(RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE) 150 - HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY. the coal bank in Section No. 5, Lick township; thence to continue northwesterly so as to intersect with the old coal road at or near the top of a hill known by the name of Bunker's hill, at or near the head of Mooney's run, including. all settlers at or on said coal road; thence east to the range line between the seventeenth and eighteenth ranges in said county, so as to include William Ray, in Section No. 7, in Jackson township; thence south with said range line to the place of beginning. Sept. 10, 1821. DANIEL HOFFMAN. JEFFERSON—On application by petition in writing of sun-dry citizens within the following boundaries to me, auditor of Jackson county, be it therefore hereby known that Jefferson town-ship shall be bounded as follows, to-wit, within the eighteenth range, beginning at the northeast corner of said township and running so as to include the original surveyed Township No. 5. Jan. 25, 1822.  DAN'L HOFFMAN. In 1850, Richland and Harrison townships, which had been annexed from Ross county, and Clinton township, were cut oft and put in Vinton county. Two new townships have been organized in recent years, Coal and Wellston. The latter was named in honor of Harvey Wells. PATENT FOR SECTION 29—Following is a copy of the original patent granted to Director Joseph Armstrong, who laid out the City of Jackson: To All To Whom These Presents Shall Come, Greeting: Know ye, that there has been deposited in the general land office a certificate of His Excellency, Ethan A. Brown, Governor of the State of Ohio, stating that in pursuance of an act of Con. gress, passed on the 16th of April, 1816, entitled, "An Act to authorize the State of Ohio to sell a certain part of a tract of land reserved for the use of that State," the Legislature of the said State did, by an act passed on the 14th of January, 1817, authorize and empower certain Commissioners to select, and a Director to HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY - 151 sell, a section of land in said reserved tract, and that the said Commissioners had selected, and Joseph Armstrong, the Director appointed by said State, had sold the section so selected, to-wit: Section 29 of Township 7, in Range 18, being part of the six miles square reserved for the benefit of the State of Ohio, at the Scioto salt springs. There is, therefore, granted by the United States the section of land above described unto the said Joseph Armstrong, and his successors in office, in trust, to execute titles to the purchasers of the land aforesaid. In testimony whereof, I have caused the letters to be made patent and the seal of the general land office to be hereunto affixed. Given under my hand at the City of Washington, the 16th day of February, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hun-dred and twenty, and of the Independence of the United States of America the forty-fourth. By the President, JAMES MONROE. AN OLD-TIME WILL—The following will, emancipating a slave, is perhaps the only instrument of the kind ever drawn in Jackson county. Hugh Poor, mentioned as executor, was one of the leading men of the county for a generation. He settled in what is now Jackson county, in 1811. In 1816, when the county was organized, he became one of the three Associate Judges, and served in that capacity for several years. He was one of the first mer-chants of Jackson, and in many other ways assisted in its development. He died in 1827. Edward Poor, living in this city, is one of his grandsons. LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF HANNAH THOMPSON. In the name of God, Amen. I, Hannah Thompson, of the County of Jackson and State of Ohio, being far advanced in years and aware of the uncertainty of life and certainty of death, and being in my right mind and under- 152 - HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY. standing, blessed be God for the same, do make, constitute and ordain this, my last will and testament, in manner and form following: In the first place, commit my body to the grave and my soul to God, who gave it. And as to what property I may be in possession of at the time of my decease, it is my will and desire that all my just debts be speedily and punctually paid, and That my Negro man, Stephen, as a just reward for his faithful service to me and his late master, be emancipated, and All the balance of my property, both real and personal, I will to my said Negro, Stephen, except only so much as will pay my funeral expenses and physicians, if any, and it is my desire and will that my executors dispose of it to the best advantage, and appropriate the proceeds thereof to my Negro man, Stephen. I do hereby appoint Hugh Poor my sole executor of this, my last will and testament. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, revoking all former will and testaments by me made, and declare this to be my last will and testament, this 9th day of July, 1827. her HANNAH (X) THOMPSON. mark (Seal) IMPORTING CARDS—Ohio had her Blue Laws in early days, and one of the most singular trials in the history of this county was that of John McGhee, indicted for violating one, of them. The grand jury of the July term, 1817, indicted him because he "did import and bring into the county of Jackson aforesaid, and township of Lick aforesaid, a pack of playing cards." McGhee pleaded not guilty, but the jury found otherwise, and he was fined five dollars and the costs. The jurors were: Grand, David Mitchell, foreman; John Graham, John Backus, John Bennett, Peter Brown, Moses Hale, Joseph Gray, Jacob Westfall, William Burris, HISTORY OP JACKSON COUNTY - 153 James Winks, Allen Rice, James Lackey, Joseph Crouch, George Campbell and Jeremiah Brown; petit, John McBride, Theophilus Blake, Daniel Harris, John Delay, John Frazee, Edward Story, James Stephenson, Levi Howell, Reuben Long, Asa Lake, Patrick Shearer, Drury Bondurant. /With such men all agreeing, it must be conceded that it seems very probable that McGhee did impo the cards. Perhaps, the losses of some of the jurors at gamin may have had something to do with this conviction. This is th -first pack of cards mentioned in the records, but after that, indictments for gaming followed in quick succession. It appears that John George was one of the settlers that permitted gaming in his house. At least, the record shows that some very prominent men played at his house, although their own dwellings were only a few hundred yards away., All that has been mentioned goes to show that the pioneers were not any better, and perhaps no worse, than the people of today. The laws seem to have been better enforced, however. Even two women, living in Jefferson township, who had settled a little difference by fighting, were indicted and found guilty, and a young man arrested in a bastardy case pleaded guilty and was mulcted. LEAD LEGENDS—Caleb Briggs made geological investigations in Jackson county in 1837, and in his report he said: There are rumors in the southern portion of the state, in reference to lead mines, but as yet no veins have been discovered. Small quantities of lead have, however, been found in loose masses on the surface. A small piece of this description was recently sent b me from Jefferson township, Jackson county. Lead must existing small quantities in either the iron ores or limestone of Lawrence and Scioto counties, as several pounds are not infrequently take from the crevices in a furnace hearth at the close of a blast. This information was communicated by Mr. Smith, of Jackson Furnace A find of lead was made in Liberty township, near Rock Hill church, as late as 1860. The following notes were taken at the place in 1895: On the south side of the breakthrough stands Lead Rock. It. 154 - HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY. is low compared with Rock Hill, but it is nothing but rock, naked on three sides. On the south, a neck connects it with the main hill. It is called Lead Rock because a lump of lead was found in the creek bottom at its base about thirty-five years ago by William, son of Daniel Yerian. The lead was brought to Jackson and examined, and was found to be of good quality. The father, Daniel Yerian, found another lump near by. There is a tradition that the Indians used to dig lead on Rock run, but this may be taken for what it is worth. The presence of the lead found by the Yerians has never been explained. There is a tradition that the Indians had a lead mine near Keystone Furnace. The following letter gives all the known facts: Rocky Hill, O., March 13,1897. Editor Standard-Journal: Dear Sir—Herein is noted the tradition which I have received from my people, who settled here in the year 1806, in regard to the lead mine somewhere in Bloom-field township. The Indians found and utilized a lead mine in what is known as Jimmy Adams' hollow, which at its beginning trends through the old Lackey homestead and terminates at the John Ware bridge, near Keystone Furnace. According to the tradition, it may be in some of the ravines or hollows leading into said valley. A certain person (whose name I can not state, as my informant is dead), was captured by the Indians and taken "blindfolded" to the mine, in order that it could not be located. I am also informed that this captive stated, that at said lead mine there were many beech trees, on which were engraven or cut figures of turkeys, turtles, deer, etc. But let this tradition be as it may, I can state this fact, that my grandfather in the early 1800's, selected this homestead among the many situations in the forests for its fine flowing springs, one of which is called the Silver spring on account of its water. Very respectfully, CHAS. A. LACKEY. HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY - 155 THE LACKEY TAVERN—In this connection, the following petition of James Lackey, asking the Commissioners for license to keep a tavern, may prove of some interest: September 4th, 1818. To the Honorable Judges of the Court of Common Pleas of Jackson County: The petition of the undersigned freeholders of Bloomfield township represent to your honors that we conceive a house of entertainment in Bloomfield township would be to the public's