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CARROLL AND HARRISON COUNTIES - 233 CHAPTER V NATIONALITIES OF HARRISON COUNTY THE SCOTCH-IRISH—THE QUAKERS-THE GERMANS-THE VIRGINIANS-THE SETTLERS FROM PENNSYLVANIA AND THE SOUTH. THE SCOTCH-IRISH The truth of the matter is that a vast proportion of American people, sometimes classed by historians as British, have had their hard-earned laurels transferred to the brows of the so-called Anglo- Saxon, or English ; and very much of the honor and glory which are so frequently claimed for the English in this country, really belongs to the people of another, and a distinctly different race. " These people include the Scotch-Irish, who, in reality, have no real Irish blood in their veins, but who were Scotch people that settled in the north of Ireland. Their emigrant ancestors in this country, to whom the name was first applied, were people of unmixed Scotch descent, who came to our American shores and some, yea, many found their way finally to Harrison County, Ohio, and became stalwart citizens and corner-stones in the settlement and development of the county. The English are a great people and have accomplished much in the world and much of empire building in the United States has been by those of English origin, but they have not accomplished all-no, nor half of the great things produced on this soil. Not one-half of Washington's brave generals, a hundred in number, were English. Three out of every four great inventors of this country are other than Englishmen. Of the great leaders in Congress, not one-half of them are of English descent. In Ohio alone, if the English were the only race from which to draw, there would have been no Arthur St. Clair, Allen Trimble, Rutherford B. Hayes, William Medill, Joseph Foraker, William McKinley, U. S. Grant, the two great Shermans, Phil Sheridan, Whitelaw Reid, Bishop Simpson, John A. Bingham, Salmon P. Chase, William Dean Howells "and the fighting McCooks. Locally, here in Harrison County, three-fourths of the Scotch- Irish forefathers of our first settlers, originally lived in the western lowlands of Scotland. The basis of this race was the Romanized Briton. Then let it be said that Harrison County has her full share of reliable, praiseworthy citizens of the Scotch blood. THE GERMAN ELEMENT OF HARRISON COUNTY The "Pennsylvania Dutch," more properly designated as the Germans, who emigrated from Pennsylvania and Virginia into what is now Harrison County, Ohio, were among the most honorable and thrifty set of pioneers. It is stated on record authority that more than twenty-five thousand names of German immigrants are recorded in the. Pennsylvania. 234 - CARROLL AND HARRISON COUNTIES. archives from 1725 to 1775; few are recorded to have arrived prior to 1700. In volume seventeen of the Archives, second series, may be found the names of all who took the oath of allegiance between 1725 and 1775, comprising about thirty thousand names, with the names of the vessels in which they came -to America, ports from which they sailed, and dates of departure. Probably four-fifths of the Ger mans living in Harrison County today can find the names and date( of their emigrant ancestors in that volume. It is shown by history that the Germans commenced to arrive it Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1683, and made a goodly settlement there. In about 1685, a land company was formed at Frankfort-on-the-Main, which bought 25,000 acres from William Penn. Thos( who left their Fatherland from 1700 to 1720, the Palatines, so called because they chiefly came from the Palatine states along the Rhine whither many had been forced to flee from their homes in France and other parts of Europe, endured many privations before the) reached the Western Continent. James Logan, secretary of the province of Pennsylvania, wrote in 1717, "We have of late, a great number of Palatines poured in upon us without any recommendation or notice, which gives the country some uneasiness, for foreigner( do not so well as our own English people." At first the emigration of Germans to Pennsylvania was confined to the Sectarians, the Quietists and the other religious denominations who on account of their extremity in doctrines and practice, found it difficult to get along with the more conservative Protestant brethren Among such sects were the Labadists, the Mennonites, who took tic much land and formed communities ; then there were the Seventh- Day Baptists and other denominations. Then it may be understood that the right to worship God after the dictates of their own conscience was what brought the major part of the original settlements of Germans to America. In 1700. there were nearly 145,000 Germans in Pennsylvania alone, while the total population of the colony was 435,000 at that date. These, of course, included Dunkards, Hessian soldiers, taken prisoners by General Washington's army and preferred not to lx exchanged after the Revolution. A large number of these settled in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, from which location they finally drifted into Harrison ,County, Ohio. These German people and their offspring were always a thrifty, industrious and law-abiding class in this county and did their share toward building up the best interests of the country and for the most part remained steadfast throughout all the ensuing years. When Civil war broke in upon this country; the German element responded quickly to the call for soldiers to sustain the Union. The "slackers" in those dark days between 1861 and 1866 were indeed few and far between. THE VIRGINIANS The original settlers in the Virginia Pan-handle were chiefly of the Cavalier class, many coming from the northern and eastern counties east of the mountains, and a few from the Virginia valley, the latter being of Scotch-Irish descent. In later years when the