Twenty-sixth, Company K was composed of men from
Thorn, Hopewell and Madison townships. This regi-
ment saw some service. It was a part of the army of
the Potomac and took part in the battle of the Wil-
derness, Spottsylvania and Cold Harbor. It was with
Sheridan at Winchester and saw the gallant Perry
Countian ride on the field at Cedar Creek. They lay

128 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

before Richmond and went with Sherman to receive
the surrender of Johnson.

Quite a number of men from our county belonged
to the Seventeenth Regiment, after it re-organized for
the three years' service. There was in the aggregate
about one company, enUsted by Captains Stinchcomb
and Ricketts. This regiment participated in the battles
of Stone River, Chickamauga and Mission Ridge. It
was in the -Atlanta campaign and subsequently went
with Sherman to the sea.

Company K of the One Hundred and Twenty-ninth
was enlisted in our county. It was under the command
of Burnside and did active service in Tennessee, par-
ticularly at Cumberland Gap.

The Legislature of Ohio in 1863 passed an act for
the organization of the Ohio National Guard. Six full
companies were organized in Perry county. They be-
came a part of the One Hundred and Sixtieth, O. N.
G. It did work in the Shenandoah valley, guarding
supply trains and keeping down the guerillas. They
had one skirmish with the celebrated Mosby Com-
mand.

Perry county did her full duty in the Great Civil
Conflict. From General Sheridan down to the hum-
blest private, she deserves her share of the honors.
Her sons fought along side of the best and bravest.
They poured out their blood upon the fields of con-
flict. They suffered from disease in hospitals and far
worse did they suffer in prison pens. All honor to the
men whom Perry county sent forth when her country
called.

In the Spanish-American War several Perry county
boys saw active service in Cuba, Porto Rico, and the
Philippines. One company was enlisted in this county.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 129

Captain T. D. Binckley at the head of Company A,
Seventh O. V. I., spent the summer of 1898 at Camp
Alger, Va., and Camp Mead, Pa., waiting for the call
to go to the front. The war closed too soon and the
boys came home to pursue the ways of peace.

Perry County in Congress.

Our county has furnished two men to occupy seats
in the United States House of Representatives. Each
of them served two full terms and one an unexpired
term, thus giving the county over eight years in Con-
gress.

In 1846 Gen. Thomas Ritchey, a farmer of Mad-
ison township was elected. He lived about one mile
west of Sego on the Maysville Pike. It was during
this term that Phil Sheridan, then a boy in Somerset,
applied for admission to West Point, and secured it
through Congressman Ritchey. General Ritchey had
served in the capacity of County Treasurer some years
previous. In 1852 he was again elected from the
eleventh district. Congressman Ritchey was a Demo-
crat in politics. He led on his farm a quiet and unas-
suming life. He died from tlie effects of a bum and is
buried in the Zion M. E. Cemetery, in Madison town-
ship.

Our next Congressman from Perry county was
William' E. Fincke of Somerset. He was nominated
by the Democratic party and elected to the 38th and
39th Congresses from the twelfth district, and again
later to fill out the term made vacant by H. J. Jewett.
He served during the Civil War, his first election be-
ing in 1862. While in Congress he was a member of
the judiciary committee. Congressman Fincke was

130 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

born in Somerset in 1822. He was educated at St.
Joseph's. Admitted to the practice of law at the age
of twenty-one, he was almost immediately appointed
Prosecuting Attorney. He was originally a Whig
and in 1848 was the candidate for Congress on that
ticket, coming within a few votes of being elected in a
Democratic district. In 1854 when Know-Nothing-ism
swept the Whig party out of existence, Mr. Fincke
allied himself with the Democratic party. He repre-
sented Perry and Muskingum counties in the Soth and
51st General Assemblies, and was the Democratic
nominee for the offices of Attorney General and Judge
of the Supreme Court on the state ticket.

Mr. Fincke died in 1901. He was a gentleman of
the old school — courteous, affable and dignified ; hon-
ored by all who knew him, and respected because of his
sterling worth, honesty and integrity.

Removal of the County Seat.

When the county was organized, New Lexington
and Rehoboth were aspirants for the honor of being
the county seat. When Somerset secured the prize,
these villages were very jealous of their successful
rival. As the south of the county became more densely
populated, agitation for the removal of the county seat
to a more "central" position was begun. Rehoboth
and New Lexington could both a^ree upon the word
"central." About 1840 Rehoboth came to a standstill
in her growth and her fate was sealed. New Lexing-
ton became the sole rival of Somerset.

During the decade beginning with 1840, several
men were elected to the Legislature with the expec-
tation that they would secure the passage of a bill for
the removal of the county seat. In 1849 it had become

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 131

I 1

a question of such importance that the issue on the
election of Representative was "Removal," or "Let
well enough alone." In this election, the friends of
removal carried the day. In 185 1 after a hard struggle
and considerable "lobbying" a bill was passed for the
removal to New Lexington, provided that a majority
of the electors of the county so wished. The contest
which followed was a most exciting one. The result
showed that "For Removal" had a majority of 292.

The Somerset people then put the matter into the
courts to test the constitutionality of the law that pro-
vided for the election. Allen G. Thurman was then a
judge of the District Court and his opinion was that
the law was entirely in accord with the constitution.
This put the county seat at New Lexington. But there
was no Court House at that place in which to store
the records.

The Somerset people then succeded in securing the
passage of a bill for the "removal" back to Somerset.
This, too, was left to the electors. In 1853 the second
election was held. It was even more exciting than the
first one. The Democratic part}- was divided. The
Whigs put no ticket into the field. Somerset was
filled with strangers, who were working on the rail-
road that was to run through that place. New Lex-
ington was filled with strangers who were working on
the Cincinnati, Wilmington and Zanesville Railroad.
Somerset voted these strangers without inquiring too
closely as to their residence. So, too, did New Lexing-
ton. The New Lexington contingent paid men who
lived along the border of adjoining counties two dollars
per day to move their families across the line till after
the election. So too, did Somerset. Election day
came and Somerset won. New Lexington cried

132 IIISTOKY OF PERRY COUNTY.

"fraud." Somerset did not deny it. Their reply was
that you "fight fire with fire." This result allowed the
capital to remain at Somerset.

It was now New Lexington's turn to go into the
courts and demand an opinion as to the constitution-
ality of the law under which Somerset gained her vic-
tory. It was several years before the decision came.
It was to the effect that the law was in dire conflict
with constitutional prerogative and, therefore, the elec-
tion held thereunder was null and void. That meant
that the first law was still in force. In January, 1857,
the removal was made by wagon over the hills, and
New Lexington was happy. Somerset was equally de-
pressed but full of "fight," for in 1859 they succeeded
in naming the Democratic candidate for Representa-
tive. Their candidate was persona non grata to the
Lexingtonians, who proceeded to nominate another.
Two Democratic tickets in the field and no Republican,
made things intensely interesting. The election was
exciting. The people were desperate. It was the final
struggle. New Lexington won and Somerset was
ready to quit. New Lexington was glad of the chance.

The agitation and contest over the affair, from the
beginning to the finality covered a period of eighteen
years. Wars in which the destiny and fate of nations
Jiave been determined, have occupied considerable less
time. The county seat question made a "Mason and
Dixon Line" in our county, which is even yet retraced
on special occasions.

It may not be generally known that when the
Somerset party saw that it was "all up" with them,
a petition was presented to the Ohio Legislature, "pray-
ing" for the dissolution of Perry county and the divi-
sion of her territory among the contiguous counties.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 133

This petition was presented by the Representative of
Morgan county. The original, containing the names of
many of the prominent citizens of northern Perry, was
found in a barrel, stowed away in an attic, some years
since. The author tells this as a matter of history. His
information came from a reliable citizen of Morgan
county, whose veracity can not be questioned. It only
serves to show to what height sectional feeling had
arisen over the permanent location of the county seat.

Public Buildings.

Including John Fink's Tavern at Somerset, our
county has her fifth Court House. Justice was dis-
pensed there at the first while the various offices were
located in rented rooms. In 1819 a stone and brick
building was erected on South Columbus strefet, in
Somerset, as a jail. A court room and some of the
offices were also included. The cost of this building
was*$2,335. This was our capitol till 1829, when a
new Court House was built on the north side of the
Public Square. This building still stands as it was
then built, with the exception of a jail, joined to it in
1848, and some recent repairs. The original building
of 1829 cost the tax payers of Perry County $6,600,
while the jail, built to it was erected for the sum of
$6,195.92. The 1829 building was not large enough
to accommodate all of the offices. A part of them re-
mained in the old jail building, till the new one was
completed.

Over the main door of the Court House can yet be
seen that wonderful inscription —

"Let Justice be done.
If the Heavens should fall."

134 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

As to its real meaning this inscription has long been
an enigma. It is a case wherein considerable reading
between the lines can be indulged. 'If the period after
the word done be changed to a comma, as was evidently
the intention, we are left in a considerable quandary
as to the time when justice will prevail. If the period
be allowed to remain, then we have two sentences. The
first one sounds very well and is a noble sentiment.
Then after the second sentence we are obliged to place
an. exclamation point, all of which then seems to con-
vey the idea, that the justice therein administered, was
such a rarity, that when it was rendered, the heavens
would certainly collapse.

The first Court House at New Lexington was not
paid for by the tax payers. The friends of removal to
New Lexington, by private subscription, raised the
necessary amount. One of the stipulations in the Act
for the change of the county seat, was that suitable
buildings should be provided. After the completion
of the building it stood vacant for several years before
the offices were placed in it.

The present Court House was built in 1887, at a
cost of $143,000. It is one of the finest buildings for
its purpose in the state.

The original County Infirmary was built in 1839
and 1840. It was enlarged some time in the seventies.
Strange to say that the part built in 1839 is still in
sufficiently good condition, to render it suitable to
be built to by the new building that is now being con-
structed, while the one more recently built has been
condemned and is being torn down. The one that
is now building will be a handsome structure, with all
of the modern improvements. It is to cost $35,000.

OLD COURT HOrSE AT SOMERSET.

HIS-ORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 135

The Orphans' Home is a large commodious build-
ing that has been prepared to shelter quite a number
of children. It is situated at the eastern edge of New
Lexington and has been established about a dozen
years.

The Underground Railroad.

"Many years ago on a dark, bitter cold night, if
persons had passed the old M. E. Church in Deaver-
town, and observed closely, they might have seen dim
lights within, and heard low, strange whisperings while
the winds whistled mournfully around the house and
among the tombs of the dead. And if persons seeing
and hearing this had become frightened and gone away
without closer investigation, there would have been
marvelous stories of a haunted house and church-
yard, the secret of which, the death of two or three
persons would have left forever imrevealed. But it
was all very natural and easily accounted for.''

The above is quoted from the New Lexington
Tribune of some years ago. It was written by Thomas
Lonsdale Gray of Deaverto\\'n. He was a descendant
of Lord Lonsdale of North Yarmouth, England, and
was one of the principal conductors on the famous "Un-
derground Railroad." The picture shown is that of
Air. Gray and his home. The house has the same
appearance as it had when it sheltered fugitive slaves.

^^'hile the highway of runawa)- slaves did not pass
directly through Perr\- county, yet it was so near the
Perry-Morgan line and many times altogether in the
county, that she too can share in the glory of the
"Underground." Between the years 1850-60 fugitive
slaves were numerous. The lines of travel were well
defined. Communities where a strong pro-slavery sen-
timent prevailed were evaded. Stations were estab-

136 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

lished at certain intervals and conductors were ever
ready to assist in their flight. Deavertown seems to
have been the convergence of two routes from the
Ohio river. The most important of these was the one
coming by the way of Pennsville, in Morgan county.
Pennsville was a Quaker settlement. The other one
came by way of Athens and followed the Athens and
Zanesville road. This one passed through Porters-
ville. From Deavertown the route extended to Zanes-
ville. Roseville was not considered a healthful place
and so they kept to the right. John Ball in Porters-
ville made his home a stopping-place, while David H.
Deaver. commanded the first one south of Deavertown,
known as Station D.

The subterfuges resorted to, makes highly interest-
ing reading. The evasion of slave hunters, the putting
them on the wrong scent and the narrow escapes are
thrilling to say the least. Hundreds of slaves were
transferred over this "railroad" and many people yet
remember the "knock at the door" and the dark shadow
that was ushered into the attic to await the next move.

Morgan's Raid.

■"Morgan is coming! Morgan is coming!" This
was the cry that startled the midnight air, in southern
Perry, as a galloping horseman, like Paul Revere, rode
over our hills to arouse the "country folk to be up and
to arm." "Then there was hurrying to and fro" for
the iron hoof of war was approaching. The silver
spoons and the silver watch and the gold ear-rings,
that were heirlooms in the family, were hidden behind
the soap jar, in the dingiest corner of the smoke-
house. And, Frank, the family horse, was suddenly
aroused from his slumbers in the stall bv the bridle

OLD COl"RT I-KH'SE AT XEW LEXl N l/n :X.

OUR TEMPLE OF JUSTICE.
(Courtesy ot Xew Lexinj^ton Herald.)

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 13 T

bit slipping into his mouth. He no doubt thought
that now he would have to make a hurried run to New
Lexington, Maxville or Oakfield for the doctor. But
instead he was unceremonioush' hustled down be-
hind the barn, across ditches, through brier patches, to
a remote ravine in the farthest corner of the farm,
and tied to a sapling in a thicket, where he spent the
remainder of the night in cogitation.

