350 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION which covered more than four acres of forest, was near Buffalo Skull, two miles north of Jackson, and in season it furnished a large supply of food for the pioneers. The birds were so numerous and roosted low enough for men and boys to knock them down with sticks, enabling them to fill their bags in a few minutes. This roost was used by the pigeons as late as 1845. The buffalo and elk disappeared soon after the coming of white men, but bears were numerous in the woods until the '30s, and deer until the '70s. Some of the smaller wildings have multiplied since the disappearance of panthers and wildcats. Skunks, opossums, rabbits and the smaller fur-bearers seem to thrive under the conditions introduced by civilization. Many species of birds not found in other sections thrive here because of the abundance of food and the shelter presented by thickets in the deep glens and gorges. More than sixty-five species of birds have been found here in winter, and in spring and autumn many migrants make transient visits, attracted by the beacon lights of the furnaces. This has resulted in several additions to the list of summer residents, the most notable of which is the southern mockingbird. They first nested in this county about 1895, and the sweet songsters now appear annually in each township, arriving with the robins. The turkey buzzard nested in great numbers in early days, and there are buzzard rooks in many neighborhoods. Farmers look askance at this bird now, for it is believed that it spreads hog cholera and other animal diseases. Several epidemics in the county could originate in no other way. A boy caught a buzzard in Liberty Township several years ago while it was gorging on a dead horse, and he hung a poultry bell on the bird's neck. This belled buzzard was seen for many years as far north as Fayette County, which suggests that such birds could have brought cholera here. Ravens were seen in the county as late as 1872, and eagles still visit it every winter. A large bald eagle was killed by A. S. Sherington near Camba in 1912. Rattlesnakes have disappeared, except near Big Rock, a short distance from the Pike County line, but copperheads are numerous in all woodland tracks on Salt and Pike creeks. Blacksnakes multiply since forest fires have ceased, and many farmers protect them because they rid the land of many pests, including all other snakes. Refuse from the mines has destroyed nearly all the large fishes, but a few are still caught after floods. The topography of the county accounts for the survival of many wild flowers, which have vanished from other parts of the state. Trailing arbutus grows luxuriantly above the level of the conglomerate on the slopes of the various gorges, while columbine, lady 's slippers and twenty or more flowers possessing a distinct fragrance, with hundreds of others commending themselves to the eye by their colors or forms, may be found in the glens or on the hills. More than 140 flowers have been listed in April, while asters, goldenrods, gentians, violets and witch hazel bloom until late in November. The last named is often found when snow is falling. There is one tract of rhododendron on a north hillside on a branch of Salt Creek, and three azaleas are common in Liberty, Jackson and Washington townships. Ginseng and other commercial roots grow in the woods, and the "sang digger" will survive here for another generation. HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 351 Three or four persons have established ginseng gardens. Many foreign flowers were introduced into the county by the emigrant wagons which traveled the route from Gallipolis to Chillicothe, and the teamsters who hauled supplies from the Ohio River to the various furnaces before the railroad came and in later years, the Baltimore & Ohio which runs through the northern part of the county brings in new plant seed annually fresh from over the sea. CHAPTER II THE SCIOTO SALT LICKS ARCHEOLOGICAL REMAINS-SHAWANESE VILLAGES NEAR THE LICKS-INDIAN WORKINGS-WHITE PRISONERS ADVERTISE THE REGION-DANIEL BOONE ONE OF THE PRISONERS -EARLY DESCRIPTIONS-SOLDIER VISITORS OF 1774-HUNTERS AND TRAPPERS ENTER THE COUNTRY -LAST GREENBRIER SURVIVOR-INDIANS ATTACK OHIO COMPANY AGENTS-LAST FIGHT BETWEEN INDIANS AND WHITES-SQUATTERS AT THE LICKS-POLITICAL HISTORY, 1609-1795—YANKEE SETTLERS OF THE OHIO COMPANY-THE MARTINS-FIRST GRIST MILL-GEORGE L. CROOKHAM. The existence of the Scioto Salt Springs within the limits of the county justifies the inference that it was visited by primitive men from the earliest days. Many remains, earthworks, of various kinds, prove that the earliest inhabitants were numerous as well as energetic, and possessed a degree of culture which lifted them above savagery. There are traces of more than 500 of these remains belonging to two distinct eras, the older created on hilltops, and high ridges, and later ones in the valleys. The oldest remains are small conical mounds, and it is believed that the great majority of them were burial mounds, monuments over the bones of great chiefs or heroes of the tribes. The circles, rectangles, and squares of lower levels belong to a much later period. The largest may have been for herding or parking purposes, some may have been enclosures around their village, but the small ones were evidently used for assembly or religious purposes. The largest enclosures are in Jefferson Township, the largest circle being on the hill above the spring near which Dr. Gabriel McNeal settled in the woods and built his first cabin. The embankment of this ring was little higher than that of an ordinary circus ring, but it enclosed several acres. The largest rectangle is an upland now belonging to Dan M. Morgan. ARCHEOLOGICAL REMAINS Charles Whittlesey of the Ohio Geological Survey, who visited these works in 1837, wrote thus : "The small isolated ones, have ditches but always, as far as I have seen, on the inside, though cases of extensive fossae are said to exist. The main figure always occupies ground accessible on all sides and no spring or water receptacle is found within the - 352 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 353 walls. Other equally good reasons might be advanced why these structures are not adapted and were not designed either for attack or defense under any supposable mode of human warfare." Similar enclosures occur on the hills of Wales and the writer found the same conditions as to water, and yet it is known that the Welsh works were built for military protection. It. is known now also that so far as the Jackson County earthworks are concerned, all were located with reference to springs, for when the Indians left the country they filled the springs nearest the earthworks, and no trace of them was found until after the land was cleared. But in after years when the farmers began to prospect for water where signs were found, they invariably discovered never failing springs flowing in basins cut in the sandrock by the Indians. Whittlesey wrote the following description of two rectangles located on the McKitterick farm north of Jackson, the larger of which is known locally as the " Old Fort." "No. 1 is situated in Lick Township, Jackson County, Ohio, on the west half of the northeast quarter of section 19, township 7, range 18, on high ground about one-fourth of a mile northwest of Salt Creek. The soil is clayey, the work slight with only one opening, which is on the east, and to my knowledge without running water in the vicinity. The ditch being interior indicates that the work was built for some other purpose than defense, probably for ceremonial uses. No. 2 is on the same quarter section, on the east half, and lies near the road from Jackson to Richmond, on the left hand. The prospect from the mound is extended and delightful. On the west between this and No. 1 is a ravine and a small stream. As the soil is sandy it is certain that the mound attached to the rectangle on the southwest was somewhat higher at first than it is at present. Neither of these works are perfectly square or rectangular but irregular in form, approaching a square. No. 2 is clearly not a work of defense and was probably intended as a high place for superstitious rites. A more charming spot for such observances could not be chosen if we admit that external circumstances and scenery had any connection with the sentiments of the worshipers, and we must allow that the Mound Builders were alive to the beauty of scenery." When a survey of enclosure No. 1 was made in July, 1894, at the instance of the writer, its length was found to be 110 feet and its width 100 feet. The ditch. at the southwest corner is 3 feet and 4 inches deep, and it is 5 feet and 6 inches deep at the northeast corner. The embankment varies from 2 feet down to 6 inches in height. The distance across ditch and embankment is 15 feet. The embankment is more irregular than the area inside of the ditch. Only a few flint relics have been found in the Old Fort, but an iron tomahawk with a three inch blade was found in the field near by by Samuel G. McKitterick on May 5, 1896, while plowing. It was in a fairly good condition. A small cannon ball was found in a charcoal pit nearby some years earlier. These iron relics had doubtless been lost by the soldiers of Gen. Andrew Lewis who encamped near the Salt Licks in the autumn of 1774 while on the march to join Lord Dunmore and his army near old Chillicothe. Many relics have been found in the Vol. I-23 354 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION various mounds in the county, but many were opened so carelessly that all metal relics were destroyed. Others were opened without the knowledge of the owners, and the discoveries were kept secret. Copper rings have been found in a score or more mounds and there is a report that a small gold chain was found in a Madison Township mound in the early '50s. As described, it must have been a neck chain of the person buried in the mound. The last copper rings reported were found April 8, 1913, by J. I. Garrett and Ora Keller on the farm of the former. These rings had an inside diameter of 2 3/4 inches. The metal had been beaten into shape. Its widest diameter was one-fourth inch. The rings were found lying one upon the other at the bottom of a mound of the ordinary type. Many tons of relics have been found in this county in mounds, on the surface near them,, in ash heaps under rock shelters and on the several village sites. They consisted of large axes, pestles, or grinders, weighing several pounds, down to the tiniest arrow points, which may have been used as ornaments. Other relics have been found in digging ditches or graves, or turned up in plowing. The largest collection found was uncovered by George Goddard in plowing on his neighbor's farm, and Fred E. Bingman wrote this account at the time : "A discovery that is of more than usual interest to those who are archaeologically inclined was made by George Goddard one day last week. 