CHAPTER XLV STATE CREATES MUSKINGUM COUNTY FIRST AREA SIXTY BY FIFTY-FIVE MILES-FIRST COURT HELD IN HARVEY'S LOG TAVERN-FIRST PROSECUTOR FAMOUS LEWIS CASS-LOG COURTHOUSE AND JAIL BUILT 1807-8-BURNED DOWN BY A FUGITIVE SLAVE-ZANESVILLE THE SEAT OF JUSTICE. The Zanesville settlements were legislated out of the Northwest Territory into the State of Ohio before they were legislated out of Washington County into Muskingum County. The second change did not occur until March 1, 1804. The Ohio House of Representatives had proposed to name the new county Livingston, but the Senate wisely changed this to Muskingum. Section 3 of the act provided that "the temporary seat of justice of said county shall be at the Town of Zanesville until the permanent seat shall be fixed according to law." Coshocton, at the time located in Muskingum County, and Cass Bottom, near Dresden, competed with Zanesville for the location of the permanent county seat, but the County Seat Commission awarded the honor to Zanesville. BOUNDARIES SET FORTH Section 1 of the creating act, prescribed the boundaries as follows : "Be it enacted that so much of the counties of Washington and Fairfield as comes within the following boundaries be and the same is hereby erected into a separate and distinct county, which shall be known by the name of Muskingum, to-wit : "Beginning at the Northwest corner of the 9th township in the 9th range of U. S. military lands, thence with the Western boundary line of said range South to the Southern boundary line of said military lands, thence with the same West to the Western boundary line to the 15th range of public lands. Thence with the said line South to the Southwest corner of the 16th township of the 15th range, thence Eastwardly to the South boundary of the - 401 - 402 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO 16th township till it intersects the West boundary of the 12th range, hence with the sectional lines East to the Western boundary line of the 7th range, thence with the same North to the Northeast corner of the military tract, thence with the North boundary line of the 10th township in the first and second ranges, of said military lands, West until intersected by the Indian boundary line, thence with the same Westwardly to the place of beginning." The county as thus described had a length from North to South of about sixty miles, and width from East to West of about fifty-five miles. The county's subsequent subdivision is thus described : "By a law taking effect March 15, 1808, Tuscarawas County was created; by another, on March 1, 1810, Guernsey County was constituted, and our width reduced to twenty-five miles, the same as now (1877) ; by another law, taking effect March 1, 1810, Coshocton County was marked off, but remained attached to Muskingum until April 1, 1811. Only one other change in our boundaries was made--by laws taking effect March 1, 1818, creating Perry and Morgan." JUDGES BUT NOT LAWYERS Ohio's initial judicial system, inaugurated in 1804, set up judgeships in a way that would seem strange indeed today. It provided for circuits each of which included several counties and for each of which the General Assembly elected a president judge for a term of seven years. This official was, required to be a lawyer, but the General Assembly also chose associate justices not required to be lawyers, three from each county in the circuit; and the president judge and two associates, or three of the latter without the president judge, could hold court. Sessions could be held at the pleasure of the associates. The law provided that the first term of Muskingum County's court should be held April 25, 1804, but the court register is a blank as to date, leaving that feature of the event in doubt. The entry reads : "At a special court held on the ---- day of ----- , in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and four, at the SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 403 house of David 'Harvey, Esquire, in Zanesville, in and for the County of Muskingum, it being the first court held in such county, Present the Honorable Willis Silliman, Esquire, president, and Jesse Fulton and David Harvey, Esquire, his associate justices of said county. Appointed Abel Lewis clerk pro tem of said court,. who gave bond and was sworn into the office aforesaid by the Honorable Willis Silliman, Esquire, according to law and the constitution of the State of Ohio." HUMBLE BEGINNING Court sessions were not held continuously in David Harvey's tavern after 1804. James Herron's cabin was later chosen. It stood on South Sixth Street, near Main. The county waited four years for a court home, but not that long for a jail. In 1806-07 the commissioners erected a two-story structure of hewed and squared logs, lined