Morgan was indeed coming. What route he would
take no one knew. He was headed our way. Many
stories were afloat as to his methods. The report
generally was that he was robbing and burning every-
thing in his pathway. A part of this was true. But
when John Morgan, the Confederate cavalry leader,
went through Perry county, he was not bent so much
on devastation as he was to get out of the country.
Fresh horses and food were the most that he wanted.
He was in the enemy's country and his reception was
a little warmer than he had anticipated. He had
thought that there were only a few old men and boys
left here. While it was true that the most of our able
bodied men were in the service of their country, there
was still a sufficient number here, to make it exceed-
ingly interesting for him, even if the National Guard
that \vas sent to Marietta, to intercept him were
armed only with tin-cups. Morgan's original inten-
tion was to carry "grim-visaged war" into Ohio, but
by the time he had been chased across the state and
had zigzagged and criss-crossed his path several times,
he had changed his mind to a considerable extent.

Morgan had come into Ohio from Indiana, crossing
the boundary at Harrison just north of Cincinnati.
He was being closely pursued by General Hobson's
cavalry. Hurridly crossing the state through the

138 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

southern tier of counties, he attempted to cross the
river at Buffing^on Island in Meigs county. Gun-
boats had been sent up the river to intercept his cross-
ing. Here on Sunday, July i8, 1863, was fought the
only battle of the Civil War on Ohio soil. The Con-
federates numbered about two thousand men. Mor-
gan, with eight hundred succeeded in crossing the
river. Seeing that he could not get all of his army
across, he, himself came back to the Ohio side and
started toward the west. His intention was to get
the gunboats to go down the river, when he would
suddenly turn and cross before they would have time
to ;come back again. At Harrisonville he turned south
and reached the river at Cheshire in Gallia county.
Still he could not effect a crossing. Turning to the
west again for a dozen miles he suddenly veered toward
the north-east. His object irow was to outrun the
pursuing cavalry, and reach the Ohio river in the neigh-
borhood of Wheeling before the boats could arrive.
It was on this race between him and General Shackle-
ford, that he passed through our county.

Morgan reached Nelsonville about ten o'clock in
the morning. He burned some canal boats and rested
his men till about two o'clock in the afternoon. He
went only two miles more that day. He encamped
for the night in a wheat field where a part of the
village of Buchtel is now located. General Shackle-
ford came into Nelsonville at four o'clock, six hours
after the Raiders. His men and horses were dusty,
tired and hungry. Morgan as he went along had taken
the best horses and Shackleford was obliged to take
what was left. Even with the Confederate force only
two miles away, -it was impossible to attempt their
capture, after the four hours rest they had secured at

liLD FERRY COl^XTY INl'IRMARV.

A STATIOX OX THE ■■ UXPERGROUXD." THOMAS L. GRAY.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 139

Nelsonville. The next morning when Shackleford
reached the top of the hill, from where he had seen
on the evening before, the enemy in camp, he now saw
that during the night the dashing Morgan had slipped
away. He had gone up the tributary of Big Monday-
creek, through where are now the towns of Orbiston
and Murray, then crossing the Mondaycreek-Sunday-
creek divide, struck our county in Section 35, Coal
township, came down into the valley at Hemlock,
followed the Sundaycreek Branch through Bucking-
ham and reached Millertown sometime in the after-
noon. Here he rested his men till six o'clock in the
evening. He took some horses in the neighborhood
of Buckingham. Four were taken from Squire Mc-
Donald, one each from ]\Iorgan Devore. ^Ir. Moore
and Thomas Skenyon.

•Shackleford reached Millertown during the night
and camped on the ground where Morgan had rested
his men in the afternoon. It can be seen that the Union
General was here losing ground. His men were so
completely exhausted and their horses were in such a
condition that the progress was very slow. Richard
X^uzum, ex-county commissioner of Perrj' county,
went up to jNIillertown the next morning and found
men sleeping all around. It was ten o'clock before
the union forces left Millertown. Meanwhile Morgan
had passed through where Coming now is, climbed the
hill to the Chapel Hill Church, passed up to Porter-
ville and then out of the county, camping for the night
on Island Run in Morgan county. Morgan had
pressed Henry Kuntz, a citizen of our county, into
his service as his pilot. Several New Lexington men
whose curiosity was greater than their prudence went
out on the trail of the Confederates. Suddenly thev

140 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

rode into the camp on Island Run. Two of them
were captured. They were taken along, but were
allowed their freedom somewhere over in Guernsey
county. Morgan crossed the Muskingum at Eagles-
port. At this place a furnace-man from Logan, who
had joined Shackleford at Nelsonville, was sKot by
a sharp-shooter, while he was reconnoitering on the
high bluffs above the Muskingum. General Shackel-
ford captured Morgan near New Lisbon in Colum-
biana county. The Confederate leader, was impris-
oned for several months in the Ohio Penitentiary from
which he made his escape.

One of Morgan's men fell behind in our county.
He was captured and taken to New Lexington, where
he attracted considerable attention. He was sent to
Camp Chase, Columbus, where Confederate prison-
ers were kept during the war.

Morgan's Raiders took what they wanted, and if
no objections were made to their wholesale appro-
priations, no one was molested. In closing this account
we quote from Colborn's History of Perry county.

" A plucky woman of Monroe township, who was
riding along the road gave the raiders a piece of her
mind. They did not retaliate in words, but gently
lifted the lady from her saddle and appropriated her
horse. Dr. W. H. Holden of Millertown, then on a
tour of visits to his patients, was promptly relieved
of his horse, but was kindlj' permitted to retain his
saddle-bags, which he carried the remainder of the
way on his arm, as he trudged homeward on foot. A
farmer was hauling a load of hay along the road. His
team was halted, the harness stripped from the horses
in a twinkling, and there the farmer sat upon his load
of hay, a much astonished and bewildered individual.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 141

There was a wool-picking party at the house of a
farmer; quite a number of ladies was there and sup-
per was just announced. Morgan's men came in un-
invited, appropriated all of the seats, and remarked
that it was very impolite to take precedence of the
ladies, but that they were in a great hurry and could
not afford to wait. What tliey left in the way of eat-
ables was hardly worth mentioning.""

Population of Perry County.

18-20 8,459

1830 13,970

1840 19,344

1850 20,775

1860 19,678

1870 18,453

1880 28,218

1890 31,151

1900 31,841

The census of i860 and 1870 show a decrease in
population. The first was caused by the removal of
Califomian gold-hunters, known as the "Fifty-Sixers."
The second decrease was the result of the Civil War.

Constitutional Conventions.

In the Constitutional Convention that met in Cin-
cinnati in 1 85 1 and adopted Ohio's present constitu-
tion, Perry county was represented by John Lidey,
of Reading township. Mr. Lidey was a soldier in the
war of 1812 and at one time represented Perry county
in the lower House of the Legislature. In 1871 the
people -of Ohio again voted for a Convention. It met
in 1873 and our county was represented by Col. L}-
man J- Jackson. Col Jackson was a descendent from
New England Puritans and has the reputation of being

142 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

the First Volunteer from Perry County in the Civil
^\'ar. At that time he was Prosecuting Attorney
of the county, but resigned to organize a company
of which he was Captain. He was afterward appointed
Colonel of the 159th O. V. I. After the war he repre-
sented the Fifteenth District, consisting of Perry and
Muskingum counties, in the Ohio Senate. The Con-
stitution of 1871 was never ratified by the people of
Ohio became of the clause licensing the liquor traffic.

Col. James H. Taylor.

A history of Perry county would be far from com-
plete if it neglected to say, at least, a few words con-
cerning the man, who had, more than any other man,
to do with the development of her great mineral re-
sources. " Pomp and circumstance " too ©ften at-
tract our attention, and we give our honors to less de-
serving persons. While on the other hand, there may
be within our ranks, people toiling, unobtrusively
and alone, whose labors will have greater results and
be of more lasting benefit.

Perry countians delight in telling about the dashing
Sheridan, the versatile and brilliant MacGahan, the
scholarl}- Zahm, the financier Elkins and the statesman,
Rusk. But there lies in the New Lexington ceme-
tery a man to whose memory every village in southern
Perry, every coal mine and every railroad is a living
monument. From 1865 to 1868, Col. James H. Taylor
prospected over the hills of Perry county. He went
from farm to farm, carrying with him an old carpet
bag, in which he placed specimens of coal and ore. As
ne went about digging here and there, and telling some
old farmer that a wonderful vein of coal was on his

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 143

farm, he was looked upon as a sort of lunatic — ^but
iiarmless. He met many a bland smile of incredulity.

His knowledge of mineralogy not only served him
well in this pursuit but he was also a vigorous writer.
As soon as he satisfied himself of the abundance of the
mineral wealth, he began to write a series of articles
for the Columbus, Cincinnati and New York papers.
These attracted wide attention. The result was that
capitalists began to be interested. Many discourage-
ments attended the early development but when fairly
started, the growth was phenomenal. Within ten
years the population of the county had doubled. Shaw-
nee, Corning, Straitsville and other villages sprang
into existence. Furnaces were erected. Mines were
opened. Railroads were built. Many of the men
interested became millionaires. Among them were
Gen. Samuel Thomas, Ex-Senator Brice, and Ex-Gov-
€rnor Foster. But the discoverer of all this wealth
and its chief promoter never received any financial
reward. He and other Perry county associates had
125,000 acres of the best mineral land in the county,
but the panic of 1873 carrie and they went down in
the crash and outsiders reaped the harvest.

Col. James Taylor was born in Harrison township,
this county, May 3, 1825. He descended from ances-
tors who had always taken active interest in public
affairs. His grandfather had served on the staff of
Gen. Monroe in the Revolutionary War. His father
fought in the war with Mexico. He, himself, served
throughout the Civil War. On the maternal side the
blood of Simon Kenton, the celebrated Indian fighter'
and scout, ran through his veins. He had but limited
educational advantages, such as came to most boys of
his time. However he was a great student of history.

144 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

This, with a most wonderful memory, made him au-
thority on many subjects and eminently fitted him
for newspaper work. The last fifteen years of his
life were spent as editorial writer for the Ohio State
Journal. In 1883 when Henry George was spreading
his political theories he published a pamphlet in reply.
This had an immense sale and provoked much dis-
cussion. He died Jan. 25, 1891. He certainly de-
serves to be called one of Perry County's prominent
sons.

Stephen Benton Elkins.

It is said that great men come from the hills. If
this statement were doubted, the incredulous would
only need to glance over the history of southern Ohio
and be convinced. With Somerset as the center, there
can be found within a radius of fifty miles, the birth-
places of more men of eminence than in any similar
area in the United States.

Perry county has furnished her quota in this array
of celebrities. The men and women who braved the
terrors of frontier life, to build for themselves homes
in a new land were of a hardy and thrifty character.
Their children schooled in this "rough and ready" life,
developed the iron nerve and the conservative temper-
ment, that makes man master of situations.

From the rude homesteads on the hill-side farms
of old Perry, have gone out into the various avenues
of life, men, who have been the progressive factors in
the building up of manv settlements in the great west
and southwest. While they may not have attained to
such a high eminence as some, yet they have filled their
places and deserve no less credit for what they have
done. It is with some degree of pride that we claim for
Perry county, the birthplace of Stephen Benton Elkins.

STEI'HEX r,. EI.KIXS.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 145

He was born on a farm about three miles southeast of
Thornville, in Section 13, Thorn township, September
26, 1841, His early years were spent here. Moving
with his parents to Missouri, he partly educated him-
self in the public schools. At the age of only nineteen
he graduated from the University of the State, with
first honors. He then studied law. He was admitted
to the bar in 1863, joined the Union army, and served
in the rank of Captain. Crossing the plains to New
Mexico in 1864, he determined to win success in that
sparsely settled border country. Seeing that his igno-
rance of Spanish would be in the way of his ambition,
he set to work and in one year was master of it. His
clientage rapidly grew, and his popularity with it.
For in less than two years after his arrival, he was
elected to the territorial legislature. The next year he
was made Attorney-General of the territory. The suc-
ceeding year President Johnson appointed him United
States District Attorney for New Mexico. While oc-
cupying this position it became his duty to see that the
law forbidding slavery should be enforced. This he
did in such a decisive manner that it gave him greater
prestige than ever. In 1869 he went into the banking
business, thus beginning his phenomenal career as a
financier. Investing his money judiciously in lands
and mines, he became immensely wealthy. In
1873 he was elected Delegate to Congress from New
Mexico and in 1875 he was re-elected.

While in Congress. Mr. Elkins was married to a
daughter of Senator Henry G. Davis of West Virginia.
In 1878, leaving New Mexico, he went to West Vir-
ginia, \vhere he began the development of coal lands.
He gave up the active practice of law and devoted his
10 H. p. c.

146 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

time entirely to the management of his business in-
terests. While he has become a millionaire, himself,
yet he has done an immeasurable amount of good to
the people of his adopted state, by causing the invest-
ment of capital. In 1891 President Harrison appointed
him Secretary of War, and in 1895 he was elected
United States Senator, which position he yet holds.

He lives in a beautiful country home, "Hallie-
hurst," at Elkins, Randolph county, West Virginia.
This four story mansion stands on a mountain side of
unusual beauty. It commands a magnificent view of
the valley beneath and the forest and mountain peaks
which frame the scene. In this magnificent home he
spends his leisure among his books and friends. In
addition to his many business duties he has not failed
to drink at learning's fount, to become conversant with
the best literature, and to make of himself a cultured
ijentleman in every respect. He is a man of strong and
sturdy build, is more than six feet in height, has firm
features, and a large head set firmly on his shoulders.

