50 - KNOX COUNTY, OHIO. on the part of manager Butler and his sturdy townsmen, that could possibly be done to put on the appearance of being too busy to show them around much, and they acted rather indifferent as to the outcome of the c0mmission's visit and chief mission in the place. Butler asked few questions, but when asked any by the strangers he was free to speak kindly of the other. rival for a seat of justice, all of which greatly impressed the commissioners with the notion that .really here were a -thrifty, sensible, unselfish set of citizens. This cunning practice might have been looked for at Clinton, made up of so much Yankee blood, but hardly expected in the town in which the men of authority (commissioners) were then stopping. At Clinton the welcome with which they were met was not of the pleasing type as had been put before them over in Mt. Vernon. For by pre-arranged plans of Butler and others, a set of rough men of the "baser element" had been sent on ahead of the commissioners from Mt. Vernon's outskirts, and had gone .to Clinton in advance, and there were pretending to be in a high state of intoxication (they might have had a few drinks—it was comm and cheap those times), and ran against the honorable, dignified commissioners, and by their rude and rowdish conduct, heartily disgusted the commissioners, who naturally believed they belonged in Clinton and that they were, a fair example of the average citizenship of the little burg, seeking to be placed on the map of the world as "county seat town." At any rate the commissioners did not locate at Clinton. Whatever might have been their reason, the world will never fully know, as the records are silent and the participants in the matter have been buried in the grave many decades ago. When it had been made known that Mt. Vernon had won the seat of justice, there was naturally great rejoicing in town and bonfires were kept brightly burning. Pioneer Butler used to relate about the part he took in this funny contest. It will he recalled that he was the hotel man who so nicely entertained the commissioners at Mt. Vernon. He said : "In the morning, before ready to start, the commissioners were friendly and I asked them to join in a jumping match. and they did, and I jumped farther than they could and one said, `Well, landlord, you can jump some.' I asked them if they were not going back to take another look at the Clintonites, whereupon they said 'No.' I told them how I regretted that they had not been better served at. my hotel, but 'twas the best I could do.. They said, 'We fared well,. and if ever we come here again we will be pleased to stop at your tavern.' They then asked me to accompany them to Delaware to pilot them over the rough country, which I did. On the way over I asked them, indirectly, if they had located the county seat yet. But they gave an evasive reply and I said no more. I told them that KNOX COUNTY, OHIO - 51 sometimes I got discouraged and thought I might do better somewhere else for myself and family. But Commissioner Dunlap said I was doing well enough here and that times might be better. So when I returned home I called the 'boys' of the town about me and told them what I had found out and believed that we had got the county seat. Then I asked all hands to take a drink with me on Mt. Vernon. This little 'trick' of ours, I am sure, turned the scales with the commissioners in our favor, as they never saw through it." Jonathan Hunt's account of the work being performed at Mt. Vernon„ the day after the commissioners arrived, is as follows : "Gilman Bryant sort of bossed the job and, being a cripple, he tended on them and gave out whiskey and water, cheering them up by saying: 'Work like men in harvest, but keep sober, boys.' Mike and John Click drove the ox teams used. Mike was a bully hand with oxen and made them tear up stumps, haul logs, plow and scrape. Men never worked better on a road than that force did. They chopped down trees, cut off logs, grubbed, dug down rough spots, filled up galleys, burned logs, and made a wonderful change in the looks of things. This, to my certain knowledge, was the first street work ever performed in Mt. Vernon." OTHER THEORIES ADVANCED. In summing up all that can be learned about the county-seat contest, it may be stated that probably the above was one of the chief reasons the commissioners had in mind when locating it here. The looks and actions of a town and its people often gain or lose much of it. Then another theory, quite plausible, is the one which states that Pioneer Smith, of Clinton, proprietor of that town plat, held his lots too high, at least reserved all the corner and valuable sites and then offered the poor ones at lower figures, but this soon disgusted the people, who, even in the surrounding country, felt a sympathy for the then lesser struggling Mt. Vernon. Even some had removed from Clinton on account of this thing and located in Mt. Vernon. Here, then, is another reason for Clinton's defeat. A third one is still more in keeping with the affairs of men then as well as today.—that is, that two men in the country just north from Clinton, told Mr. Kratzer and Mr. Patterson, who were interested in the site at Mt. Vernon, that in case they would give .them each two town lots in their place, that they would use their influence in having Mt. Vernon secure the county seat, and that by their influence the place was finally made the seat of justice. But whether there was actually any bribery practiced in the transaction none can tell. CHAPTER V. EARLY SETTLEMENT. To have been a pioneer in so good a portion of the state of Ohio as Knox county has proved, to be, was indeed a fortunate honor to have been conferred upon these sturdy first settlers who wended their way hither more than century ago from older settled, prosperous sections of the eastern states. They came. they saw, they conquered, and verily they builded better than they knew or conceived of at the time they were felling the first giant forest kings, preparatory to raising them an humble cabin home, in what was then but a desolate wilderness, inhabited with Indians and wild and dangerous animals. To begin with, it may be said that from the best authority we now possess—the early histories of Ohio and the former annals of Knox county—it is believed that the first settlers in the various townships of this county were as follows : Clinton, township—Andrew Craig. prior. to 1801, the first also in the county, though he proved not to be a permanent settler. Berlin township—Henry. Markley, in 1808, from Bedford, Pennsylvania. Brown township—Charles McKee, from Ireland, in 1809. Butler township—George Lepley's father, with others, emigrated from Virginia and Pennsylvania in 1805 or possibly a year or so later. Clay township—Levi Herrod, from Greene county, Pennsylvania, in 1804. College township was first settled prior to 1812 by squatters who soon left and a non-resident, living in Pennsylvania, sold a four-thousand-acre tract of heavy timbered land to the Episcopal church for college purposes, and this colony really became the first actual settlers in 1825-6. Harrison township—Andrew Castro, prior to 1808. The second (some claim the first), settler was Jeremiah Biggs, who settled in 1808. Howard township—Abraham Welker, from Harrison county, Ohio, in 1806-7. Paul Welker came immediately. Hilliar township—Dr. Richard Hilliar, in 1806, from England. Jackson township—Robert Eaton, of Wheeling, Virginia, 1810, Jefferson township—Among the first to locate were Isaac Enlow and Nicholas Helm, soon after the close of the war of 1812-14. KNOX COUNTY, OHIO - 53 Liberty township—A colony from Washington county, Pennsylvania, which arrived in the spring of 1805 and included these: Francis Atherton, Francis Blackney, Thomas Fletcher, George Ginn, Francis Hardesty and Alexander Dallas. Middlebury township—William W. Farquhar, a Friend, from