The historical history of Ohio, so far as regards civil organization and the exercise of authority, begins in 1769, when the colony of Virginia attempted to extend her jurisdiction over the territory northwest of the River Ohio. The House of Burgesses passed an act establishing the county of Botetourt, with the Mississippi River as its western boundary. This was a vast county. The act which established it contained the following passage

Whereas, the people situated on the Mississippi, in the said county of Botetourt, will be very remote from the court house, and must necessarily become a separate county as soon their numbers are sufficient, which will probably happen in a short time, be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the inhabitants of that part of the said county of Boterourt which lies on the said waters shall be exempted from the payment of any levies to be laid by the said county court for the purpose of building a court house and prison for said county.

Civil government between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers existed only nominally until 1778, when, after the conquest of the country by Gen. George Rogers Clark, the Virginia Legislature organized the county of Illinois, embracing within its limits all of the lands lying west of the Ohio River to which Virginia had any claim. Col. John Todd received appointment from the Governor of Virginia as civil commandment anti lieutenant of the county. He served until his death, at the battle of Blue Licks, in 178?, and Timothy Montbrun was his successor.

In 1787, Virginia, having made her deed of cession to the United States, and the title having been protected through other deeds of cession, and through Indian treaties, Congress took the great step which resulted in the establishment of a wise and salutary civil government. Upon the 13th of July, after a prolonged discussion of the principles and issues involved, there was issued " 3n Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States Northwest of the River Ohio," which has since been known as the ordinance of 1787." or the "ordinance of freedom." By this great and statesmanlike ordinance, provision was male for successive forms of territorial government, adapted to successive steps of advancement in the settlement and development of the Western country. Chief Justice Chase says of this ordinance : " This remarkable instrument was the last gift of the Congress of the old confederation to tie country, and it was a fit consummation of their glorious labors."

At the time this ordinance went into elect. there had been made no permanent settlement of the whites upon the territory embraced except the few French villages, and their immediate vicinities, in the western and northwestern portions of it. If any such existed within the present limits

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of Ohio, they must have been situated along the Maumee River, and were of small extent. The Government had discouraged the settlement of whites up to this time, to avoid infringement upon the rights of the Indians, and consequent troubles. Military force was resorted to break up some small settlements made along the Ohio. and in other parts of the State. After the passage of the ordinance, emigration was encouraged. " When the settlers went into the wilderness they found the law already there. It was impressed upon the soil itself; while it vet bore up nothing but the forest."

When Ohio was admitted to the Federal Union as an independent State, one of the terms of admission was the fee simple to all the lands within its limits, especially those previously granted or sold, should be vested in the United States. The different portions of the lands have, at various times, been granted or sold to various companies, bodies politic, and individuals. The principal divisions were known as follows : 1. Congress lands; 2, United States Military Lands ; 3, Virginia Military District ; 4. Western Reserve; 5, Fire Lands ; 6, Ohio Company's Purchase: 7. Donation Tract ; 8, Symmes' Purchase ; 9, Refugee Tract ; 10, French Grant; 11. Dolerman's Grant ; 12, Zane's Grant ; 13, Canal Lands ; 14, Turnpike Lands; 15, Maumee Road Lands ; 16, School Lands ; 17, College Lands ; 18, Ministerial ; 19, Moravian ; 20, Salt Sections. All of the lands in this county are in the Virginia Military District, and among the finest in the State.

THE VIRGINIA MILITARY LANDS.

At its session, beginning October 20, 1783, the General Assembly of Virginia passed an act to authorize its Delegates in Congress to convey to the United States, in Congress assembled, all the right of that commonwealth to the territory northwest of the Ohio River. Congress stipulated to accept this cession upon condition that this territory should be formed into States, containing a suitable extent of territory, and that the States so formed should be distinctly republican, and admitted members of the Federal Union, having the same rights of sovereignty and freedom as the other States. On the 17th of March, 1784, Thomas Jefferson. Arthur Lee, James Monroe and Samuel Hardy, the Virginia Delegates to Congress, conveyed to the United States "all right, title and claim, as well as of jurisdiction, which the said commonwealth hath to the territory, or tract of country, within the limits of the Virginia charter, situate, lying and being northwest of the River Ohio."