'While engaged in plowing a piece of ground belonging to Patrick 0 Malley just south of the new Catholic Cemetery, he noticed in the dead furrow, several implements of flint. His curiosity being excited, he made a further and careful examination, with the result of finding carefully stowed away the large number of 314 implements. As near as could be determined by an examination made afterwards, the flints were placed in a hole about 'fifteen inches across and eighteen inches deep, the hole slightly narrowing toward the bottom. The top of the pile was about ten inches beneath the surface. The flints are all of one pattern, triangular in shape with straight sides and convex base. In length they vary from one and three quarters inch to three inches. The material of which they are made, is foreign to this county, coming from the famous flint ridge quarries in Licking County, is fine grained and chipped more readily than our coarse flint. The color ranges from nearly pure white, through reddish to dark gray. The reddish colored are almost translucent." A deposit of larger relics but numbering only sixty had been found some years earlier in digging a grave in Fairmount Cemetery, but unfortunately it was divided by the finders, and they gave specimens to friends until only two or three of them can now be identified. All of them were black. In 1913 a fine pestle or corn grinder was found in digging a ditch for a water main on Oak Street in Jackson. It was sixteen inches long. The ashes in the various rock shelters numbering more than fifty have given up many other relics of bone and earthenware as well as flint. Fragments of earthenware made by tribes living in the southern states lie with the ruder potsherds of the north. Many human skeletons also have been found in these ash heaps when the farmers removed them HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 355 to fertilize their gardens or fields or the curios dug in them. The writer found a skeleton with a flint arrow head imbedded in one of the ribs, which indicates that the wound was inflicted by an enemy. This skeleton was in the largest ash heap at the foot of the Boone rocks near the old bed of Salt Creek which was more than 100 feet long, 30 feet wide and 10 feet deep. More than a dozen well preserved skeletons were found in this ash heap. They appeared to have been buried at different times for no two were found near together. It is possible that the burials were made in haste or in the winter season when the ground elsewhere was frozen. Two or three skeletons found in the county were evidently those of white hunters or Indian fighters whose deaths were caused by accident or wounds received from enemies. An old gun lay near a skeleton found in Liberty Township and a gun stock was found near a skeleton in a rock shelter on the Isaac Hughes Farm in Madison. Other interesting finds have been Spanish dollars dating back one or two centuries. One of these was found several feet underground in digging a well in Hamilton Township. The well was located in an old water course, which the creek had left before the whites came. Many relics were found by the salt boilers in sinking their wells and with them great quantities of fossil bones. Their description does not properly belong in a history but the find made by Caleb Briggs, one of the assistants of W. Williams Mather, the Ohio geologist, in 1837 was described in his report as follows : "About two years ago, some bones so large as to attract the attention of the, inhabitants became exposed in a bank of one of the branches of Salt creek in the northern part of Jackson county. They were dug out by individuals in the vicinity from whom we obtained a tooth, a part of the lower jaw, and some ribs. In the examination at this place during the past summer, 1837, it was concluded to make further explorations not only with the hope of finding other bones but with the view of ascertaining the situation and the nature of the materials in which they were found. The exploration was successful. There were found some mutilated and decayed fragments of the skull, two grinders, two patellae, seven or eight ribs, as many vertebrae, and a tusk. Most of these were nearly perfect, except the bones of the head. The tusk though it retained its natural shape as it lay in the ground, yet being very frail, it was necessary to saw it into four pieces in order to remove it. The following are the dimensions of the tusk before it was removed from the place in which it was found : Length on the outer curve ten feet nine inches, on the inner curve eight feet nine inches ; circumference at base one foot nine inches; two feet from base one foot ten inches; four feet from base one foot eleven inches ; seven and a half feet from base one foot seven and a half inches. This tusk weighed when taken from the earth one hundred and eighty pounds. The weight of the largest tooth is eight and one fourth pounds. These bones were dug from the bank of the creek near the water, where they were found under a superincumbent mass of stratified materials fifteen to eighteen feet in thickness. These bones from their position had evidently been subjected to some violence before they were covered with the stratified deposits. The 356 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION jaws and grinders with the other bones which we have thus slightly noticed evidently belong to an extinct specie of the Elephant now found only in a fossil state. As the teeth differ from any which are figured in the books to which I have access at the present time it is possible they may belong to an undescribed specie." George L. Crookham, the first naturalist to make a study of the county, examined the various fossils found in digging the salt wells and saved many of the best specimens, but they were destroyed with the rest of his fine collection when his schoolhouse was burned down in the '40s. SHAWANESE VILLAGES NEAR THE LICKS The dominion over Jackson County when the Ohio Valley was discovered by the whites was claimed by the Shawanese Indians who had their principal towns in the Scioto Valley. They were emerging from the nomad state and had established plantations where they grew corn, beans, melons and tobacco. They had two or three small villages in Jackson County near the Salt Licks, one located on land now owned by Simon David, on Given's Run, and another where Jamestown is located. There were other settlements in Salt Creek Valley between Jackson and Richmondale and a small camp near the beaver pond on the farm of Mrs. Mary W. Davis of Jefferson. The Shawanese seemed to have had a tribal arrangement with other Indians who were allowed to visit the Salt Licks 10 boil salt water, for practically all the Ohio Indians west of the Scioto came here at certain seasons to make salt, and many continued to visit the salt works down to 1810. After the whites had taken possession the Indians traded furs for salt, powder and whisky and this Indian trade made several of the salt boilers wealthy. The Indians had learned the full extent of the saline territory extending from the Gallipolis Road near the infirmary to the J. A. McCartney farm in Liberty Township, where a large salt furnace was operated for many years near the Piketon Road. The only description of the Indian method of salt making is in Hildreth's notes, and it is as follows : INDIAN WORKINGS " At that time (1795) when the first settlement was made at the Licks, and for several years after, the stumps of small trees, cut by the squaws and the charcoal and ashes of their fires, where the salt water had been boiled, were plainly to be seen. The Indian women upon whom all the servile employments fell collected the salt water, by cutting holes in the soft sandstone in the bed of the creek in the summer and autumn when the streams were low. These were generally not more than a foot or two deep and the same in width. Into these rude cavities, the salt water slowly collected, and was dipped out with a large shell, into their kettles and boiled down into salt. The hunters and first salt boilers pursued the same course, only they sank their excavations to the depth of six or eight feet, and finally to twenty feet in the soft sand rock, and HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 357 excluded the fresh water by means of a "gum" or section of a hollow tree sunk into the cavity. After a few years, they commenced digging wells a little higher up the stream and to their surprise found that they could dig to the depth of thirty feet before .they came to the sand rock which a few rods below filled the whole bed of the stream." The salt pans described remained until a few years age), when the creek bottom was blasted and deepened to promote the drainage of the valley. Since that time one or two of the Indian salt pans have been discovered near the bank at the riffle where the Indians boiled the salt water. The Indian woman made many contributions to American civilization for she is entitled to all the credit for discovering the use of the potato, tomato, yam, maize, and some varieties of beans. She was the first to pick the wild strawberry and to cook succotash. She discovered the use of tobacco accidently when she used the dried leaves to start a fire and its incense went up. She was the