Maryland, settled in 1808. Milford township—Thomas Merrill and James Pell, of Massachusetts, settled in the spring of 1812. Miller township—John Vance, Jr., from Virginia, in 1808. Monroe township—Among the first (if not, indeed, the first) to locate here was Joseph Coleman, 1807. Morgan township—John Green, 1806. Morris township—William Douglass, from New Jersey,, settled in 1804. Pike township—Henry Lander, prior to 1816. Pleasant township—Among the earliest settlers was James Colville, from Washington county, Pennsylvania, in 1803-4 and had a crop growing in 1805. Union township—George Sapp, Sr., who entered the first land in 1806. Wayne township—Nathaniel Michael Young, of New Jersey, in 1805. While Andrew Craig is claimed to be the first settler in the county, he can hardly be considered an actual settler, as he remained but a short time. So pioneers generally give credit to Mr. Young. THE ADVENT OF THE WHITES. Having given an outline of where and by whom the first settlements were effected in the county of Knox, an endeavor will be made to trace the wanderings of those of the white race who were within the limits of the county long before the actual settlement began, which was in fact about 1803. James Smith is supposed, according to the best authority extant, to have been the first white man to set foot on this fair and fertile domain. He was a native of Pennsylvania. He was captured at, or very near the quaint little town of Bedford, Bedford county, at the age of eighteen years, by the Indians, in the spring of 1775. a short time before the defeat of Braddock. He was taken to the Indian village on the Allegheny. opposite Fort Duquesne, and compelled to run the gauntlet, where he nearly lost his life by the blow of a club from a stalwart savage. After his recovery and the defeat of General Braddock, he was taken by his captors on a long journey through the forest to the village of Tullihas, in what is now Coshocton county, Ohio. Here he was adopted by the Indians into one of their tribes. 54 - KNOX COUNTY, OHIO. The ceremonies consisted first of plucking all the hair from his head, except a scalp lock which they adjusted according to their fashion; in boring his ears and nose, and placing ornaments therein; in putting on breech clouts, and in washing him several times in the river to wash out all the white blood in his veins. This last ceremony was performed by three young squaws, and as Smith was unacquainted with their fashion, he thought they intended to drown him and resisted at first with all his strength, to the great amusement of the multitude on the river's bank. One of the young squaws finally remarked, "Me no hurt you," and he than gave them the privilege of dousing him as much as they desired. When brought from the river he was allowed to dry his clothes, and in solemn council, after an impressive speech by the chief, he was admitted to full membership in the tribe. In his journal he says he always fared as they did, no exceptions being made. He remained in Tullihas till the next October, when he accompanied his adopted brother, Tontileaugo, who had a Wyandot wife, to the shore of Lake Erie on a visit to that nation. On his journey he passed through what is now known as Knox county. He remained among the Wyandots, Ottawas and Mohicans about four years, traversing all parts of northern Ohio. He undoubtedly hunted over Knox county, as the streams here afforded good hunting and fishing grounds, and was probably the first white man who saw these valleys in their virgin beauty. At the end of four years he escaped and made his way to Pennsylvania where he published a memoir from which the above facts are obtained. Christian Fast, another Indian captive, aged sixteen years, as well as John Leeth, a native of South Carolina, both traversed the wilds of Knox county before any settlement was made. After these, no doubt the next whites to pass over this county were the band of Moravians who, as prisoners of war, were taken from the Moravian towns to Upper Sandusky by the British emissaries. They crossed the very land on which the city of Mt. Vernon now stands. The date of this passage of innocent men, for a religious cause, was 1781. Again, during the Indian war from 1788 to 1795, the noted scout and Indian fighter, Capt. Samuel Brady, on more than one occasion passed through Knox county. In 1792 he headed a party of scouts and moved up the Kokosing or Owl creek to the present site of Mt. Vernon. It is believed, from good evidence, that the renegade, Simon Girty. and his brothers, with the notorious British agents, Elliott and McKee, went through this section many times, going to and from old Fort Pitt. The date of such trips was about 1785. KNOX COUNTY, OHIO - 55 Just prior to the actual settlement of Knox county by Andrew Craig, William Leonard, in company with a band of scouts, came into this territory as early as 1799. Leonard purchased land on Owl creek and returned with his family and became a permanent settler of this county. CONCERNING ANDREW CRAIG. Historian A. Banning Norton, a native of Knox county, says this of him who is supposed to have been the first white man to have a real abiding place--a home—in this county : "From our researches into early statements we are led to believe that Andrew Craig was the first white man who 'located within the present limits of Knox county. He was, at a very early day, a sort of frontiersman, fond of a rough-and-tumble life, a stout and rugged man—bold and dare-devil in his disposition—who took delight in hunting, wrestling and all athletic sports, as well as hail fellow well met with the Indians then inhabiting the county. He was from the bleak, broken mountainous region of Virginia and as hardy a pine knot as ever that country produced. He was in this country when Ohio was in its territorial condition. When this wilderness region was declared to be within the county of Fairfield, the sole denizen in this entire district whose histOry is now being written tabernacled with a woman in a rough log but close by the Indian field, about one-half mile east of where Mount Vernon city now stands and at the point where Centre run empties into the Kokosing river. There Andrew Craig lived' when Mt. Vernon was laid out in 1805 ; there he was when the county of Knox was organized, its oldest citizen, and there he continued until 1809. Such a harem-scarem fellow could not rest easy when white men got thick around him, so he left and went to the Indian village, Greentown, and from thence migrated to a far-out frontier, preferring red men to white men for his neighbors." This region was settled, at first, largely from Pennsylvania, Virginia, New Jersey and Maryland, with not a few from New England. They were generally Revolutionary stock, and for this reason Ohio has always taken much interest in national affairs. Then the war of 1812 had its effect upon the minds and patriotism of the sons of the Buckeye state. In the treaties and government control, a great part of the territory was reserved to soldiers and relatives. These lands amounted to more than two million, six hundred thousand acres. All of the present county of Knox was therefore from out some part of the "military lands" set apart by Congress, except fractional parts of Middlebury, Berlin and Pike townships. 