Perry couhty has no reason to be ashamed of Ste-
:phen Benton Elkins, lawyer, financier, statesman and
gentleman.

The Knight of the Pen.

X)n the 19th of May, 1900, there came to the village
■i>f New Lexington, a stranger. It was Stoyan Krstoff
Vatralsky, a native of Bulgaria. He had just gradu-
ated from Harvard University and was preparing to
■eturn to his home-land. Before going, however, he
came to visit the grave of the man, who, is held most
dearly in the affections of the Bulgarian nation. The
citizens of New Lexington showed him every courtesy.
He was taken to view the birthplace of his hero. In

^""J

t.

Till-: KNU^HT OV TIIK I'llX. MaoiIAIIAX.
I Courtesy of Rosary Magazine.)

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 147

the Court House he addressed the people in the follow-
ing brief and expressive language :

"I do not come here in an official capacity; yet, in com-
ing thus to honor the dust of MacGahan, I am a representa
tive of the Bulgarian people. We Bulgarians sincerely cher-
ish in the grateful niche of our memory the name of Janarius
Aloysius MacGahan as one of the liberators of our country.

'"MacGahan and Eugene Schuyler, another true Ameri-
can, were Bulgaria's first friends, and at the time she needed
them most. They not only accomplished a great work for
themselves, at an opportune time, but furthermore set in
motion forces and influences that made other men's work
more eflfective, thus rendering the achievement of her libera-
tion possible. Had it not been for these American writers,
their graphic and realistic exposure of Bulgaria's wounds and
tears to the world, there would have been no Gladstonian
thunder, no European consternation ; no Russo-Turkish
war ; no free Bulgaria. It was the American pen that drove
the Russian sword to action.

"Although he died at the early age of thirty-four, JMac-
Gahan's life was far from being either brief or in vain.
Measured not by years but by achievements, he lived a long
life. Long enough to set history to the task of writing his
name among the world's illustrious; among the great jour-
nalists, philanthropists and liberators of whole races. .\nd I
venture to predict that in the future his merits shall be more
universally, more adequately recognized than hitherto. Bul-
garia and Ohio must and will yet do what becomes them as
enlightened states. Some of you, as I hope, shall live to sec
a suitable memorial marking his resting place. Yet even now
^lacGahan has a prouder monument than most historic heroes
— his monument is independent Bulgaria. His name illu-
mines the pages of Bulgarian history, and his cherished name
is graven deep in the heart of a rising race : and there it shall
endure forever.''

After this meeting Mr. "Vatralskj^ visited the burial
place of the great American journalist and after
strewing flowers upon the grave, laid the following
original ode upon the mound :

148 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

TO JANARIUS ALOYSIUS MACGAHAN.

A pilgrim from the ends of earth I come
To kneel devoutly at your lowly tomb ;

To own our debt, we never can repay;

To sigh my gratitude, thank God and pray;
To bless your name, and bless your name —
For this I came.

No marble shaft denotes your resting place ;

Yet God has raised memorial to your work
Of grateful hearts that stir ajising race.

No longer subject to the fiendish Turk.

Your years , though few , to shield the weak you spent ;

Your life, though brief, accomplished its intent:
All diplomatic shylocks, bloody Turks, despite,
'Twas not in vain the Lord gave you a pen to write ;

Your Pen was followed by the Russian sword,

Driven by force that you yourself called forth;
So came the dauntless warriors of the North,

And bondsmen were to freedom sweet restored.

Though still unmarked your verdant bed, rest you content:
Bulgaria is free — behold your monument !

— Stoyan Kestoff Vatralsky.

Archibald Forbes, one of the greatest of war cor-
respondents, in his recent book, "Memories and Stud-
ies of War and Peace," says : "My most prominent col-
league in the Russo-Turkish war was Mr. Janarius
Aloysius MacGahan, by extraction an Irishman, by
birth an American. Of all the men who have gained
reputation as war correspondents, I regard MacGahan
as the most brilliant. He was the hero of that wonder-
ful lonely ride through the Great Desert of Central
Asia to overtake Kauffman's Russian armv on its
march to Khiva. He it was that stirred Europe to its
inmost heart by the terrible, and not less truthful than
terrible, pictures of what have passed into history as

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 149

the Bulgarian Atrocities. It is, indeed, no exaggera-
tion to aver that, for better nr worse, jNIacGahan was
the virtual author of the Russo-Turkish \\'ar. His
pen-pictures of the atrocities so excited the fury of the
Sclave population of Russia, that their passionate de-
mand for retribution on the 'unspealcable Turk' vir-
tuallv compelled the Emperor Alexander II to under-
take the war. MacGahan's work throughout the long
campaign was singularly effective, and his physical ex-
ertions were extraordinary ; )et he was suffering all
through from a lameness that \\ould have disabled
eleven out of twelve men. He had broken a bone in
his ankle just before the declaration of war, and when
I first met him the joint was encased in plaster of Paris.
He insisted on accompanying Gourko's raid across the
Balkans : and in the Hankioj Pass his horse slid over
a precipice and fell on its rider, so that the half-set
bone was broken again. But the indomitable Mac-
Gahan refused to be invalided by this mishap. He
quietly had himself hoisted on to a tumbril, and so
went through the whole adventurous expedition, being
involved thus helpless in several actions, and once all
but falling into the hands of the Turks. He kept the
front throughout, long after I had gone home disabled
bv "fever; he brilliantly chronicled the fall of Plevna
and the surrender of Osman Pasha; he crossed the
mountains with Skobeleff in the dead of that terrible
winter ; and, fmall}-, at the premature age of thirty-
four, he died, characteristicallj". a martyr to duty and
to friendship, ^^'hen the Russian armies lay around
Constantinople waiting for the settlement of the treaty
of Berlin, typhoid fever and camp pestilences were
slaying their thousands and tens of thousands. Lieu-
tenant Greene, an American officer* officially attached

150 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

to the Russian army, fell sick, and MacGahan devoted
himself to the duty of nursing his countryman. His
devotion cost him his. life. As Greene was recov-
ering MacGahan sickened of malignant typhus ; and a
few days later they laid him in his far-off foreign
grave, around which stood weeping mourners of a
dozen nationalities."

In an issue of the New Lexington "Herald,"
of February, 1897, Judge Martin W. Wolfe penned an
able article, in which he reviews the brilliant career of
this famous Perrv countian. We give the article in
full :

"From many a district school house in our favored land
have issued youths of humble origin, who by their virtues
and attainments have adorned society and honored their coun-
try. J. A. MacGahan, one of the most eminent journalists of
the worldj was a graduate of one of those colleges for the
people. There are few, indeed, who have not heard of J. A.
MacGahan, the immortal chevalier of the press, philanthro-
pist, author, traveler, hero, patriot — yet few know of his
origin, his early career and the general current of his life,
so full of romance and stirring interest. Among the hills of
Perry county (at a place called Pigeon Roost) J. A. MacGa-
han was born of humble, but respectable Irish .\merican par-
entage, June 12, 1844. Of his youthful career history bears
but little record, save that it was spent in the obscure labors
of a farm. He received a plain, common school education,
such as tht rural schools of the fifties afforded. In early life
he evinced great fondness for penmanship and composition.
In the former he excelled, in the latter he foreshadowed more
of the fluency and power of the pen, which in after years Im-
mortalized his name. In short, he is a forcible illustration of
the repeated fact that the germ of genius is often hidden in
very common mould, and which springs up into glorious ef-
florescence, at a time and in a place least expected by the
common observer.

■'At an early age he left the parental roof to seek his for-
tune. After n varied experience he went abroad to study the

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 151

languages. He was not only a good English scholar, but
spoke "readily the languages of Western Europe and was well
versed in the Slavonic dialects of the East. '\\'hen in 1870
the first thunder peal of the Franco-Prussian war rolled over
Europe we see him at a law school in Brussels. Having had
some experience as a writer he was attached to the staff of the
New York Herald. He at once joined the army of Bourbake,
witnessed its disastrous defeat, and with much danger and
suffering, accompanied its retreat into Switzerland, a full
description of which was given in his letters to the Herald.
Though he did not achieve renown in that brief campaign, it
burst the chrysalis of comparative insignificance and formed
the first cleat to the ladder on which he speedily rose to the
dizzy heights of fame. We next find him in Paris during the
time of the Commune, writing vigorous and graphic descr{p~
tions of the scenes and incidents of that time. On one occa-
sion he was arrested and was preserved from death at the
hands of the infuriated Communists only by the intervention
of the minister of his country. During the summer of 1871
he traveled through Europe and in the autumn of that year
was in Russia, where information reached him that an assault
was to be made on Khiva. It was Russia's boldest move to-
ward India, and he was ordered by the Herald to accompany
the army of the Czar.

"In the depth of an Arctic winter when a thick mantle of
snow covered the hardened earth, the frozen lake, the ice-
bound river under its monotonous pall, our intrepid hero set
out from Saratof, on the Volga, moving southward to join
the advancing column at Kazala, a distance of 2,000 miles.
For six long weeks, when the mercury in the thermometer
ranged from 30 to 50 degrees below zero, the journey con-
tinued across the ice-bound Russian steppes, the Ural moun-
tains, the boimdless morasses and arid wastes of the tundri —
those broad, level, snowy plains over which the icy winds of
Northern Siberia, capable of converting mercury into a solid
body, came rushing down in furious blasts with an uninter-
rupted sweep of a thousand miles and howlmg over the naked
wilderness and around them as though all the demons of the
steppe were up in arms. And so the days passed until Ka-
zala is reached, only to find that the Russian column under the
Grand Duke. Nicholas, had taken up its march and that the

152 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

campaign against Khiva was already well advanced. Then he
prepared for what proved to be one of the most daring rides
ever made by man. He was now in the heart of the myste-
rious regions of Asia. It was a journey of six hundred miles
through silent desolation, with three hundred miles of arid
desert on which the gun glares fiercely down from the pitiless
sky until the sands gleam and burn under the scorching heat
like glowing cinders.

''To start almost alone in search of the Russian army, a
mere speck on those huge steppes; with no plan possible, ex-
cept to ride as far and as hard as might be; without knowing
when one well is left, where the next drop of water will be
found ; with few provisions and those bad ; with untrust-
worthy guides and weak horses; enduring a broiling sun by
day and a deadly chill by night ; sleeping on a poisonous upas-
like weed, beneath which lurk scorpions, tarantulas and im-
mense lizards or on the sandy floor of this desert ocean where
eternal silence reigns, save the bark of the jackal or the howl
of the hyena, as they sound dismally from time to time
through the loud roaring of the storm; with the knowledge
that the country was filled with beaten enemies, always glad
to fall in with a stranger alone, and now especially fierce and
envenomed; and the uncertainty of the reception when he
reached his goal — such a feat may well have made the Rus-
sians wonder. For twenty-nine days he wandered through the
Kyzil-Kum in search of Gen. Kaufmann, chased by Cossacks
sent in hot pursuit for his capture, but through his pertinacity,
shrewdness and good nature he eluded them all as well as the
Russian general who detained him at Khalata and by a cir-
cuitous route joined the Russian army on the far-famed Oxus
just as the advance guard was in a heated engagement with the
Turcoman cavalry.

"In keeping with his characteristic fearlessness he dashed
into the raging battle, wrote a description of it and completely
won the admiration of the Russian soldiery and of that intre-
pid leader, Gen. Kaufmann himself. Henceforth he accom-
panied the Russian army and ere long stood before the gate
of Hazar-Asp — the grand entrance into the city of Khiva.
He was one of the first to enter the portals of that city, and
his description of its capture stands on record as a masterpiece
of its kind. Upon his return to Russia the Czar conferred on

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 1-53

him the Order of St. Stanislaus for his personal bravery.
The information which he gained during the progress of this
expedition was afterward published by MacGahan in book
form under the title, "Campaigning On the Oxus and the Fall
of Khiva," and is the best book on Central Asia and nomadic
life in our language.

■'Another turn of the wheel found him lecturing before
the geographical society of New York, then visiting his par-
ents in Perry county, and in the fall of 1873 in Cuba report-
ing the Virginius complications. In the spring of 1874 he was
in London, whence he was ordered by the New York Herald
to Spain to report the Carlist outbreak of that year. H'e
joined the army of Don Carlos and accompanied it for ten
months, continuing a voluminous and graphic cbrrespondence
with his journal during the progress of the campaign. While
in Spain he fell into the hands of the Republicans, was mis-
taken for a Carlist and condemned to execution, but his life
was again saved by the interventions of the American minis-
ter. Thence he went to England and in 1875 sailed with Cap-
tain Young in the Pandora to the Arctic regions, making the
last search undertaken for the lost crew of Sir John Franklin's
expedition. On his return to England he published an ac-
count of his experiences with the title, "Under the Northern
Lights," which brought its author great renown.