first salt maker on this continent, and she taught the value of the wild turkey, cranberry and other delicacies to the first settlers. WHITE PRISONERS ADVERTISE THE REGION The definite history of Jackson County began in 1755, when a map was published in Philadelphia or London, showing the probable location of the Scioto Salt Licks. This map was drawn by Lewis Evans, a `Welsh geographer, who was born. in 1700. He was trained as an engineer and came to the American colonies, where he became a land surveyor. Evans published his first map of the colonies in 1749, but it was not until he published the second edition that the Scioto Licks were marked. He left no data showing how he had learned of their existence, but it is evident that some Englishman must have visited them before 1755. Evans died in 1756 and geographical study in the colonies languished. For forty years no one was able to divide honors with him by marking their exact location. It is possible that the first information about the Licks was brought by some prisoners who had visited them with their Indian captors. .A sixty years' warfare was waged by the Ohio Indians against the Borderers of Virginia which was not ended until Gen. Anthony Wayne compelled them to sign the treaty of Greeneville in 1795. During this entire period, the Scioto Salt Licks was one of the bases from which the forays against the Virginians and Kentuckians were made. The tribes came to the Licks in autumn when the waters were low in Salt Creek, and while the women engaged in salt making, the braves went scouting in Virginia. These forays were made only when success was certain, and after the white men and babies were killed, the women and larger children were hurried into Ohio as prisoners, where they were adopted into Indian families. Occasionally a man would be captured alive and would be brought to the Licks where several were burned at the stake on the high ground near the site of the public square of Jackson. These forays occurred more frequently after the outbreak of the French and Indian war, and hundreds of prisoners were brought back into Ohio. So many 358 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION were captured that it was determined by the Colonies to send an expedition into Ohio in 1764 to punish the Indians and rescue the prisoners. It was undertaken by Col. Henry Bouquet of Fort Pitt, who entered Ohio in October with such a force that all opposition collapsed, and the Indians came to treat with him at the mouth of the Tuscarawas. He demanded the surrender of all white prisoners in their possession. The Shawanese were the last to surrender but they appeared on Nov. 12, 1764. The -total number surrendered was 206, of whom eighty-one were men. The Shawanese failed to surrender all of their prisoners and gave six of their warriors as hostages whom Bouquet took with him when he returned to Fort- Pitt Nov. 28, 1764. This brave officer died in Florida in 1766. Two of the captives surrendered by the Shawanese were Jacob and Christopher Halterman, who had been with the Indians for five years. They were sons of Christopher Halterman of Virginia, who crossed the mountains and settled on one of the headwaters of the Ohio, where he died of fever in the autumn of 1759, leaving a wife and seven small children, three sons and four daughters. A few weeks later the Indians attacked the cabin, killed the mother who tried to defend her young brood and the four small girls, and captured the three boys. After a hurried march down to the Ohio they crossed and followed the Guyan Trail to the Scioto Licks where the squaws were making salt. When winter came they returned to Chillicothe, their principal town, where Gabriel, the youngest, died. The other two were adopted into different families. Jacob was well treated, but Christopher, the oldest, could not forget his wrongs and suffered ill treatment in the same proportion. After his restoration to his friends in Virginia he became an. Indian fighter and some years later accompanied General Lewis to Ohio. In after years he returned to this county to live and many of his descendants may be found here. These data were furnished by Gabriel Evans, a grandson, named for the little Gabriel who died among the Indians, who lived to a good old age and died near Cove. Another captive brought to the Licks by the Indians was Jonathan Alder, who died in Madison County, January 30, 1849. He was captured in Wythe County, Virginia, and was at the Licks in 1783. Mrs. Martin, a neighbor, was brought to the Licks about the same time and they had many conversations. He wrote about her as follows : ".It was now better than a year after I was taken prisoner when the Indians started to the Licks near Chillicothe to make salt and took me along with them. Here I got to see Mrs. Martin that was taken prisoner at the same time I was, and this was the first time I had seen her since we were separated at the Council House. When she saw me, she came smiling and asked me if it was me." They conversed about their old home and had many a cry together and when they said a final farewell they parted forever, for Alder never saw her again. Samuel Davis, the noted ranger, was captured by the Indians in the fall of 1792 and brought to the Scioto Licks, where he made his escape early one morning and returned home in safety. He and a companion named William Campbell had been hunting in the Ohio Valley and went HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 359 into camp one night on a small island in the river. There they were captured by a band of about thirty Indians returning from a foray on Big Sandy, and in course of time they arrived at the Licks. There Davis was untied one morning as usual by the Indian who was his guard and "rose to his feet determined as soon as he could look around, and see the most probable direction of making his escape to make the attempt at all hazards." An Indian was standing between him and the fire, and he knocked him down into the fire, sprang over his body, and took to the woods at full speed. The Indians pursued him, but he succeeded in escaping, crossed the. Scioto near Piketon, and finally reached Manchester. Davis settled later in Franklin County. There is told also the story of a young girl captured in Virginia who was adopted by an Indian family and grew to maidenhood in captivity. She was married to a young warrior, but after the treaty of Greeneville she was restored to her family in Virginia, taking with her a young babe. In later years she married a Virginian and they moved to Ohio and settled in Jackson County. One morning while hunting her cow on Sugar Run she wandered as far as the mouth of the creek, and the Boone rocks, lower on Salt Creek, which she recognized at once as one of the very camping grounds where she had lived with the Indians. The family moved afterward to one of the western states, but relatives of her husband still reside in this county. DANIEL BOONE ONE OF THE PRISONERS The most distinguished prisoner brought to the Licks by the Indians was Daniel Boone. He had been captured in Kentucky and taken to the Indian towns on the Miami where he was adopted into the family of Blackfish, a Shawanese chief, according to the account given by Ellis : "In the month of June, 1778, a company of Shawanese went to the Scioto Salt Licks to make salt taking Boone with them. He thought the chance promised to be a good one to make his escape, and he was on the alert. But the Indians were equally so, and they kept him so busy over the kettles, that he dare not make the attempt. Finally having secured all the salt they wished, they started homeward" to Chillicothe. There he saw 450 warriors in their paint fully armed and ready to-march against his Kentucky home and he determined to escape. "On the sixteenth of June before sunrise I departed," said he, "in the most secret manner, and arrived at Boonesborough on the twentieth, after a journey of one hundred miles during which I had but one meal." Boone was then forty-two years old. EARLY DESCRIPTIONS None of the prisoners mentioned have left any description of the Scioto Licks, but there is a passage in the narrative of Col. James Smith which may refer to them. James Smith was captured by the Indians in Pennsylvania just before the battle in which General Braddocks was 358 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION were captured that it was determined by the Colonies to send an expedition into Ohio in 1764 to punish the Indians and rescue the prisoners. It was undertaken by Col. Henry Bouquet of Fort Pitt, who entered Ohio in October with such a force that all opposition collapsed, and the Indians came to treat with him at the mouth of the Tuscarawas. He demanded the surrender of all white prisoners in their possession. The Shawanese were the last to surrender but they appeared on Nov. 12, 1764. The total number surrendered was 206, of whom eighty-one were men. The Shawanese failed to surrender all of their prisoners and gave six of their warriors as hostages whom Bouquet took with him when he returned to Fort- Pitt Nov. 28, 1764. This brave officer died in Florida in 1766. Two of the captives surrendered by the Shawanese were Jacob and Christopher Halterman, who had been with the Indians for five years. They were sons of Christopher Halterman of Virginia, who crossed the mountains and settled on one of the headwaters of the Ohio, where he died of fever in the autumn of 1759, leaving a wife and seven small children, three sons and four daughters. A few weeks later the Indians attacked the, cabin, killed the mother who tried to defend her young brood and the four small girls, and captured the three boys. After a hurried march down to the Ohio they crossed and followed the Guyan Trail to the Scioto Licks where the squaws were making salt. When winter came they returned to Chillicothe, their principal town, where Gabriel, the youngest, died. The other two were adopted into different families. Jacob was well treated, but Christopher, the oldest, could not forget his wrongs and suffered ill treatment in the same proportion.' After his restoration to his friends in Virginia