with three-inch planks. The lower story was used for criminals and the upper story for debtors. On January 25, 1808, Commissioners Henry Newell and Jacob Gomber and Clerk. Benjamin Tucker let a contract to Henry Ford to build a two-story frame courthouse, 20 by 55 feet, at a cost of $480. This appeared to be so extravagant to William Whitten, the third commissioner, that he first protested and then refused to sign the contract. Dr. Increase Mathews was one of Ford's bondsmen. One record states that the building was completed by Christmas, 1808. The lower story was the jailer's home; the upper, the courthouse. The building and the jail were in combination, and under one roof. COURTHOUSE-JAIL This first combined building stood on a spot about half way between Fourth Street and Court Alley, but was located a little nearer Fountain Alley than it was to Main Street. Judge Granger, speaking about it while in the common pleas court room of today said : "This room in which we are now assembled is, I believe, immediately above the spot upon which they stood (the first county buildings), but the floor under our feet is higher in the air than even the chimney tops of those humble structures, notwithstanding the fact that the room in which court was then held was also in the second story." 404 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO In this building court held sessions while the state occupied the new courthouse of 1809, and it was used also as meeting house and schoolhouse. The main history of this structure may as well be completed here. Fire destroyed it on April 3, 1814, when a fugitive slave, still desperately seeking freedom, tried to win it by burning the lock from the jail door. The flames got out of hand and burned door, jail and all. They would have done the same for the nearly suffocated fugitive but for the rescuing work of the citizens. CHAPTER XLVI THE OLD FURNACE AT DILLON FALLS MOSES DILLON DISCOVERS FALLS AND SIGNS OF IRON ORE-STARTS BUSY INDUSTRIAL CENTER-IRON AND GRIST MILLS AND STORES ALL PROSPER- SCHOOLS AND RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS FOLLOWDILLON BUILT DAM AT LICKING'S MOUTH. While McIntire and his associates were seeking to make their hamlet into a town by building a mill race, a sawmill, new taverns, a jail, a "county house" (intended really for a state house) and were planning to build a dam across the Muskingum at the foot of Market Street, other interests were engaged in development work on the west side of the river and a few miles up the valley of the Licking. Foundations for this were laid by Moses Dillon in the year 1803 when, at the age of 60 and while accompanying a Quaker minister on a journey to the headwaters of the Muskingum where it was intended to visit a village of Wyandot Indians, he first saw the falls of the Licking, that beautiful spot, which is located three miles northwest of Zanesville. The charm of the place and its value as a source of water power so impressed Dillon that he proceeded to prospect for minerals. Iron ore he found and the impression was deepened. Returning to his eastern home he purchased 3,000 acres of this Licking Valley land, including the acres surrounding the falls and there he began in 1805 the work of development. Moved by the industrial and mercantile spirit Moses Dillon built at the falls an iron furnace and foundry (the first, it is said, west of the mountains) and launched a store, the stocks for which were transported to the falls on pack horses. To the patronage of pioneers and employes was added considerable trading with the Indians, some of whom were still in that neighborhood, the red men turning in pelts, game, etc., for ammunition and ornaments. By 1814 a grist mill and two sawmills had made the falls a still busier spot and a time came when 150 men were employed - 405 - 406 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO there. Three energetic sons, John, Isaac and Moses, Jr., were associated with Moses Dillon until what a local historian has called "the dominating commercial influence of Zanesville and the failure of ore" caused the enterprises to languish and become extinct. Dillon Falls is now the summer home of many Zanesville families, but the mills and nearly all signs of their remains are gone. Other activities continued immediately west of Zanesville. William Trago, two miles distant, began to burn brick in 1808. In 1809-1810 James Tharp opened a distillery within a mile of Zanesville and soon afterwards James Fulton established another at an equal distance. SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES The school teacher also was abroad in this land of the Licking. To the David Harris School, which already has been referred to as housing twenty-five pupils in West