"In the spring of 1876 while in London he read a brief
dispatch in a newspaper of the commission of horrible bar-
barities by the Bashi-Ba-zouks in Bulgaria. He had lived and
worked in the East, and more clearly than any living man,
recognized the hidden significance of this news from the Bal-
kans. He determined at once to go to that country and wit-
ness for himself and to the world the truth or falsity of these
statements. He at once signed articles with the London Daily
News and in June, 1876, took his departure to join the Turk-
ish army in the capacity of war correspondent of his journal.
The horrible evidences of the malignant cruelty which had
characterized Turkish warfare in Bulgaria roused in the
American feelings of the most intense indignation, and in
vivid, soul-stirring words did this heroic man pour the whole
strengrth of his powerful mind in the exposure of the most
ghastly and wholesale massacres of modern times. Strong in
his majesty as protector of the defenseless, MacGahan almost

154 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

excelled himself. His revfelations of the Bulgarian horrors,
struck home to every heart. He caused the pulse of Europe
and America to quicken, and the hearts to bleed for the cruel-
ty and barbarously oppressed Bulgarians. Never before hatt
such enthusiasm been raised in the annals of newspaper cor-
respondence. Concerning this extraordinary correspondence Mr.
Alexander Forbes, long associated with MacGahan, says:
'MacGahan's work in exposing the Bulgarian atrocities of
1876 produced very marked results. As mere literary work
there is nothing that I know of to excel ^it in vividness, in
pathos, in burning earnestness, in a glow that thrills from
heart to heart. His letters fired Mr. Gladstone into a con~
vulsive paroxyism of revolt against the barbarities they de-
scribed. They stirred England to its very depths, and men
traveling in railway carriages were to be noticed with fjiished
faces and moistened eyes as they read them.' Lord Beacons-
field, the premier of England, tried to whistle down the
wind, the veracity of the exposures MacGahan made. He or-
dered a fleet to the Dardanelles, and dispatched a British offi-
cial, Walter Baring, to Bulgaria with intent to break down
the testimony of MacGahan by cold official investigation. But
lo ! Baring was an honest man with a heart . and he who
had been sent out to curse MacGahan, blest him instead alto-
gether, for he more than confirmed his figures and pictures
of murder, brutality and atrocity. England was compelled
to repudiate her old ally; withdraw her fleet from the Bos—
phorus without landing a man or firing a shot, and permit
MacGahan to continue his memorable ride writing sheaves of
letters and painting in cold type what he saw. To the pen of
Perry county's gifted son, an All- wise Providence assigned
the immortal honor of sustaining the dauntless spirits of the
Bulgarians, and of exciting the profound, active and practi-
cal sympathy of united Europe.

"Obscure, alone and unheralded, J. A. MacGahan entered
on his task of exposing Turkish atrocities in Bulgaria. Thoi»-
sands of miles from the land of his birth, with the broad
waters of an ocean between him and his home, this Ohio
journalist, animated by that spirit of liberty inherent in an
American, addressed himself to the apparently chimerical tm-
dertaking of striking the chains from off the lives of a race
whom Turkish masters had almost succeeded in unmanning.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 155

"Honest, fearless and untiring, the pen of MacGahan re-
cited those bloody chapters of Turkish cruelty, which roused
the civilized world to indignant protest against the Sultan's-
ferocious spoliation, rapine and inhumanity.

"The callous Russian paled with anger; the sympathetic
European wept the hapless fate of murdered sire and dis-
honored matron. The Bulgarians heard the voice of God
in the burning words of MacGahan's descriptive writings,
and hailed him as the Messiah of their race, sprang to
arms with the rallying cry of 'MacGahan, Liberator of Bul-
garia !'

"In every hamlet he passed through he said: 'The Czar
will avenge this! Courage, people, he will come.' And on
leaving the unhappy Bulgarians he said to them : 'Before ;^
year is past you will see me here with the army of the Czar.'

"This assurance was verified by the event. Soon after
his arrival at the Royal Court of St. Petersburg, the decree
went forth for the immediate mobilization of the Russian
hosts at Kishenhoflf, where they were reviewed by the Czar
of all the Russias. Then the order to cross the Pruth was given
as MacGahan had foretold ; our knight errant rode with the
advance guard.' The Russians, from the patient Moscovite
to the Cossack of the Don, marched to battle for a nation's-
freedom, and the strange cry of liberty flew from lip to lip
of their bearded legions. The eloquent appeals of MacGahan
became battle cries for the victorious mountaineers of Bul-
garia as they charged with the irrestible force of Alpine
avalanches, the reeling fronts of Moslem columns. The most
valiant of Russians, intrepid Skobeleff, and the most devoted
leader of Bulgaria's risen hosts were alike inspired to deeds-
of deathless heroism by the noble utterances of MacGahan ;
their sanctified blades flashed Christian freedom as they cleft
the turbaned heads of brutal Turks, and with holy ardor
Tartar, Russians and Cossack sought immortality among the
thickest battle, that a circling world might recite the heroic
requiems of their American composer, historian and wor-
shipped chief.'

"Through the changing fortunes of the war grave and
gay, MacGahan passed alike the idol of the Russian army
and the Bulgarian people. The assault at Skobeleff on the
Gravitza redoubt was immortalized by his pen. When-

156 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

Plevna fell our hero was in the van (luring the mad rush
toward the Bosphorus. The triumphant advance was never
checked until the spires and minarets of Constantinople were
in sight, Bulgaria was redeemed, and the power of the Turk
in Europe was broken, the aggrandizement of Russia was
complete — and all because J. A. McGahan had lived and
striven.

"Scarcely had the rolling thunders of war ceased and
the sunlight of peace burst upon the disenthralled country
when his eventful career suddenly came to a close. While
preparing to attend the international congress at Berlin, he
was stricken down with a malignant fever, and died at San
Stefano, a suburb of Constantinople, after a few days'
illness, June 9, 1878.

"On his death a bright star went out from the firmament
of genius but the results of his efforts will endure as long
as Christianity. It is not too much to say that this dauntless
Perry county boy, who was laid in his all-too-premature
grave on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus, still lives in the
hearts of grateful millions, whose spirits have been stirred
within them by the touching pathos of his eloquent pen.

"In Bulgaria's story and legend, MacGahan's memory
will eventually find its truest record. In the little principality
his name is enshrined on the hearts of people as Liberator;
on the anniversary of his death, prayers for the repose of
his soul are said in every hamlet throughout Bulgaria ; and
to the sweetly melancholy strains of the folk-songs the story
of his labors is to-day sung by the Bulgarian peasant.

"MacGahan was principally the man for the place and
times in which his lot was cast. He was a type of a class
of journalists whose names can be numbered on the fingers
of one hand — Russel, Sala, Stanly, Forbes, MacGahan. But
the greatest and noblest of them all was J. A. MacGahan,
of Khiva, and San Stefano.

"It will be long before one so gifted shall wear his mantle
as an equal. A few years ago the government of the United
States removed his remains to Perry county, the place of
his nativity and early home, where with appropriate civic
ceremonies they received honorable sepulcher in a soil con-
secrated to liberty. In the language of a versatile writer,
'I trust that a suitable monument will be erected over his

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 15T

mortal remains, but no matter of what materials it may be
composed, it cannot be so enduring as the fame of him it
is built to commemorate. When it begins to crumble and
decay, and centuries perhaps have passed, pilgrims to this
spot, descendants maybe of the very people he did so much
to free, will again and again repeat the story of the modest
Ohio boy, who was born and brought up amid these hills,
but who became hero, sage, philanthropist, and whose mis-
sion and influence embraced the world and encircled the
globe.' "

On March 5th, 1884, a resolution passed the Ohio
House of Representatives providing for a committee
to consider the question of the removal of the remains
of MacGahan to his native land. On April 12th, of
the same year, a resolution passed the Senate pro-
viding for a committee of four, to consist of the Presi-
dent, or President pro tem. of the Senate, the Speaker,
or Speaker pro tem of the House, Hon. John O'Neil,
Senator from this district, and Hon. H. C. Greiner,
Representative from Perry county, to visit the Secre-
tary of the Navy at Washington and request that a
war vessel be ordered to Constantinople for the re-
mains of the distinguished American.

This committee at once visited Washington. The
success of its mission can be best portrayed in the
disinterment with great honors, of the body. May 1st,
and under the direction of Admiral Baldwin, the re-
mains of this noted Perry county boy were placed on
board the United States steamer, Quinnebaugh and
transported to the steamer Powhatan, on the arrival
of the former vessel at Lisbon. The latter vessel
reached the port of New York, August 21st.

The New York Press Club, through the columns of
the city papers of August 25th, gave notice that the

158 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

following program would be carried into effect, in
honor of this chivalric knight of the pen:

"Early on Tuesday morning the committee of the club,
accompanied by a guard of honor consisting of eight gen-
tlemen who acted as correspondents during the late war,
will proceed to the Navy Yard and formally receive the re-
mains from the naval authorities. The body will arrive at
jioon at some point in the city, hereafter to be designated,
where a procession will be formed. The remains will then
be conveyed to the Governor's room in the City Hall. Mem-
bers of the Press Club, the Ohio committee, relatives and
admirers of the deceased and journalists generally are, in-
vited to assemble at the Press Club at 11 o'clok a. m. From
that point they will proceed to the point of landing on the
New York side and join the committee in the procession
to the City Hall. There the body, in charge of the guard
of honor, will lie in state till half-past four p. m. At that
hour the guard will be relieved by pallbearers representing
the different city journals, who will escort the remains,
the Ohio committee and relatives to the Pennsylvania Railroad
depot at the foot of Cortlandt street."

The remains of MacGahan arrived at Columbus,
Wednesday, August 27th accompanied by P. A. Mac-
Gahan, brother of the deceased, Representative Grei-
ner. Senator O'Neill and Hon. John Ferguson. They
were met at Union depot by an immense concourse of
people. The United States Barracks Band, headed the
procession, which was composed of the military of the
city, G. A. R. Posts, police department, state and city
officials, Governor's guards, and members of the press
acting as pall-bearers. The hearse was drawn by six
white horses to the Capitol, where the body lay in
state. Governor Hoadley, on behalf of the State of
so many great sons, received the body with a most elo-
quent tribute to the heroism of one who had carried
the lesson of true Americanism to a foreign land. The

BIRTHrLACE OF MacCLMIAX.

THE KESTIi\(j I'LA( E OF liLIJ.GA RI A'S LJ P. 1;KA1 OR.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 159

Governor showed impressively how MacGahan was
by nature an opponent to oppression, that he died
young, but not untimely, and his remains had been re-
turned to the home of his fathers, and Ohio would
preserve and honor them.

The remains, in charge of the committee reached
Zanesville, Thursday, August 28th, where they were
received by a committee of the Press, G. A. R. Post,
and a large concourse of citizens. The remains were
deposited on the day following in Mt. Calvary Ceme-
tery vault, until the time of final sepulture at New
Lexington, Thursday, September 11.

Of the exercises attending the final interment, we
quote from the New Lexington "Tribune" :

"All day Wednesday, Wednesday night and Thursday
till 9 o'clock the casket lay on an elevated platform in the
center of the court room, faithfully guarded by members
of the New Lexington Guards, detailed for the purpose.
One guard, uniformed and armed, was constantly stationed
at the head, and another at the foot of the casket. Another
was stationed just outside of the court room door, at the
head of the stairs, another at the outside door of the Court
House, and still another at the gate leading into the yard.

"The outer casket, a very beautiful one, was bought
by the journalists of New York. The body came from Con-
stantinople in a hermetically sealed leaden casket, in which
it was placed at the time of the disinterment, and this of
course was inclosed in the new one. Three large wreaths
rested upon the casket, as it lay in the Court House here.
Inscriptions upon ribbons attached showed that one was the
gift of journalists of New York and another of the Press
Qub of the same city. The remaining largd" wreath was
still unfaded and fresh, having been placed upon the casket
after its arrival here by the widow and other friends of
the deceased. On the casket was a handsome plate, bear-
ing the inscription:

160 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

\ J. A. MacGahan, I

j Born June 12, 1844, i

} i

Died June 9, 1878. j

"At the head of the casket was placed a -large photo-
graph of the dead journalist as he appeared in life, in citi-
zen's dress, and at the foot was a full-length likeness of him
in the costume of a war correspondent, as he roughed it
with the boys or slept or dined in the tents of generals.
All day Wednesday and until late Wednesday night, and a
good part of Thursday forenoon callers, embracing gentle-
men, ladies, youths and children, streamed in and walked
around the casket, passing from the right to the left, all
gazing intently at the picture of the dead journalist, and
many stopping to read the plate and the inscriptions attached
to two of the large wreaths which rested upon the casket.

"A goodly number of business houses and private resi-
dences had been draped in black with white intermingled
Wednesday and many flags put out, but early Thursday morn-
ing this became almost universal all along Main street, and
also received more or less attention in other parts of the
town, A beautiful arch was erected over Main street be-
tween the Court House and Park, which was wrapped with
alternate or intermingled flags and black and white, fes-
tooned with wreaths of evergreen. Near the arch, and span-
ning the same street, was stretched a large streamer, on
which was printed in bold letters 'Bulgaria's Libera-
tor,' Other large streamers were placed across Main
street, erected by the G. A, R. Post, and proclaiming a
welcome to their brethren from all parts who came to par-
ticipate in the ceremonies attending the obsequies. The Court
House and yard, the postoffice, St. Rose Church and New
Lexington Cemetery were all appropriately decorated.
Arches were raised over the cemetery gates, and over the
head of the open grave on the MacGahan lot was placed a
large banner, on which were painted the words, 'Rest in
Thy Native Land,' Many of the decorations of business,
houses and private residences were very fine, and produced
a pleasant effect. These decorations, in the aggregate, were

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 161

much admired by visitors and received numerous compli-
ments.

"At about 9:30 the casket was removed from the Court
House to St. Rose Church, where the usual religious services
were conducted by Bishop Watterson, of Columbus, assisted
by a number of priests from St. Josephs and elsewhere. The
Bishop preached an able and interesting sermon upon 'The
Power and the Responsibility of the Newspaper Press.'