he became _an Indian fighter and some years later accompanied General Lewis to Ohio. In after years he returned to this county to live and many of his descendants may be' found here. These data were furnished by Gabriel Evans, a grandson, named for the little Gabriel who died among the Indians, who lived to a good old age and died near Cove. Another captive brought to the Licks by the Indians was Jonathan Alder, who died in Madison County, January 30, 1849. He was captured in Wythe County, Virginia, and was at the Licks in 1783. Mrs. Martin, a neighbor, was brought to the Licks about the same time and they had many conversations. He wrote about her as follows : "It was now better than a year after I was taken prisoner when the Indians started to the Licks near Chillicothe to make salt and took me along with them. Here I got to see Mrs. Martin that was taken prisoner at the same time I was, and this was the first time I had seen her since we were separated at the Council House. When she saw me, she came smiling and asked me if it was me." They conversed about their old home and had many a cry together and when they said a final farewell they parted forever, for Alder never saw her again. Samuel Davis, the noted ranger, was captured by the Indians in the fall of 1792 and brought to the Scioto Licks, where he made his escape early one morning and returned home in safety. He and a companion named William Campbell had been hunting in the Ohio Valley and went HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 359 into camp one night on a small island in the river. There they were captured by a band of about thirty Indians returning from a foray on Big Sandy, and in course of time they arrived at the Licks. There Davis was untied one morning as usual by the Indian who was his guard and "rose to his feet determined as soon as he could look around, and see the most probable direction of making his escape to make the attempt at all hazards." An Indian was 'standing between him and the fire, and he knocked him down into the fire, sprang over his body, and took to the woods at full speed. The Indians pursued him, but he succeeded in escaping, crossed the Scioto near Piketon, and finally reached Manchester. Davis settled later in Franklin County. There is told also the story of a young girl captured in Virginia who was adopted by an Indian family and grew to maidenhood in captivity. She was married to a young warrior, but after the treaty of Greeneville she was restored to her family in Virginia, taking with her a young babe. In later years she married a Virginian and they moved to Ohio and settled in Jackson County. One morning while hunting her cow on Sugar Run she wandered as far as the mouth of the creek, and the Boone rocks, lower on Salt Creek, which she recognized at once as one of the very camping grounds where she had lived with the Indians. The family moved afterward to one of the western states, but relatives of her husband still reside in this county. DANIEL BOONE ONE OF THE PRISONERS The most distinguished prisoner brought to the LicBoone the Indians was Daniel Boone. He had been captured in Kentucky and taken to the Indian towns on the Miami where he was adopted into the family of Blackfish, a Shawanese chief, according to the account given by Ellis : "In the month of June, 1778, a company of Shawanese went to the Scioto Salt Licks to make salt taking Boone with them. He thought the chance promised to be a good one to make his escape, and he was on the alert. But the Indians were equally so, and they kept him so busy over the kettles, that he dare not make the attempt. Finally having secured all the salt they wished, they started homeward" to Chillicothe. There he saw 450 warriors in their paint fully armed and ready to-march against his Kentucky home and he determined to escape. "On the sixteenth of June before sunrise I departed," said he, "in the most secret manner, and arrived at Boonesborough on the twentieth, after a journey of one hundred miles during which I had but one meal." Boone was then forty-two years old. EARLY DESCRIPTIONS None of the prisoners mentioned have left any description of the Scioto Licks, but there is a passage in the narrative of Col. James Smith which may refer to them. James Smith was captured by the Indians in Pennsylvania just before the battle in which General Braddocks was 360 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION defeated and mortally wounded in 1755. In August of that year the Indians with whom he was a prisoner were hunting in Ohio and concluded to go on a salt making expedition, of which he wrote thus : " We then moved to the Buffalo Lick where we killed several buffaloes, and in their small brass kettles, they made about half a bushel of salt. I suppose this Lick was about thirty or forty miles from the aforesaid town and somewhere between the Muskingum, Scioto and Ohio. About the Licks were clear open woods, and thin white oak land and at that time there were large roads leading to the Licks like wagon roads." This description tallies in a measure with that indicated in Evans' map drawn in 1755, and the description agrees with that given by the earliest settlers. The large roads were the buffalo trails, which were still visible as late as 1837, and Charles Whittlesey described one of them as follows : "Down the valley of this branch of Salt Creek passes the great Buffalo trail path leading from the Lick at Jackson to Licks upon the north fork about thirty miles distant. It is at present distinctly traceable throughout, over hills and across valleys and presents the most direct and practicable route. The appearance is that of a gully, cut in the soil from one to four feet deep by a sudden torrent and partially filled again by the effects of time. There are occasional cavities called buffalo wallows, where it is said the animal amused himself in his travels by rolling and pawing in the dirt like cattle." Whittlesey errs a little, for the wallows were usually made in damp soil and the wallowing was done to promote the comfort of the animals in the hot season. The largest bull always led, and the other members of the herd wallowed in their turn, according to their standing, which was determined in fierce contests among the males. SOLDIER VISITORS OF 1774 The first visitors to the Licks whose coming materially affected its history, were the soldiers of Gen. Andrew Lewis, who invaded the Indian country, in October, 1774. This army had been recruited by General Lewis at Camp Union, which in later days was located in Greenbrier County, Virginia. It was composed of two regiments of frontiersmen, all of whom were experienced woodsmen and sharpshooters, and they were recruited in compliance with an order from Lord Dunmore, the governor of Virginia, in order to march against the Ohio Indians. Lewis and his men set out on their advance toward the Ohio on September 11, 1774. They descended the river rapidly and reached Point Pleasant, the designated rendezvous, on October 1. While waiting in camp for an order from Lord Dunmore, they were attacked in force by the Indians and the famous battle of Point Pleasant was fought and won by General Lewis and his men, but with the loss of eight officers, and seventy-five privates killed, and about 140 soldiers wounded. After caring for the wounded, burying the dead, and fortifying the camp, General Lewis concluded to cross the Ohio and move against the Indian towns on the Scioto. Lord Dunmore sent runners to meet him at the Scioto Licks, but after camping here one night he advanced toward Chillicothe and HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 361 the famous meeting between him and Dunmore occurred, concerning which several historians have disagreed. The upshot of the matter was that General Lewis and his army were ordered to return home. This retreat was made leisurely and another night was spent at the Scioto Licks. The soldiers learned of the great abundance of game in the neighborhood, including buffaloes, and many of them fell in love with the country. It was very unfortunate that Lord Dunmore did not crush the Indian ,confederacy in 1774, for that would have led to the immediate settlement of this county by the Greenbrier men. Many of them did settle here eventually, but the Revolutionary war, and much border warfare intervened before it was safe for them to return here to live. So many came later that a part of the county was known for a long time as Greenbrier. HUNTERS AND TRAPPERS ENTER THE COUNTRY In the meantime nearly all of General Lewis' men went East to fight in the Revolution under General Washington. Soon after it closed, bands of hunters and trappers from Virginia began to enter the country, and there is a tradition that one band of twenty was annihilated by the Indians in Jackson County about 1785. Solitary hunters and trappers fared better and many spent parts of each year in some of the Jackson County glens. In 1787 a trapper named William Hewitt established himself permanently in the county, building his cabin not far from the Licks. It is believed that he had committed homicide in Virginia, and that he succeeded in disarming the enmity of the Indians by simulating madness. At any rate, he lived .in his cabin unmolested for eight years before the Indians ceded the county to the whites, and he remained a citizen of the county for thirty-three years. When the salt boilers came he left his first cabin and settled on the upper waters of Hewitt's Fork in Jefferson Township, where he built his cabin on land now owned by 'Daniel D. Davis. There he lived, hunted and trapped until 1808, when he was arrested by the sheriff of Scioto County. There were many squatters in the woods and citizens of Scioto complained to the authorities that some of these were stealing the hogs which they turned out into the forest to fatten on the mast. The sheriff came up from Portsmouth and arrested among others William Hewitt and a neighbor named William Peterson. The latter was id ;ratified and convicted and received seventeen stripes at the whipping post. Hewitt declined to defend himself. He had never eaten any meat since he