Zanesville, as early as 1800, was added, in 1801, a school taught by a Mr. Black, and by 1804 two others had sprung up. Religious organizations did not lag far behind. In 1807 the Finley Methodist Church, with the families of Edward Tanner, Samuel Simpson and Baltzer Flesher forming its first membership came into existence at Dillon Falls, "served at irregular intervals by itinerant preachers." Three years later, in the only tavern at the Falls, a Methodist Episcopal congregation was formed and a subscription was started to secure a building fund. Soon afterwards this was used to build a log meeting house, which in due time was succeeded by a frame church. With his Dillon Falls interest at heart Moses Dillon must have been keenly interested in the development of that section of Zanesville nearest the Falls—must have watched with especial care the growth of local movements in the direction of darns and bridges. DAM AT MOUTH OF LICKING It was built about the year 1810. Dillon did not father the enterprise but he paid for and adopted' it. The story, as told by J. Hope Sutor, is interesting but not very complimentary to a member of a family whose name the City of Zanesville bears : "The Licking dam was erected by Isaac Zane. His father, SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 407 Jonathan Zane, had advised the project and proposed to give Isaac a half interest. The son mortgaged thirty acres of land for $2,000 to secure funds with which to conduct the work. When the dam was completed the father came from Wheeling, sold the improvement to Moses Di11On, retained the money and returned to Wheeling, leaving the son overwhelmed in debt." Having the dam, Dillon was more desirous than ever to add a bridge. And here was a spot calling for spans the like of which never had been erected before—and never, indeed, since, with one or two exceptions. The point was to use the letter "Y" as a model, the stem of the structure to be extended due westward from the foot of Main Street to beyond the middle of the river. One arm was planned to run southwestwardly to the Natchez shore and the other northwestwardly to the West Zanesville shore. This project will be handled in a later chapter. Rev. James B. Finley, one of the first Methodist ministers to come to this section, has left an account of the settlements located on the circuit he covered. Among these settlements was Dillon Falls and the minister formed a high opinion of John Dillon and his wife. The former was a Quaker and the latter of a Methodist family. The preacher's first appointment was at Dick's Tavern. Drinking and swearing went on while the sermon was being delivered. A class was formed consisting of John and Jacob Hooper, J. Dittinhiffer, "Brother Cooper and wife," and Samuel Gassaway, a colored man. These men were all workers at the Dillon furnace. LOG CHURCH AT THE FALLS Mr. Finley set his heart on building a church at the Falls and when John Dillon became a Methodist, he donated a site for it; the preacher "got up a subscription to build a hewed-log meeting house." Soon the timbers were ready and a raising occurred. Bishop McKendrie dedicated the then unfinished structure. Of its history Mr. Finley wrote : "In process of time this house was finished and remained a place for divine worship for many years. Subsequently it was taken down and removed about one mile distant, where it was re-erected and continued as a temple of grace. That humble edifice remains to this day (1853) and its walls still echo the sound of thanksgiving and the voice of praise." CHAPTER XLVII CAPITAL OF THE STATE NINETEEN MONTHS COUNTY BUILT STRUCTURE FOR LEGISLATURE AND STATE OFFICIALS WHERE COURTHOUSE IS-STATE OCCUPIED IT, THEN "MOVED" TO CHILLICOTHE AGAIN-COLUMBUS FINALLY FAVORED BECAUSE OF ITS CENTRAL LOCATION- WHIPPING POST AND OLD LAWS. How long under ordinary circumstances the county would have put up with its 20 by 55 log courthouse and jail is a debatable question, but a decision to supplant that primitive structure with a brick and stone building came with a belief that Zanesville had a chance to wrest from Chillicothe the seat of state government and the activities of Putnam to secure that prize for itself spurred John McIntire and his associate town builders to action in behalf of Zanesville. The first step was the organization of a committee, headed by Mr. McIntire. This body petitioned the Legislature to remove the capital to Zanesville and promised to erect buildings suitable for occupancy by the Legislature and state office. M'INTIRE THE LEADER This drew legislative assurance that such action would give Zanesville the "temporary capital" and McIntire and his fellow-workers were encouraged to pursue the prize. They felt that if Zanesville provided acceptable quarters