56 - KNOX COUNTY, OHIO. The first permanent settlement in the county was made by Nathaniel Mitchell Young, "the ax-maker," who came in 1803, soon after Andrew Craig, and followed up Owl creek to a point some ten miles beyond Craig's cabin, settling on a branch of that stream, in what is now Wayne township. This settlement, later known as the "Jersey settlement," receives attention in the chapter on Wayne township. Pioneer historian Norton speaks as follows concerning the persons who came in to build for themselves homes between 1803 and 1809 : "After many years of solitary residence on the beautiful Kokosing, the solitude of Craig's retreat is broken by the entrance of a lone Jerseyman, who, in the spring of 1803, penetrates some ten miles farther into the wilderness, so as not, by too close proximity, to annoy another, and there raises a a cabin and settles down. This follower of the trade of Vulcan soon gets in readiness to strike, and sets about supplying the sons of the wild forest with the first axes they had ever seen, and by making for them tomahawks and scalping knives, he soon acquired the name of the 'ax-maker,' which for more than almost a century has attached to Nathaniel Mitchell Young. "A year passes before another white man came in to his kingdom of the 'green glad solitude' which he was a ruler of, as far as white men were concerned Then came a sturdy backwoodsman, who by the crack of his rifle broke the silence. This was pioneer number two, William Douglass, who drove his stakes where James S. Banning later lived, near the old town of Clinton, hard by Mt. Vernon. Next in order was Robert Thompson, who located on the rich bottom lands on Owl creek, where Mt. Vernon is now situated. George Dial, of Old Virginia, came up the creek and finally pitched his tent near the present college town of Gambier. Capt. Joseph Walker. from Pennsylvania, settled on the bank of the creek near the site of Mt. Vernon. John Simpkins, another Virginian, located with his son Seeley a mile above Douglass, where George Cassil's farm was later known. While these plain men from New Jersey, Virginia and Pennsylvania were making ready their cabins for occupation, and making a little clearing, a stray Yankee, solitary and alone, with a speculative eye and money-making disposition is, with pocket compass, taking his bearings through the dense forest, questioning about the chance of making a fortune by laying out a town and selling lots to those who may come after him into this charming new country. Having, as he believed, found the exact spot for his future operations, he blaze's a tree and then wends his way to the nearest town, Franklinton, west of the Scioto, where he obtains chain and compass, and paper, and returns and lays out the town of Clinton, in section 4, township 7, range 4, of the United States military district, with its large public "green," its North KNOX COUNTY, OHIO - 57 street and South street, its Main street, First, Second, Third and Fourth streets, with one hundred and sixty lots, and then, taking his- town plat in his pocket, walks to New Lancaster, being the first white person ever known to have made the journey in that direction from this infant settlement, and there, before Abraham Wright, a justice of the peace, acknowledges the important instrument, and on the 8th day of December, 1804, places it upon record. This was Samuel H. Smith, first surveyor of Knox county, for many years a resident, its leading business man and largest landholder. "Shortly afterwards a large accession was made t0 the population of the county by the emigration from Ten Mile, Washington county, Pennsylvania, of John Mills, Henry Haines, Ebenezer and Abner Brown, and Peter Baxter. These all settled a short distance south of Owl creek. This settlement, increased by the Leonards, was in 1805-6 the largest and best community in the county, and upon its organization and for several years thereafter, it furnished the leading men. "Benjamin Butler, Peter Coyles and Thomas Bell Patterson, in the spring of 1805, augmented the Walker settlement, where Mount Vernon was soon located. 'William Douglass was soon joined by James Loveridge. who pulled from far away Morris county, New Jersey, and with his good wife takes quarters July 6th upon the clapboards in the garret of his little log cabin where he lived the first year. The next year Loveridge goes off on the pretext of hunting a lost cow, and goes to the land office, and enters and pays for the tract of land, where he soon erects a dwelling and resides for many years. Upon this land was an uncommonly good spring, which caused him to select it. Smith, the Yankee, claimed to have bought this land and was offering to sell it out, but Loveridge went to the records at the land office and found it had not yet been taken, and upon his return home with his patent. Bill Douglass laughed heartily at the Jersey Blue over-reaching the cunning Yankee Smith. In 1805 this settlement was made up of Douglass, Loveridge. Smith and Watson. The old ax-maker, in the meantime, was followed by some of his relations and friends who established what has ever since been styled the 'jersey Settlement.' Jacob Young, Abraham Lyon and Simeon Lyon are the first to settle upon the south fork of Owl creek, and are succeeded by Eliphalet Lewis, John Lewis and James Bryant. They found the Indians very numerous, and through the kind feelings toward the ax-maker, they were friendly, and really quite an advantage in ridding the county of wolves, bears and other animals." North and west of the embryo settlements all was one vast wilderness for many long miles. Newark had been laid out by General Schenck, but it only contained about the same number of people that were to be counted in this section. The nearest mill in 1805 was at a point in Fairfield 58 - KNOX COUNTY, OHIO. county, and it took James Loveridge the journey of one hundred and twenty-five miles to procure a wagon load of flour, a barrel of salt, a barrel of whisky, etc. Salt, whisky and flour were the great staples of frontier life. THE QUAKERS COME IN. In the early spring of 1806 the advent of the society of Friends commenced to increase the settlement. The venerable Father Henry Roberts headed this Quaker colony from Maryland. He left Maryland with his family, his home county being Frederick, and directed his course like the star of empire, westward. He wintered in Belmont county, and sent his wagons back to Maryland loaded with ginseng and snake root, and on their return with a load of goods started with his plunder and his family, April 7, 1806, landing at the house of Henry Haines, in the Ten Mile settlement, named from the location in Washington county, Pennsylvania, from which the first settlers emigrated. After spending a week looking for a suitable location, on the 14th of the month he settled down with his family at the little prairie five miles above Mt. Vernon, later known as the Armstrong section. The family consisted of his wife and two sons, Isaiah and William, and Richard Roberts and a daughter, Massah. Nine acres of this fine prairie land was at once broken up and planted to corn. It was very hard work to break the virgin soil with a first rate four-horse plow, but it paid for the labor, as he raised one of the best corn crops ever harvested in Knox county. William Y. Farquhar, a cousin of Henry Roberts, came with his family, and after him came William W. Farquhar with his family. They all stopped with Henry Roberts and thus completed the first settlement in the Friends district. From this beginning came the numerous society of Quakers in Wayne, Middlebury and Berlin townships in after years. In the spring of 1806 there were but fifteen persons within what is now known as Knox county who turned out to cast a vote and only nine fit for drill in the "training day" occasion that year. The white male inhabitants of Knox county, above the age of twenty-one, in 1820 numbered about twelve hundred and ninety. These were scattered over the county in about the following numbers : Hilliar township, twenty-one; Bloomfield, sixty-nine; Morgan, one hundred and fifty-two; Miller, seventy-two; Jackson, one hundred and seventy-eight ; Chester, one hundred and twenty-two ; Wayne, one hundred and sixty-eight ; Morris, one hundred and fifty-seven ; Union. one hundred and forty-four ; Clinton, two hundred and seven. CHAPTER VI. PIONEER MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. With wants but few, no pioneer will crave A crown in life nor plaudits at his grave; He