This act of cession contained, however, the following reservation "That in case the quantity of good land on the southeast side of the Ohio, upon the waters of Cumberland River, and between the Great and Tennessee Rivers, which have been reserved by law for the Virginia troops, upon continental establishment, should, from the North Carolina line, bearing in further upon the Cumberland lands than was expected, prove insufficient for these legal bounties, the deficiency should be made up to the said troops in good lands, to be laid off between the Rivers Scioto and Little Miami, on the northwest side of the River Ohio, in such proportions to them as have been engaged to them by the laws of Virginia." The land embraced in this reservation constitutes the Virginia military district in Ohio, and is composed of the counties of Adams, Brown, Clinton, Clermont. Highland, Fayette, Madison and Union, and portions of Scioto, Pike, Ross, Pickaway,

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Franklin. Delaware, :Marion, Hardin. Logan, Clark, Greene, Champaign, Warren, Hamilton and Auglaize. Congress passed an act authorizing the establishment of this reservation and location as defined, upon the report of the executive of Virginia that the deficiency of good lands upon the waters of the Cumberland existed.

The Virginia soldiers of the Continental line, who served in the Revolutionary war, were compensated in bounty awards of these lands according to the rank, time of service, etc. The first step necessary, after securing the proper certificate of actual service, was that of procuring a printed warrant from the land officer. specifying the quantity of lands and the rights upon which it was due. This military warrant was issued from the land office, in the State of Virginia, which empowered the person to whom it was granted, his heirs or assignees, to select the number of acres specified in the lands reserved for that purpose. and to have the same appropriated. After the location was made and the boundaries ascertained by surveying, the owner of the warrant returned it to the State authorities, and received in its place a patent, or grant, from the Government. This grant was equivalent to a deed in fee simple, and passed all of the title of the Government to the grantee.

On the same day on which the act was passed, Richard C. Anderson, a Colonel in the army, was appointed surveyor for the Continental line of the army, by the officers named in the act and authorized to make such appointment as they saw fit. He opened his office at Louisville, for entries in the Kentucky lands, on the 20th of July, 1784. When the Kentucky grant was exhausted, be opened another office for entries in the Ohio tract. He held his position up to the time of his death, in October, 1826, and during the long period faithfully discharged the onerous duties devolving upon him. His son-in-law, Allen Latham, Esq., was appointed surveyor some time after Colonel Anderson's death, and opened his office at Chillicothe in July, 1829.

Any soldier who held a warrant, or the heir or assignee of any soldier who held a warrant, was at liberty to locate his lands wherever he pleased within the Virginia Military Lands, and in consequence of the irregularities with which many locations were made. and the encroachment of some locations upon others, far more litigation has arisen relative to lines and titles in this district than in those which were regularly surveyed and laid off in sections. The Virginia Military Tract was never surveyed into ranges or townships until it was done in the different counties, by order of the County Commissioners, when it became desirable to organize the townships for civil purposes. Hence their irregular shape and size.

PERILS OF THE SURVEY.

The original survey of the lands comprised in Madison County was attended with great difficulties, and off times danger from prowling bands of Indians that infested this whole region of country, and who were bitterly hostile to those intrepid men, who, with compass and chain, were the avant couriers of civilization in the Scioto Valley. This land district was opened in 17S7, and soon after, Massie, Sullivant, McArthur and others commenced the adventurous undertaking of surveying it. All of the locations of land warrants prior to 1790 were made by stealth. " Every creek which was explored, every line that was run, was at the risk of life from the sav-

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age Indians, whose courage and perseverance were only equaled by the perseverance of the whites to push forward their settlements." Col. R. C. Anderson, Surveyor-General of the Virginia Military District, placed a large number of the warrants in the hands of Nathaniel Massie, in 1790. when Congress removed the last obstruction to the taking of the lands, and he immediately proceeded to enter and survey on such terms as he could make with the owners. 'The risk being great, and as the holders of claims were anxious to have them located as soon as possible, in order that they might obtain the best selections, they were willing to pay liberally for the labor and danger of the survey. One-fourth, one-third, and sometimes as much as one-half, of the lands acquired by entry, were given by the proprietors to the surveyors. If the owners preferred paying in money, the usual terms were ten pounds, Virginia currency, for each one thousand acres surveyed, exclusive of chainman's waves. Massie continued to survey during the winter of 1792-90", and in the fall of the latter year he pushed his way far up the Scioto. He employed about thirty men to accompany him on his dangerous expedition. The greater part of Ross and Pickaway Counties, west of the river, was well explored and partly surveyed. Time party returned without having met with any harm, and delighted with the richness of the valley. Massie resumed his labors in the winter of 1793-9-I, and braved many hardships and dangers.