convenience. We therefore recommend James Lackey, one of our citizens, to be a suitable person to accommodate the public. We therefore pray your honor would grant him license for that pur- pose. Hugh Poor, Andrew Boggs, John Stephenson, Joel Long, Robert Ervin, George Campbell, Samuel McClure, Alexander Poor, George Corn, Moses Hale, Elisha Long, Stephen Martin, Robert G. Hanna, Martin Poor, William Scurlock, Stephen Martin, George W. Hale, Christopher Long, Peter Williams, Wm. Ware, John McNutt, John Dickerson, Joshua Perry, William J. Stephenson, James Ward, Benjamin Long. JAMESTOWN CEMETERY—This cemetery derives its name fro Major John James, on whose land it was laid out. He lies buried in it, his grave being on the Indian mound in the cemetery. There were three of these mounds originally, the three marking the angles of a triangle. The one in the cemetery is but little changed. The other, standing near William Warnecke's barn, is about the same size. The third stood in Joseph Watson's lot, and was removed by him about twenty years ago. He found in it a number of darts and arrow heads, some bones, ashes, and a piece of charred wood. lt is very appropriate that the remains of Major James, who was a famous Indian scout, should have been interred in an Indian mound. The inscription on his monument is as follows: "John James departed this life May 31, 1854, aged 81 years, 156 - HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY. 11 months, 17 days. The deceased was born in Connecticut June 14, 1772, came to Point Harmar, Ohio, 1788, and to this county in 1807; was a member of the Methodist church 40 years, and died the Christian's death." He was the grandfather of Warden James, and a number of other prominent citizens of the county. The first person buried in this cemetery was Elizabeth C. Darling, a daughter of Timothy Darling and his wife. The latter was Elizabeth Cook, and was a sister of Nancy Cook, the wife nf Major John James. THE MARTIN MOUND—This mound was perhaps the most peculiar in the county in one respect. After Jefferson Furnace was built, some parties dug into it and discovered that it had been built of blocks of ore and covered with earth. The ore was taken out and hauled to the Furnace. There were some 15 tons of it. It is much to be regretted, that no effort was made to open the mound scientifically. Valuable remains or relics might have been found in it, but I have failed to learn that any were found. The presence of the blocks of iron ore and flint in the mound would indicate that the structure belonged to the house mound class. It is probable that others of the kind exist in the township, and when they are discovered, the owner should have them opened according to the plan laid down by archaeologists. BURNING OF THE COURT HOUSE—The first court house burned down September 20, 1860, and the following account of the fire appeared in The Standard: On last Friday, at 1 o'clock, a fire broke out in that part of the Franklin House, occupied as a residence by John Rapp. It is supposed that the fire caught from the stove flue. The Franklin house was in a sheet of flame in a few minutes. .Great exertions were made to save the next building, the residence of Abraham French, but all in vain. The fire swept on, taking in its course the store room and residence of B. F. Thompson, the grocery store of HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY - 157 Henry Barlow, the saddler shop of D. W. Winfough, the residence of John Stephenson, the grocery store of Meacham & Gibson, the residence of E. D. Meacham, and the book store of R. Hardi ix The goods and furniture were mostly removed and saved, altho gh some were taken into the street and took fire from the flying cinders, and were consumed. The flames were arrested at Broadway street, by pulling down the corner building, occupied by Meach & Gibson. About the time that the flames reached the corner, it was discovered that the cupola of the court house was on fire. The roof of the building soon caught, and all the wood work was consumed. The books and papers were removed from the public offices, and the roof of the clerk's office was at one time in flames. This building was at this time abandoned; but the heated and wearied men again rallied, and by the most daring efforts, the building was saved. It has been thought by some, that the court house might have been saved; but it must be recollected that the fire caught in a place that could not be reached with the means at hand, and that every one, men and women, had fought the flame until exhausted. If we had been in possession of a short latter, and means of securing the foot of it on the slanting roof, we might have reached the fire; but we were destitute of these; and in the excitement the loss of a very few minutes was fatal to the old court house. The whole of that part of Main street from Portsmouth to Broadway, is swept clean. The buildings were old frames, and not worth much. The entire loss will probably not exceed $10,000 There was no insurance except on Mr. Winfough's saddler shop which was insured in the Aetna, for $400. Those who owned the buildings destroyed, were John Burnsides, A. French, John L Long, D. W. Winfough, John Stephenson and S. G. Montgomery MACKLEY'S RECOLLECTIONS—The following extract from Davis Mackley's "Random Notes". deserve a place here. I found the first records of the county commissioners in two 158 - HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY. old books, one indexed, and the other not. They are almost identical, and contain a plain and simple history of the transactions as they occurred, without any reference to the forms of bookkeeping. These records commence in the spring of 1816, and the commissioners had frequent meetings. Nathaniel W. Andrews was their clerk. The amount of taxes collected in Jackson county yearly, for a number of years, was less than $1,000. The principal items of expense consisted of jury and election expenses, and the cost of laying out and establishing roads. During the first year the commissioners passed an order paying one dollar for each wolf scalp, where the wolf was under six months old, and two dollars where the wolf was over that age. This was subsequently raised to $1.50 ,and $3.00. The records show considerable sums paid out for wolf scalps during the ten or twelve years subsequent to the year 1816. This may sound strangely to the people of this day; but I can remember of hearing wolves howl at night, in Jefferson township, as late as the year 1834. They destroyed large numbers of sheep and young cattle, and it became a public benefit to destroy them; hence the premium paid by the public for their destruction. The affairs of the county in the early days were conducted upon very economical principles, but honesty among the public officers was remarkable. True, there was but little to steal, and of course the temptation was small. Few officers were then elected by the people. The theory of the early officers of this county appeared to be, that when an officer was found capable and faithful, he was kept in office. Hence such men as Daniel Hoffman, Alexander Miller, Joseph Armstrong, Samuel Carrick, and a few others, have their names upon the records as public officers during a long space of time, and their accounts always appear correct. I wish I could say as much for some of the officers whose names appear at a later period. But let that pass. * * * A family named Darling came from the state of New York, Cattaraugus county, about this time, •and settled in the vicinity of Oak Hill. They were Baptists. Isaac Darling brought the HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY - 159 first cast iron plow that was ever seen in that region. Before that time the old bar shear plow, with the wooden mould board was the only one, save the shovel plow. My father borrowed Darling's plow, and he liked it so well that he bought it, giving $6 for it. The neighbors borrowed it all around. Matt Farley, who resided three miles from where we did, and near where Monroe Furnace is now located, borrowed it, and he carried it on his shoulder all the way without laying it down, although it weighed 80 pounds. This was a pretty hard way of getting along, but there were greater hardships and privations than this. I knew a boy who attended the first Sabbath school, with whom I was quite intimate. The hat he wore to this Sabbath school was the first one he ever had that was bought at a store, and he earned the money paid for it by cutting cord-wood at 25 cents per cord. The hat was a common wool hat, and cost $1.25. He kept it and had it look well, from 1830 to 1834, when he worked at the furnace and got money to buy his first fur hat. e killed squirrels and tanned their skins and of these made his own hoes. He took the insoles of his winter shoes for soles. He dug trough in a poplar log, cut up black oak bark, and thus was his wn tanner, as well as shoemaker. Squirrel skins, when tanned, and then blacked with copperas, made fine, nice leather. This boy became so careful of his hats, thus acquired by so great an effort, that to this day he never wears out a hat, but has it looking neat when it goes, out of fashion. He once showed me a lot of hats of all styles, from the bell crown to the sugar loaf, which had become unfashionable by lapse of time. I stopped under a great oak tree in the creek bottom to rest. In this creek, I saw Levi McDaniel baptize several persons, in the summer of 1833. On the bank grew a bush that leaned over the creek. A boy climbed upon this bush, in order the better to see the baptizing. His weight loosened the roots, and he fell on his back in the middle of the stream. The bush was across his breast, and he held on to it, kicking and splashing the water. A little girl came to these baptizings whose name was Darling. She wore 160 - HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY. a "calash" or bellows bonnet. She would throw it back on her shoulders. Levi McDaniel's father, James McDaniel, was one of the first justices of the peace in Jackson county. When I was a small boy, he taught school in a little log house in the woods, just north, of where Gallia and Washington stations are now located. Mr. McDaniel was an old man, with