leaves behind the slavery of style, The myrmidons of pride, deceit and guile, Enlisting with the cohorts of the free, The motto on his shield is "Liberty." What cares he for the monarch's crown, For prince or plutocrat, for fame's renown, The turmoil and the strife of endless greed? With honest toil supplies his simple need; He seeks not glory, yet the future years Weave bright laurels for the pioneers. The days of pioneering in Ohio and the Middle West are forever gone —no more new country to explore and develop. The "good old times" are gone forever. It now remains for those of this generation to record a few of the interesting incidents that transpired in this county, when the Indian had just bid a long farewell to these beautiful valleys and table-lands and when civilization had fairly commenced its grand march of achievement through the sturdy traits of character found in the little colonies making up the first settlement here and in adjoining counties, over which Knox was the dominating power. While it would require volumes larger than this to recite the unique customs and manners of those who built the first human habitations hereabouts ; of what they wore and how they procured it, etc., perhaps the following will suffice to introduce the reader to the ways of doing things in our grandfathers' days, in this section of the Buckeye state. The pioneers here came largely from New England, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland and New York States. They came on foot, on horseback, with single-horse rigs and some with large double-teamed, heavy 60 - KNOX COUNTY, OHIO. wagons. Some meandered their way here from the East in a lumber wagon drawn by oxen. It required from two weeks to two months to make the journey into this county, from where the pioneer had been reared. Streams had to be crossed without fine steel bridges spanning their waters ; no cheerful hotel to stop at nights, and no "honk" of the modern automobile to frighten the half-broken teams which conveyed the family into the country. The new cabin was built quickly and its latch string was ever out for the reception of strangers, without money and without price. These "mansions" in the forest land of Knox county were, many times, not to exceed twelve by twenty feet in size, yet they could shelter from the storm almost any number who happened to be within their walls when bed time came. What to eat did not materially concern the good house wife, for her husband's trusty rifle was sure to provide plenty of the finest game and the soil was productive in yielding many good vegetables in their season. To obtain bread—corn or wheat—required some skill and much hard work. Again, the corn and beans planted in the spring brought the table a plenty of roasting ears and succotash by autumn time. When the corn became too hard to eat as roasting ears, it was grated and, still later in the year, ground. Plenty of juicy venison, with a "quarter section" of steaming Johnny cake, were food articles fit even for royalty and the very material upon which the good blood and brawny muscles of the frontiersman was made sixty and eighty years ago. But the days of the hominy block, the horse mill and tedious trips to the nearest water mill at which flour could be ground, have all passed and the "city roller mills" do this work. Cooking in those early days was carried on by vastly different methods than those which now obtain in the kitchens of Knox county. Without stoves, the trammel and hooks hung in the fire-place corner. By chains were suspended the mush-pot and tea kettle at meal time. Iron-ware was extremely scarce, and often the good woman of the cabin had to make coffee. boil potatoes and fry meat in the same iron vessel. When there was no lid for the pot, a flat stone was heated on the embers and cleaned off and laid on top of the pot to confine the steam as much as possible. Here was made what was known as board-cake or bannock. This was similar to the hoe-cake of Maryland and Virginia, where a large planter's hoe was used by the slaves in their cabins, for the baking of their corn bread. But here a wooden board was used. The meal with a little warm water and a few pinches of salt were mixed into a batter and this was plastered onto the clean board and set up at the proper angle before the burning embers of the fire-place. This, it is related, was a fine lay-out for the family. The finger marks of the dear, unselfish mother were ofttimes seen imprinted in the well-baked and crisp KNOX COUNTY, OHIO - 61 crust. Did you ever -see these things? No, you did not live in the pioneer. days before ranges and natural gas stoves that belong to another generation,. yet in your veins runs the same blood of the dear old people who did live that way and made the state of Ohio famous for her statesmen and business men. Hogs were ear-marked and turned out into the woods to "root hog or die" and these pigs made fine meat, eating as they did from the nuts and other forest growth. The bear seemed to take special pains to supply his own larder with a fat pig every now and then, when the faithful old house-dog was not on the alert. Returning to the subject of eating, it may be said that the pioneers here had a variety of diet about after this fashion : When corn bread and milk were eaten for breakfast, hog and hominy was eaten at dinner, and mush and milk for supper (it was not called "six o'clock dinner" those days). There was little room for tea and coffee then, especially when the pioneer had to exchange one bushel of wheat for a pound of coffee and four bushels for a pound of tea, which was the rule in the country for the first twenty years after Knox county was settled. PIONEERS AND RYE WHISKY. In these advanced days of Christian Temperance Unions and "wet" and "dry" elections in Ohio, it may seem strange to speak of the favorite' beverage—after spring water—as being copper-stilled rye whisky. But such was the habit of the times. Everybody drank it. It was believed to be needful in health and sickness. Men could not (did not) work well days nor sleep well nights without this drink. The whisky was, of course, absolutely pure, although enough of it would cause drunkenness, but this needed no "sobering up" times or sick headaches. Stills for manufacturing liquor sprang up all over the country, wherever there could be found a suitable stream of water. Pioneers soon found market for their corn and rye, hence the business grew profitable, and really was the only resource they had for ready cash. Money must be had to pay taxes, if for nothing else. Whisky could be bought for twelve and fifteen cents a gallon and paid for in corn. The barrel of whisky was as common in the cellar as the cider barrel was later in this county. When a farmer had a surplus of whisky, he loaded it into flat-boats or pirogues (one or more dug-out canoes lashed together), and floated them down the rivers to New Orleans where it brought the Spanish gold coin readily. It was whisky that caused the first rebellion against the United States—the "Whisky Insurrection," growing out of the hardships 62 - KNOX COUNTY, OHIO. of the sturdy Scotch-Irish of western PennSylvania, who, while good Presbyterian stock, did love their toddy and used it in and out of church circles. They rebelled against a tax being placed on the manufacture of the same. It brought money into the country and they needed that very commodity as we do today. While the writer is not saying that even those early pioneers actually needed liquors to sustain life, yet they had been so reared and it took decades to get the notion out of their minds. Again, the whisky of 1808 to 1863, when the war revenue was added to it, was a different article than that sold and drunk today. Yet, we are told that even with all of its seeming purity, that it actually made red noses for men and that their children often went shoeless and ragged on account of