CARROLL AND HARRISON COUNTIES - 235 Scotch-Irish occupied Washington County, many of them crossed the line and settled in Ohio (now Brooke) County, Virginia, in the neighborhood of Wellsburg. Some of the pioneer settlers of Harrison County were from that section and not a few were of the old tide-water, horse-racing, gambling and cock-fighting class, which before the middle of the century, formed the aristocracy and much of the middle class population of Virginia. To get an idea of how the forefathers of the first settlers in Harrison County lived in Pennsylvania and especially in Virginia, before the date of their coming to Ohio and making homes in Harrison County, it is well to read what "Hanna's Historical Collections of Harrison County" says along this line: Generally the male members of the prospective settler's family came over the mountain in the spring and after clearing a plot of ground, planting a small patch of corn, and sometimes erecting a rough log cabin, they went back to their families and brought them out in the fall. They depended much on lean venison, wild turkeys and the flesh of the bear at times for food. They awaited with much anxiety for the first growth of the potatoes, pumpkins, corn, etc., and when the young corn came it was made a time of jubilee and the green ears were roasted for a feast. When the corn hardened and was gathered in the fall it was customary to provide meal for the family Johnny-cake ("Journey Cake" it was then called), by grating the ears on a tin grater. The original settlers were usually their own mechanics and each man made everything needed by himself, that could not be conveniently brought along from the older settlements. The hominy block and hand mills were found in most of their houses. The block was hollowed out at the top by burning and the play of the pestle ground the corn. Sometimes a sixteen foot sweep was used to lessen the toil in pounding the corn into meal for mush or cakes. The hand- mill was another and better contrivance made of two circular stones, the under being the bed-stone and the upper the runner. These were enclosed in a wide hoop or band having a spot to discharge the meal. The "runner" was moved by a long staff, or pole, passing through an upright fixed in the stone. Such mills are still used in the Holy Land as they were in the days of Christ. Their water mills were tub-mills readily made and at small expense. This mill consisted of an upright shaft at the lower end of which a water wheel, four or five feet in diameter was attached, the upper, end of the shaft passing through the bed-stone and carrying the runner, secured to its top. Sifters were used in lieu of bolting cloths made of deer skin parchment, stretched over a hoop and pierced with small holes, by means of a hot wire. The material for their clothing, aside from deer skins, was spun by the women of the household. Almost every pioneer woman could weave linsey-woolsey cloth and make the family clothing. Every family tanned their own leather. The tan-vat was a large trough, sunk in the ground; bark was shaved and pounded; wood-ashes were used in lieu of lime for removing the hair; bear's grease, hog's lard and tallow served for dressing the leather instead of fish oil. The currying was done with a drawing-knife; the blacking made of hogs lard and soot. Most families contained their own tailors and shoe- 236 - CARROLL AND HARRISON COUNTIES. makers. Those who could not make shoes, easily reamed to make shoe packs which were made like moccasins of a single piece of leather fitted to and removed from the foot by means of a cord gathering. In cold weather these moccasins were stuffed with dried grass, deer hair or dried leaves to keep the feet warm. Plows were made of wood ; harrows with wooden teeth and cooper ware of staves. Fights were of frequent occurrence among the younger male members of the community, and the method of fighting was very dangerous to the participants. Although no weapons were used, fists, teeth and feet were employed at will, and the favorite mode of disabling an antagonist was to gouge out one of his eyes. The furniture for the tables for several years after the settlement of the country consisted of a few pewter dishes, plates and spoons, but chiefly of wooden bowls, trenches and noggins. If these last were scarce, gourds and hardshell squashes made up the deficiency. The iron pots, knives and forks were brought from east of the mountains, with the salt and iron, on pack-horses. For a long time after the first settlement of the country, the inhabitants married young. There was no distinction of rank and very little of fortune ; on this account, first love usually resulted in marriage ; and the family establishment cost but little labor and nothing more. Marriages were celebrated at the house of the bride and the announcement of a prospective wedding created a general sensation; it was looked upon by young and old as an occasion of frolic, feasting and fun and was more efficacious in gathering a crowd of people together than even a log-rolling, house-raising or a hunting expedition. The groom usually started early from his father's house so as to reach the home of the bride, by noon, the hour generally set for the ceremony-as it was always followed by a bountiful dinner. The assembled company were all pioneers and there being no store, tailor or dressmaker within a hundred miles of the trans-Allegheny settlements, they all came dressed in home-made garments. The men wore shoe packs or moccasins, leather breeches, usually made of buckskin, linsey hunting shirts and leggings. The women dressed in linsey petticoats and linsey or linen bed gowns, coarse shoes, stockings, kerchiefs and buckskin gloves, if any. The horses were gaily covered with old saddles, old bridles or halters and pack-saddles with a bag or blanket thrown over