long white hair, and he was stoop-shouldered with age. He thought a great deal of me, and bor-rowed the life of George Buchanan, the King's Fool, for me to. read. Mr. McDaniel would go to sleep in school, and we boys would have our pockets full of buckeyes, and when our old teacher was asleep we would cover them in the hot embers. When they became heated they would burst, with a report half as loud as a pistol. Just above where I now Write. once stood the old log school house where I went to school to John McKenzie, Willis C. Wilmore, James Kelly and John Shumate. At Christmas the large boys and young men would "bar out" the teacher, and make him treat. My parents would not let me go, as I was too small. One winter I cried and begged to be permitted to go. At last my father took me up on his horse and went with me. There was a great crowd around the house, and the teacher had procured a jug of whisky at a little distillery kept by George Crump, a short distance below the school house. All were drinking and' having a good time generally. All the men who lived 35 years ago along the route of my walk of to-day, are gone. Not one remains. Then there were-John and Matt Farley, Robert Massie, George Crump, Moses Massie, Jesse Kelly, Levi McDaniel, Solomon Mackley, my uncle, William and John Walton, James Kelly, etc. But I mistake. One. man remains. Joseph Phillips then lived here, and I saw him to-day. Speaking of my uncle, reminds me of the horse mill he-had on the hill between Portland and Jefferson Furnace. Here. we boys would come to mill, and we had to stay and keep our-horses there, or lose our turn. I have stayed there two days and HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY - 161 one night before my turn came. I have seen as many as 30 horse there at one time. I do not know how fast a tame turkey can. run in the night; but I know a wild turkey can outrun a man in daylight. I have often started up a flock of wild turkeys when hunting. I would run after them to try to get a shot at them. If I did not shoot at once, they would soon be out of sight, so much could they out-run me. When I was a boy, wild turkeys were quite plenty in this county. They were nice and fat in the winter. We had as many as we wanted. We caught them in pens made of fence rails. A trench some 15 feet long was dug, sloping gradually down from both ends. Then a rail pen was built about three feet high, and covered on the top with rails. One side of the pen was built directly across the middle of the trench. On the inside a few boards were laid across the trench, next the rails of the pen. Then corn would be scattered about the fields, and a trail of corn leading to the pen. Corn was thickly scattered in the trench and in the pen. The turkeys, finding the corn, would follow the same to the pen, and picking up the corn in the trench, would walk right through it, into the pen. When they wanted out, they al-ways looked up, running their heads between the rails. They never once thought of looking down for the trench. When I was a small boy I went one morning with my father to a turkey pen, some half a mile from the house, in an old field. It had six large turkeys in it. He took one out for me to carry home. When he went to wring its neck, I begged to carry it alive. I found that it was all I wanted to carry when dead, and if I had undertaken to carry it alive, it would have got away from me at the first effort it made. I was very fond of hunting pheasants when a boy. They are good eating, especially the breast. If I heard a pheasant drum-ming I was almost sure of it. They are a strange fowl. When drumming, they get upon an old log, in a thicket of bushes. They strike their wings against their sides three times in rapid suc- 162 - HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY. cession, then make a short pause, when they commence striking slowly, getting faster until it ends in a roar. The whole operation does not last over half a minute. I have often heard the drumming of a pheasant one mile. It sounds almost exactly like distant thunder. It was always a mystery to me how the light wings and soft feathery sides of this little fowl, less than the common hen, could make so tremendous a sound. When I heard a pheasant drumming, I would go towards it until nearly in sight. They drum about once in five minutes. I would listen, and get the exact locality, then commence a circle around it. As long as you go around a pheasant, it will sit still and watch you; but to go towards it, it will fly at once. No matter how much noise is made in the brush, while going fast around it, there is no danger of its flying. I would go on until within 20 or 30 feet, and having, my gun ready, would shoot its head off. Some times I would miss. The pheasant would generally sit still, and I would commence circling around it, reloading my gun as I went. This, may seem small sport to the old hunter, who has been in the habit of killing bears, and wolves, and panthers, and deer; but turkeys and pheasants were the best game we had. True, there were a good many deer, but they were so wild that only the experienced hunters could kill them. * * * Opossums were very plenty in this county in early days, and were very troublesome to the farmers, stealing and killing their chickens whenever they could get an opportunity. For this they were hunted and killed. The best way to kill them was to cut their heads off with an ax. There may be a few of this animal yet remaining in this county; but like the wild turkeys and pigeons, they will soon be all gone. Raccoons were formerly very plenty in this county, and a few yet remain. They did a great deal of mischief to the corn in the summer, eating it, and breaking it down. We often hunted them of nights. They would come into the corn fields soon after dark. Then we would send in our trained dogs. The raccoon would seek refuge on the largest tree it could find. A trained raccoon dog has a peculiar kind of bark when he trees the animal, which the HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY - 163 hunter at once recognizes. If the tree was not too large, we at once cut it down. The dogs would be ready near where it would fall, and rarely missed catching and killing the raccoon at once. If the tree was very large, we would build a fire, roast tit green corn, tell stories, and thus amuse ourselves until dayligh, when we would shoot the raccoon, and thus save the labor of utting the tree down. PRICE'S RECOLLECTIONS—The following reminiscences of P. P. Price, the last Whig postmaster of Jackson, tell the story of the company of volunteers organized in this city for the Mexican war: "I was born at Louisburg, in Greenbrier county, Virginia, on July 20, 1820. My father's name was Isaac Price and my grandfather was named Jacob Price. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, for which services lie received a pension in later years. He died in Pike county in this state. My father, Isaac Price, was a soldier in the War of 182. About 1825 he left Virginia and came to Ohio. He came own the Kanawha and then to Gallipolis. He stopped first near Beavertown in Pike county, having passed through this town. ater he settled at Piketon. I began to learn the trade of hatte at Piketon, but when I was 17, I went to Chillicothe where I finished. I remember my experiences at Chillicothe very distinctly. One night in 1838, I went to a political meeting at a little brick school house on Bank alley, running from Second street to Water street. There I heard Allen G. Thurman make a speech and I was told that it was his first effort. I remember the Harrison meeting in 1840. The people came by thousands and the parade was very long. Tom Corwin spoke. Another time, I went to hear Thomas L. Hamer, who was afterward killed in the Mexican war. I once heard Richard M. Johnson, who was vice president under Van Buren, and who was a candidate with him again in 1840. I came to Jackson in January, 1842, and started a hatter's shop. My shop stood just across the alley west of the Pickrel building Joseph Throckmorton had a shoe shop in the same building. 164 - HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY. soon began to keep a supply of boots and shoes in addition to my stock of hats and caps. About 1841, I turned my store into a gen-eral store. Throckmorton left and Moses Sternberger moved in, he occupying one side of the room and I the other. l was single then and boarded at the McQuality house. Levi Dungan was one of my fellow boarders. The room now occupied by N. Downey was then the parlor. McQuality was county treasurer. He also had a little store. He kept his store in a little frame house east of his hotel. It stood where the brick house adjoining the old hotel now stands. I remember some of McQuality's family distinctly. Three of the girls were Mary Ann, Eliza and Electa. Mary Ann became the wife of James Cadot, of Scioto county. I think McQuality had two sons, James and William. I was a Whig. In 1844, when Clay and Freylinghuysen ran, I was a member of the Whig central committee. The other members were William Cissna and William McKinniss. There was no paper published" then in Jackson county. I was a member of the M. E. church here. Rev. Jacob Westfall was pastor in charge and Rev. C. H. 