its use. EARLY SUPERSTITIONS. Long years after the Salem witchcraft of New England, there was in every community in the country—especially did it obtain in Pennsylvania and was brought west to Ohio from there—a species of silly and laughable superstition, that caused people to believe in witches and fortune tellers. Often one old man was found who could foretell events and find places where stolen money and other treasure had been concealed. Another could cure wens, warts, etc., by saying over some strange words the meaning of which he did not know himself, much less his patients. The "mineral ball" he possessed could locate lead, coal, gold and iron. This was no less than a wad of animal hair, hardened by other materials in the stomachs of cattle. At funerals, he advised no one to be so foolhardy as to leave the graveyard first, as if they did they were sure to die first. Other men possessed the power to heal the sick by strokes and words in a foreign tongue. But the power would leave the party, should he in some unguarded moment speak these magic words aloud. Another had a flat stone with which he claimed to cure all horses of "sweeney," simply by rubbing it over the animal just at sunrise, providing, however, the party had not spoken to any one that morning, not even his wife, who also took stock in such nonsense and for a wonder kept from talking before breakfast, when her husband had a call to use the cure stone on a neighbor's horse. WHAT MEN AND WOMEN WORE. The frontiersman who frequently went forth on scouts and hunting expeditions, wore a combination of civilized and Indian garb. The hunting shirt was universally used those days in Knox county. This was a loose KNOX COUNTY, OHIO - 63 frock reaching half way down the thighs, with large sleeves, open at the front, and so large as to lap over a foot or more when belted. The cape was large and generally fringed with a raveled piece of cloth of many bright colors. The bosom of the garment served as a pocket to hold bread, cakes, jerk, tow for wiping the gun barrel, or any other needed article. The belt, which was always tied behind, answered several purposes, besides that of holding the dress together. In cold weather the mittens, the bullet-bag, and such things occupied the front part of it. These hunting shirts were usually made of linsey, sometimes of coarse linen or deer skins. The last were cold and uncomfortable in wet weather. A pair of drawers or breeches and leggins were the dress of the thighs, a pair of moccasins answered for the feet. These were made of dressed deer skins, mostly of a single piece. Flaps were left each side and these extended some distance up the leg. These moccasins were easily adjusted to the ankle by means of thongs of buckskin. In very cold weather these shoes were stuffed with deer's hair or dry leaves to keep the feet warmer. On account of these foot coverings, more than to any other cause, the early pioneers and hunters and soldiers' were afflicted with rheumatism. Hence many slept with their feet to the fire, which thing, very likely, saved many a severe case of rheumatism. Sometimes in winter the skin of a panther, wild cat or spotted fawn was made into a waist-coat. In summer, when it could be obtained, linen was used for wearing apparel. The flax was grown in the summer, scutched in the fall, and during the long winter evenings was heard the buzz of the little flax-wheel, which had a place in every cabin in the settlement. These machines were still in use as late as the fifties, in some parts of Knox county. It stood in a corner, had a large bundle of flax wrapped about its forked stick, a thread reaching to the spindle, and a little gourd filled with water hanging near by at the bottom of the flax stick. When the busy housewife had finished caring for a half dozen or dozen children, had milked as many cows and got supper for the many work hands and had a few spare moments in which to "rest," she might have been seen in many a Knox county cabin home, sitting clown to this wheel, with tired foot on the treadle, and, with nimble fingers, pile thread upon thread on the spindle, to be reeled' off Or a wooden reel that counted every yard with a snap, and then it was ready for the great loom that occupied every loft in a well-regulated farm house. Weaving time was a busy scene in the cabin. The timbers and shuttles were larger than those used in a modern balloon frame dwelling. Then after the cloth was made, it was cut up and the same tired hands had to sew it all up by hand (no sewing machines till the "fifties" and few even that early in Knox county) into garments for the various members of the household. Wool went through about the same process, only it was spun on the large 64 - KNOX COUNTY, OHIO. spinning wheel, colored with butternut bark and other things, now a lost art to womankind. Then the winter clothing had to be made after the loom had faithfully assisted the housewife and devoted mother. HOW THE PIONEER WOMEN DRESSED. The wearing apparel brought by the women from their old homes in the East, of course was kept for special occasions and served a number of years, but in time the last thread of these garments had been worked up into carpet rags, or quilted into bedspreads. Other gowns must be provided. The young children fast reached manhood and womanhood and dresses had to be made for the growing misses, so they might look respectable too. The flax patch, therefore, became an important part of the farm, almost as much so as the truck patch had been in providing food for the table. The flax grew tall and slender on the side of the clearing next to the timber. The delicate straws were carefully pulled by the girls and kept by themselves to make finery of. The stronger growth answered well enough for men's wear, and for making warp for the linsey-woolsey, and even every-day dresses for the women folks, but for Sundays, when everybody went to "meeting," the girls especially wanted something finer, just as the girls do today. This finer flax was pulled, rotted, hackled, carefully scutched, dyed in divers colors, and then carefully woven in cross-barred figures, straining a point to get turkey-red enough to mark their outline, like the circle about a dove's eye. Of such goods the maiden fair made her Sunday gown,. and then, with her vandyke of snow-white homespun. linen, her snow-white stockings, home. knit, and possibly a pair of white kid slippers, she really was beautiful and captivating. No paint on her rosy cheeks, hidden by a neat sun-bonnet, or a broad-brimmed hat, made by her mother of rye straw, she was indeed. winsome and lovable to behold. But about the white kid slippers—this needs-an explanation to the present-day reader. Her brother, or lover perchance, shot six fine squirrels; she tanned the skins herself in a sugar trough, and had them done up at a considerable expense and trouble to wear Sundays and on state occasions. "How did they wear these slippers to the far-away meeting house, through mud and dust ?" some one says. Well, it was on this wise. The young men, and girls too, carried their best- boots or shoes with them, but seldom put them on till near, or quite to, the church or ball-room, when they took off their old ones and slipped into the better ones. - Some young men went barefooted and carried their fine boots over their shoulders till within a short distance of the meeting house. These seem like odd, strange, hardly truthful assertions, but this was the practice in an earlyday in this as well as all the western country. KNOX COUNTY, OHIO - 65 Linen for "Sunday-go-to-meetin' clothes was made with the use of copperas and was snowy white, checked and striped, and when bleached was very pretty and soft. For very choice wear it was all flax ; for everyday wear, the second best, the warp was flax and the filling tow. Dye stuffs in those days were in reach of all. Butternut or walnut hulls, colored