"Not one in twenty of the people in town could get
into the church, and the heat was so oppressive that many
who did get in were compelled to retire. About 11 :30 the
casket was brought from the church and the procession be-
gan to form, under the direction of Hon. H. C. Greiner,
assisted by several aides. The guard of honor consisted of
a detachment of the New Lexington Guards. The procession
moved along Main to Brown street, then down Brown to
Cemetery avenue, then out along this avenue to the cemetery,
then along Ihe streets of the same to the southern part of the
grounds, where the MacGahan lot had been selected by the
committee for that purpose. Arrived at the open grave, the
platoon of Grand Army men, who had preceded the pro-
cession, formed themselves around the grave and speakers'
stand in a circle large enough to accommodate the clergy,
pallbearers, relatives, press, members of the legislature, etc.,
when the remainder of the procession opened ranks and let
the hearse, clergy, relatives, etc., pass through to the grave.
After the usual religious -ceremonies, the people gathered
around the stand that had been erected near by to be used
for the public exercises. Hon. H. C. Greiner acted as chair-
man. The exercises consisted of 'Eulogy on Life and Char-
acter of J. A. MacGahan,' by E. S. Colborn; poem, written
for the occasion by W. A. Taylor; an address on the 'Office
of the Newspaper Correspondent," by Judge Silas H. Wright.

"The number of persons present is variously estimated.
Eight to ten thousand would in our opinion not be a wild
estimate. It is safe to say that half as many people were
never in town at any one time before. This county alone
brought its thousands and the trains from east and west,
north and south came in loaded down, the one from Zanes-
ville and the east being unprecedented. Notwithstanding the
11 H. p. c.

162 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

overwhelming crowds of people, the best of order was pre-
served, and the proceedings and the events of the day were
creditable alike to all, residents and strangers.

"The great event has come and gone, and the mortal
remains of the famous Ohio boy, who perished so honorably
and so bravely in a far distant country, now reposes in his
native land, to be disturbed not again till time shall be no
more. _

"The Nation, the State and the people of this county
have heartily united in paying a just tribute to a brilliant
genius, to a patient hard worker, to a brave, noble man,
who lived and toiled for others more than himself; who
freed a nation of people, who opened the way for the story
of the Cross, and who, with young wife and child awaiting
his return to Russia, stopped amid malaria and malignant
disease to lay down his life for a friend. When qualities like
these cease to attract the admiration and love of man or
woman, the world will scarce be worth living in, and finis
may be appropriately written upon its outer walls."

The grave of MacGahan has not remained un-
marked. To the teachers of Perry county belongs '
the honor of placing at his grave, a mark that is as
enduring as the fame of the one that rests beneath.
It was fitting that the teachers of his native county,
should do this for him, who himself was a product of
her public schools.

At the Teachers' Institute, in August 1900, the
present writer in a brief address, reviewed the life of
this renowned citizen, and asked that the teachers take
the initiative, in placing a fitting memento at his sepul-
chre. He called attention to the many granite bowl-
ders scattered throughout the northern part of the
county and suggested that they would in many ways be
appropriate for a memorial. The teachers at once took
up with the idea and in a few minutes a collection was
taken, sufficiently large, to cover the expenses of secur-
ing the bowlder. Mr. George W DeLong of Corning

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 163

and the writer went to Thorn township and selected a
suitable specimen, which with the word MacGahan
upon it, is the only marker for this chivalrous knight of
the pen.

THE ARTICLE THAT CAUSED THE RUSSG-TURKO WAR.

This article was penned to the London Daily News
by Air. jNIacGahan. It is dated August 2, 1876, from
Tartar Bezarjik.

Since my letter of yesterday I have supped full of hor-
rors. Nothing has as yet been said of the Turks that I do
not now believe: nothing could be said of them that I should
not think probable and likely. There is, it seems, a point in
atrocity beyond which discrimination is impossible, when
mere comparison, calculation, measurement are out of the
question, and this point the Turks have already passed. You
can follow them no further. The way is blocked up by
mountains of hideous facts that repel scrutiny and investiga-
tion, over and beyond which you can not see and do not
care to go. You feel that it is superfluous to continue meas-
uring these mountains and deciding whether they be a few
feet higher or lower, and you do not care to go seeking for
mole hills among them. You feel that it is time to turn back;
that you have seen enough.

But let me tell you what we saw at Batak. We had
some difficulty in getting away from Pestara. The authori-
ties were offended because Mr. Schuyler refused to take
any Turkish official with him, and they ordered the inhabit-
ants to tell us that there were no horses, for we had to
leave our carriages and take to the saddle. But the people
were so anxious that we should go that they furnished horses
in spite of the prohibition, only bringing them at first with-
out saddles, by way of showing how reluctantly they did it.
We asked them if they could not bring us saddles, also, and
this they did with much alacrity and some chuckling at the
way in which the Mudir's orders were walked over. Finally
we mounted and got off.

As we approached Batak out attention was drawn to
some dogs on a slope overlooking the town. We turned

164 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

aside from the road, and passing over the debris of two
or three walls and through several gardens, urged our horses
up the ascent toward the dogs. They barked at us in an
angry manner, and then ran off into the adjoining fields. I
observed nothing peculiar as we mounted until my horse
stumbled, when looking down I perceived he had stepped on
a human skull partly hid among the grass. It was quite
hard and dry, and might, to all appearances, have been there
two or three years, so well had the dogs done their work.
A few steps further there was another and part of a skel-
eton^ likewise, white and dry. As we ascended, bones,
skulls, and skeletons became more frequent, but here they
had not been picked so clean, for there were fragments of
half dry, half putrid flesh attached to them. At last we
came to a little plateau or shelf on the hillside, where the
ground was nearly level, with the exception of a little inden-
tation, where the head of a hollow broke through. We rode
toward this with the intention of crossing it, but all suddenly
drew reign with an exclamation of horror, for right before
us, almost beneath our horses' feet, was a sight that made
us shudder. It was a heap of skulls, intermingled with bones
from all parts of the human body, skeletons nearly entire
and rotting, clothing, human hair and putrid flesh lying
there in one foul heap, around which the grass was growing
luxuriantly. It emitted at sickening odor, like that of a dead
horse, and it was here that the dogs had been seeking a
hasty repast when our untimely approach interrupted them.

In the midst of this heap, I could distinguish the slight
skeleton form, still inclosed in a chemise, the skull wrap-
ped about with a colored handkerchief, and the bony ankles
encased in the embroidered footless stockings worn by Bul-
garian girls. We looked about us. The ground was strewed
with bones in every direction, where the dogs had carried
them off to gnaw them at their leisure. At the distance
of a hundred yards beneath us lay the town. As seen from
our standpoint, it reminded one somewhat of the ruins of
Herculaneum and Pompeii.

We looked again at the heap of skulls and skeletons be-
fore us, and we observed that they were all small and that
the articles of clothing intermingled with them and lying
about were all women's apparel. These, then, were all women

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 165

and girls. From my saddle I counted about a hundred skulls,
not including those that were hidden beneath the others in
the ghastly heap nor those that were scattered far and wide
through the fields. The skulls were nearly all separated from
the rest of the bones — the skeletons were nearly all headless.
These women had all been beheaded. We descended into
the town. Within the shattered walls of the first house we
came to was a woman sitting upon a heap of rubbish rock-
ing herself to and fro, wailing a kind of monotonous chant,
half sung, half sobbed, that was not without a wild discordant
melody. In her lap she held a babe, and another child sat
beside her patiently and silently, and looked at us as we
passed with wondering eyes. She paid no attention to us,
but we bent our ear to hear what she was saying, and our
interpreter said it was as follows : "My home, my home,
my poor home, my sweet home; my husband, my husband,
my dear husband, my poor husband; ray home, my sweet
home," and so on, repeating the same words over again a thou-
sand times. In the next house were two engaged in a similar
way; one old, the other young, repeating words nearly iden-
tical: — "I had a home, now I have none; I had a husband,
now I am a widow; I had a son, and now I have none; I
had five children, and now I have one," while rocking them-
selves to and fro, beating their heads and wringing their
hands. These were women who had escaped from the mas-
sacre, and had only just returned for the first time, having
taken ad\antage of our visit to do so. As we advanced there
were more and more, some sitting on the heaps of stones
that covered the floors, others walking up and down, wring-
ing their hands, weeping and wailing.

The Turkish authorities did not even pretend that there
was any Turk killed here, or that the inhabitants offered
any resistence whatever when Achmet-Agha, who com-
manded the massacre, came' with the Basha-Bazouks and de-
manded the surrender of their arms. They at first refused,
but offered to deliver them to the regular troops or to the
Kaimakan at Tartar Bazardjik. This, however, Aschmet-
Agha refused to allow, and insisted on their arms being de-
livered to him and his Bashi-Bazouks. After considerable
hesitation and parleying this was done. It must not be sup-
posed that these were arms that the inhabitants had specially

166 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

prepared for an insurrection. THey were simply the arms
that everybody, Christians and Turks alike, carried and wore
openly as is the custom here. What followed the delivery
of arms will best be understood by the continuation of the
recital of what we saw yesterday. At the point where we
descended into the principal street of the place the people who
had gathered around us pointed to a heap of ashes by the
roadside, among which could be distinguished a great num-
ber of calcined bones. Here a heap of dead bodies had been
burned, and it would seem that the Turks had been making
some futile and misdirected attempts at cremation.

A little further on we came to an object that filled us
with pity and horror. It was the skeleton of a young girl
not more than fifteen lying by the roadside, and partly cov-
ered with the debris of a fallen wall. It was still clothed in
a chemise; the ankles were enclosed in footless stockings,
but the little feet, from which the shoes had been taken,
were naked, and owing to the fact that the flesh had dried
instead of decomposing were nearly perfect. There was a
large gash in the skull, to which a mass of rich brown hair,
nearly a yard long, still clung, trailing in the dust. It is to
be remarked that all the skeletons found here were dressed
in a chemise only, and this poor child had evidently been
stripped to her chemise, partly in the search for money and
jewels, partly out of mere brutality, and afterwards killed.
* * * * At: the next house a man stopped us to show
where a blind little brother had been burned alive, and the
spot where he had found his calcined bones,, and the rough,
hard-vizaged man sat down and sobbed like a child. The
number of children killed in these massacres i.=; something
enormous. They were often spitted on bayonets, and we
have several stories from eye-witnesses who saw the little
babes carried about the streets, both here and at Olluk-Kni,
on the points of bayonets. The 'reason is simple. When a
Mohammedan has killed a certain number of infidels he is
sure of Paradise, no matter what his sins may be. There
was not a house beneath the ruins which did not contain
human remains, and the street beside was strewn with them.
Before many of the doorways women were walking up and
down wailing their funeral chant. One of them caught me
by the arm and led me inside of the walls, and there in a

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 167

corner, half covered with stones and mortar, were the re-
mains of another young girl, with her long hair flowing
wildly among the stones and dust. And the mother fairly
shrieked with agony and beat her head madly against the
wall. I could only turn round and walk out sick at heart,
leaving her alone with her skeleton.

And now we began to approach the church and the school-
house. The ground is covered here with skeletons, to which
are clinging articles of clothing and bits of putrid flesh. The
air was heavy, with a faint, sickening odor, that grows
stronger as we advance. It is beginning to be horrible.
The school-bouse, to judge by the walls that are part stand-
ing, was a fine large building capable of accommodating 200
or 300 children. Beneath the stones and rubbish that cover
the floor to the height of several feet are the bones and
ashes of 200 women and children burned alive between these
four walls. Just beside the school-house is a broad, shal-
low pit. Here were buried 200 bodies two weeks after the
massacre. But the dogs uncovered them in part. The water
flowed in, and now it lies there a horrid cesspool, with
human remains floating about or lying half exposed in the
mud. Near by on the banks of the little stream that runs
through the village is a saw mill. The wheel pit beneath is
full of dead bodies floating in the water. The banks of this
stream were at one time literally covered with the corpses
of men and women, young girls and children, that lay there
festering in the sun and eaten by dogs. But the pitiful
sky rained down a torrent upon them and the little stream
swelled and rose up and carried the bodies away and strewed
them far down its grassy banks, through its narrow gorges
and dark defiles, beneath the thick underbrush and shady
woods, as far as Pesterea and even Tartar Bazardjik, forty
miles distant. We entered the church yard, but here the
odor became so bad that it was almost impossible to pro-
ceed. We take a handful of tobacco and hold it against our
noses while we continue our investigations. The church was
not a very large one, and it was 'surrounded by a low stone
wall, enclosing a small churchyard about fifty yards wide
by seventy-five long. At first we perceive nothing in partic-
ular, and the stench is so great that we scarcely care to look
about us; but we see that the place is, heaped up with stones

168 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

and rubbish to the height of five or six feet above the level
of the street, and upon inspection we discover that what
appeared to be a mass of stones and rubbish is in reality an
immense heap of human bodies covered over with a thin
layer of stones. The whole of the little churchyard is heaped
up with them to the depth of three or four "feet, and it is
from here that the fearful odor comes. Some weeks after
the massacre orders were sent to bury the dead. But the
stench at that time had become so heavy that it was im-
possible to execute the order or even to remain in the neigh-
borhood of the village. We are told that 3,000 people were
lying in this little churchyard alone, and we could well be-
lieve it. It was a fearful sight — a sight to haunt one through
life. There were little curly heads there in that festering
mass, crushed down by heavy stones, little feet not as long
as your finger, on which the flesh was dried hard by the
ardent heat before it had time -to decompose; little baby
hands, stretched out as if for help; babes that had died
wondering at the bright gleam of the sabers and the red eyes
of the fierce-eyed men who wielded them; children who had
died weeping and sobbing, and begging for mercy; mothers
who had died trying to shield their little ones with their
own weak bodies, all lying there together, festering in one
horrid mass. They are silent enough now. There are no
tears nor cries, no weeping, no shrieks of terror, nor prayers
for mercy.