Lucas Sullivant, one of the first settlers on the site of Columbus, and who died August 8, 1823, surveyed much of the lands within the present limits of Madison County. In some of his first attempts he was driven back by the Indians, but, finally, having formed a large party, about twenty men, surveyors, chain-bearers, markers, hunters. scouts and pack-horse men, with pack-horses, he made his way up the Scioto Valley, through the untracked wilderness to the vicinity of what is now Columbus. The party experienced much suffering, sometimes having a short allowance of food, arid because of the proximity of Indians, not daring to use their rifles to bring down game. Wolves were constant visitors to the encampment. and the panther was more than once found prowling around. " Once," says the Sullivant memorial, '' when encamped near what the early settlers knew as the ' salt lick,' on the west side of the river, three miles below the present city of Columbus, a panther was discovered crouching upon the horizontal limb of a tree, nearly overhanging the place where they were sitting around the brightly blazing fire. The tail of the panther was swaying to and fro. and he seemed about to spring upon them, when one of the hunters, seizing his rifle, aimed at the head, between the glaring eye-balls of the animal, arid. with a steady hand, pulled the trigger. Simultaneous with tine crack of the gun, the beast gave a spring, and falling in their midst, scattered the camp-fire in his death struggles."

The rear guard of Mr. Sullivant's party attacked, on one occasion while surveying in what is now Madison County, a party of Indians, and killed a Frenchman who was with them-probably an Indian trader. For this the men were severely reprimanded by Mr. Sullivant. who believed that this wanton attack would be followed by a retaliating blow. Tile Mingo Indians held a consultation and sent out a party of warriors to capture or destroy the surveying squad. Mr. Sullivant, who, apprehending such a result, had hurried his work and was about ready to leave the country, was

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met on the fourth day after the Frenchman's murder by Indians. He held a council with his men to determine whether they should attack the redskins or not, and it was decided not to take the initiative in battle. After directing the men to keep together, remain quiet, and on no consideration to fire a gun unless attacked, Mr. Sullivant resumed his work, and, just at twilight, as he was making his last entry, some of the men fired at a wild turkey, and their whereabouts thus being made known, the Indians rushed upon them with a whoop and a volley. Mr. Sullivant threw his compass and other instruments under the top of a fallen tree, and swinging a light shotgun, which he always carried, to his shoulder, he fired upon an Indian who was rushing upon him with uplifted tomahawk. Turning about to look for his men, he saw they were in a panic and rapidly dispersing, and he also took to his heels, and, fortunately, in about a quarter of a mile, fell in with six of them. Favored in their flight by the darkness, they journeyed all night and most of the next day. Two of the men in this surveying party were killed when the Indians made their first onslaught. Mr. Sullivant had some other experiences with the Indians, but none so dangerous or nearly fatal as this.

The surveys of the lands upon the east side of the Scioto were accompanied by dangers similar to those that attended the survey of the Virginia' Military District, though lesser, on account of the surveying being done at a later date.

Col. Elias Langham, Walter Dun, Joshua Ewing and James Galloway did much of the early surveying in Madison County ; while at a later day Patrick McLene,. Henry Warner, Henry Alder, David Chapman and John Rouse divided most of the original surveys. Every man locating land was at liberty to bring his own surveyor, thus many of the first surveys were made by men who never again came into the county.

PIONEER DAYS AND TRIALS.

In nearly all great and thoroughly organized armies there is a corps of active, brave men, usually volunteers, whose self-imposed duty is to go ahead and prepare the way with ax, mattock and pick for the advancement of the army the fighting rank and file. They are called pioneers, and are armed with guns, as well as implements of labor, for their position and their work is a dangerous one. They are obliged to keep a constant lookout for an ambush, in momentary fear of a sudden attack, for the enemy, with a full knowledge of the country, which to the advancing corps of pioneers is a terra incognita, is liable any instant to send a sudden volley of arrows or rifle balls into their midst, or to hem them in and overpower them with a superior force.