brown; oak bark, with copperas, dyed black ; hickory bark, or the blossoms of goldenrod, made yellow ; madder, red ; and indigo, blue; green was obtained by first coloring yellow, then dipping into a blue dye. Stocking yarn was dyed black, brown and blue ; for choice stockings, strips of corn husks were lapped tightly in two or three places around a skein of yarn and dyed blue. When the husk was removed, whitish spots were found mottled in with the main color and that was called "clouded" yarn. The little tub of blue dye, with tight-fitting cover, stood in some far corner of almost every well-regulated house. Sometimes the smooth cover suited the young man when, after the old folks had gone to bed, he wanted to sit closer to his best girl, and it was then that he moved the dye-tub nearer the chimney corner. With the advent of carding machines the work of the housewife was materially lessened. The earliest hint at "store clothes" was the soft pressed flannel, called "London Brown." The same time came in the London brown for men's wear, and when a "freedom suit" was given the one who had served his time as a bound-out boy or an apprentice, he valued this suit as highly as others did the horse, saddle and bridle. given on such occasions. In passing from this topic of dress of the ladies, it may be recorded in this, the latest annals of Knox county. Ohio, that there may be girls and women who today wear forty yards of silk and velvet upon their person, with all corresponding toggery and ornamentation. who look down on the beginnings of fashion and the clothing worn by their mothers and grandmothers. In such foolish cases they should be reminded that as a rule these same plain women of sixty years ago and earlier, possessed more genuine womanhood. virtue and common sense in their least finger than some of the butterfly lasses of the twentieth century do in their whole body. While styles and fashion are ever changing, and remembering that those women dressed as well as their surroundings in a wilderness would permit, and that clothes do not make the man or woman, but the heart and intellect they possess, certain it is that the self-sacrificing mothers of ye olden times were model wives and mothers. From such people have come the best women and men of today. It has been said, "Luxury tends to degeneracy." and certain it is that those who pay most attention to dress today have, as a rule, the least brains and hearts, this applying equally to men and women. (5) 66 - KNOX COUNTY, OHIO. PIONEER HOUSES. We will not enter into a lengthy detail concerning the human abode that has about passed from use in this country, the log cabin, yet a brief account of their construction may not be without some interest to those who live in modern houses and are warmed by heating stoves, natural gas, steam, hot-water heat, or furnace of hot air. The first houses were built from round poles or small logs, with the bark still clinging to their surface. The houses thus formed had stick chimneys, daubed with lime or lime mortar ; they had puncheon floors and scanty furniture within them. The roof was made of riven shakes, held in place by heavy weight-poles. The second and improved log houses were constructed of hewed logs, with sawed lumber doors and small openings filled with eight by ten window lights, on one or two sides. Some nails were then used. They were wrought nails, however, hence were expensive, for we are told that a pound of them cost a bushel of wheat. Now twenty pounds can be obtained of a much better nail—a wire, sharp-pointed nail. The old nails were forged out on the anvil by blacksmiths at night-time. The house "raising" was a feature of pioneer times. It was then that all hands went from far and near and assisted the newcomer in providing, as quickly as possible, his home quarters. After the building was up and the family settled, a "house warming" was the rule of practice. The tools employed in building these cabins and- hewed log houses were, usually, the ax, the cross-cut saw and the adze, with sometimes a hand-ax and drawing knife. The corners of the building were carried up as near plumb as possible, by having the ends of the logs notched or dove-tailed. Often the chinking and plastering, as well as the making of openings for doors and windows, was delayed for some time and then done by the owner at his leisure. Many of these houses had no loft, or second floor, but when they did have it was used for sleeping apartments. Frequently the snows of winter would sift through the gables or the clapboard roof, sufficient to cover the floor and beds over with several inches 0f snow. Then, too, these lofts were used many times for storing away trinkets and for hanging up roots and barks and herbs which came in good play during the winter months, for dying and for medicinal decoctions. THE HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE. To conclude, a description of the furniture that adorned and made homelike these early cabin homes of the settlers who sought out a home in KNOX COUNTY, OHIO - 67 this goodly section of Ohio a hundred years and more ago will be in order.  In the language of one who had gone through such experiences, we take the liberty to freely quote: "First of all, the table had to be improvised and there was no cabinet maker to fashion it, and no lumber sawed from which to make it. Our floor was laid with broad puncheon of the chestnut species, well and truly hewn by the hand that knew how to hew to the line. Father took one of these puncheons, two feet and a half broad, putting two narrow ones in its place, bored four large auger holes and put in four legs. On this hosiptable "board" many a wholesome meal was partaken of by truly happy hearts full of thankfulness. Many an honest wayfaring man has eaten his fill at this home-made table. "On big occasions when more table room was needed, the great front door of the cabin was lifted from its huge wooden hinges and placed alongside the ordinary table. What we sat upon at first I can not recall, probably blocks. But well do I remember when my father hitched up and loaded the wagon down with corn and wheat, and then crossed the country some ten miles and brought home a set of oak splint-bottom chairs. Some of these chairs were still in the family in 1880. Huge band-boxes, made of blue ash bark, supplied the place of bureaus and ward robes. A large tea chest, cut in two and hung by strings in the corners, with the hollow sides outward. constituted the book case. A respectable old family bedstead was lugged across from Red Stone. An old turner and wheelwright added a trundle-bed, and the rest were whittled and hewn and shaved out of the native timber of the surrounding forests. "But the grand flourish of the furniture was the 'dresser.' Here were spread out in one grand display pewter dishes, pewter plates, pewter basins and pewter spoons, scoured as bright as silver." HUNTING IN KNOX COUNTY. Nearly all of the first generation of settlers in this county were expert hunters and dearly loved the chase. They were only too glad for the appearance of the first frosts and first skiff of snow. The deer were plentiful and the fur-bearing animals, including bear, were to be had for the hunting a few hours for any time, anywhere out from the settlement. Many families hereabouts never knew what bread was from one month to another, but depended upon the forests for game and berries. Breakfast could not be eaten often till the man of the house went forth and killed some sort of game to fry or broil. In fact, the hunter preferred the outdoor life and was uneasy 68 - KNOX COUNTY, OHIO. in his cabin, for he claimed it was too warm. Hunting was not a mere pastime, but skill must needs be exercised. The traits of the animals sought for must be studied. The wind had to be consulted. A score of things contributed to make hunting a profession not known much about these days. The