'Warren was junior pastor. I remember making a hat for him. He was a gentleman well liked by all on account of his amiability. School had been taught here before I came, in a little school house built of poles. It stood on the triangle near where the Lutheran church is now. Levi Dungan taught there. A man by the name of Thornton taught there also before I came here. We called that part of town Ford's hill then. It was so called because a preacher named Ford lived on the road that passed over the hill. There was a school taught after that in a little building standing near where the National bank is now. It was taught by a lady. The Isham house had not been built then. A small brick building stood on its site owned by Chapman Isham and he had a store in it. I think a part of the walls of this brick were used when the Isham house was built. I was a member of a company raised for the Mexican war. William Cissna and myself had been aides of General Hamilton of this military district in the old militia, and we tried to organize a company here. We secured only a part of one however. Gabriel Andrews was one of the men. Another that I remember was Sam Pike, who did a little job print- HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY - 165 ing. From here we went to Piketon, where we made up the company. William Cissna was elected captain and I was chosen one of the lieutenants. We went from Piketon to Portsmouth in an old corn boat, traveling on the canal. It rained nearly all the way and we had a disagreeable time. The boys got to playing once and one of them slipped off into the canal just in front of the boat, but he was rescued before the boat passed over him. We had to stay several weeks at Portsmouth while General Hamilton went to Cincinnati to get us accepted. He got his company any accepted, hut our company was discharged and we had to !et back to Jackson the best we could. I think this company as raised here in 1847. Martin Stallings, of this county, had go out before. He was wounded in the war. Shortly after our return, Captain Cissna was married to a daughter of David Mitchel. I was at the wedding. I think Mitchel's house stood on the Chillicothe road. I remember that the boys got to shooting after the wedding, and several horses got scared, and broke loose, creating considerable excitement. The campaign of 1848 was an exciting one. I remember we had a great meeting here, one of the features of which was a parade. In the parade we had a large mechanics' wagon. Riding on it were several mechanics all at work. I was working on a hat. After Taylor was elected in 1848. I was appointed postmaster of Jackson. I think I entered upon my duties about July 1, 1849. I kept the office at my store at the corner just across the alley from the Pickrel building. About 1852 I built a part of what is now 'Rat Row' and moved my store and the postoffice there. My partner's name was John S. Taylor and our store was the fourth door from the corner. There was no fence around the Public square then and the public used to drive down between the old court house and the log jail. I soon grew tired of the postoffice because it required me to keep a clerk. When Pierce was elected I resigned. My first letter of resignation was not accepted and I had to write a second. Finally Steele was appointed and he removed the office to the parlor of the old McQuality house, which Steele had purchased, Later, I sold out to my partner, Taylor, and purchased the stock of James Dyer, who 166 - HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY. had his store in a small building standing at the Commercial Bank corner. Afterward I moved to a building where Hugh Crossin's building now stands. I remember that father used to catch wild turkeys in rail pens when we lived at Beavertown. The country was then full of deer and all game. The salt wells were not used when I came to Jackson. They were thick on the Salt creek bottom from Lackey's farm to the Bunns, but were beginning to fill up. Walker Bennett, the banker, used to bathe in a well near where the Baler works are. Coal had been discovered here before I came. It was found in a well which was put down near where the Crescent Opera House is now. Powell, a Welshman, had a tailor shop there, and the well was near the shop. The existence of coal under the town was well known in 1842. I remember the big flood in 1847, and I saw the man drowned on the Athens road near the Tropic furnace. George L. Crookham, I knew well. He used to sit down to read in the postoffice. He took many papers, one of which was the National Era. I remember the great fire in 1860. Fire caught in the cupola of the old court house from a building standing near where the Iron bank is now. I remember of going with a party to a place about one mile west of Jackson to a pigeon roost. We had pine torches. There were so many pigeons at the roost that limbs of trees would break down under their weight. We climbed them and knocked them down in great numbers. What a fluttering there was. The roost covered about four acres.. We would knock down the birds with poles, put them in sacks and bring them to Jackson. If we could have sold them we would have been made rich, but the buyers were few and they had no money. I remember that an old man from Fairfield county told me that he once hauled a barrel of salt from Jackson to his home in Fairfield county on a sled. The distance is from 65 to 70 miles. THE FIRST RAILROAD—Jackson county is largely what the railroads have made it, for its mineral wealth would never have been developed without them. Only Jackson, Keystone and HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY - 167 Buckeye furnaces had been built before the railroad. The first was not far from the Little. Scoto, while the others were on the Little Raccoon and could ship their product by water direct. It is doubtful whether they would have been built, had it not been proposed to establish slack water navigation on the Raccoo I. The "Raccoon Navigation company," consisting of James Riggs Nicholas Thevenin, Alexander Williams, James Lewis, Charles Giles, Joseph S. Coombs, A. Bentley and Moses R. Matthews, w. s incorporated for that purpose, February 4, 1848, with a ca ital stock of $100,000. The commissioners of Gallia, Jackson and Athens counties were authorized to subscribe to said stock "an, amount not exceeding $20,000 each." A survey was made, but the probability of the early building of the Iron railroad killed the enterprise. One of the most important events in the history of the county was the coming of Professor William Williams Mather in 1838. To him must be given the credit for bringing to the attention of capitalists, its great mineral wealth, and for taking the first important step toward its development. Mather was a descendant of Cotton Mather and was born at Brooklyn, Ct., May 4, 1804. He graduated from West Point and remained in the army until 1836, when he resigned to come to Ohio to take charge of the first Geological survey. He began the work in June, 1837, assisted by Caleb Briggs, Jr. The work was suspended in a few months, but not until Mather had made a practical survey of Athens, Hocking, Jackson, Scioto, Lawrence and Gallia counties. Frances Mather, a sister of the geologist, was the wife of Rev. David C. Bolles, of Licking county. Bolles invested largely in Jackson county mineral lands in the early part of 1838, and soon moved his family here. Mather bought a tract of land from Bolles, February 22, 1838, and moved his family here from Columbus later in the year. Mafher and Caleb Briggs, jr., assistant on the survey, bought a second tract from Bolles, which include a coal mine.. While living in this county Mather discovered the great possibilities of this mineral region, and began to devise a plan for developing it. He associated himself with a number of 168 - HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY. capitalists and organized the "Ohio Iron Manufacturing Company" to manufacture iron, glass, pottery and fire brick, make salt and saw marble. The company was incorporated March 6, 1845, with a capital of $300,000. It was to begin operations within three years and to build a furnace in Jackson county within six years. It was authorized to build a railroad from said furnace to the Ohio river, the Ohio canal, the Hocking canal or all of them. It was empowered also to build furnaces in Athens, Gallia, Lawrence and Scioto counties. This brilliant scheme never materialized, although Mather and a company built the Oak Ridge furnace in Lawrence county; but it called the attention of capitalists to our resources. Mather was more a student than a business man, and he succeeded better as professor at Marietta and the Ohio university, than in building furnaces. He died of heart disease at Columbus, February 26, 1859. Rev. Bolles, his brother-in-law, had died within two years of his removal to this county. His monument stood in the old Presbyterian cemetery and bore the following inscription only: "Sacred to the memory of Rev. David C. Bolles, who died April 20, 1840, aged 47 years." Briggs, mentioned above, settled in Lawrence county and became a member of the "Ohio Iron & Coal company," which laid out Ironton. He was a native of North Rochester, Massachusetts, where he was born May 24, 1812. He died at Ironton, September 24, 1884. The example of Mather in organizing the "Ohio Iron Manufacturing Company" was followed with better success, by the promoters of the "Ohio Iron & Coal company," incorporated March 23, 1849. It consisted of John Campbell, Joseph W. Dempsey, Henry Blake, James 0. Williams, Caleb Briggs, James W. Means, John Ellison, George Steece and James A. Richey, and was organized to develop the resources of Lawrence county. Its incorporators contemplated the building of a railroad beginning at the 'Ohio river in Upper township, Lawrence county, and penetrating the iron region to the north, but the building of this railroad was HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY - 169 left to another company organized under the following act, passed March 7, 1849. AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THE IRON RAILROAD COMPANY. Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the tate of Ohio, That James Rogers, Robert B. Hamilton, Hiram I amp-bell, Henry Blake, John Peters, J. Culbertson, William D. Anderson Dempsey and John E. Clark, of the county of Lawrence; and Daniel Hoffman, George P. Rogers and John Adair, of the county of Jackson, .are hereby created a body corporate, with perpetual succession, by the name of the Iron Railroad company with power to construct a railroad from the Ohio river, in Upper township, in Lawrence county, to the south line of Jackson county, with the right at their discretion of continuing it in a northerly direction, to the line of the Belpre & Cincinnati Railroad company. Sec. 2. The capital stock of said company may be an amount not exceeding $500,000. Sec. 3. The said company shall have all the power, and be subject to all the restrictions and provisions of the act regulating railroad companies, passed February 11, 1848. An act was passed March 7, 1850, authorizing the commissioners of Jackson county to subscribe $100,000 to the capital stock of this railroad, and the mater was submitted to a popular vote at the spring election, held April 1, 1850, with the following result: For subscription, 1,128; against subscription, 376. The strongest opposition was in Bloomfield, where the vote stood 114 to 106. The citizens of Bloomfield have nearly always taken a similar stand on other questions, especially that of pike building. The promoters of the Iron railroad failed to push their enterprise and their procrastination proved fatal, as far as Jackson county was concerned. It happened in this way. The boom in Lawrence county had aroused the people of Portsmouth. The re- 170 - HISTORY. OF JACKSON COUNTY. suit was the incorporation of the "Scioto & Hocking Valley Rail-road_ company," February 20, 1849, with a capital stock of $200,000. The Portsmouth promoters were B. F. Conway, Joshua V. Robinson, C. A. M. Damarin, Peter Kinney and John McDowell. The proposed road was to run from Portsmouth to New-ark by the way of Piketon, Chillicothe, Circleville and Lancaster. Unfortunately for the enterprise, Scioto and Pike counties refused to subscribe to its capital stock, and the proposed route had to be abandoned. Portsmouth was too anxious for a railroad to let the matter drop, and its capitalists began to covet the $100,000 sub-scription by Jackson county to the Iron railroad. The Scioto & Hocking Valley officials went to work and secured $128,000 from Portsmouth. They then proposed to build the railroad through Jackson, if the county would transfer to them the money sub-scribed to the Iron railroad. The proposition was favorably received. Portsmouth was already a town of importance, and immediate communication with it, was more to be desired than deferred communication with Ironton, the terminus of the Iron railroad, a mere hamlet at that time. Before the transfer could be made, Jackson county had to be relieved of liability to the Iron railroad. This relief was secured March 20, 1851, by the-repeal of the act, authorizing the commissioners to subscribe to that road. The commissioners were assured of the result and bad already made the subscription. The following journal entry tells the story: March 18, 1851.—The Honorable John Callaghan, John S. Stephenson, and Moses Hays, commissioners of Jackson county present, met for the purpose of a subscription of $100,000 to the Hocking & Scioto railroad, to be raised by the taxpayers of Jackson county to pay the interest on the loan for 15 years, when the county pays the principal and interest, if any there be. To which a borrow of that was negotiated. The transfer of this subscription had a vital bearing on the after history of Jackson county. It built Oak Hill mostly in Jef-ferson township instead of in the "flatwoods" of Madison. It gave birth to Berlin and Wellston and deferred the development HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY - 171 of Jackson and Washington townships 30 years. It knit a bond, political as well as commercial, between Jackson and Scioto, instead of Jackson and Lawrence. The first work on the road was done in Scioto county in 1850, but operations did not begin in earnest until Jackson county had made its subscription. The contract for building the first five miles south of Jackson was awarded immediately afterward, the contractors being Henry and Lawrence Myers. They came her from Maine. Henry was married here to Electa daughter of James McQuality, who lived so many years on Main street. The first load of ties was delivered on this section April 1, 1851, and occasioned this local: The work on the railroad near this place has commenced in, real earnest. The merry sons of the Emerald Isle are pouring in in goodly numbers and the digging has actually commenced. --Standard, May 22, 1851. Work at the Scioto end of the road had already been contracted for to within two miles of Webster. There was left a link of nineteen miles to connect with the section of the Myers Bros. The contract for this link was awarded June 1, 1851. The greater part of the grading of the road was completed by August, 1852, and tracklaying began at Portsmouth, Fourteen miles of track were laid before December 1, 1852. The track into Jackson county was laid shortly afterward, and the new era began. THE FIRST BANK—The breath of coming prosperity reached Jackson in 1851. Laborers came to build the railroad, merchants came to share the increased business, and the natives awakened from a lethargy of half a century. These causes gave birth to a bank. The necessity for it had become apparent, and its organization was hastened by the following editorial: There is perhaps no place in Ohio where there is greater need of a bank than in our own county. We have heard a good deal of talk about making an effort to organize a bank here. We presume there will be but little difficulty in raising the requisite 172 - HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY. amount of capital. Nothing but a want of concert of action on the part of those interested prevents the speedy organization of a bank in this place. Will not the friends of the measure meet together and consult about the matter—Standard, May 22, 1851. The "friends of the measure" got together, and before long the following card appeared in the Standard: CITIZENS' BANK—Bennett & Co. have established a bank in Jackson, and are prepared to loan money on short time, in large or small sums, upon approved security, and also purchase good negotiable paper and county orders on favorable terms. Office for the present over the auditor's office. Bank open from 10 o'clock a. m. to 2 m. J. W. LAIRD, Cashier. August 7, 1851. Bennett & Co. consisted of Walker Bennett, T. R. Stanley, J. M. Steele, James Farrar and J. W. Laird. T. R. Stanley had been prosecuting attorney, and the bank opened for business in his office. The building stood on the east side of the Court House and belonged to the county. It was two stories high, with two rooms and a hall on each floor. THE MATHER CEMETERY—Prof. W. W. Mather was appointed to begin the geological survey of Ohio in 1837. This work brought him to Jackson county, and after the work on the survey was discontinued in 1838, he settled in Jackson. The family boarded at first with Mr. Jacob Westfall. Mather soon purchased the land of Rev. David C. Bolles on Salt creek, and erected a fine residence for those times. The mansion stood on a slope overlooking Salt Creek valley, and not far from the top of the hill where the cemetery is now. It was a picturesque spot then, when the virgin forest had not yet been touched, but it must have been a very lonesome place for a family that had lived in cities. The house was removed years ago by W. W. Pierce, who purchased the land from Prof. Mather, but the cellar and well still remain. The cellar seems to have been under the whole house. The well is HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY - 173 about one hundred feet deep and no water was found. Later, water gathered in it, and now stands at about sixty feet. The survivors of the old orchard are scattered about, and all goes to show that Prof. Mather endeavored to secure for his family all the comforts of the times. Here the family lived for about ten years. Then death came,. and Mrs. Mather was taken. Upon her death Prof. Mather laid out a cemetery upon the point overlooking the mansion and deeded it to the township. In a year or two afterward, he removed to live in Columbus, where he died in 1859 of heart disease. The inscription on Mrs. Mather's tombstone is as follows: "Here lie the earthly remains of Emily Maria Mather, wife of William W. Mather, who died November 19, 1850, aged 40 years. A triumphant death in the firm unwavering faith and Christian hope of eternal life in heaven. She was a good wife, a kind neigh for, a tender mother and a faithful Christian." On the north side of her grave lie the remains of her infants.. The inscriptions on the stones are as follows: "Cotton Mather, infant son of W. W. and E. M. Mather, died 1849." "Increase Mather, infant son of W. W. and E. M. Mather, died 1840." Among the other graves is that of Jonathan Walden, who died January 13, 1857, aged 51 years, 1 month and 25 days; that of Mrs. Jane Milliken, who died November 23, 1868, aged 80 years, 4 months and 20 days, and that of John Finn, who died October 13, 1864. MT. ZION CEMETERY—This cemetery was deeded to the M. E. church by James R. Meacham in 1843. He was born in Montgomery county, Virginia, January 17, 1800, and came to this county in 1834. He was the son of Elijah Meacham, who was born and died in Virginia, dying at the age of 102 years, of heart disease, never having been ill an hour all his life. 174 - HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY. The first person buried in this cemetery was Thomas Oliver, a revolutionary soldier. He died February 23, 1844, aged 80 years, 9 months and 13 days. Hiram Oliver, of the Ninety-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry, is his only surviving son. Following is a list of other veterans buried in it: James M, son of B. and C. Arthur, died April 21, 1891, aged 56 years and 13 days. James Walker, died September 1, 1881, aged 65 years, 9 months and 2 days; member of Company K, Fifty-sixth Ohio volunteer infantry. The following are the inscriptions on the monuments of six pioneers buried here: "Benjamin Branscomb, died January 7, 1862, aged 69 years and 26 days." "Mother Tabitha, wife of B. Branscomb, died December 10, 1891, aged 95 years." "Joseph Wil-son, died May 26, 1871, aged 86 years, 1 month, 9 days." "Jane, wife of J. Wilson, died June 10, 1873, aged 82 years, 4 months and 16 days." "Mary Hunsinger, died December 12, 1863, aged 61 years." "Samuel Hunsinger, died January 12, 1869, aged 72 years, 2 months and 23 days." AN OLD TIME WEDDING—The following account of a wedding in the backwoods was written by Davis Mackley, in 1873: It was perhaps as early as 1826 that old George Corn settled on the hill about a mile south of the place where Jefferson Furnace is now located. He came from Old Virginia, and he had been a soldier in the war of the Revolution. He had been married twice, and he had a large family. I have often heard him remark that he was the father