The men who pushed their way into the wilderness along the Scioto and its tributaries, and all those earliest settlers of Ohio from the river to the lake were the pioneers of one of the grandest armies that earth ever knew, an army whose hosts are still sweeping irresistibly ahead, and which now, after more than eighty years, has not fully occupied the country it has won. It was the army of peace and civilization that came, not to conquer an enemy by blood, carnage and ruin, but to subdue a wilderness by patient toil; to make the wild valley blossom as the rose : to sweep away the forest, till the soil, make fertile fields out of the prairie lands and build houses,

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which were to become the abodes of happiness and plenty. The pioneers were the reliant vanguard of such an army as this.

The first hardy and resolute men who penetrated the valley of the Scioto, coming up the stream from " la belle rivere," found a land fertile as heart could wish, fair to look upon, and fragrant with the thousand fresh odors of the woods in early spring. The long, cool aisles of the forest led away into mazes of vernal green, where the swift (leer bounded by unmolested, and as yet unscared by the sound of the woodman's ax or the sharp ring of his rifle. They looked upon the wooded slopes and the tall grass of the plains, jeweled with strange and brilliant flowers, where once the red man had his fields of corn. All about them were displayed the lavish bounties of nature. The luxuriant growth of the oak, walnut, sycamore. maple, beech, hickory, elm, chestnut and the tulip tree, with the lesser shrubs, such as the dogwood, wild plum and crab-apple, the red bud, the papaw, the heavy-hanging grape-vines, the blueberry and raspberry gave evidence of the strength of the virgin soil and the kindness of the climate. The forest covered the land with an abundance of food for the smaller animals, and the deer, as common as the cattle of to-day, grazed upon the rich grass of the prairies, and browsed upon the verdure in the little glades. Other animals were abundant. The opossum, raccoon, rabbit and ground-hog existed in great numbers. The wild hogs roamed the woods in droves, and fattened upon the abundant mast, or shack." The bear was occasionally seen. Wild turkeys appeared in vast flocks, and in the season came the migratory fowls and tarried by the streams. The streams had their share of life, and fairly swarmed with fish.

But the pioneers came not to enjoy a life of lotus-eating and ease. They could admire the pristine beauty of the scenes that unveiled before them ; they could enjoy the vernal green of the great forest, and the loveliness of all the works of nature. They could look forward with happy anticipation to the life they were to lead in the midst of all this beauty, and to the rich reward that would be theirs from the cultivation of the mellow, fertile soil ; but they had first to work. The seed-time comes before the harvest in other fields, too, than that of agriculture.

The dangers, also, that these pioneers were exposed to, were serious ones. The Indians could not be trusted, and the many stories of their outrages in the earlier eastern settlements made the pioneers of the Scioto country apprehensive of trouble. The larger wild beasts were a cause of much dread, and the smaller ones were a source of great annoyance. Added to this was the liability to sickness which always exists in a new country. In the midst of all the loveliness of the surroundings, there was a sense of loneliness that could not be dispelled, and this was a far greater trial to the men and women who first dwelt in the western country than is generally imagined. The deep-seated, constantly-recurring feeling of isolation made many stout hearts turn back to the older settlements and the abodes of comfort, the companionship and sociability they had abandoned in Virginia, Pennsylvania and the Southern and Eastern States, to take up a new life in the wilderness.

The pioneers, coming first down the Ohio and then making their way up the Scioto, and later making the tedious journey from the East and South by the rude trails, arrived at the places of their destination with but very

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little with which to begin the battle of life. They had brave hearts and strong arms, however, and they were possessed of invincible determination. Frequently they came on without their families to make a beginning, and this having been accomplished, would return to their old homes for their wives and children. The first thing clone after a temporary shelter from the rain had been provided, was to prepare a little spot of ground for some crop, usually corn. This was done by girdling the trees, clearing away the underbrush, if there chanced to be any, and sweeping the surface with fire. Ten, fifteen, twenty, or even thirty acres of land might thus be prepared and planted the first season. In the autumn the crop would be carefully gathered and garnered with the least possible waste, for it was the food supply of the pioneer and his family, and life itself depended, in part, upon its safe preservation.

While the first crop was growing the pioneer has busied himself with the building of his cabin, which must answer as a shelter from the storms of the coming winter, a protection from the ravages of wild animals, and, possibly, a place of refuge from the red man.

PIONEER CABIN.