them ; a rope or cord formed the usual girth. The wedding procession on such an occasion marched in double file where the horse-paths permitted—for they had no roads. Such paths were sometimes barred by fallen trees and sometimes barred with mischief aforethought, by interlocking grape vines and saplings to intercept the progress of the procession. Sometimes a part of neighbors would wait in ambush and when the procession came up, fired a blank charge from their rifles, which covered the party with a cloud of smoke, created surprise and shrieks amongst the ladies, and chivalrous bluster on the part of their escorts. As the procession neared the house of the bride, it sometimes occurred that two or more young men would start for the house on horseback, full tilt,. to win the bottle of whiskey, which it was previously understood would be hung out from the entrance to the cabin as a prize for the CARROLL AND HARRISON COUNTIES- 237 first arrival. The start of the race was announced by an Indian-like yell and the more the route was encumbered by fallen logs, brush, and muddy hollows, the better opportunity it gave the rival swains to show their horsemanship. The bottle game, the winner returned to the party, first handing it to the groom and thence it went from one rider to another, in the manner of a loving cup, each taking a draught, the ladies included. For the wedding dinner the table, made of a large slab of timber, hewn out with a hroad axe and set on four stakes was spread with beef, pork, fowl and sometimes deer and bear steak. Sometimes there were a few old pewter dishes and plates, but the majority of the guests ate from wooden bowls and trenches. A few pewter spoons were to be seen, but the most of them were made of horn. If knives were scarce, the men used their scalping knives or hunting knives which they always carried in the belts of their hunting shirts. After dinner was over, dancing commenced and it usually lasted until the following morning. The figures danced were reels, quadrilles and jigs. The dance always commenced with a quadrille which was followed by a jig; none were allowed to steal away for sleep and if the girls became tired, they were expected (as chairs were very scarce) to sit upon the knees of the gentlemen. About ten o'clock at night some of the young ladies would steal away with the bride and see her safely tucked in bed. The bridal chamber was frequently a loft or attic, above the dancers, to which access was gained by climbing a ladder and such a chamber was floored with clapboards, lying loose and without nails. Some of the young men in the meantime would lead away the groom and send him up the ladder to join his bride, followed later in the evening by refreshments, of which the chief constituent was a huge flask of whiskey, called by the frolickers "Black Betty." These entertainments sometimes lasted several days, none desisting until the party was thoroughly fagged out. If any of the bride's neighbors felt themselves slighted by not being bidden to the festivities, it sometimes occurred that they would show their resentment by cutting off the manes, foretops and even tails of the horses belonging to the wedding party. HARRISON COUNTY'S FRIENDS OR "QUAKERS" George Fox, the founder of this sect of religionists was born in England in 1624 and established his society of Friends in 1644, in the North of England. Quakerism was distinctively a creed of the seventeenth century. The Quaker was the Puritan of Puritans —he believed that Quakerism was Christianity revived. He recognized no difference between clergy and laity. He refused to swear, for Christ had said. "swear not at all"; he refused to fight for Christ taught a religion of love, not war. The first Quakers to arrive in America were Ann Austin and Mary Fisher, who appeared in Boston, July, 1656. They were imprisoned and shipped back to Barbadoes. The law of October, 1657, imposed a fine for entertaining a Quaker. If a Quaker returned after being sent away from this country he was to lose one ear ; if 238 - CARROLL AND HARRISON COUNTIES he returned the second time, the other ear and the third offense was punished by boring the tongue. A law enacted a year later banished both resident and foreign Quakers, under pain of death. In Massachusetts, Quakers had their ears cut off, they were branded, they were tied to the cart-tail and whipped through the streets, women were shamefully exposed to public gaze, and in 1660, three men and one woman were hanged on Boston Common. Such was the welcome given the first Friends or Quakers on American soil. William Penn founded his colony of Quakers in 1681, under a grant from Charles II. This colony existed ninety-three years and until overthrown in 1776 by the Revolutionary Scotch-Irish. The influence of the settlement of the Society of Friends in Pennsylvania has never been duly appreciated as a potent factor in American civilization. This is especially true in Pennsylvania and the states to the south. It was from these states that most of the Quaker emigrants to our own Harrison County and adjacent territory came. Under the ordinance of 1787, passed by Congress for the government of the Northwest Territory, "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except for crime," was to be allowed in any part of this territory ; and with a legal guarantee m the organic law of the territory, it became a fit home for men who found themselves driven to migration by the institution of slavery in the South. Hence it was that when this part of the great Northwest Territory was opened up for settlement, hundreds of Quaker families crossed the Ohio River and finally settled in this and adjoining counties in Ohio. They were well thought of and duly appreciated for their Christian graces and great courage. Harrison County was never the worse for its early and later Friends. |