of twenty children. He was a small man, but his sons were all remarkably stout, healthy men. William Corn, one of his sons, married Polly Massie, a daughter of Robbin Massie, and Peter Corn married Rebecca, another daughter, while Big Jep, their brother, married Lucy Corn. It had been known in the neighborhood for sortie time that Big Jep and Lucy were going to be married, and as our family and the Corns and Massies were on very friendly terms, we were all in-vited to the wedding. We went soon after breakfast, and found the women busily engaged in making arrangements for dinner. HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY - 175 It was about a mile from George Corn's residence to that of Robbin Massie, the path running along the top of a ridge the most of the way. About eleven o'clock we heard a shout a distance ,of half a mile down the ridge, and soon we heard the clatter of horses' feet, and here came two men, their horses at full speed. The men had red spotted cotton handkerchiefs bound around their heads, and they: were leaning forward, their faces nearly on the necks of the horses. As there was only a narrow path through the woods, the man who got before had much the advantage, as it was somewhat difficult for one horse to pass the other; but about a hundred yards from the fence, the hindmost man struck through the woods, and his horse jumped over a large log, and he struck in ahead of the other, and secured the bottle in much triumph. The people at the house were all standing out waiting and watching. One of them held out the bottle to the successful horseman, who took it and both trotted their horses back until they met the wedding party, consisting of about forty persons, men and women, Big Jep and his " attendance " being in front. The bottle passed all the way back along the people, each taking a taste of the whisky it contained. The bottle was what is called a decanter, holding about a quart, and having flanges around the neck and mouth. It was dressed off with red, white and blue ribbon. The wedding party then rode up the house. The fence was torn down, and they all rode around the house three times, when they alighted and went in. Jep -shook hands with Lucy and took a seat by her side, and in a short time they were married. Big Jep was a fine looking man. He must have been six feet, three or four inches high, straight and well made. He was a very quiet man, and an inoffensive, good citizen. I will not describe the manner in which the parties were dressed, nor the dinner. The afternoon and night were enjoyed by all. Everybody appeared to be in a good humor. The old men sat -out on logs near the house, and told stories about Indian wars, bear hunts, etc. The young folks as now, said and did many things that were not the most wise; but young folks will have their ways. I remember one performance which interested me, and the other little boys immensely. Pete Corn went through a performance 176 - HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY. which he called " Pattin' Juber." He slapped both hands on his thighs in rapid succession, patted his feet, whistled and ,groaned all at once, and in regular time, while a lot of young folks danced to this original music. WELLSTON'S BEGINNING—The following graphic letter from the pen of Coates Kinney appeared in the Cincinnati Commercial, and is too good to be forgotten: Wellston, Jackson Co., 0., Dec. 20, 1873. Wellston is as yet a mere geographical expression. There is no town of that name. The place is at this writing only a town-site. But, in view of the prospective certainty that before the close of 1874 there will be at least three or four hundred houses here, I think I may be allowed the (geographical) expression to date a letter from it, giving your readers some facts about the region whose soil is to evolve this sudden town, with yet greater wonders of wealth, from its bosom. The Portsmouth branch of the Marietta and Cincinnati railroad, which extends from Hamden, a little village in the edge of Vinton County, to Portsmouth on the Ohio River, passes through what appears to be one of the poorest, but is actually one of the richest districts of its extent in this country. The land is rough and uninviting, but beneath its surface them is incalculable treasure. Jackson county, hitherto figuring as one of the most miserable little tracts in the State turns out to be the principal storehouse of this treasure. Inexhaustible veins of iron underlie its surface in all directions—which alone is wealth—and the woods here have been almost all cut off for charcoal to render it into iron with. But one day it was discovered that below the seams of stone coal which the natives had long been digging from the hills for domestic use, and thus saving their wood for the charcoal pits, there lay another seam, so similar to charcoal in appearance and behavior in the fire, that it was at once tried in the furnaces. The result was, it made iron but a small per cent. inferior to that made with charcoal. Here were riches incredible. The whole country bottomed. HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY - 177 with a layer of the finest smelting coal some four feet thick, accessible in the valleys by shafts of from twenty-five to seventy-five feet deep; great veins of iron cropping out everywhere along the hills, and inexhaustible quantities of limestone on every hand. It was too immense a windfall for the wild little county to realize all of a sudden. The staid ad inhabitants knew that the rugged surface Of their land was worth a little something, even after all its timber had been done into charcoal; for it still pastured sheep and yielded them wagon-loads of ore that they could barter for groceries and dry goods at the furnace stores; but they were slow to comprehend that the mighty genii of God lay darkling under their sheep pastures. The few home iron men who were in the secret were not fanatical about proselyting outsiders, but went noiselessly to work handling the good thing among themselves. The little old paralyzed town of Jackson suddenly sprang up and spread out into busy population and business in a surprisingly brief space of time. Then some of the owners of the surface up the country began to see it. It leaked out a little, and prospectors from abroad came in and made them see it more. The price of land started upward, and gentle speculation set in. That is the point reached at the present writing. Land has but just started into speculative figures, and shrewd calculators are beginning to take it in. Prominent among these calculators is the celebrated "Lightning-Calculator," Hon. Harvey Wells. Wells is Hon. because he is a member of the Constitutional Convention. He has also the distinction in that body of being the youngest member thereof, and of having been' elected as a Republican to represent a Democratic constituency. Vinton county is Democratic by some four hundred majority; and yet, by about that majority, he carried it against the regular Democratic nominee. He did this by lighting calculation and extravagant energy, as well as by great personal popularity. With the same calculation and energy he has been gobbling coal and iron lands here.. Such gobbling is technically termed optioning, so called because, the land owner being tied up to a certain price for a certain period, "the party of the second 178 - HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY. part" has his option for that period to take the land or not, at the stipulated price. Well, this Wellston is one of the results of Well's optioning. Hon. H. S. Bundy, member of Congress from this District, has a thousand acre farm that lies here like the hollow of your hand—scooping down close to the precious coal seam, and catching the ore veins and limestone ledges as they slope up to the horizon on all sides. The Portsmouth branch of the Marietta and Cincinnati railroad cuts it in two. A finer site for a town it is difficult to imagine. With a mere bagatelle of capital, but with a good deal of home credit for a " visionary " young man, Wells put the Bundy farm in a parenthesis at $105 an acre. By the co-operation of Colonel S. N. Yeoman, of Fayette county, a, keen and nervy anticipator of values, this farm, with the appurtenances of coal shaft and furnaces, has just been stocked at about a quarter Of a million. The plat of Wellston occupies the most eligible portion of the farm, on both sides of the railroroadwayain street running parallel with the track, and its Broadway crossing it and terminating both ways on the hilltops. Two largest sized furnaces will De put in process of building immediately, and simultaneously a hundred and fifty dwelling houses. This movement will be the first fair opening of the region, and will be the beginning of enthusiasm. There must be a rush of speculators here; for "where the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together." There can be no doubt about the presence of the carcass in this case. The wonder is that the eagles have not found it before. Where good and abundant iron ore, and the best of coal for smelting it, and the limestone for fluxing it all lie together in the same ground, and that ground only a hundred and thirty miles from a great city by railroad, the conjunction of advantages is so rare that it can be calculated upon to attract capital and labor largely, because it can be depended upon for large returns to the same. This is not an experiment any longer. * * THE HUGHES CAVE SKELETON—Mr. John J. Cunningham discovered a human skeleton in a cave on the lands of Mrs. HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY - 179 Hughes, in Madison township, some two miles from Centreville, in January, 1875. Ile was fox hunting, when the fox ran uheer the rocks, and he going in after it, saw something which be took to be a gourd. Picking it up he found it to be a human skull. He then found in a depression in the rocks the entire skeleton. It was lying face downwards, and the bones were cramped as if the body had been doubled and crowded into the depression in the rocks. JACKSON'S REPRESENTATIVES--The first period in the history of Jackson County's Representatives extended from 1803 to 1816. During this period nearly all the settled