If a pioneer was completely isolated from his fellow-men, his position was certainly a hard one ; for without assistance he could construct only a poor habitation. In such cases the cabin was generally made of light logs or poles, and was laid up roughly, only to answer the temporary purpose of shelter, until other settlers had come into the vicinity, by whose help a more solid structure could be built. Usually a number of men came into the country together, and located within such distance of each other as enabled them to perform many friendly and neighborly offices. Assistance was always readily given one pioneer by all the scattered residents of the forest within a radius of several miles. The commonly followed plan of erecting a lug cabin was through a union of labor. The site of the cabin home was generally selected with reference to a good water supply, often by a never failing spring of pure water, or if such could not be found, it was not uncommon to first dig a well. When the cabin was to be built the few neighbors gathered at the site, and first cut down, within as close proximity as possible, a number of trees, as nearly of a size as could be found, but ranging from a foot to twenty inches in diameter. Logs were chopped from these and rolled to a common center. This work, and that of preparing the foundation, would consume the greater part of the day, in most cases, and the entire labor would most commonly occupy two or three days-sometimes four. The logs were raised to their places with handspikes and "skid poles," and men standing at the corners with axes notched them as fast as they were laid in position. Soon the cabin would be built several logs high, and the work would become more difficult. The gables were formed by beveling the logs, and making them shorter and shorter• as each additional one was laid in place. These logs in the gables were held in place by poles, which extended across the cabin from end to end, and which served also as rafters upon which to lay the rived " clapboard" roof. The so-called "clapboards " were five or six feet in length, and were split from oak or ash logs, and made as smooth and flat as possible. They were laid side by side, and other pieces of split stuff laid over the cracks so as to effectually keep out

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the rain. Upon these, logs were laid to hold them in place, and the logs were held by blocks of wood placed between them.

The chimney was an important part of the structure, and taxed the builders, with their poor tools, to their utmost. In rare cases it was made of stone, but most commonly of logs and sticks laid up in the manner similar to those which formed the cabin. It was, in nearly all cases, built outside of the cabin, and at its base a huge opening was cut through the wall to answer as a fire-place. The sticks in the chimney were held in place, and protected from fire, by mortar, formed by kneading and working clay and straw. Flat stones were procured for back and jambs of the fire-place. An opening was chopped or sawed in the logs on One side of the cabin for a doorway. Pieces of hewed timber, three or four inches thick, were fastened on each side, by wooden pins, to the ends of the logs, and the door (if there was any) was fastened to one of these by wooden hinges. The door itself was a clumsy piece of wood-work. It was made of boards, rived from an oak log, and held together by heavy cross-pieces. There was a wooden latch upon the inside, raised by a string which passed through a gimlet-hole, and hung upon the outside. From this mode of construction arose the old and well-known hospitable saying, " You will find the latch-string always out." It was only pulled in at night. and the door was thus fastened. Very many of the cabins, of the pioneers had no doors of the kind here described, and the entrance was only protected by a blanket, or skin of some wild beast, suspended above it. The window was a small opening, often devoid of anything resembling a sash, and very seldom having glass. Greased paper was sometimes used in lieu of the latter, but more commonly some old garment constituted a curtain, which was the only protection from sun, rain, or snow. The floor of the cabin was made of puncheonspieces of timber split from trees, about eighteen inches in diameter, and hewed smooth with the broad-axe. They were half the length of the floor. Many of the cabins first erected in this part of the country had nothing but the earthen floor. Sometimes the cabins had cellars. which were simply small excavations in the ground, for the storage of a few articles of food. or, perhaps, cooking utensils. Access to the cellar was readily gained by lifting a loose puncheon. There was sometimes a loft, used for various purposes. among others as the -- guest chamber " of the house. It was reached by a ladder, the sides of which were split pieces of a sapling, put together, like everything else in the house, without nails.

FURNITURE. FOOD AND MEDICINE.