came into the woods in 1787 except the game which he had shot with his trusty rifle, and he felt deeply humiliated that he should be charged with eating hog meat. No witness appeared against him, and he was finally dismissed by the sheriff with an apology. Hewitt made him a pair of moccasins as a token of appreciation, but when he returned to his own country, to the cabin on the creek since named in his honor, he gathered his belongings and tramped over the hills to one of the glens of Salt Creek in order to be far away from the thieving squatters who had brought trouble upon 362 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION him. He was living on Salt Creek when the War of .1812 began and in July of that `year he joined the expedition of General Tupper, who raised an army in Southern Ohio and marched to the lake region of Ohio to fight the English and the Indians. Hewitt was an experienced backwoodsman, and Was employed as a scout with Tupper's men. On July 29, 1813, he enlisted a second time in Capt. Jared Strong's company, recruited at the salt works, and marched into the Indian country to relieve Fort Meigs. During his entire army service, although he captured many Indians, it is related that he did not shed a drop of Indian blood, in return for the kindness shown to him by the Indians when he fled from Virginia to find refuge in their country. Hewitt attended the first election held in Jackson County, April 1, 1816, and took some interest in local affairs. But the coming of settlers was driving away the game, and in 1820 Hewitt bundled his belongings and with his gun and his ax on his back he trudged over the hills to Pike County, following the Pancake Trace. He found a cave to his liking at the base of Dividing Ridge. Enclosing the front with a stone wall, he built for himself a rock house, where he spent the last thirteen years of his life. One day in 1834 he visited Waverly, was taken ill that night with pneumonia, and thus ended the career of this Ohio hermit. Many of the stories told about him remind one of Leatherstocking, the great character created by Cooper. But Hewitt's history did not end with his death. His body was buried in the old Waverly Cemetery, but Dr. William Blackstone resurrected it, and mounting a part of the skeleton, he buried the rest of it in his garden. There the remains were found in 1852 by Edward Vestes, a cellar digger, and reinterred in the same lot. In 1883 they were found a second time, and Hon. James Emmitt shipped them to Dr. T. Blackstone of Circleville, who owned the mounted bones at that time. Doctor Blackstone had the latter in his possession. as late as 1897, and wrote : "The skeleton is of good size, of symmetrical shape, and is thicker and heavier than the average." LAST GREENBRIER SURVIVOR Perhaps the last survivor of the Greenbrier men who marched through Jackson County. in 1774 with Gen. Andrew Lewis and returned here in later years Was John Hanna. This young soldier had a remarkable dream on the night before the battle of Point Pleasant, which he remembered to his last days and related to his grandson, Robert Callaghan, who is now (1915) living in Jackson County. Hanna dreamed that he was sleeping on a flat rock, when he was awakened by rattlesnakes which sought to climb the rock to strike him, but failed. The next day when the Indians made their attack at dawn, he remembered his dream and his escape from the rattlesnakes lent him courage during the long hours of the battle. When the war of the Revolution began he enlisted and was sent to the army under Washington. He was present at the battle of Monmouth in New Jersey, and was a witness of the memorable meeting on the battlefield between General Washington and Gen. Charles HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 363 Lee. Hanna was born in Virginia in 1755, and was only nineteen years old when he joined General Lewis' expedition. He served through the war of the Revolution, for which he received an honorable pension in his declining years. His son, Robert G. Hanna, having moved from Virginia to Ohio and assisted in organizing Jackson County, John Hanna disposed of his property in Greenbrier County, Virginia, and joined his son in Ohio.. His wife's maiden name was Grimes and they were the parents, of nine children, James, Nancy, John, Robert, Christopher, Joseph, Jane, Elizabeth and Martha. The oldest three remained in Virginia, but the others came to this county and with the exception of Joseph who' never married, became the heads of large families. The seven children of Robert were Wilson, Tyrus, Anson, and James, and Elvira Swanson, Tabitha Stockman and Jane Davis. Jane, the aunt, married a Wilson, brother of Susan Wilson, the wife of Robert. Christopher moved to Indiana in later years. Elizabeth married George Scurlock the founder of the numerous family of that name in the county, for they were the parents of eleven children, nine sons and two daughters, one of whom married John Buckley and became the mother of nine children. Martha, the youngest daughter of John Hanna, married William H.- Callaghan and they were the parents of ten children, John, Robert, Jane, Margaret, Benjamin, Martha, William, Angeline, Joseph and Charles, nearly all of whom have many descendants.' This enumeration of children and grandchildren proves that John Hanna came of a virile' stock, for his descendants number many hundred persons, now widely scattered over many states. He spent his declining years at the home of his daughter, Martha Callaghan, in Madison Township, and lived to the great age of four score and ten years. His ashes lie in the Callaghan graveyard under the oaks on a hill overlooking the valley of Symmes Creek and the site of Madison Furnace. He died April 11, 1845. INDIANS ATTACK OHIO COMPANY AGENTS While the glory of discovering the Licks belongs to the Virginians, whose state also claimed dominion over them, the first settlement in the territory was made by New Englanders, who established Marietta in 1788. But six years elapsed before any of the settlers in the grant to the Ohio Company ventured to visit the Licks. Finally the scarcity and high price of salt, together with a definite description of the Licks secured from an escaped prisoner led one Griffin Greene to make the venture. He interested Major Robert Bradford and Joel Oakes in the enterprise, he paying one-half the expense, and they each one-fourth. They hired Peter Anderson, Joshua Dewey, John Coleman and six other men, bought large pirogue, laid in supplies and in October, 1794, they left Farmers' Castle and descended the Ohio to the mouth of Leading Creek. There they landed and followed the well known Indian trail straight to the Licks, which they 'reached on the third day. Arriving at the Boone rocks, they discovered the salt pans of the Indians, and having brought 364 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION a small brass kettle with them, they proceeded to boil the water at once and secured a tablespoonful of coarse salt. Elated over their discovery, and dreading the arrival of Indians, they started on the return journey at dawn the next day. They hurried to the Ohio, but were delayed about half an hour in launching their pirogue. Before they had reached the middle of the river, to row up along the Virginia side, according to the usual precaution of the pioneers, a band of yelling Indians appeared on the Ohio shore on the spot which they had just left. It was a very narrow escape for Greene and his comrades, for had the Indians arrived while they were trying to launch their boat, the whole party might have been massacred. Such were some of the perils of the pioneers. Greene went to Philadelphia soon thereafter, and his discovery was considered so valuable thaime was able to sell the cldaim of himself and two associates to a wealthy, merchant named John Nicholson for $1,500. He expected to secure a patent .from the Government as soon as the new country was surveyed, but his speculation proved worthless because the Government determined to reserve all claims for the use of the people. Government ownership of such resources was then regarded necessary in order to promote the general welfare. LAST FIGHT BETWEEN INDIANS AND WHITES The Sixty Years war between the. Indians and the Virginians and other borderers was now drawing to a close, but Indian bands lingered near the Licks until late summer in 1795, and they murdered any of the settlers found alone in the woods. The last known to have been murdered by Indians from the Scioto Licks was Jonas Davis, who was shot near the mouth of Crooked Creek in February, 1795. When it was discovered that the marauding Indian band was a small one, John James, Joseph Miller and two other rangers determined to pursue them to avenge Davis' death. They went to the mouth of the Kanawha to secure volunteers from the garrison, but none would turn out on account of the armistice between General Wayne, who was encamped in the enemy's country, and the Indian chiefs. James and his party then went to Gallipolis, where two other rangers joined them and the next morning they set out for the Licks. They discovered a trail when they reached the headwaters of Symmes Creek, about ten miles from the Licks, which they followed to an Indian camp, near the large beaver pond, on the land of Mrs. Mary W. Davis of Jefferson. Secreting themselves to wait for night before making an attack, they were soon astounded when they discovered an Indian approaching on their own trail. When he came within forty yards Joseph Miller became excited and fired. The shot alarmed all the Indians near the pond, a hunting party of forty or more men and boys, and the rangers saw the necessity of escaping as fast as possible. Luckily night was falling, and although the Indians had dogs, which they set on the trail, the six rangers finally escaped and reached Gallipolis in about twenty-four hours, but completely exhausted. This was the last conflict between Indians and the whites in this county. HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 365 SQUATTERS AT THE LICKS The period from 1795 to 1803 was that of Squatter Sovereignty