territory of Jackson County was included within the limits of Ross, and its Representatives can thus be claimed by Jackson. The members from Ross in the First Ohio House were Michael Baldwin, Robert Cul-bertson, Thomas Worthington and William Patton. The latter was one of the two men that drafted the first bill to regulate the Scioto Salt Works. The members in the Second House were James Dunlap, John Evans and Elias Langham. The name of Duncan McArthur appears in 1804. David Shelby and Abraham J. Williams were new men in 1805. Nathaniel Massie was elected in 1806, and Thomas Worthington and Jeremiah McLean in 1807. Worthington was one of the men that made the first survey of Jackson County. Jessup N. Couch, Joseph Kerr and Samuel Monnett were new men in 1808, and Edward Tiffin, already mentioned, in 1809. Henry Brush, Abraham Claypool, James Manary and William Creighton, Jr., were elected in 1810, Wil1iam Sterrett and Thomas Renick in 1811, Samuel Swearingen in 1812, John McDougall, James Barnes and Isaac Dawson in 1813, and Thomas Scott in 1815. The names are given in the order in which the men were elected. Many of them served several terms. Several of them were Governors of the State, and the list includes a number of Congressmen. Jackson's early settlers were well represented before the organization of the county. That event occurred in 1816, and the first election for representative was held in October of that year. The second period began in 1816 and lasted four years. The 180 - HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY. two new counties, Pike and Jackson were erected into a Legislative District until the census of 1820 was taken. At the first election there were only two candidates voted for in Jackson County, viz, Jared Strong and George L. Crookham. Strong carried the county by a vote of 171 to 89 for Crookham, and carried Pike County, also, and was elected. Crookham was the grandfather of the McKitterick brothers of Jackson and was a man of great ability. Strong's wider acquaintance secured him the election, however. He was re-elected in 1817 with hardly any opposition. In 1818, William Givens, of Jackson, was elected. Strong was not a candidate and his only opponent was William Collins who received a light vote. Judge Givens served only one year, and was succeeded by Strong, who was elected for the third term, and by an over-whelming vote. The third period began in 1820, and extended to 1828. During this period the counties of Meigs, Gallia and Jackson formed one Legislative District and were entitled to two Representatives. There were six candidates at the election in 1820. Robert G. Hanna received almost the entire vote of his county and was elected. His associate was George House. House and David Boggs. of Gallia, were elected. for the district in 1821. Jackson County was left out in the cold, but in 1822, evened up by electing two of its sons, Jared Strong and Joseph VV. Ross. This occurred on account of the multiplicity of candidates in the other two counties. Strong was elected for the fifth time in 1823, his asso-ciate being Fuller Elliott. Jared Strong, the first Jackson County man elected to the Ohio House, had a service record which has never been broken, in number of terms or years. He was elected five times and served five years, the term being one year, under the old Constitution from 1803 to 1851. In 1824, Jackson secured the two Representatives a second time, electing J. W. Ross and-David Mitchell. Ross was re-elected in 1825, and had Samuel Holcomb for his associate. In 1826, Daniel Hoffman, of Jackson, and Stephen Strong were elected. Some claim that this Strong was the son of Hon. Jared Strong, while others assert that he was a Meigs HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY - 181 County man. In 1827, George Burris, of Jackson, and Andrew Donnally, of Meigs, were elected. In 1828, Jackson and Pike were put together again and given one Representative. Alexander Miller, of Jackson, was given the first term. John Barnes, of Pike, was elected in 1829 and 1830, Robert Lucas, of Pike, in 1831, George Burris, of Jackson, in 1832, Barnes again in 1833, John Burnside, of Jackson, in 1834, and David Mitchell, of Jackson, in 1835. A new district consisting of Ross, Pike and Jackson was formed in 1836, which was entitled to two members, and to one floater the first year. James Hughes, of Jackson, was elected as one of the members in 1836, 1837 and 1838, and Elihu Johnson, in 1839. Daniel Ott was Hughes' associate in 1836 and 1837 and Abraham Hegler in 1838. Samuel Reed was the other member in 1839. The floater in 1836 was John I. Vanmeter, of Pike. Hocking was added to the district in 1840, and the new district was given three members. Jackson had a Representative during. the four years, viz, John Stinson in 1840, John James in 1841, Elihu Johnson in 1842, and Asa R. Cassidy in 1843. The other members were Joseph Kaylor and James T. Worthington in 1840, David Karshner and Le Grand Byington in 1841, William Nelson and Byington in 1842, and Kaylor and Wesley Claypool in 1843. Hon. Le Grand Byington moved to Iowa in later years, and was alive very recently. If he is still living, he is the oldest surviving Representa-tive of this county. He stumped this county during his canvass, and he spoke once at old Oak Hill in front of the residence of James Reed; where Evan I Evans now resides. During the next period of four years Jackson and Gallia were put together with one representative. Gallia was given Joseph J. Combs in 1844, Jackson, Martin Owens in 1845, and Alexander Poor in 1846, and Gallia A. T. Holcomb in 1847. Owens was the father of ex-Marshal William Owens. Holcomb is dead, but a namesake and relative is. now a leading Republican of Scioto County. In 1848, Athens and Meigs were added to the district, and it 182 - HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY. was given a floater in addition to the regular member. The member in 1848 was Hon. H. S. Bundy and the floater A. T. Holcomb. Joseph W. Ross was the member in 1849 and Holcomb the floater. Penell Cherrington, of Gallia, was the member in 1850 and Bundy the floater. During the decade following the census of 1850, Jackson and Vinton counties formed one Legislative District, which was represented by six different men, viz, Daniel D. T. Hard elected in 1851, William J. Evans in 1853, Edward F. Bingham in 1855, Robert B. Stevenson in 1857, and Alexander Pierce in 1859. Stevenson resigned before the end of his term, and was succeeded by William L. Edmiuston. All of these except W. J. Evans were from Vinton County. Evans was elected as a Whig. He is still living and resides near Oak Hill. He is the oldest surviving Legislator in the county. The two year term began with this period. The county now forms a single Legislative District, and has enjoyed that privilege since 1861, a period of thirty-nine years. During that time the county has had fourteen Representatives, of whom eight are still living, viz, James Tripp, Bernard Kahn, Thomas J. Harrison, R. H. Jones, B. F. Kitchen, Samuel Llewellyn, M. T. Vanpelt and Lot Davies. Hon. Isaac Roberts, the first of the fourteen was the father of Mrs. H. C. Miller. He was elected in 1861 and served one term. His successor was Hon. James Tripp, elected in 1863, who served two terms. In 1867, the Republican candidate was defeated by Hon. Levi Dungan, who served one term. Dr. William S. Williams, of Oak Hill, was nominated by the Republicans in 1869, and elected, but he died March 6, 1871, while at Columbus. His remains were brought to Oak Hill for interment. The writer was at the funeral. The day was rainy and gloomy and the funeral was one of the largest in the history of that village. An election to choose a successor was held March 23, 1871. Hon T. L. Hughes was elected. In October, 1871, the Republican candidate was defeated by Hon. Bernard Kahn, who served one term. He is now living in Cincinnati. There was no contest in the Republican convention of 1873, and Hon. T. J. Harrison, of Jefferson township, was nominated by acclamation. This was the first polit- HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY - 183 ical convention attended by the writer, and it left a most vivid impression. After Harrison was nominated, he was called before the convention and delivered a short address. El e was elected, but served only one term. In later years, he moved to Missouri, where he now resides. In 1875, Dr. A. B. Monahan was elected, and he was re-elected in 1877, but died before the end of his term., He belonged to a family of legislators. His brother, Hon. I. T. Monahan, was Senator from this district during his first term. A brother and a doctor represented Vinton for two terms in recent years, and other brothers served in western Legislatures. Monahan was succeeded by Hon. James B. Paine, who was re-elected in 1879. Hon. R. H. Jones, then of Oak Hill, succeeded him. He served two terms, and as " Jones of Jackson " acquired a State reputation. Hon. B. F. Kitchen was elected in 1885 and served two terms. Hon. Samuel Llewellyn was elected in 1889 and served two terms, and Hon. M. T. Vanpelt was elected in 1893 and served two terms. He was succeeded by Hon. Lot Davis, who is now serving out his second term. Jackson County has had fifty-nine Representatives since its organization. Of those who were its own citizens H. S. Bundy became the most distinguished. Robert Lucas, of Pike, who represented it in 1831, became Governor of Ohio the next year, and was re-elected in 1834. John I. Vanmeter, who represented it in 1836, was elected to the Twenty-eighth Congress. Byington was a candidate for Congress in Iowa in the early years Of the war. Others have held many positions of honor and trust. James Hughes, who served from 1836 to 1839, established the Jackson Standard. Martin Owens established the Jackson Union, but it did not survive long. John James was the grandfather of ex-Warden C. C. James. Personal popularity had much to do with the success of the men elected under the old Constitution. It was only after Jackson became a single district that political lines were tightly drawn. Roberts was elected in 1861 as a Republican, and that party has controlled the county ever since, Levi Dungan and Bernard Kahn being the only Democrats to break the lines. 