The furniture of the log cabin was as simple and primitive as the structure itself. A forked stick set in the floor and supporting two poles, the other ends of which were allowed to rest upon the logs at the end and side of the cabin, formed a bedstead. A common form of table was a slit slab, supported by four rustic legs, set in auger holes. Three legged stools were made in a similar simple manner. Pegs, driven into auger holes in the logs of the wall, supported shelves. and others displayed the limited wardrobe of' the family not in use. A few other pegs, or perhaps a pair of deer horns, formed a rack where hung the rifle and powder-horn, which no cabin was without. These, and perhaps a few other simple articles, brought from the "old home," formed the furniture and furnishings of the pioneer cabin. The

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utensils for cooking and the dishes for table use were few. The best were of pewter, which the careful housewife of the olden time kept shining as brightly as the most pretentious plate of our later day fine houses. It was by no means uncommon that wooden vessels, either coopered or turned, were used upon the table. Knives and forks were few ; crockery very scarce, and tin-ware not abundant. Food was simply cooked and served, but it was of the best and most wholesome kind. The hunter kept the larder supplied with venison, bear meat, squirrels, wild turkeys and the many varieties of smaller game. Plain corn bread, baked in a kettle, in the ashes, or upon a board in front of the great open fire-place, answered the purpose of all kinds of pastry. The corn was, among the earlier pioneers, pounded or grated, there being no mills for grinding it for some time, and then only small ones at a considerable distance away. The wild fruits, in their season, were made use of and afforded a pleasant variety. Sometimes especial effort was made to prepare a delicacy, as, for instance, when a woman experimented in mince pies, by pounding wheat for the flour to make the crust, and used crab apples for fruit. In the lofts of the cabins was usually to be found a collection of articles that made up the pioneer's materia medica, the herb medicines and spices-catnip, sage, tansy, fennel, boneset, pennyroyal and wormwood, each gathered in its season and there were also stores of nuts, and strings of dried pumpkin, with bags of berries and fruit.

HABITS AND LABOR.

The habits of the pioneers were of a simplicity and purity in conformance to their surroundings and belongings. The men were engaged in the herculean labor day after day, of enlarging the little patch of sunshine about their homes, cutting away the forest, burning off the brush and debris, preparing the soil, planting, tending, harvesting, caring for the few animals, which they brought with them, or soon procured, and in bunting. While they were engaged in the heavy labor of the field and forest, or following the deer, or seeking other game, their helpmeets were busied with their household duties-providing for the day and for the winter coming on, cooking, making clothes, spinning and weaving. They were fitted, by nature and experience, to be the consorts of the brave men who first came into the Western wilderness. They were heroic in their endurance of hardship and privation, and loneliness. Their industry was well directed and unceasing. Woman's work then, like man's, was performed under disadvantages, which have been removed in later years. She had not only the common house hold duties to perform, but many others. She not only made the clothing but the fabric for it. That old, old occupation of spinning and of weaving, with which woman's name has been associated in all history, and of which the modern world know nothing, except through the stories of those who are grandmothers now-that old occupation of spinning and of weaving, which seems surrounded with a glamour of romance as we look back to it through tradition and poetry, and which always conjures up thoughts of the graces and virtues of the dames and damsels of a generation that is gonethat old, old occupation of spinning and of weaving, was the chief industry of the pioneer women. Every cabin sounded with the softly whirring wheel and the rythmic thud of the loom. The woman of pioneer times was like the woman described by Solomon : " She seeketh wool and flax, and work-

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eth willingly with her hands ; she layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff."

CLOTHING AND BOOKS.

Almost every article of clothing, all of the cloth in use in the old log cabins, was the product of the patient woman-weaver's toil. She spun the flax and wove the cloth for shirts. pantaloons, frocks, sheets and blankets. The linen and the wool, the "linsey-woolsey " woven by the housewife, formed all of the material for the clothing of both men and women, except such articles as were made of skins. The men commonly wore the hunting shirt, a kind of loose frock reaching half way down the figure, open before, and so wide as to lap over a foot or more upon the chest. This generally had a cape, which was often fringed with a raveled piece of cloth of a different color from that which composed the garment. The bosom of the hunting shirt answered as a pouch, in which could be carried the various articles that the hunter or woodsman would need. It was always worn belted, and made out of coarse linen, of linsey or of dressed deer skin, according to the fancy of the wearer. Breeches were made of heavy cloth or of deerskin, and were often worn with leggings of the same material, or of some kind of leather, while the feet were most usually encased in moccasins, which were easily and quickly made, though they needed frequent mending. The deer-skin breeches or drawers, were very comfortable when dry, but when they became wet were very cold to the limbs, and the next time they were put on were almost as stiff as if made of wood. Hats or caps were made of the various native furs. The women were clothed in linsey petticoats, coarse shoes and stockings, and wore buckskin loves or mittens when any protection was required for the hands. All of the wearing apparel, like that of the men. was made with a view to being serviceable and comfortable, and all was of home manufacture. Other articles and finer ones, were sometimes worn, but they had been brought from former homes, and were usually the relics handed down from parents to children. Jewelry was not common, but occasionally some ornament was displayed.