the capital would remain. But they knew, too, that temporary quarters of the dimensions required would cost considerable money and there was none in the treasury. It was determined to smooth the way for the county commissioners by subscribing a building fund and lending it to the county without charge for interest until completion of the work. The commissioners' journal of March 8, 1808, reports the agreement in the following words : "The commissioners having taken into consideration the proposals made by a number of the inhabitants of the Town of Zanes- - 409 - 410 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO ville for erecting a county house in, said town do agree and consent to the erection of the said building on the following conditions, viz. : The money which may be loaned the county by individuals for the aforesaid use shall not draw interest until the building is finished entirely. Also, that no money shall be drawn from the county treasury to go towards the payment of either principal or interest so loaned until all other demands which are against the county are discharged and also all ordinary expenses of said county which may accrue from time to time are paid." The journal further stated that within three months of the date of the contract for the erection of the building the sum of $1,000 must be paid to the undertakers and $1,100 quarterly "until $6,000 shall have been paid and the residue, if any, for the completion of said building, shall be paid within six months thereafter." LIST OF HONOR John McIntire, Jeffrey Price, William Raynolds, Robert Taylor, Joseph H. Munro, Wyllys Silliman, Daniel Conyers and Robert Fulton bound themselves and each of their heirs, executors and administrators unto Jacob Gomber, Daniel Stillwell and William Newell, commissioners, for the payment of the sum in question. Plans for the "County House" having been approved March 31, 1809, the next step was to get bids. In that day this was done by a "crier" and not by printing. Hence, on April 10, "Crier" William Raynolds proceeded to sell the contract at auction. The lowest bidders were Joseph F. Munro, Daniel Conyers, John Williamson and James Hampson. Interesting features of this transaction attach to specifications and the price bid. The former fixed the position of the proposed structure at forty feet from Main Street and in the center of the lot between Fourth Street and Court Alley. The work was to be completed on or before November 4, 1809. The contractors agreed to build it for $7,500. Note what they were required to do : ALL FOR $7,500 Foundation walls to be 36 inches thick and 18 inches of them under ground and 12 inches above ground, on this wall, three tiers SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 413 of cut stone work respectively 12, 11 and 10 inches thick and on this cut stone, brick walls, 31 feet high, lower story walls 22 inches thick and 18 feet high ; upper story walls 18 inches thick and 12 feet high, above the second floor joists. A line of cut stone was specified to divide the stories, "the building being patterned after Independence Hall, in Philadelphia." It was to be fifty feet square and each floor was to afford 2,500 square feet of floor space. This 50 by 50 "County House" would do for the two branches of the Legislature of that day but it left the state offices unprovided for. John McIntire and his associates did not flinch nor halt, not even when they knew that only the "temporary capital" was promised. The commissioners were petitioned to erect another structure "for the register and county clerk," but really for the use of the secretary of state and state treasurer. One who examined the records of these transactions wrote the following interesting comment : "The commissioners' journal makes no referebce to the proposed state house and no mention is made at any time, during the period Zanesville was state capital, of the presence of the Legislature or the use of the courthouse as a state house ; all the proceedings were had as if the structure was for county purposes only." PROMOTERS WERE GAME A picture of the first building would reveal a square "hall" in the center of the county lot. The extension on the left and the one on the right were added later. The citizens who launched and maintained the campaign for the construction of buildings suitable for state use, being men of sense and judgment, must have felt from the beginning that some spot nearer the state's center would secure the permanent capital, but they kept on loaning money to the county for state capital purposes. When the Legislature decided to plant the capital on the banks of the Scioto, "opposite the Town of Franklinton," these Zanesville hustlers knew their main proposition was lost. And still they