184 - HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY. WITCHES—The south part of Jackson County, and the adjoining parts of Scioto and Lawrence, were settled early in the present century by the poorer classes of persons from Western Virginia. They possessed many good traits of character, and some which were not so good. From the amount of ceremony attending the marriages among them, as I have already described, one would suppose that the marriage relation among them would be highly esteemed; but such was not always the case. On one occasion a man conceived that he had been worsted in his marriage contract, and traded his wife to another man for a penknife, worth 50 cents. The purchaser took possession, and the parties lived together quite happily until they left the county, and for aught I know, they are living together yet. Occasionally an old bachelor was found among these early settlers. There was Jesse Rees, the tailor, who made my first coat for me. He built a cabin away back across the Black Fork of Symmes' creek, miles from any other settler. It was at the foot of a steep hill, which is known to this day as "Rees' Ridge." This place is about a mile from Jefferson Furnace. There Rees lived all alone. He was an inoffensive man, but terribly addicted to drinking whisky. When partially intoxicated, he was in the habit of boasting of a large amount of property in which he had some in-terest at King's Salt Works, near Charleston, Virginia. Witches were very troublesome in the days of the first settlements in this county. The cows would become bewitched, and kick over the milk pail. The butter would not come with any amount of churning. The only remedy was to cut a small piece from the end of the cow's tail, take that and a few drops of her blood, and a little of her milk, and cover them in the hottest part of the fire, and the witch would be rendered very uncomfortable, and would very likely relieve the cow. Hogs were often bewitched. A farmer told me once that he had lost many fine hogs at the hands of the witches, The hogs would commence running around, fall down in a kind of convulsive fit, and soon die. He and his brother were out one day burning brush, when a witch seized one of his hogs, and it fell near the burning brush heap. He told his brother to pick it HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY - 185 up and throw it into the fire. It was apparently dying, but as his brother stooped to take hold of it, it jumped up as well as ever, and ran off. The witch having so narrow an escape, did not trouble his hogs any further. But the witches often attacked persons. I know a young woman once who was sorely troubled for years by ____, a witch, living in the neighborhood. I have seen this young woman seized in time of religious meetings, and it was a fearful sight. No one could hold her but ____, her beau. Great terror would seize the congregation when these attacks were made. It was the subject of gossip for miles around. The aid of witch doctors was invoked. They made a profile of Mrs. ____ , the witch, and shot it with a bullet made of silver. They resorted to other means, too mysterious to be made known, and finally Mrs. was rendered so uncomfortable that her husband was compelled to sell his little farm and leave the county. A most horrid case of witchcraft occurred in this county since my recollection. A young girl near the town of was bewitched. The witch would cause the dishes to move from the cupboard to the table, and back again, without any hu-man agency. Nearly all the clothes about the house were cut to pieces by the witches. Persons went many miles to see these strange sights. The whole county was excited, and scarcely any-thing else was talked about for many months. Witches often played strange pranks. They would often at-tack persons who happened to be caught out alone at nights, and throw a bridle over their heads, force the bit into their mouths, mount them and ride them over hill and hollow, through brush and briars, until the poor wretches were completely exhausted, and would return early in the morning looking more than half dead. Witches would often appear of rainy nights, especially in low, swampy places, as "Jack with the lantern." The witch would commence as a torch light, and the traveler, too glad to have a light to show him his way, would follow. The light would move, and commence dancing, and then the party was for it, and was compelled to follow it whithersoever it went. It would lead him into the worst mud and mire, and then it would stop and laugh at his calamity, 186 - HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY. and mock when his fear came. I cannot give the sound of this laugh in print, but is was something like "heuck, heuck, heuck." An old man from Old Virginia told me that he had often and often been this led by witches. Once he became completely exhausted and crept into a hollow log as far as he could get, but his hips and legs were exposed. The witches came and battered him over the hips until he was glad to get out of the log and pursue his way. His hips were bruised until they were black and blue for many days. The only way to get this witch spell broken, was to turn some portion of your garments wrong side out, when the light would instantly disappear and you were free. Witches would often kill sheep and cattle by shooting them with balls made of hair, very closely and mysteriously wound together. These balls never made any external opening in the skin, but were often cut out of the dead animals, in various parts of the body.—Standard. SYMMES CREEK—John Cleves Symmes was born on Long Island in 1742, removed to New Jersey, was colonel of militia in the Revolution, served in the Continental congress, and on the supreme bench of New Jersey, received a patent for a tract of more than three hundred thousand acres on the Miami, was married three times, and died at Cincinnati, in 1814. His memory has almost been forgotten but the tortuous creek which drains the upland flats of Jackson county, and flows south forever, fed by strong springs welling forth from lime and coal strata, will preserve his name. Symmes creek is a post glacial stream. It was formed by the pent up waters of a lost river whose mouth was choked by the glacier, seeking an outlet into the deeply eroded bed of the Ohio. The old valley of the lost river can be traced easily through this county from Beaver to Centreville. The closing of its mouth by the ice converted that part of it now included in this county into a long but narrow lake. The floods at the close of the glacial period caused this lake to overflow at three or more points. These overflows cut gorges which in course of time emptied the lake, and, that duty done, continued to be regular water courses. Erosion is still in. HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY - 187 progress, and their valleys are widening year by year. The Salt Creek gorge is nearest to Jackson. The South Fork of this creek occupies the old river bed from Camba to a point about a mile below Jackson. It then flows through a narrow gorge of its own making, which is easily accessible to every Jackson boy or girl who cares to study it. The two forks which join to form Symmes creek down in Gallia county, flow through gorges of the same general character, but they are older, the work of erosion has continued longer, and the hills have been rounded out mone, and the exposed strata covered. It should be noted, that while these gorges were emptying the glacial lake, many small streams were carrying in sand and mud, and gradually filling the deeper parts of the lake bed. With the subsidence of the waters, the force of the current in each gorge was lessened, and there came a time when the cutting practically ceased. But the washing in of material continued unabated until all the low places were filled. The lake bottom then became a marsh, and such was the condition of the lowlands in this county, when the white man came. Drainage has converted those marshes into meadows, and the flats on the head waters of Symmes are now the best land in the county. FRANKLIN VALLEY—The flat south of Camba goes by the name of Franklin Valley. It is irregular in shape but broadens toward the south and has an area of about one thousand acres. It is hemmed in by low crowned hills, but a low gap connects it with Salt Creek valley on the north, and two valleys drain its waters to the east and south. The first stream flows on by easy stages until it loses itself in Cackley swamp on the Grassy Fork of Symmes. It bears no name. The second stream is the Black Fork of Symmes.. Its bed drains the lowest lands of the flat. The waters of the glacial lake lingered longest at the point where it enters the gorge through the hills to the south. Nature was thwarted in her effort to drain this marsh, by the skilful engineering of the beaver. The valley of Black Fork was one of their favorite haunts, for its tortuous course furnished so many suitable sites for dams. These dams held back the waters in ponds, the largest of which occupied 188 - HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY. the lowest level of Franklin valley, and bore the name of Beaver pond. This name given by the Indians, was retained by the whites and still designates the spot, although the water has been drained away. The presence of the beaver, and of the buffalo which were attracted by the sweet grasses of the marshes, made this a favorite hunting ground of the Indians. The buffalo lingered on the headwaters of Symmes until the beginning of this century. Two were killed on Grassy Fork in the neighborhood of Emory church in 1800, others of the herd were killed near Winchester in 1801, and the last survivor was shot by an old hunter named Keenes in the Franklin valley neighborhood in 1802. The beaver remained until their dams were broken down by the ruthless salt boilers. This let out the waters, and the clearing of the timber and the straightening of the creeks drained all the smaller ponds at an early day. Beaver pond held its own for half a century more, but the deepening of the Black Fork channel within the last seven years, has ended its history. INDEX