In the cabins of the more cultivated pioneers were usually a few books, such as the Bible and hymn-hook, Pilgrim's Progress, Baxter's Saints' Rest, prayer-book, Harney's Meditations, Aesop's Fables, Gulliver's Travels and Robinson Crusoe. The long winter evenings were spent in poring over a few well-thumbed volumes by the light of the great log fire, in knitting, mending, curing furs. etc.

EARLY MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, ETC.

Hospitality was simple, unaffected, hearty, unbounded. Whisky was in common use, and was furnished on all occasions of sociality. Nearly every settler had his barrel stored away. It was the universal drink at merry-makings, bees. house-warmings, weddings, and was always set before the traveler who chanced to spend the night or take a meal in the log cabin. It was the good old-fashioned whisky-" clear as amber, sweet as musk, smooth as oil "-that the few octogenarians and nonagenarians of to-day recall to memory with an unctuous gusto and a suggestive smack of the lips. The whisky came from the Monongahela district, and was floated down the Ohio, and thence boated up the Scioto, or hauled in wagons across the country. A few years later, stills began to make their appearance, and an article

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of peach brandy and corn whisky manufactured ; the latter was not held in such high esteem as the peach brandy, though used in greater quantities.

As the settlement increased, the sense of loneliness and isolation was dispelled, the asperities of life were softened and its amenities multiplied ; social gathering became more numerous and more enjoyable. The logrolling s, harvestings and husking-bees for the men ; and the applebutter making and the quilting parties for the women, furnished frequent occasions for social intercourse. The early settlers took much pleasure and pride in rifle-shooting, and as they were accustomed to the use of the gun as, a means, often, of obtaining a subsistence, and relied upon it as a weapon of defense, they exhibited considerable skill. A wedding was the event of most importance in the sparsely settled new country. The young people had every inducement to marry, and generally did so as soon as able to provide for themselves. When a marriage was to be celebrated, all the neighborhood turned out. It was customary to have the ceremony performed before dinner, and, in order to be on time, the groom and his attendants usually started from his father's home in the morning for that of the bride. All went on horseback, riding in single file along the narrow trail. Arriving at the cabin of the bride's parents, the ceremony would be performed, and after that, dinner served. This would be a substantial backwoods feast of beef, pork. fowls and bear or deer meat, with such vegetables as could be procured. The greatest hilarity prevailed during the meal. After it was over, the dancing began, and was usually kept up till the next morning, though the newly-made husband and wife were, as a general thing, put to bed in the most approved fashion, and with considerable formality, in the middle of the evening's hilarity. The tall young men, when they went on to the floor to dance, had to take their places with care between the logs that supported the loft floor, or they were in danger of bumping their heads. The figures of the dances were three and four hand reels, or square sets and jigs. The commencement was always a square four, which was followed by "digging it off," or what is sometimes called a " cut out jig." The "settlement " of a young couple was thought to be thoroughly and generously made when the neighbors assembled and raised a cabin for them.

During all the early ,years of the settlement, varied with occasional pleasures and excitements, the great work of increasing the tillable ground went slowly on. The implements and tools were few and of the most primitive kind. but the soil, that had long held in reserve the accumulated richness of centuries, produced splendid harvests, and the husbandman was well rewarded for his labor. The soil was warmer then than now, and the season earlier. The prairie fields were often, by the 1st of March, as green as fields of grain now are by the 1st of April. The wheat was pastured in the spring to keep it from growing up so early and so fast as to become lodged. The harvest came early and the yield was often from thirty-five to forty, or more, bushels per acre. Corn grew fast, and roasting ears were to be had by the 4th of July in some seasons.

MILLS, STORE GOODS, PERIOD OF 1812.

When the corn grew too hard for roasting ears and was yet too soft to grind in the mill, it was reduced to meal by a grater. Next to the grater came the hominy-block, an article in common use among the pioneers.