The harvests are rotting in the fields and the reapers
are rotting here in the churchyard. We looked into the
church, which had been blackened by the burning of the
woodwork, but not destroyed nor even much injured. It was
a low building with a low roof, supported by heavy, irreg-
ular arches that, as we looked in, seemed scarcely high
enough for a tall man to stand under. What we saw there
was too frightful for more than a hasty glance. An im-
mense number of bodies had been partly burned there and
the charred and blackened remains that seemed to fill up
half way to the low, dark arches and make them lower and
darker still were lying in a state of putrefaction too fright-
ful to look upon. I had never imagined anything so horri-
ble. We all turned away sick and faint and staggered out
of the fearful pest house, glad to get into the street again.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 169

We walked about the place and saw the same things re-
peated over and over again a hundred times. Skeletons of
men with the clothing and flesh still hanging and rotting
together; skulls of women, with their hair dragging in the
dust; bones of children and infants everywhere. Here they
show us a house where twenty people were buried alive;
there another where a dozen girls had taken refuge and been
slaughtered to the last one as their bones amply testified.
Everywhere horrors upon horrors. Of the 8,000 to 9,000
people who made up the population of the place only 1,200
to 1,500 are left, and they have neither tools to dig graves
with, nor strength to use spades if they had them.

As to the present condition of the people it is simply
fearful to think of. The Turkish authorities have built a
few wooden sheds in the outskirts of the village in which
they sleep, but they have nothing to live upon but what they
can beg or borrow from their neighbors. And in addition to
this the Turkish officials with that cool cynicism and utter
disregard for European demands for which they are so dis-
tinguished, have ordered those people to pay their regular
taxes and war contributions just as though nothing had
happened. Ask the Porte about this at Constantinople, and
it will be denied with the most plausible protestations and
the most reassuring promises that everything will be done to
help the sufferers. But everywhere the people of the vil-
lages come with the same story — that unless they pay their
taxes and war contributions they are threatened with expul-
sion from the nooks and corners of the crumbling walls,
where they have found a temporary shelter. It is simply
impossible for them to pay, and what will be the result of
these demands it is not easy to say. But the government
needs money badly and must have it. Each village must
make up its ordinary quota of taxes and the living must pay
for the dead.

We asked about the skulls and bones we had seen upon
the hill upon our first arrival in the village, where the dogs had
barked at us. These, we were told, were the bodies of 200
young girls who had first been captured and particularly re-
served for a worse fate. They had been kept till the last;
they had been in the hands of their captors for several days —
for the burning and pillaging had not all been accomplished

170 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

in a single day — and during this time they had suffered all
that poor, weak, trembling girls could suffer at the hands of
the brutal savages. Then, when the town had been pillaged and
burned, when all their friends had been slaughtered, these
poor young things, whose very wrongs should have insured
them safety, whose very outrages should have insured them
protection, were taken in the broad light of day, beneath the
smiling canopy of heaven, cooly beheaded, then thrown jn
a heap there and left to rot.

MacGahan.

This is the Poem read by Col. W. A. Taylor, a

Perry county boy, on the occasion of the funeral of

MacGahan.

I.

Not stately verse, nor trumpets blowing fame,

Not praise from lips of matchless eloquence;

Not monumental piles nor epitaphs;

Funeral pomp, nor all combined, can make

Man other than he fashions for himself

Out of warp and woof of Circumstance.

A man lies here whose hand ennobled Time,

And wrote a deathless page of history:

Up from these hills our hero made his way —

A western star that shown across the East,

Moved forward by the hand of Destiny.

Here, knee-deep in the purple clover bloom.

He drank life's spring time bubbling at the fount —

A school-girl's tenderness about his eyes —

Less'ning a loving mother's daily toil.

Content, yet all his soul unsatisfied.

Out of such gentle stuff are heroes made —

And he who wept a fallen butter-fly.

Rode like a storm-cloud down the long plateaus,

Defying Girghis, Turk and Turkoman —

Across the Oxus, knocking at the gates

Of far, mysterious Khivi, in a realm

That filled his boyish dreams of Wonderland;

Kings, kahns and caliphs passed him in review —

The proud voluptuary and the cringing slave —

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 171

Seraglios, palaces and minarets
Revealed their secrets, till the world amazed
Rose and reached forth a succoring hand to man;
Bulgaria in the wine press of the Turk,
Gave blood and tears and groaned upon the rack,
Until his mighty thunders 'gainst the wrong
Rocked Europe to its base, unloosed the slave
And set the sun of Freedom o'er the hills.
Where serfs had groped through ages of eclipse.
And then, where Stamboul, standing by the sea
Looks through the spicy gateways of the East —
Youth on his brow and summer on his lips.
Crowned more than conqueror and more than king —
Dreaming of these green hills, a mother's love.
Of wife and babe and kindred's loving touch,
With all the world before him, his great soul
Ascended to the infinite, and mankind
Are better for this hero having lived.

II.

Here where the green hills turn to gray

Under the warm Autumnal sun.

We lay him, with his honors won.
Where first his eyes looked on the day.

His work well done.

There where proud Stamboul by the sea
Looks through the Orient's purple gate,
He met the Apostle's common fate.

But ere he died, Bulgaria free
Arose in state.

His was God's sword in Gideon's field.

That reaped like sheaves the souls of men.

Justice, not blood, imbued his pen,
And his strong truth became the shield

And buckler then.

And his ennobling part to dare —

The Apostle's glory in the thralls —

Whose triumph when the body falls.
Like a broad sun of radiance rare

Lights up the walls.

172 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

With him who holds the truth in awe —
Nor recks what bitter storms are poured -
"The pen is mightier than the sword,"

And his strong armor without flaw
Keeps perfect guard.

O, green hills sloping east and west,
To purple eve and crimson day.
He comes along the martyr's way.

His work with Freedom's paens blessed —
He comes to-day.

Here o'er the dust of him whose name
Grew from these green hills, far away.
Into the Orient's warmer day,

Bright'ning the gilded scroll of fame.
Fair truth can say.

His hand bore not a hireling blade —
His soul was trained to noble deeds,
From out the rain he plucked the weeds.

And in the battle undismayed.
Struck down false creeds.

Fair youth, among the quiet lanes.
Came there a vision of the years
Before you, telling of the tears,

The struggles, triumphs and the pains.
The hopes and fears.

And watching as you went afield,
Barefoot, to drive the lowing herd.
Saw you the dim, far Orient stirred

Its dark crimes and its secrets yield
At thy stern word?

Did Hesperus at eve proclaim
That you at Islam's mystic gate
Should change the drifting tide of fate

And blow upon the trump of Fame
With breath elate?

TEREMIAH RUSK

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 173

That he who drove his father's kine
Beneath the northern moon should be
The Liberator, and set free

The bondsman with touch divine
Of Liberty?

Not where Stamboul's minarets

Loolc down upon Marmora's sea,

But in the glad soil of the free,
We lay him down without regrets.

While Time shall be.

There sleep, O brother of the pen.

Till the archangel's trump shall say

Night ends in the eternal day, '
And Truth shall judge who have been men.

Who went astray.

Jeremiah M. Rusk.

"The hills are dearest, where our childhood's feet
Have climbed the earliest.
And the streams most sweet
Ever are those at which our young lips drank,
Stooped to its waters o'er the mossy bank."

The above sentiment was evidently in the mind
of Secretary of Agriculture, Jeremiah M. Rusk, when
he stood before the door of the Post Office at Porter-
ville and said, "Do you know, that this whole country
continually spreads out before me day and night, like
a vast panoroma ? This is the place of my childhood's
dreams. Here my parents, brothers and sisters lie
buried. This country I love."

The Rusk- farm of five hundred acres lay mostly
in Perry county. But the house in which Jeremiah
Rusk was born stands a few rods across the line
in Morgan. We do not hesitate under the circum-
stances in calling " Uncle Jerry" as he was familiarly
known, a Perry county boy.

174 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

Daniel Rusk was one of the pioners of Perry coun-
ty. In 1813 he came to Clayton township and set-
tled on Buckeye creek. His wife was Jane Falkner.
Mrs. Rusk's mother was the first person to be buried
in Unity Presbyterian cemetery, in Clayton township.
The Rusk family lived on Buckeye till 1826 when they
moved to Bearfield township and purchased the large
farm on which Porterville now stands. This village
was originally known as Ruskville.

It was on this farm that the subject of our sketch
was born, on the 17th of July, 1830. The Mother of
Jeremiah McLain Rusk was a woman of exalted char-
acter and noble ideals. Even in a pioneer home she
did not forget to cultivate the culture side of life. The
home training had therefore much to do with the suc-
cess of the future governor of Wisconsin.

Young Rusk attended a subscription school at
first, for the public school was then unknown. After
the establishment of the latter, he became a pupil in
it and received the nucleus of such an education as
could then be obtained.

He was sixteen years old when his father died.
Being the youngest of ten children, and the older
members of the family having married, the care of
tlje farm largely devolved upon him. Here he early
evinced that trait that has been characteristic of him
throughout his life — to push work instead of work
pushing him. While on the farm he became an expert
horseman. There are men yet living in Bearfield town-
ship, who remember how adept he was, and how skill-
fully he could manage a horse. Many were the races
that Jerry ran with the neighbor boys along the Por-
terville ridge.

WHERE ■' UXCLE JERRY " RUSK WAS r.r)RX.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 175

From the farm he went to Zanesville, to become a
driver on the stage-coach, between that point and
Newark. The coach was of the Concord pattern and
four horses were required to draw it. The driver sat
on the "near" wheel horse and manipulated the team
with a " single " line.

When the present Cincinnati and Muskingum Val-
ley Railroad was built, we find Jerry Rusk occupying
the position of "boss." He assisted on the tunnel east
of New Lexington.

In partnership with William Pettet, he purchased
what is known as a "grubber" or "caver." This ma-
chine was the first step in the evolution of the thresh-
ing machine. A picture of one is here shown.

In 1849 ^^- Rusk was married to Mary Martin,
the daughter of a well-to-do citizen near McLuney.
It would be a great pleasure to give in detail the
subsequent history of this honored citizen. Going
to Wisconsin, he became quite wealthy. He served
the people in Congress, was elected Governor, and then
invited to a place in President Harrison's Cabinet.
The life of Jeremiah Rusk should be an incentive to
every boy. The push, the energy and the honesty of
the man made him successful in all of his under-
takings.

William Alexander Taylor.

It was especially fitting that on the day of the burial
of Janarius A. MacGahan, at New Lexington, the
poem for the occasion should have been written by
another Perry county boy. The man who was thus
honored, and who did honor to the occasion was Wil-
liam A. Taylor, the widely known journalist and
author, now a resident of Columbus.

176 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

He was born in Harrison township, April 25, 1837.
He attended the pubHc schools, but most largely edu-
cated himself, through the kindness of an old friend,
Dr. Milliken, of Roseville, who placed his large and
splendid general library at his disposal.

Among his teachers was Philander H. Binckley,
of Somerset, who directed his early readings and en-
couraged his literary tastes. While working on the
farm, he began contributing to the county papers,
especially the Somerset Review, edited by the late
John H. Shearer, and the Democratic Union, edited
by the late James Sheward, afterward a distinguished
jurist of New York.

When 19 years of age, he began teaching, at the
same time reading law with Muzzy & Butler, of New
Lexington, and was admitted to the practice at the
December term of the Supreme Court in 1858, being
examined by Morrison R. Waite, afterward Chief Jus-
tice and Noah H. Swayne, afterward Associate Justice
of the Supreme Court of the United States, and
Samuel Galloway, a distiiiguished lawyer and Con-
gressman, who rated him 100 in the examination.

In 1858 he became associated with John R. Meloy
and Perry J. Ankeney in the publication of the Perry
County Democrat, the predecessor of the present Her-
ald, of New Lexington. He ceased the practice of law
in 1863, and devoted his entire attention to journal-
istic and literary pursuits. He went on the Cincinnati
Enquirer, first as correspondent and later as a mem-
ber of its editorial staff, and continued in active jour-
nalism until 1900, during twenty-three years of which
period he was connected with the Enquirer.

In 1869 he took the position of editorial writer on
the Pittsburg Post, afterward going to the New York

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 177

Sun, the New York World, Pittsburg Telegraph,
Columbus Democrat, Columbus Courier, Cincinnati
News Journal, and in 1884 again went on the staff
of the Enquirer, where he remained until 1900. Dur-
ing all -these years he contributed largely to the maga-
zines and literary publications.

He is the author of a large number of books many
of which are standard works of reference, among them
being : " Eighteen Presidents and Contemporaneous
Rulers, ;" "Ohio Hundred Year Book ; "Primary Tariff
Lessons;" "Ohio Statesmen;" "The Peril of the Re-
public;" "Ohio Statesmen and Annals of Progress;"
"Roses and Rue" (poems) ; "Intermere" (a narrative
of speculative philosophy) ; "Ohio in Congress from
1803 to 1903," and "Twilight? or Dawn?" (poems.
He is also the principal author of "The Book of Ohio,"
an exhaustive illustra_ted history of Ohio of 1000 folio
pages and 2000 illustrations, issued by C. S. Van
Tassel of Bowling Green and Toledo.