forestman needed no compass ; the trees, sun and stars took its place. The bark on the north side of a tree could always be counted on as being thicker and containing more moss—this was his compass. The whole business of a hunter was one succession of deception and intrigue. From morning till nightfall he was on the alert to deceive and evade the wild animals. WOLF TRAPS. In the winter of 1805-6, in the vicinity of Mt. Vernon, the settlers entered into an agreement to give nine bushels of corn for each wolf scalp that might be taken, and three of them caught forty-one wolves in steel traps and pens. The description of one of these wolf pen-traps and the mode of operation may not be without interest to the reader, as wolves are seldom seen in Knox county now-a-days. Wolf pens were about six feet long, four feet wide, and three feet high, formed like a huge square box of small logs, and floored with puncheons. The lid, also of puncheons, was very heavy and was moved by an axle at one end, made of a small round stick. The trap was set by the use of a "figure four" device, well known to nearly every one. For bait, any kind of meat would do, except that of a wolf , the animal being fonder of any other than that of its own kind. On gnawing the meat on the point of the figure four, the lid fell and caught the animal. To make sport for the dogs, the legs of the wolf were frequently pulled through the crevices between the logs forming the trap, hamstrung, and then he was turned loose, when the dogs caught and finished him. GREAT OCCASIONS. Among the greatest of occasions in all new countries, eighty and a hundred years ago, were the Fourth of July celebrations, the general training days for militiamen and the wedding days. It took more than one day to get married in Knox county then and the whole community had to help tie the knot good and tight, by dancing and drinking and other lively performances. In this there was no distinction in rank and very little of fortune. A family establishment cost a little labor and nothing else. This was the only gathering (save a funeral) where the guest was not expected to work his pas- KNOX COUNTY, OHIO - 69 sage, be it husking, rail splitting bees, house raisings, log rollings or reaping grain. The bill of fare at the table consisted chiefly of beef, pork, fowls, venison, hear meat, roasted and boiled, with plenty of potatoes, cabbage and other Ohio vegetables. Whisky was seldom refused at these pioneer wedding occasions. After a day or two of eating, drinking and dancing, the couple were considered married after the standard fashion of the community. Independence Day celebrations have always had a place in Knox county, from the very earliest settlement of the county. A spot was selected somewhere on a clearing, near some good tavern, where it was certain the landlady was also a good cook. There was plenty of drumming and fifing and noise in general. Some one could always be found who felt that he was competent to preside as president or officer of the day ; some one who could read toasts and others who had fought under William Henry Harrison as orderly sergeant. There were also plenty of men who could read the Declaration of Independence, for be it remembered that among the pioneer band in Knox county there were not a few men who had attended good schools and academies and some had gone to Yale College. If a minister was not on hand, plenty of devout Methodists and Presbyterians could offer a fervent prayer. Again, if the day and its performances did not end in a ring-fight. the people went home disappointed and vowed they would never come again. CHAPTER VII. THE COUNTY GOVERNMENT. Counties, like states and republics, must have a government peculiar to themselves. The county and township governments are all subservient to the higher laws of the state and nation, in this country. In this chapter will be brought out the acts of the board of county commissioners, the building of court houses and jails and the establishing of the County Institute; the building of roads and bridges; the finances of the county of Knox, with many other important items connected with the government of the county, since its organization, down to the present date (1911 ). The names of the hundreds of men who have served as officials of this county in the last century, in one or more capacities, will be found in the chapter on "County, State and National Representation," elsewhere in this volume. The proceedings of the hundreds of meetings, special and regular, of the commissioners would fill many volumes the size of this. It is of little consequence to know all the little details of the government of this or any other-subdivision of the commonwealth of Ohio, but the following few pages will give the reader a comprehensive view of how affairs have been carried forward in the county. It would not be true to state that at all times the best men have filled the offices. It has not been so in any other county, in this or in any other state, but in the main good, honest, prudent men have filled the various official positions. The first regular board meeting of the commissioners in Knox county-assembled Monday, October 24, 18̊8, with the following present : Henry Markley, Matthew Merritt and William Douglass, commissioners, and they at once appointed James Smith their clerk. October session, 1808—Ordered that the clerk issue an order on the county for the sum of one dollar and fifty cents for killing one wolf, proven by William G. Farquhar, in favor of Samuel Durbin. James Smith allowed two dollars for carrying election returns to Newark. December, 1808—Ordered that James Dunlap. Isaac Kook and James Armstrong be allowed twenty-two dollars each for fixing the county seat of this county. KNOX COUNTY, OHIO - 71 The first road petition offered was for a highway from the town of Clinton, through the settlement of Skink's Creek, to the eastern line of this county, and the same was promptly rejected by the county fathers. William Hedrick is referred to as a prisoner, and fifty cents is charged for his diet. Session of January, 1809—Ordered that the clerk issue an order to the following persons on the county treasurer in the sum of one dollar and fifty cents each for two days' service on the grand jury, at the January term, to-wit : James Walker, Sr., Eleazer Biggs, John Baxter, John Beam, Joseph Walker, Levi Herrod, Nat. Critchfield, William Herrod, David Johnson, James Strange, James Walker, Jr., William Cooper, Jonathan Craig, thirteen. April session, 1809 Edward Herrick allowed twenty-five dollars for his services as prosecuting attorney during the last January term. Also allow themselves two dollars each per day for commissioner's services. Ordered that some necessary repairs be made and done to the meeting house in the town of Mt. Vernon for the accommodation of the court. Silas Brown appeared and gave security for the collection of taxes. Ordered that the commissioners do receive the jail from the hands of John Mills, Alexander Walker and James Walker, Sr., provided they do saw down the corners of the jail. Then our clerk shall issue to them four hundred thirty-three dollars and fifty cents as per agreement. Wolf bounty was raised to two dollars per scalp. Ordered that Henry Haines be appointed treasurer of this county for one year. He appeared and gave bonds. Taverns in Mt. Vernon were also taken up and taxed six dollars per year and in all other towns in Knox county the sum of five dollars. Rates of ferriage within Knox county were fixed as follows : On each foot person, six and one-fourth cents ; on each man and horse, eighteen and three-fourths cents ; on a wagon and team, fifty cents ; on every horse, mare or mule, ten cents ; on every hog or sheep, three cents. A public road was ordered made from Fredericktown to Mt. Vernon and one to Mansfield, Jacob Young appointed supervisor of such road making. June session, 1809 - Ordered that James Morgan be taxed four-fold for refusing to give in four horses to the lister of Union township. Madison township, Richland county, was established. William Douglas got a road allowed from Mt. Vernon to his mill via Clinton. ANOTHER COUNTY GOVERNMENT. On page one, book "A," appears another record of a new county government, dated May 2. 