turned not back. Doubtless their aim from the first was a double one. They knew the need for "county houses" and that it would be easier to get these for state purposes than for county uses. They aimed shrewdly, for while missing the permanent capital bullseye they 414 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO got a courthouse "patterned after Independence Hall" and spoken of by travelers of the day as the finest courthouse west of the mountains. On February 19, 1810, the general assembly passed a measure reading in part as follows: "Be it enacted that the seat of government be and the same is hereby fixed and shall remain at Zanesville until otherwise provided by law. This act shall take effect from and after the first day of October next." The Legislature granted Zanesville one day of promise and then ruthlessly defeated her ambitions. In an act passed February 20, 1810, it was decided that the general assembly elect five commissioners whose duty it should be to locate the permanent capital in a. place "not more than forty miles from what may be deemed the common center of the state, to be ascertained by Mansfield's map." The commissioners were directed to meet at Franklinton, Franklin County, September 1, 1810. Being miles away from the state's "common center" Zanesville's cause was of course hopeless. CHAPTER XLVIII McINTIRE'S DEATH GREATLY DEPLORED TOWN'S FOUNDER PASSED AWAY JULY 29, 1815, AGED FIFTY-SIX-ILLNESS BRIEF BUT DISTRESSING-LARGE CONCOURSE PAID TRIBUTE TO THE DEAD-ORDINARY BUSINESS SUSPENDED DURING FUNERAL -NEWSPAPER OF THE TIME DEPLORED LOSS. Considerable space was devoted to John McIntire and his affairs in the issue of the Zanesville Express, printed just after his death, which occurred July 29, 1815. Under date of August 8, the Express said : "Died in this town on Saturday, last, of a short but distressing illness, John McIntire, esquire, aged fifty-six years, having left an amiable consort and daughter to lament their sudden and irreparable loss. The community has been deprived of a valuable and enterprising member by this instance of mortality. "The decease of Mr. McIntire will be sensibly felt and deeply deplored by the inhabitants of Zanesville, of which town he was considered the father, and by his numerous friends and extensive acquaintances. At 5 o'clock the same day his funeral was attended with becoming solemnity ; a large concourse attended and performed the last sad duties to their deceased townsman ; the shops were shut and ordinary business suspended while the procession was repairing to the house of death. "MAY BLESS HIS NAME" "Mr. McIntire was born at Alexandria, Va. ; settled in Wheeling in the year 1779; opened the great road through this state in 1794 (1796) ; laid out Zanesville and settled here in the year 1800. Although it was then a howling wilderness he lived to see it the third town in the state in point of population and second to none for the number of its advantages. "He was a member of the convention which formed the constitution of Ohio. In politics he was a disciple of Washington and - 415 - 27—Vol. 1 416 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO the undeviating friend of his country. He was punctual to his engagements and honorable in his transactions with his fellow man. A considerable portion of his affluent fortune was employed in promoting objects of great public utility. In the Canal and Manufacturing Company, he took a large interest; over which institution he presided. We are happy to learn that he has so arranged matters in his last will that these objects of public concern will not be retarded by his decease. He has also contingently provided for the support of free schools for poor children in the Town of Zanesville so that future generations may have occasion to bless the name of McIntire." GODDARD'S PRAISE Daniel Conyers Goddard's tribute to John McIntire's memory, delivered at McIntire Academy, October 15, 1846, was in these words: "Mr. McIntire was about five feet, ten inches high; when young of a fine form, but late in life too corpulent. His complexion was fair, eyes light blue, his hair light and inclined to curl; it became considerably gray before his death. He wore it short, leaving, however, a few locks at the back of his neck. He was erect and always retained the step of a backwoodsman, light but prompt and decided. An accident shattered his right hand which disabled him from labor. He could write but held his pen in a peculiar way. "He was esteemed for his sense and sound judgment. No more honest man ever lived. His friendships were warm as, it must be admitted, were his enmities. In his own house his personal demeanor had a dignity exceedingly striking. In the political divisions of that day he was a Federalist