and only the most meagre details of its history have survived. The settlement at the Licks was ,a veritable mining camp, like one of the gold camps of the West in later years, and the great majority of the, early salt boilers were transients. The cabins were of the rudest kind, for the builders did not know how soon they must move. The population was largest during the summer months, when two to three hundred salt boilers from the settlements came here to work for cash wages, for buyers brought specie to pay for salt when there was no market for rum or provisions. The cost of living was low, on account of the abundance of game of all kinds in the woods, near the Licks. The salt boilers who spent the winter here devoted their time to hunting and trapping. There were many beaver dams in the county, and buffaloes remained until 1802, when the last survivor, a giant bull, was killed in a lily swamp on Symmes Creek, near where it crosses the line between Franklin and Bloomfield townships. There were many wild and reckless men at the salt works and there was much drinking. Brawls were common, fisticuffs occurred when any new man came who had a reputation as a fighter, and several murders were committed. A gang of counterfeiters established themselves here, which was not broken up until after the county was organized in 1816. They flourished because of the great number of strangers who came to buy salt. Several accidental deaths occurred and the name of one of the unfortunates has survived, viz : Daniel F. Dean, who was killed at a log rolling. He was buried on McKitterick's hill north of Jackson, and a crude sandstone on his grave which bore the Inscription, "D. F. D. Sep. 23, 1802" survived until 1889 when I copied it. During this period, thousands of the pioneers of Ohio, as far east as Marietta, and west as far as Cincinnati, came here to buy salt or on other business. There is record of .visits made by well known men like Col. Return J. Meigs, Felix Renick, Paul Fearing, Jeremiah Morrow, Joseph Harness, .Silvanus Ames and scores of others, leading citizens of Ross, Washington, Scioto and adjoining counties. Practically all the salt made during this period was carried away on packhorses, but not a few pioneers came here on foot and carried home a bag of salt. Many stories of this period have been handed down by tradition showing that the playing of practical jokes upon strangers was a common occurrence. One favorite joke was to burn the pack saddle of a salt buyer. One victim revenged himself in this manner. The next time that he visited the Licks he bored holes in his 'saddle and filled them with powder and when it was thrown under the kettles an explosion destroyed the furnace. POLITICAL HISTORY, 1609-1795 The political history of the county during the period beginning May 23, 1609, and ending August 3, 1795, is brief. The first date is that of 366 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION the reorganization of the London Company which was granted a territory in America 200 miles north and south from old Point Comfort and extending to the western sea. This grant included the land now in Jackson County. In 1670 LaSalle, employed by the French government, discovered the Ohio River, and the French claim to the entire Ohio Valley was'promulgated, It was annexed by the French to the Territory of Louisiana in 1713. In 1671 a certain Capt. Thomas Batt was sent by Governor Berkeley of Virginia to contest the French claims. He was "to explore and find out the ebbing and 'flowing of the waters behind the mountains in order to the discovery of the South Sea." This expedition came West as far as the falls of the Kanawha, and then returned home, with the report, among other things, that there was "a great abundance of salt" in the country down the river, which may be the first reference to the Scioto Licks in any official record. In 1749, De Celoron's expedition explored the Ohio Valley and drove out the English traders from the Indian country. Floating down the Ohio he buried a lead plate at the mouth of each important stream entering the river, claiming the country for France. He reached the mouth of the Miami River August 30, 1749, and returned to Montreal by way of the Maumee Valley. The French and Indian war came next, and on November 3, 1762, France ceded her claim to the' Ohio Valley to Great Britain. The Indians still claimed their independence and dominion over Ohio until November 9, 1764, when they entered into a treaty with Colonel Bouquet. For ten years the valley remained a No Man's land, but on June 22, 1774, Parliament passed the Quebec Act annexing all the lands north of the Ohio to Quebec. This law, which was denounced by Lord Chatham as "a child of inordinate power," conceded absolute religious liberty to the settlers in the new country. The act was intended as a checkmate to the Thirteen Colonies and as a bribe to the French colonists to remain loyal to England in the impending struggle with her English colonists, and it served its purpose by saving Canada to the Crown. Virginia contended with the mother country and insisted upon her claim to the Ohio Valley. It had already reasserted its claim in 1.769 by creating the county of Botetourt to include all the western part of Virginia from the mountains to the Mississippi River. It was named for the governor, who was Lord of Botetourt. Lord Dunmore, who succeeded him, invaded Ohio in 1774 to enforce Virginia's claims and he secured concessions from the Indians, although he neglected to bring them into complete subjection because, as the patriots alleged, he, wanted Indian aid for the Crown in the impending contest with Virginia and the other colonies. Virginia was not able to colonize Ohio before the war of the Revolution began but her statesmen kept an eye on the West, and in 1778 the House of Burgesses erected the new County of Illinois, to comprise all of what was known afterward as the. Northwest Territory. Col. John Todd was appointed its first governor by -Virginia and served until 1782 when he lost his life on account of rashness 'at the battle of Blue Licks. The history of the State of .Ohio might have been very different had Colonel Todd sur- HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 367 vived. Then can the treaty with England on November 30, 1782, by which the Ohio Valley was ceded to the Confederation of the United States. New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland refused to ratify the Articles of Confederation unless Virginia ceded her claims to the County of Illinois, and through the influence of Gen. George Washington that cession was finally. made March 1, 1784. YANKEE SETTLERS OF THE OHIO COMPANY Three years later the Northwest Territory was organized by the famous .ordinance enacted July 13, 1787. Events now began to crowd. The contract with the Ohio Company was signed Oct. 27, 1787. Marietta was settled April 7, 1778, the territorial government was installed July 17, 1788, with Gen. Arthur St. Clair as governor. The next important event concerning the Licks was the erection of Washington„ County, July 26, 1788, to include all the territory east of the Scioto and it was while the Licks were within the boundaries of that county that the accidental settlement was made. But the honor of making the settlement went not to the gallant Virginians that discovered the Licks, not to the progressive Yankees of the Ohio Company, nor to the thrifty Quaker, John Nicholson, who had bought Griffin Green's claim for $1,500, but to a small band of Kentuckians who had waited patiently until a runner came with the news that the treaty of Greenville had been signed by the Indian chiefs and tribal delegates on August 3, 1795. The leader of this band was Joseph Conklin of Mason County, Kentucky. He was familiar with the Guyan Trace and taking his family with him he and two or three associates crossed the Ohio, plunged into the wilderness and arrived at the Licks early in September, 1795. A few weeks later settlers from the lands of the Ohio Company came to boil a season's salt before the winter set in, but they found Joseph Conklin and his friends in possession of the Indian pans, and they bought salt instead of boiling it. Conklin built his cabin near the spring at the foot of Broadway. The hillside was then covered with poplars, and the logs for the cabin were chopped down near its site, saving the necessity of moving them any distance. Other cabins were' built along the slope facing Salt Creek, and Poplar Row was established, the first white village in Jackson County. Conklin remained at Jackson for six years, but in 1801 he sold his claim to William Given and moved to Wheeler Mills in Scioto County. Alt the first salt boilers were squatters, for the land belonged to the Government, which reserved it under the Act passed May 18, 1796, but many of these squatters became permanent settlers of the county. THE MARTINS First in this class must be named John Martin, who came to the Licks in 1796, and was thus the founder of the oldest family still represented in the county. His descendants are numerous, and a. great-grandson, John M. Martin, named for the ancestor, was elected treasurer of the 368 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION county in November, 1914. The salt boiler was the son of an Irishman named James Martin, who emigrated and settled in Pennsylvania, where he married. In a few years they moved to Maryland, where their son, John, was born in 1772, also two other sons, Hugh and James. The father served in the Revolutionary war and the mother and her small brood suffered many hardships. Young John found employment for himself as a teamster, after reaching his majority, and while hauling flour from Ellicott's Mills to Baltimore he heard many stories of the Ohio country. As soon as the news came of the treaty with the Indians he crossed the mountains and his wanderlust was not satisfied until he reached the Scioto Licks near which he spent the rest of his life. He secured employment as a salt boiler with Ross & Nelson and later with John Johnson. He was of a saving disposition and when Franklin Township was