1808, with Joseph Walker. John Harrod and John 72 - KNOX COUNTY. OHIO. Lewis, who at once commenced to establish boundaries and areas of townships, and gave them names. Road making and 'Slaying out" received more attention. June 6, 1808, the record shows that it was ordered by the commissioners that a jail be built in the town of Mt. Vernon, twenty-four feet long, sixteen feet wide and nine feet high. of one foot square timber, etc. May 2. 1809, the jail is received and the contractors dismissed from their bonds. In 1809 the records show that horses were only taxed thirty cents each and cows ten cents. The land tax in Wayne township that year amounted to only sixty-four dollars and forty-seven cents. June. 1810, a jailor's house was ordered erected in Mt. Vernon sixteen feet square. A whole page is devoted in the records as to how it should be built and finished. This building was accepted in November the same year. Journal "A," page 138, dated May 4, 1811, appears the first item concerning a court house for Knox county. Plans are there seen calling for a building thirty-six feet square. Henry Markley, William Douglass and Robert McMillen were commissioners at that date. June II, that year, a contract was let for the construction of said court house to Solomon Geller and George Downs for the sum of two thousand four hundred thirty dollars, with a bond given for five thousand dollars. The record seems missing up to 1816 so far as any important acts are concerned. November, 1816—Commissioners met and ordered some improvements made on the court house and advertised their wants in the Ohio Register, Knox county's first paper. John Frank got the repair contract at one hundred dollars. March 3, 1818—The treasurer of Knox county was ordered to place certain funds with cashier of the Owl Creek Bank for safe keeping. Mention is made of a bridge across Owl creek, south of Mt. Vernon, and speak of a fund of six hundred seventy-five dollars and thirty cents by appropriation of the Legislature. August, 1818—Jailor Michael Click was allowed a bill for housing two negroes two nights and days, two dollars and twenty cents. Auditor's duplicates are first mentioned in April, 1819. December, 1819, the Baptist church was allowed the privilege of using the court house for preaching, providing they add twenty-four feet more of benches. In 1821 the county treasurer was allowed the salary of one hundred and fifty dollars. KNOX COUNTY, OHIO - 73 Early in 1822 about one thousand dollars in repairs were placed on the court house, Reason Yates doing the work. The same season the bounty on wolf scalps increased to three dollars on old wolves and half that sum for young wolves. In 1822 certain amounts were paid back to parties advancing money with which to purchase a bell for the dome of the court house. December 24, 1823, a new jail and jailor's house was ordered erected. This was to be on the public square in Mt. Vernon. The new jailor's building was accepted in October, 1825. In October that year the old jail and jailor's house were sold to William Y. Farquhar for twenty-five dollars, and his note taken for the same. In December, 1825, five dollars was allowed for a plat of the town of Fredericktown. In 1826 it was ordered that a "necessary house" be built on the public square by Ira Babcock for one hundred and thirty dollars. September, 1826, the commissioners pay off Solomon Teller for his work on the jail and jail house. He received part cash and a deed of land for the balance. October, 1828—A stone wall was ordered constructed to support the court house, on Market street. In December the same year, it was ordered that the clerk cause notices to be published in the newspapers calling for donations towards the building of a court house in Mt. Vernon. September 1, 1829—A new court house was ordered built on the public square, which fact was to be advertised in the papers to contractors and bidders. Eight pages of record is given by the board in way of specifications, etc. Among the bills paid from the county treasury in November, 1818, were the following : To Anthony Banning, for one hundred and eighty-two and a half pounds of iron and brick for the jail ; twenty-six dollars and twenty-five cents to Archibald Crofferd for the following for the county : One pair handcuffs, three. dollars; one hasp, a dollar and fifty cents; two gates, thirteen dollars and eighteen cents ; eight spikes, fifty cents : further the contract was awarded to William Douglass at one hundred and twenty-five dollars to make improvements on the county jail and jailor's house. The county commissioners seemed determined on making the jail burglar proof if possible.. October 5, 1829—Commissioners article with John Shaw to build the new court house for the sum of five thousand four hundred eighty-five dollars. June 5, 1835—Ordered that a tax of one mill be levied for court house purposes ; two mills for road and one for school purposes. June 6, 1835—Commissioners are seeking out a piece of land for poor house purposes. 74 - KNOX COUNTY, OHIO. Some court house tangle seems to have crossed the pathway of the worthy county "dads," for in the proceedings of their deliberations on July 7, 1835, it was "Resolved by the commissioners that they do not recognize any authority by which the county can erect or finish a court house. It is therefore ordered that the auditor issue no order on the county treasury by order of said court unless expressly defined by law." June 26, 1838, it was ordered that a survey and draft for a bridge at the foot of Main street, Mt. Vernon, be made. June, 1843, a kitchen was ordered added to the county jail. In 1846 occurs the first item in the county books concerning railroad projects. It is this : October 28, 1846—Certificate of clerk of the courts to the effect that the railroad tax or subscription proposition had received 3,582 votes and against the same, 1,129 votes. New bridges were ordered over Owl creek and Dry creek, citizens having subscribed two thousand dollars to aid in the enterprise. C. P. Buckingham was appointed superintendent. The grand jury and sheriff of the county demanded a new jail in 1851. They got it too and it still stands, but is no longer the pride of Knox county and Mt. Vernon ! It is old, unsightly and obscures the view of the north portion of the court house. PUBLIC BUILDINGS--COURT HOUSE, JAIL, ETC. Knox county has thus far had four court houses. Three were situated on the present public square and the fourth and last structure was erected on the hill on the north side of High street. The history of court house building here has been interesting, though many of the points have been lost with the lapse of time. But the following covers the chief points in which the present generation will be most interested. A log court house first adorned the public square in 18o8 or 1809. It stood on the south side of High and west side 0f Main streets, facing Main street. Its size was fifteen by eighteen feet, and was only one story high. It was roofed by clapboards held in place by "lug-poles," and for quite a while was actually lighted by means of greased paper windows, same as the early school houses had. In one end was a mud fire place and huge chimney. The floor was only mother earth. This primitive building served about four years until the county could. afford a better place in which to keep its books, hold its courts, etc. In 1811 a brick building was provided on the square, facing High street, not far from and east of Main street. Its cost was two thousand four hundred