He is a member of the Benjamin Franklin Chapter
of the Sons of the American Revolution and of the
State Society of the S. A. R., having held the prom-
inent offices in both ; of the Ohio Historical and Arch-
aeological Society ; of the Old Northwest Genealogical
Society and many other social and literary associations.
He served as a private soldier in the Army of the
Potomac in the Civil War. He was clerk of the sen-
ate of the 69th General Asembly; was the Democratic
candidate for Secretary of State in 1892, and for
Lieutenant Governor in 1893.

His parents were Thomas Taylor, of London
county, and Mary Owens Tajsjor, of Fanquier County,
Virginia, the latter being the niece of Gen. Simon
12 H. p. c.

178 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

Kenton. His paternal grandfather, also Thomas Tay-
lor, and his maternal grandfather, Joshua Owens,
were soldiers of the Revolution and both were present
at the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, at Yorktown.
His father served as a soldier in the war of 1812.

His parents, and many others of their families
migrated to Ohio in 1816. The elder and the younger
Thomas Taylor took up lands in Harrison township.
Perry county, where they resided the rest of their
lives. Others of the immigrants settled in Belmont
and Muskingum counties.

William A. Taylor was married to Jane Allen
Tarrier, the eldest daughter of Capt. George W. Tar-
rier, of Zanesville, Ohio, Nov. 10, 1870. To them
was born a son, Aubrey Clarence Taylor, in Alle-
gheny City, Pa., Jan 28, 1875, and who died in Zanes-
ville Nov. 26, 1898, while filling an editorial position
on the evening Press of that city.

James M. Comley.

Perry county has been especially successful in pro-
ducing literary men. It is now our pleasure to pre-
sent to our readers, the biography of another Perry
coiintian, who has made for himself a name in the
world of journalism.

The grandfather of James Comley laid out the
town of New Lexington. He was of Quaker descent.
One of his ancestors, Henry Comley came to Penn-
svlvania with William Penn in 1682.

The subject of our sketch was bom in New Lex-
ington, March 6, 1832. While yet a mere boy he de-
termined to go out into the world and 'hoe his own
row." Walking to Columbus, he entered the office of
the 'Ohio State Journal" and learned the printer's

COL. W. A. TAYLOR,

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 179

trade. He received his education mostly from the
public schools of that city. He began the study of law,
and was admitted to practice in 1859. The War
breaking out in '61, he entered the service of his
country as a private. He rose successfully in the
ranks. First as Lieutenant of his company, then Lieu-
tenant Colonel of the Forty-third Ohio Volunteers and
then Major of the Twenty-third Ohio. While Major
he marched his detachment from Raleigh C. H., West
Virginia, to the mouth of Stone River, twenty-eight
miles, through a snow storm, driving a regiment of
the enemy's infantry and a force of cavalry with con-
siderable loss across the river, capturing their tents,
camps and fdrage. The detachment received the
thanks of General Rosecrans, for its bravery and effici-
ency. He was in the Battle of South Mountain where
Lieutenant Colonel Hayes had his arm broken. Three
other Lieutenants were badly wounded and it devolved
upon Major Comley to command the regiment the re-
mainder of the day. He led .three splendid bayonet
charges, repulsing the Confederates successfully each
time. His regiment lost two hundred men. The colors
were riddled and the blue field almost completely car-
ried away by shot and shell.

In the great battle of Antietam, the colors of the
regiment were shot down, and after a moment's de-
lay, they were planted by Major Comley on a new
line at right angles with the former line. Without
awaiting further orders, fire was opened, before which
the enemy was compelled to retire. He served in the
splendid campaign, that ended with the battle of Cedar
Creek, where that other Perry county boy made his
famous ride and snatched victory from defeat. Sub-
sequent to this Major Comley became Colonel of his

180 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

regiment and remained with it till the close of the
war.

In October, 1865, he became Editor of the Ohio
State Journal. This position he held for twelve years.
As an editoral writer, General Comley wielded a vig-
orous pen and he was largely instrumental in shaping
the policy in the Republican party, not only in Ohio
but in the nation at large.

Upon the accession of Rutherford B. Hayes to
the Presidency, he appointed his old comrade-at-arms
as Minister to the Hawaiian Islands. He remained
there till 1882, when he returned to Ohio and pur-
chased the "Toledo Commercial." He at once assumed
the editorial control. It was while thus engaged that
he died in 1887.

General Comley was a man of noble character.
Fearless as he was in stating his opinions, yet his
enemies — political, for he had no other — admired him.
Even his political enemies were his staunchest per-
sonal friends. President Hayes said of him: "Know-
ing General Comley intimately for more than twenty-
five j^ears, and especially having lived by his side, day
and night, during almost the whole of the war, it
would be strange indeed, if I did not deem it a priv-
ilege and a labor of love, to unite with his comrades
in strewing flowers on the grave of one whose talents
and achievements were so ample and so admirable,
and whose life and character were so rounded to a
completeness rarely found among the best and the
most gifted of men.

"Whose wit in the combat, as gentle as bright,
Ne'er carried a heart stain away on its blade."

«^

GENERAL TAS. M. COMLEY.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 181

A SUMMER DAY.

Extract from a letter written by General Comley,
from Hawaii :

Did you ever walk along the meadow stream in June,
with the shiners flashing back the summer sun — just warm
enough — not hot, but about as warm, (say) as the New
Jerusalem — walk along and catch here a whiff of violets,
there a breath of milky fragrance from the ruminating cat-
tle, then a swell of delirious rapture, from the throat of
some mocking-bird, answered, by a clear alert '"Bob White"
from the wheat fields near by — did you ever walk along
so, watching the summer clouds drift lazily into every rav-
ishing beauty of form or color possible to conceive, and
bless the day to yourself with a sort of blissful awe as if
God was walking in the fields?

Gen. Philip H. Sheridan.

Standing on the plaform in the Cyclorama of the
battle of Missionary Ridge, at the Pan-American Ex-
position, one could not fail to notice the figure of a
man of small stature on foot, at the head of his men,
charging up the hill to take the breastworks on the
summit.

At the foot of the hill an aide held two horses.
One of them was Gen. Phil Sheridan's. He had dis-
mounted after taking the first line of rifle pits and was
pressing on toward the second. Orders came from
Grant to take only the first line but it was too late.
The impetuous Sheridan was pushing up the hill in the
face of a storm of bullets. To order the men back was
out of the question. They rushed on with a cheer,
carried the second line of rifle pits and met the enemy
in a desperate hand-to-hand struggle. The Confeder-
ates were driven from their guns and sent flying down
the opposite slope, pursued by a shower of stones from

182 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

the Union men who had not time to reload. Before
all of Sheridan's men had reached the crest, the de-
moralized troops of Bragg were seen with a large train
of wagons, flying along the valley, half a mile away.

This is where the star of Phil. Sheridan began its
ascendency. A few months later. Grant on becoming
Commander-in-chief, selected the great cavalry leader
to assist him in Virginia. Sheridan's work in the
Shenandoah valley is a part of the history of the
Civil War.

Grant had his hands full in front of Richmond.
General Early went up the Shenandoah into Mary-
land, threatened Washington, Baltimore, and even
Philadelphia. Sheridan waited some weeks, maneu-
verinp-. The country was impatient. Grant visited
him for the purpose of suggesting a plan of opera-
tions ; but he found Sheridan ready for battle and only
waiting for an opportune time to strike. Grant re-
turned without giving any suggestions. Finally Early
divided his command and the shrewd Irishman from
Perry county "struck." He attacked him, flanked him
right and left, broke the Confederate lines in every
direction, and sent the defeated troops "whirling
through Winchester" with a loss of 4,500 men.

A partial victory was not characteristic of Sheri-
dan. He pursued Early thirty miles, and just when
the Confederate General began to feel himself safe,
he was attacked again by the energetic Sheridan and
was completely routed with 1,100 men and sixteen
guns captured.

Again hp pursued him, driving him out of the val-
ley and into the gaps of the Blue Ridge. "Keep on"
said Grant, "and your work will cause the fall of
Richmond." These victories electrified the North,

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 183

while the South was equally cast down. Early's troops
were disheartened. The Richmond mob, disgusted at
Early's repeated defeats, sarcastically labeled the new
cannon destined for his use:

To General Sheridan,
Care of Gen. Early.

Sheridan had devastated the Shenandoah so com-
pletely that it would not furnish support to his army.
It was said that a crow would have to carry his pro-
visions with him if he went into that section. Sheridan
retired to Cedar Creek. From here he was called to
^^^ashington for consultation. While he was absent,
the enemy attacked his forces in camp, drove them back
in disorder and captured eighteen guns and i,ooo
prisoners. Sheridan had stopped over night in Win-
chester. At nine o'clock that morning, while riding
toward the camp, he heard the sound of heavy firing,
and he knew at once that a battle was in progress.
Soon he began to meet the fugitives from his own army.
Taking in the situation at a glance, he rode forward at
a gallop swinging his hat and shouting, "Face the other
way, boys, face the other way!" We are going back
to lick them out of their boots 1"

The scattered soldiers faced about and taking up
the General's cry "Face about," met the enemy and
forced them to a stand. The presence of Sheridan had
as much effect on the Confederates to terrorize them
as it had to rallv the Union forces. They precipitately
fled, leaving twenty-four guns, i,6oo prisoners and
1, 800 killed and wounded.

Sheridan remained at Winchester till the spring of
'65 when he went to join Grant at Richmond. On his

184 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

wav he again met his old enemy and they fought their
final battle. Early's force laid down their arms and
surrendered. His army and reputation had both been
destroyed. Lee relieved him and he retired in dis-
grace.

The daring ride of Sheridan stands pre-eminently
as one of the greatest achievements of American gen-
eralship. Celebrated in song and story as it is, it is
with some degree of pride that Perry countians re-
member that the hero was once a boy in Somerset.

It is thought appropriate to insert here the well-
known poem, by T. Buchanan Read, who wrote it in
Cincinnati, November i, 1864. The same evening it
was recited by James E. Murdoch, the elocutionist, at
Pike's Opera House. It was received with great en-
thusiasm. The audience was completely carried away.
So intensely were their feelings wrought upon that
one man exclaimed after the last stanza. "Thank God !
I was afraid Sheridan would not get there."

Up from the South at break of day,
Bringing to Winchester fresh dismay.
The affrighted air with a shudder bore,
Like a herald- in haste to the chieftain's door,
The terrible grumble and rtimble and roar.
Telling the battle was on once more,
And Sheridan twenty miles away.

And wider still those billows of war

Thundered along the horizon's bfir;

And louder yet in Winchester rolled

The roar of that red sea uncontrolled,

Making the blood of the listener cold,

And he thought of the stake in that fiery fray.

An Sheridan twenty miles away.

But there is a road from Winchester town,
A good, broad highway leading down;

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 186

And there, through the flush of the morning bright,

A steed as black as the steeds of night.

Was seen to pass, as with eagle flight.

As if he knew the terrible need;

He stretched away with his utmost speed;

Hills rose and fell; but his heart was gay.

With Sheridan fifteen miles away.

Still sprung from those hoofs, thundering South,

The dust like smoke from a cannon's mouth.

On the trail of a comet, sweeping faster and faster,

Fo^boding to traitors the doom of disaster.

The heart of the steed and the breath of the master

Were beating like prisoners assaulting their walls.

Impatient to be where the battlefield calls;

Every nerve of the charger was trained to full play,

With Sheridan only ten miles away.

Under his spurring feet the road

Like an arrowy Alpine river flowed.

And the landscape sped away behind

Like an ocean flying before the wind;

And the steed, like a bark fed with furnace ire,

Swept on, with his wild eyes full of fire.

But lo ! he is nearing his heart's desire;

He is snuffing the smoke of the roaring fray,

With Sheridan only five miles away.

The first that the General saw were the groups

Of stragglers, and then the retreating troops;

What was done ? What to do ? a glance told him both.

Then, striking his spurs, with a terrible oath,

He dashed down the line, 'mid a storm of huzzas.

And the waves of retreat checked its course there, because

The sight of the master compelled it to pause.

With foam and dust the black charger was gray;

By the flash of his eye, and the red nostrils' play.

He seemed to the whole great army to say,

"I have brought you Sheridan all the way
From Winchester down to save the day."

186 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

Hurrah ! hurrah ! for Sheridan ! '

Hurrah ! hurrah ! for horse and man !
And when their statues are placed on high,
Under the dome of the Union sky —
The American soldiers' temple of fame —
There, with the glorious General's name,
Be it said, in letters both bold and bright,
"Here's the steed that saved the day,
By carrying Sheridan into the fight
From Winchester twenty miles away!"

It is of interest to note that the "broad highway
leading down," is the National Road, passing through
the Refugee lands in the southern part of Licking
county.

A few years ago, an old Virginian, ninety years of
age, who had had sons in the Confederate army, was
visiting friends in Perry county. Upon hearing that it
was the native county of Sheridan, he went to Somerset
to view his boyhood home. In speaking about it he said,
"I live in the Shenandoah valley. When I go home
I can tell the people I was where Sheridan was raised.
His name is still a terror to us."

About twenty years ago, when the writer was a
mere boy, he discovered that Gen. Phil. Sheridan was
from Perry county by reading the following on the
"boiler plate" side of the New Lexington "Herald."

"why SHERIDAN WALKS."