subdivided in 1805 he entered land and became a farmer, following that occupation until 1856, when he returned to Jackson to spend his declining years with his son, Courtney Martin, who had already become a successful merchant. There he died December 15, 1858, aged eighty-six years, eleven months and six days. His wife survived until December 26, 1866. She was a native of Maryland and Martin knew her before she came West with her family in 1800. They were married in 1805. James Martin, the father, and Hugh, the brother, came to Jackson later, and Hugh accompanied John Martin when he volunteered in General Tupper's expedition in the War of 1812, and saw hard service. After his return from this expedition he was converted at a camp meeting in 1813, and remained a member of that church Until his death. The wife who was a most devout woman had been converted at a camp meeting at the Licks in 1801, and remained a member of the church for sixty-five years. The first Methodist. class was 'organized at the home of her father in 1801, and the Methodist meetings were held in the Shoup or Martin homes for many years. Five of the children of this family grew to maturity : Courtney, John M., Elizabeth, who married Harmon Lowry ; Nancy, who married Daniel Stewart, and Eliza. James, the father of John Martin, left the county and settled in Tennessee, where he died in 1816. FIRST GRIST MILL Little is known of the men who came to the Licks in 1797 and 1798, but several men of some note were among the arrivals in 1799. One of them was John Kight, who established the first grist mill at the Licks. It was a horse mill of the rudest type and the farmers who brought corn to be ground were required to furnish the horses to do the work. Kight also started the first still in the county. His mill and still were located not far from the Broadway bridge across Salt Creek. In after years he moved to Milton Township, where he started another mill and still. A few of his descendants still live in the county. HANGING ROCK IRON- REGION - 369 GEORGE L. CROOKHAM The most distinguished of the salt boilers who came here in the eighteenth century was George L. Crookham. He came to the Licks when he was only nineteen years of age. He was born at Carlisle, in Cumberland, Pennsylvania, November 18, 1779, and he qualified himself to be a teacher, but in 1799 he concluded to move west and fate led him to the Scioto licks in Ohio, where he found employment at the salt furnaces and taught school at intervals as his services were sought. After his marriage he taught school-for many years in his own home, but later he built a house on 'his farm near his residence west of the pike and nearly opposite where the A. L. McCain residence stands. Gradually he became recognized as the best educated in the county, and this encouraged him to become a greater student. Although his early schooling had been very ordinary, he possessed the mental vigor to qualify him for great things, and naturally he became for lack of books, a great student of nature in its various manifestations. The finding of many fossils in digging the salt wells, and the ditches for piping salt water, fastened his attention on geology, the numerous mounds fixed his mind on archaeology, and daily contact with flowers and birds led him to study them minutely. He even took up the study of entomology, and he found in life around him an endless fund of information that kept his pupils interested. He was the first in the aunty to buy any number of books, and his collection soon included the best scientific works of the time. Of his many pupils, the most distinguished in after life was J. W. Powell, who was at the head of the National Geological Survey for many years. Crookham had assisted Williams Mather, the first geologist of Ohio, in making his survey of Jackson County. The latter had established himself on a farm about a mile from the Crookham home in 1838. Crookham also furnished many data to Charles Whittlesey, the topographer of the survey, and to S. P. Hildreth, Caleb Briggs and other assistants of Mather. Young Powell was his companion on many walks along Salt Creek gorge, with the geologists and the bent given to his mind by his teacher and Professor Mather, started him on his glorious career. Crookham was of a radical turn and had little patience with his neighbors who lived only a material life, and naturally he was not popular. He entered with zest into the temperance movement which set in, in the twenties, for he recognized that drunkenness was the greatest evil in the early days of Ohio, causing many pioneers to lapse to a state bordering on barbarism. Later he became the first abolitionist in the county, and his unpopularity increased. One one occasion, when he had invited Professor Williams of Oberlin to speak in the town, Crookham and the speaker, Reverend Powell and W. W. Mather were attacked by a mob, and forced to seek refuge in the house of a leading citizen of the town. Soon afterward a mob burned down Crookham's schoolhouse some distance from town in the night, and destroyed his entire 'collection of geological and archaeological specimens, all his mounted birds and bugs, as well as his copious notes, together with his journal and his history of the county, which he had undertaken, all in Vol. I-24 370 - GING ROCK IRON REGION all the collection and labor of half a lifetime. He was then advancing in years and he concluded to give up his studies. In his long life he assisted many a runaway slave to freedom. One of the underground railroads ran from the mouth of the Guyan through Jackson, and Crookham had charge of the local station. There was no difficulty in harboring runaways in the many rock shelters along Salt Creek and its tributaries and in course of time a large colony of negroes was established on Rock Run, Salt Creek gorge and the branches of West Pigeon. Through the aid of Crookham, runaways were conducted to the first of these houses, located not far from his home, and no officer could ever trace them further. It is regretable that Crookham 's journal detailing many of these events was burned. Although not a tall man, he took on much weight, and reached 350 pounds in his later years. He was the father of sixteen children, of whom thirteen grew to maturity. One of the others died by drowning. After his wife's death he went to live with a daughter, Mrs. Hanna, at whose home he spent his last days. While not successful, as an office-seeker, and he had an ambition to serve in the Ohio house, yet he was appointed to several offices of trust. As president of the board of teachers' examiners he played an important part in improving the school system of the county, and by weeding out quack teachers, he put a period to the dark ages in Jackson County. There is no end to the stories told about him, how he amazed strangers at Chillicothe by reading a newspaper upside down, after they had made derogatory comments about him, how he could solve the most difficult problems mentally, how he could read the minds of his fellows, how he 'could name all the birds and flowers, how he predicted many inventions, ate one meal a day, and about other habits some advanced and some. eccentric. He told how his death would occur, and finally the stroke of paralysis foretold occurred. But he did not lose his sense of humor, and laughed with young William Aleshire who was with him after he was stricken. He paid his debt to nature like a philosopher, dying February 28, 1857, at the age of seventy-seven years, three months and ten days. He was another Samuel Johnson, but a plant of the weeds and not of the town. Some descendants still live in the county, among them the children of James McKitterick, viz., John J. McKitterick, his children, nephews and nieces. Hon. J. W. Powell, the geologist, paid him a high tribute for his influence upon his life. Unfortunately none of his neighbors except W. W. Mather, who left the county before his death appreciated his worth and high abilities, and no true record of his life can now be written. CHAPTER III GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP OF THE LICKS WASTEFUL SALT BOILERS-THE STATE IN CONTROL-EXPERIMENT NOT A SUCCESS-PIONEER ROADS AND POSTOFFICES- TOWNSHIP OF LTC KD AVID MITCHELL-MAJOR JOHN JAMES-SOLDIERS OF THE WAR OF 1812. The first surveyor came into the county in 1798. He was Elias Langdon, who ran the lines of Franklin, Liberty and Scioto Townships in May of that year. Then came Levi Whipple, who ran the lines of Milton in June and Madison in July. Langdon ran the lines of Hamilton in April, 1799, and Thomas Worthington those of Washington in August, 1799, and part of those of Jackson Township in the same month. Langdon returned again in December, 1801, and ran the lines of Lick. John G. Macon ran the lines of Jefferson and Madison in the same year and Benjamin F. Stone the lines of Bloomfield in October, 1801. The work of subdividing the townships was not done until several years later. Madison by Joseph Fletcher, Washington by John Collett, Hamilton, Scioto, Liberty and Jackson by James Denny, all named in 1805. Frank-. lin was subdivided by Thomas Evans, and Milton by John Collett in 1806. The Scioto Salt Reserve was not subdivided until 1825, when the work was done by Joseph Fletcher named above, then a resident of Gallia County. The first good map of the county embodying certain topographical and geological as well as the necessary geographical details was executed in 1837 under the direction of Charles Whittlesey, topographer of the Ohio Geological Survey, under W. W. Mather. WASTEFUL SALT BOILERS The delay in subdividing the townships prevented the entering of homesteads during the period from 1795 to 1803, and this left the squatting salt boilers in complete possession of. the rich resources of the. county, the game, timber and the grass, as well as the salt brine. Might made right and the destructive tendencies of many salt boilers caused great waste of natural resources. They cut the beaver dams, destroying a great fur industry, they slaughtered the game indiscriminately, and they were guilty of wanton waste of nut trees, for they chopped