314 - HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY.

consisted simply of a block of wood-a section of a tree, perhaps-with a hole burned or dug into it a foot deep, in which corn was pulverized with a pestle. Sometimes this block was inside the cabin, where it served as a seat for the bashful young backwoodsman while " sparking " his girl; sometimes a convenient stump in front of the cabin door was prepared for and made one of the best of hominy-blocks. These blocks did not last long, for mills cause quite early and superseded them, yet these mills were often so far apart that in stormy weather, or for want of transportation, the pioneer was compelled to resort to his hominy-block or go without bread. In winter, the mills were frozen up nearly all the time, and when a thaw came and the ice broke, if the mill was not swept away entirely by the floods, it was so thronged with pioneers, each with his sack of corn, that some of them were often compelled to camp out near the mill and wait several days for their turn. When the grist was ground, it they were so fortunate as to possess an ox, a horse or mule for the purpose of transportation, they were happy. It was not unusual to go ten or twenty miles to mill, through the pathless, unbroken forest, and to be benighted on the journey and chased by wolves. The mills at Chillicothe and Clifton-were the first in this region of country, but, as a majority of the pioneers settled in the vicinity of some stream, mills soon made their appearance in every settlement. These mills, however, were very primitive affairs-mere ''corncrackers " but they were a big improvement on the hominy-block. They merely ground the corn; the pioneer must do his own bolting. The mail was sifted through a wire sieve by hand, and the finest used for bread. A road cut through the forest to the mill and a wagon for hauling the Grist were great advantages. The latter, especially, was often a seven days' wonder to the children of a settlement, and the happy owner of one often did for years the milling of a whole neighborhood. About once a month, this good neighbor, who was in exceptionally good circumstances because able to own a wagon, would go around through the settlement, gather up the grists and take them to mill, often spending several days in the operation, and never think of charging for his time and trouble.

Only the commonest goods were brought into the country, and they sold at enormous prices, being packed from Detroit or wagoned from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, thence floated down the Ohio to the mouth of the Scioto, and thence brought up that stream in boats or packed along the banks. Tea was worth $2 or $3 a pound for a number of years after the settlement of the Scioto Valley had extended up as far as Columbus. Coffee brought from 75 cents to $1 ; salt, $5 to $6 per bushel of fifty pounds, and the commonest kinds of calico were sold at $1 per yard. Long journeys upon foot were often made by the pioneers to obtain the necessities of life or some article, then a luxury, for the sick. Hardships were cheerfully borne, privations stoutly endured ; the best was made of what they had by the pioneers and their families, and they toiled patiently on, industrious and frugal, simple in their tastes and pleasures, happy in an independence, however hardly gained, and looking forward hopefully to a future of plenty which should reward them for the toils of their earliest years, and a rest from the struggle amidst the benefits gained by it. Without an iron will and indomitable resolution, they could never have accomplished what they did. Their heroism deserves the highest tribute of praise that can be awarded.

PAGE 315 - PICTURE OF WILLIAM BIDDLE (DECEASED)

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During the war of 1812, many of the husbands and fathers volunteered their services to the United States, and others were drafted. Women and children were then left alone in many an isolated log-cabin all through Ohio, and there was a long reign of unrest, anxiety and terror. It was feared by all that the Indians might take advantage of the desertion of these homes by their natural defenders, and pillage and destroy them. The dread of robbery and murder filled many a mother's heart, but happily the worst fears of this kind proved to be groundless, and this part of the country was spared any scenes of actual violence.

After the war, there was a Greater feeling of security than ever before; a new motive was given to immigration. The country rapidly filled up with settlers. and the era of peace and prosperity was fairly begun. Progress was slowly, surely made; the log-houses became more numerous in the clearings ; the forest shrank away before the woodsman's ax ; frame houses began to appear. The pioneers, assured of safety, laid better plans for the future. resorted to new industries, enlarged their possessions, and improved the means of cultivation. Stock was brought in from Kentucky and from the East. Every settler had his horses, oxen, cattle, sheep and hogs. More commodious structures took the places of the old ones ; the large double log-cabin of hewed logs took the place of the smaller but ; log and frame barns were built for the protection of stock and the housing of the crops. Then society began to form itself; the schoolhouse and the church appeared, and the advancement was noticeable in a score of ways. Still there remained a vast work to perform, for as yet only a beginning had been made in the Western woods. The brunt of the struggle, however, was past, and the way made in the wilderness for the army that was to come.