and never acknowledged any other party name. The only office he ever held, if office it may be called, was that of a member of the convention which formed the constitution of Ohio. This was conferred upon him by the unsought suffrages of the people." PLANS WELL LAID On October 5, 1815, Daniel Conyers, Alexander Adair and Ebenezer Granger issued a notice reading in part as follows: SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 417 "The undersigned, executors of the last will and testament of John McIntire, deceased, in pursuance of said will, offer for sale all the real estate of the said John McIntire, deceased, except what is included in the original grant of one mile to Ebenezer Zane." The notice does not describe the properties proposed to be sold but it will be remembered that after McIntire laid Zanesville out he purchased land located east of Seventh Street, south of South Street and on the west side of the river. The notice gave evidence that Mr. McIntire's executors were preparing to carry out his plans for development. John McIntire and Jonathan Zane divided the remainder of the original 640 acres, the former securing twenty-two acres south of Center (Elberon) Street and west of Seventh Street and 246 acres on the west side of the river, east of Blue Avenue, south of Adair Avenue and north and west of the river. Afterwards he acquired the land between the river and South Street and bought other lands located east of Seventh Street. CHAPTER XLIX SUNDAY SCHOOLS START IN YEAR 1816 READING AND SPELLING TAUGHT, AS WELL AS MORALS AND RELIGION -ST. JAMES' NUCLEUS FORMED, 1816; LUTHERAN AND ST. THOMAS', 1818; FIRST BAPTIST, 1821-NUMBERS SMALL IN EACH CASE, BUT ZEAL WAS NOT LACKING. It has been claimed on what appears to be good evidence, that Zanesville was the first Ohio town to organize a fully officered Sunday School, one having a president, secretary and treasurer. There has been some local contention as to whether Zanesville or Putnam won that honor. It appears that in each village organization was effected in 1816. The Putnam originator was Mr. Harry Safford, a very active and energetic man in the promotion of religious progress. ON BROAD LINES A very enlightening story of the Zanesville Sunday School has come down to us from one of the ladies who helped to make it succeed. According thereto its originators were Nathan C. Findlay and Joseph Church, Presbyterians; Thomas Moorehead, a Methodist, and Jeremiah Dare, a Baptist. A lower room in the 1809 courthouse was the meeting place and children of all denominations were welcomed. During the week the men went among the families to secure additional attendants. The following extract from the account referred to shows that there was a call for action on the part of Messrs. Findlay, Moorehead, Church and Dare : "These gentlemen wished to supply a want greatly felt by parents and guardians who had not the means to send their children to a week-day school, as education in those days was very expensive. Children could not attend school for less than $10 to $12 a year and in families of several children even the most prosperous felt it quite a burden. - 419 - 420 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO TAUGHT READING AND SPELLING "Consequently most of the poorer classes were growing up in ignorance, as no such thing as a free school had an existence. At first there were but thirty or thirty-five scholars. It seemed a thankless task at first, the better class of people taking no interest, and the poorer ones unwilling because it seemed to them like accepting charity. "The older scholars were taught entirely from the Bible, but cards were used for the younger ones with very easy lessons in spelling and reading. There was great opposition at first, Rev. James Culbertson and others declaring it a desecration of the Sabbath." But the founders of the school "carried on." They were determined to afford all the children of Zanesville an opportunity to learn the rudiments and to see the sin of hunting, fishing and nutting on Sunday. The latter part was no easy task. The young folks were not speedily turned from the habits they had formed. One difficulty had to do with clothes. Many children were unfit to be seen in a Sunday School. But the founders rose to the occasion by furnishing at their own cost decent clothing for the half naked. One result was that many children of the day secured at that Sunday School all the education they ever received. Another result was that the doubters saw the light and opposition died down. Rev. James Culbertson himself had "come around" by March of the year 1817, and he was made chairman of the meeting to organize. He appointed ten ladies to visit every home in Zanesville and urge parents to send their children to