"A reporter was standing on the portico of the war de-
partment building a few afternoons ago, when the carriage
assigned to the general of the army drove up. General Phil.
Sheridan was standing on the portico with several friends.
It was a bright afternoon, and General Sheridan shook his
head, when the driver approached, and said : 'Never mind;
go back to the stable. I will walk home this afternoon.' One
of his friends, who had been intimate with him in Chicago,
remarked : 'That is a strange fancy of the General's. He

THE EARLA" HrjrE OF GEXERAL SHERIDAN.
lS:i!l Standing.)

REV. FATHER ZAHM —

PRIEST AND SCIENTIST.

(Courtesy of Catholic Columbian.)

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 187

never wants a carriage for himself. He never uses one if
he can help it. If the day is fine he likes to walk down
town; and if it isn't he'd rather go home in a street car.
This may seem strange to you, as you may be aware of the
fact that he used to be noted for fondness for horseflesh.
Officers who served under him during the late war" used to
say that he appeared superb when mounted, but I can tell
you the secret. When Phil. Sheridan's war horse died a few
years ago, his love for horse flesh went out of him. A gen-
tleman who knew him well in boyhood vouches" for the truth
of the story that the first time Phil. Sheridan was ever on
a horse, was when Bill Seymour, a boy in Perry county,
Ohio, put him on a fiery animal, unsaddled, and told him to
hold on with his knees. Young Sheridan did so until the
horse had galloped about two miles across the country, when
the beast came to a halt. Phil, was still on his back holding
on with his knees. The feat became the talk of the county,
as gossip was scarce in those days. After that he was known
as an expert horseman."

General Phil. Sheridan was not bom in Perry
county, but in Albany, New York. March i6,
1 83 1, is his natal day. When only a few years old
his parents came to Somerset, where Phil, passed his
boyhood days. He clerked in the dry-goods store
of Finck and Ditto and from there, by the assistance
of General Ritchey, he went as a cadet to West Point,
where he graduated in 1853, thirty-fourth, in a class of
fifty-two. He served in the army of his country for
forty years. At the time of his death, at Nonquitt,
Massachusetts, in 1888, he was Lientenant-General of
the Army. This position was never held but by three
other persons — Washington, Grant and Sherman. He
is buried in the National Cemetery, Arlington, where
so many of our soldiers sleep their last sleep. On a
beautiful hill side in this city of the dead, the Perry
county boy and the greatest of American Generals
awaits the call of the Angel of the Resurrection.

188 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

Dr. Isaac Crook.

Among the prominent ministers of the Methodist
Church, Dr. Isaac Crook, now of Ironton, Ohio, has
for many years maintained a high standing, not only
as a pulpit orator, but as a teacher, lecturer, and
writer. Dr. Crook was born near Crossenville, in
Jackson township. His early life was spent in the
usual manner of country boys. He taught school in the
county and subsequently graduated from the Ohio
Wesleyan University at Delaware. In i860 he mar-
ried Miss Emma Wilson of that city. He served as
pastor in many leading churches in Ohio, Illinois,
Minnesota, Michigan and Kentucky. In the capacity
of teacher he has been President of the University
01 the Pacific, College Park, California, Chancellor of
the Nebraska Wesleyan University, and in 1896 was
elected President of the Ohio University, at Athens.
Since 1898 he has served as Pastor in Ironton.

As an author he has produced some very valuable
and readable literature. His biographical sketches
are especially interesting. His delineation of charac-
ter shows him to be a deep thinker. Three of his
sketches are particularly excellent — ^the ones on Bishop
Edward Thompson, Judge Joshua McLean and Wil-
liam Henry Harrison. Besides these he has written
many valuable articles on pedagogy and has been a
contributor to magazines of both a religious and a secu-
lar nature.

As a platform speaker. Dr. Crook holds no med-
iocre position. He is a clear, logical and earnest
speaker. He always has something to bring to his
audiences and his lectures are well received.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 189

Rev. Father Zahm.

The log school house, the puncheon floor, "the rude
desk of the jack-knife's carved initial" have sent forth
many a successful graduate into the post-graduate
course of actual life. Pigeon Roost School on the
Logan road may justly be proud of two of her alumni
— jNIacGahan and Father Zahm. Both have been en-
listed in the same cause — that of Liberty. The one
for political, the other i,OT intellectual. One fought to
free people's bodies, the other to free their minds. One
with pen and sword, the other with pen and micro-
scope. One studied the hearts of the oeople, the other
the great heart of nature. Both fought against ene-
mies of the Christian religion — the one, the Turk, the
other, the agnostic. Both were victorious.

Rev. Dr. Father Zahm, priest, scientist and author,
is of German origin on the paternal side, while his
mother belonged to the famous English family of Gen-
eral Bradock of pre-Revolutionary fame.

He was born in the southern part of Jackson town-
shio, in a log house which stood on land now owned
by Air. James Gordon. He worked on the farm in
summer and in the winter attended school at Pigeon .
Roost, where MacGahan was also a pupil at the same
time. It is said that he was a very industrious stu-
dent, a trait that has clung to him throughout life.
In 1866 at the age of sixteen he went to Notre Dame
University, where he graduated five years later with
high honors.

"After his ordination to the priesthood, which took place
at the completion of his theological studies. Father Zahm,
who had thus early shown a special fondness and capacity for
scientific work, was placed in charge of the university's sci-
entific department.

190 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

"To him, perhaps, more than to any other single individ-
ual is the scientific school of Notre Dame indebted for the
high renown which deservedly attaches to it; for in behalf
of it and the university museum, of which he was for several
years the curator, Dr. Zahm traveled far and wide in quest
of materials wherewith to equip more fully these departments;
and on these journeys he made many valuable scientific
researches.

"The doctor's reputation as a scientist is by no means
confined to this country. He is a member of more than one
European scientific society; and his published works, 'Sound
and Music,' 'Bible, Science and Faith,' and 'Evolution and
Dogma,' are as well known on the other side of the Atlantic
as on this, where they are to be found in almost every public
library in the land. He is an accomplished linguist, speaking
and writing several European languages with facility; and
because of his scientific researches, his extensive travels and
his recent residence in Rome, he is well and very favorably
known to the leading ecclesiastics in this and other coun-
tries."

"The doctor's attitude in regard to science is that faith
and reason are harmonious. In other words, that the teach-
ings of science are not incompatible with revealed religion."

"The doctor has never forgotten Perry county and the
little log school house at Pigeon Roost, where the first founda-
tions of his present profound and comprehensive learning
were laid. Journeying to the Pacific slope some years ago,
he had as traveling companions the late Judge Huffman and
wife, and in the course of conversation he learned that the
Judge hailed from Perry county. Whereupon the doctor
jubilantly exclaimed that that was his native county, and pro-
ceeded to ask the latest news from New Lexington and Som-
erset and all the adjacent places; and when his curiosity had
been in a measure satisfied, he spoke affectionately of the ■
days when he studied under Master Gordon in the little log
building that stood on the Logan road."

CATHERINE C.WIXEE.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 191

The Oldest Woman in Perry County.

There is no doubt that Catherine Cavinee, who
died August 8, 1901, at the age of one hundred and five
years was the oldest person that ever Hved in Perry
county. She was born in Pennsylvania and came to
Perry county when she was nearing middle life.
The county was then practicalh' one unbroken forest,
except, where the pioneer settler had here and there
begun his clearing. No bands of steel crossed the
county as a net-work, but the hunter's trail and the
settler's path were the only roads. There were no
bridges across the streams. There were only a few
small hamlets. The population of the county was only
a few hundreds. There were no blast-furnaces to light
up the darkness of the night. The hills had not begun
to pour out their tons of "black diamonds." The screech
of the locomotive, the whirr of wheels and the hum of
industry had not yet been heard. Instead there were
the sounds of the woodman's axe, as he drove it into
the heart of the oal-:; the gurgle of the brook as it
trickled over ledge and rock through the virgin forest ,
the voice of bird and beast as if they were discussing
the new order of things.

What a transition to have seen the changes of three
centuries. It is not given to many to so see. But to
have lived from Washington to McKinley ; to have seen
the growth of a Republic ; to have seen forests change
to fields, and these fields to teem with a great popula-
tion, and then to "wrap the drapery of the couch about
us and lie down to pleasant dreams," is a boon to
be desired .

192 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

Perry County's First Historian.

To Ephraim S. Colborn belongs the honor of being
the first to gather material for a history of Perry
county. Mr. Colborn was eminently qualified for that
work. Born in 1828, many of the first settlers were yet
living and he could get the early happenings of our
county direct from the actors themselves. Engaged al-
most continuously in newspaper work from 1851, he
had ample opportunity for collecting necessary data.
His History appeared in 1883 and was quite exten-
sively sold. Unfortunately the author received but
very small recompense for his work of a life time. In
his early life Mr. Colborn was a teacher. He studied
law, was admitted to the bar, but never practiced.

In 1 85 1 he began the publication in Somerset of the
Perry County Democrat. He served on the Board of
Education in both Somerset and New Lexington. In
1 86 1 President Lincoln appointed him Postmaster of
New Lexington. In 1866 he resigned that office be-
cause he was not in accord with the policy of the ad-
ministration of President Johnson. In 1873 upon the
death of William A. Brown, Superintendent of the
New Lexington Schools, Mr. Colborn went back into
the ranks of teachers, for the unexpired term.

In 1882 Mr. Colborn became local and general edi-
tor of the New Lexington Tribune and for fourteen
years he was not absent from his office a single day.
Now that he is not in the active newspaper work, he
yet devotes the most of his time to various lines of liter-
ary productions. His articles have appeared in Boston
Ideas, Harper's Bazar and other well-known publica-
tions. An article of his that attracted some attention
was the "Newspaper World." His writings also in-

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 193

elude some poetical productions. Among these are
"A legend of the Scioto," "The Universal Birthright,"
"The Vision of Sylvanus," and "A World Oratorio."

Mr. Colbom has also a reputation as a public
speaker. He delivered the eulogy on the death of Lin-
coln in New Lexington. In 1876 he gave the Centen-
nial Oration at Somerset and in 1884 he pronounced
the eulog\' over the grave of Mr. MacGahan.

Mr. Colbom interestingly tells of his experience in
taking the Teachers' Examination in this county in the
fall of 1849.

There were three Examiners, T. J. McGiimis, Col.
William Spencer and John McMahon, a merchant,
who was an excellent mathematician.

In taking the examination in those days, the appli-
cant would go to one of the mepibers of the Board,
who would do all of the examining. If the examina-
tion was successful, he would be handed a Certificate,
which he would take to the other two examiners for
their signatures.

At this particular time, the applicant went to the
law office of Col. Spencer in Somerset. But the
Colonel was not in. He then went to the law office
of Mr. McGinnis. That gentleman being at home
the examination proceeded as follows :

A piece of foolscap paper was handed to the ap-
plicant. Then a quill pen that had seen considerable
service in the law office was produced. It is said that
the quill pen of Mr. ]\IcGinnis was a standing joke
among the lawyers. The applicant was asked to show
his ability as a penman. As soon as the examiner saw
that the applicant could really write, he was satisfied on
that line. Then they went to the Grammar depart-
13* H. p. c

194 HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.

meiit. Several questions were asked but in such a
vague way as to show that the examiner had forgotten
some of his grammar. The applicant offered a cor-
rection and the examiner admitting it, concluded that
his man was "up" on that branch. Then came the
mathematics. This was a particularly searching test.
The first and only problem to be solved was, "What
is the cost of i8| yards calico at i8J cents per yard?"
In a few moments the answer was produced. The
examiner evidently thought that he had discovered
a mathematical prodigy. He certainly laid a sufficient
amount of stress on this one subject, so that he con-
sidered it unnecessary to ask any questions on Geog-
raphy, but dismissed it with the question that is in itself
an answer — "Of course you have studied Geography."
This completed the examination.

"I assure you, you pass," was the verdict. There-
upon seizing a sheet of paper and the before mentioned
quill, he wrote out a certificate for two years. The
reply to the question, "What's the fee?" was, "We
don't charge anything at all unless we're about out of
tobacco." Looking into the drawer of his table, he
continued, "We're about out. You can give me half
a dollar." At that time the examiner who did the
examining got the fee.

HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY. 195

The Beauty of Our Hills.

There is beauty in these hills of ours for him with eyes to see;
There is beauty smiling at us from the meadows broad and

free;
There is beauty in the woodlands.; there is beauty 'long the

brooks;
There's beauty in the violet light as it gleams through leafy

nooks.
And a beauty out of heaven over all the landscape rills
When the sun shines down upon these Perry county hills.

There is beauty in the moonlight as it falls athwart the iields;
And we see it in the harvest when it its fulness yields;
It is gleaming in the sunrise when the clouds are blushing red;
It is glowing in the sunset with its streamers bright o'er head;
And a beauty past expression my entire being thrills
When the meadow lark sings sweetly in these Perry county
hills.

There is beauty in the springtime when the grass is fresh and

green.
And it comes to us in summer when the bees and flowers are

seen;
And we feel it in the autumn in the hazy mellow glow;
And always when the winter dons his overcoat of snow;
And a beauty that's bewitching my heart with rapture thrills.
As I listen to the Bob-white in these Perry county hills.

There's a beauty that's majestic in the pine-clad mountain

side;
And a music that's sublime in the ocean's roaring tide;
We hear it, where the rivers flow through woodlands old and

hoary;
And see it, in the distant lands of classic song and story;
But to me the most enchanting is the song that o'er me trills.
When I list to Mother Nature in these Perry county hills.

C. L. M.
New Lexington, O., March 19, 1902.