them down to secure one year's crop. They started many fires to burn out - 371 - 372 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION small clearings for their corn fields, that much of the finest timber in the county was destroyed. They also cut many of the finest trees for fuel in the salt furnaces. This wanton waste was finally brought to the attention of Congress by William H. Harrison, then the delegate from Ohio, but later President of the United States. He bestirred himself in the matter, and secured the following recommendation from the Congressional Committee February 19, 1800: " That upon inquiring into the situation of the Salt Springs and Licks, the property of the United States, they have been informed from respectable authorities that those on the east side of the Scioto are in the occupancy of a number of persons who are engaged in the making of salt to a very 'considerable extent. and that these persons by a destructive waste of the timber in the neighborhood of the springs are daily diminishing their value." The resolution submitted after this statement of facts, that the salt licks should be leased for a term of years, was never carried into effect, because the statehood movement overshadowed it, but it is of historical importance because the committee which drafted it, saw no impropriety in government ownership of a great industry. Two years later Hon. Albert Gallatin offered the following suggestion when a difficulty arose over the terms of the Ohio Enabling Act : "The grant of the Scioto Salt Springs will at present be considered as the most valuable, and alone would most probably induce a compliance on the part of the new state, with the conditions proposed by Congress ; and if it be considered, that at least one-half the .future population of that district will draw their salt from that source, the propriety of preventing a monopoly of that article falling into the hands of any private individual can hardly be disputed." Acting on this socialistic suggestion, Congress passed the Ohio Enabling Act April 30, 1802, with the grant of the Scioto Salt Springs to the state provided that, the state should never sell them nor lease them for a longer term than ten years. THE STATE IN CONTROL There was consternation at the Licks when the salt boilers learned of the passage of this act, and many of them sold their claims and left the county. By March 1, 1803, when the first General Assembly of Ohio convened at Chillicothe, the majority of the salt boilers had departed. Those remaining concluded to petition the assembly for the "privilege of continuing their business as formerly for the present season." They chose Maj., John James of Farmers' Castle, who had not yet moved to the Licks, to present their petition, but he arrived too late, for two days before, or on March 23, 1803, the Legislature had adopted a joint resolution, providing for the immediate leasing of all the wells and furnaces at the Licks. William Patton and Wyllis Silliman drafted the first bill to regulate the Public Salt Works. It was read the first time in the House April 6, 1803, and passed on April 9. It passed the Senate April 12, and became a law April 13, 1803. This act contained ten sections. The first provided for the election of an agent by a joint ballot of the two HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 373 Houses to serve for one year, beginning May 1, 1803, and to give bond in the sum of $2,000. The second provided that the agent should keep an office at the Scioto Salt Works, beginning June 1, 1803, and to supply it with the necessary books. The third section gave the preference to the occupiers of wells, but limited the number of kettles to 120 for each person or company. The fourth section authorized the leasing of lots for the erection of furnaces. Section 5 fixed the rental at twelve cents a gallon, payable quarterly. After making provision for protecting the interests of the state, the act then provided for a geological survey of the Reserve to ascertain the extent of the salines, and whether any stone coal was contiguous to said works." The agent's salary was fixed at $150 a year, and such compensation for making the survey "as the next Legislature may think proper." The two Houses met in joint session April 14, 1803, and elected James Denny as the first agent to regulate the business of the state at the Public Salt Works. Denny was an engineer and a man of much executive ability. He entered upon his duties May 1, 1803, and ended the reign of the squatters at the Licks. Those without means departed and the character of the population showed marked improvement the first season. The portion of the act giving preference to occupiers of wells gave a certain permanency to the industry, and many new cabins were erected to take the places of the huts on Poplar Row. The only political event in the history of the Licks during this period not already noted was the creation of Ross County to include the Scioto Salt Reserve, which had been in Washington County. Today when salt is so cheap, it is difficult to understand why governors and Legislatures devoted so much attention to the Scioto Salt Works, but when it is remembered that salt cost from four to six dollars a bushel in the Northwest Territory until 1803, the matter is cleared up. The act of April 13, 1803, expiring of itself, Gov. Edward Tiffin, in his message to the General Assembly December 5, 1803, recommended immediate action. A paragraph in this message throws some light on the conditions then confronting the pioneers, viz. : "As nature has placed this valuable article of salt so necessary to the sustenance of man, in the bosom of our state, and as monopolies of that article have been effected in a neighboring state, would it not be advisable if it can be effected, to prevent its exportation from the state, that our citizens may reap all the benefits accruing from its use at home." The General Assembly passed a second act to regulate the salt works on January 27, 1804. It provided that the agent's bond, which had been $2,000, should be increased to $4,000 ; that the agent should lay off 800 acres of the reservation in twenty-acre lots for leasing for cultivation ; that a roadway four poles wide should be left along the creek ; that each' salt boiler or mechanic be allowed to rent one or two lots for cultivation ; that the license tax which had been twelve cents be reduced to four cents; and that each barrel of salt should be inspected. A third act passed February 20, 1805, reduced the tax to two cents a gallon, and placed furnace capacity allowed at from three thousand to four thousand gallons. The act of January 24, 1807, ordered the agent to make a map of the salt works each year, 374 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION and directed him to lay out 100 acres about 2 ½ miles from the center of the township, in ten-acre lots for renting for cultivation. The fifth act passed February 13, 1808, reduced the rent to one cent a gallon, and gave permission to pipe salt water by means of aqueduct or wooden tubes. Authority was given also to condemn right of way for the' aqueducts or tubes. The necessity for piping arose on account of the consumption of all the timber near the works. It was discovered that it would be cheaper to pipe the salt water than to haul the timber needed. The act of February 19, 1810, extended the agent's term to three years and provided that the licenses should terminate January 1, 1813, and that the rent should be reduced to five mills a gallon. Another provision intended to encourage boring for stronger brine was as follows : "That whoever leasing lot for salt making, finds water of which 250 gallons will make one bushel of salt, to supply forty kettles, shall get a lease of ten years from the discovery." The act of January 30, 1811, required owners and occupiers of salt wells to enclose the same with fencing. This law was occasioned by the finding of the body of a man in one of the salt water vats or pans, and there was suspicion of murder, but it was never proven. The act of February 17, 1812, authorized the employment of a suitable person to bore 200 feet in the rock at the works, to be paid not more than $300, and to have the rental of such well for five years and the land needed for manufacturing salt. Nothing was done under this act, and on February 5, 1813, another act was passed designating Abraham Claypool as an agent to contract for boring ten wells if necessary, and the sum of $1,500 was appropriated for his use. Claypool did not succeed and William Given, Joseph Armstrong, John Johnston, Ross Nelson, John W. Prather, John Sargent and Asa. Lake petitioned the Legislature for assistance to dig each a well, and the act of February 7, 1814, was enacted for their benefit. John Nelson reached a depth of 240 feet, John Wilson 260 feet, and Henry Harmon 276 feet, but as no stronger brine was found an act passed February 15, 1815, directed William Given to sink a well to the depth of 350 feet, and to 2 1/4 inches in diameter at the bottom, for which he was to receive $700. He failed to finish the well within the year, and an act was passed February 24, 1816, extending his time until April 1. Given added another 100 feet to the depth at his own expense, but although a much stronger brine was secured, it would not rise to the top of the well. The best wells before the Given's well was sunk produced a brine which required 213 gallons of water to make a bushel of salt. The Given 's well made a bushel out of seventy-five gallons, but forcing pumps had not been invented, and its water could not be utilized. Fifteen acts altogether were passed on the subject of the Seioto Salt Works. They were finally abandoned on account of the competition of the Kanawha salt wells in Virginia, and ten years later the Reservation was cut up into lots and sold. Congress passed. an act authorizing the sale of section 29 on April 16, 1816. The Legislature adopted a joint resolution January 3, 1818, asking leave to sell the rest of the Salt Lick Reservation, but Congress did not act upon it until December 28, 1824. A survey was provided for