school. Sarah Van Horne and Rosanna Perry were made directors; Mary Burnham, secretary; Rebecca Perry, treasurer; Jane Kelly, Emily Cummins, Patience Van Horne and Harriet Conyers, managers. There were in Ohio at the time, but few Sunday Schools of any kind, and none completely officered. The ladies named concluded the school for two years or more in the courthouse. At the end of that time removal was made to that Presbyterian Church which was located on the hill at the northeast corner of Fourth and South streets. "The Sunday School classes were formed in the old school room in the courthouse," says our historian, "and with the teachers at the head of SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 421 their classes, marched down Fourth Street to the new Presbyterian Church and occupied seats in the gallery." ENTER THE ST. JAMES The Episcopalians followed local Presbyterians and Methodists in organizing for religious service. It has been said that not more than one Ohio parish is older than St. James, whose beginning was on October 17, 1816, at a meeting held in the Senate chamber of the courthouse. Dr. Horace Reed was chairman and John Gordon, secretary. A resolution to form an organization and to call it the St. James was adopted. Officers were chosen as follows : Dr. Horace Reed and Seth Adams, wardens; Jeffrey Price, Moses Moorehead, E. B. Mervin and Dr. Calvin Conant, vestrymen; Alexander Harper, treasurer; Dr. Samuel Burnham, lay reader. Rev. Joseph Doddridge was chosen pastor and the first service was conducted in the Senate chamber. But for some time after June, 1817, the congregation met in the Methodist Church. Twenty-five persons composed the first class to be confirmed and Bishop Chase administered the rite, May 23, 1819, in the Presbyterian Church. ST. THOMAS CAME NEXT Local Roman Catholic religious development began in 1818, when John S. Dugan, his wife and child, his brother Peter, and widowed sister, Mrs. Harkins, who had arrived in Zanesville with her nine children, attended Roman Catholic services in a frame building located at the southwest corner of Market and Fifth streets. The Dugan family had settled in Zanesville in 1817. Its head owned the tavern at the corner of Main and Fifth streets, and in 1819 services were held there, the first priest to officiate being Father Young of Somerset, Perry County. In the same year there were services in the Burnham Hotel, Putnam. During one of Father Young's semi-annual visits he and Dugan examined a brick warehouse, 20 by 50 feet in size, occupying the northeast corner of Fifth Street and Locust Alley. The latter bought it at a cost of $2,000, in November, 1820, and when Father Young reached Zanesville a few months later he dedicated the structure. It was called "Trinity" Church; also, the "Brick 422 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO Chapel." To this Father Young came twice a month until 1823, when Father Stephen H. Montgomery became the first fixed pastor. In 1826 a new church was dedicated. It stood at the corner of North Fifth Street and Spruce Alley. TWO LUTHERAN CHURCHES It is said that "early in the last century" the German Evangelical Lutherans of the community met at private houses for religious services, which were called "cottage meetings." Itinerant ministers conducted occasional worship until 1818, when a small frame church was built at the southwest corner of Seventh and South streets. St. John's English Evangelical Lutheran Church had its inception in 1820, when Rev. Kaemmerer was pastor of a congregation which met at Seventh and South streets. THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH George C. Sedgwick has been given credit for starting the First Baptist Church upon its useful career. Leaving his Winchester, Va., home in the fall of 1820, on a trip to the West, he had stopped at Zanesville and found here one Baptist. He had continued westward to Indiana and Kentucky, but Zanesville had remained constantly in his mind and he came back to it in 1821 and held services in private houses and in the courthouse. In February of that year he baptized three men ; in June he became pastor of the church which he had organized ; in August there were thirty-seven baptisms and four admissions by letter; within a year the membership mounted to eighty-three; by 1825 the total was 104. Meanwhile in 1823, a church home, 40 by 60 feet, had been completed and dedicated on Sixth Street, near South. Later Baptist activities remain to be recorded. CHAPTER L GROUND BROKEN FOR OHIO CANAL WORK BEGAN AT LICKING SUMMIT-ZANESVILLE ARTILLERY WON HONORS-EBENEZER BUCKINGHAM A LEADING FIGURE-CITY ON THE CANAL MAP AND DEEPLY INTERESTED-MUSKINGUM RIVER IMPROVEMENT. In an issue of 1816 or 1817 the Zanesville Express gave editorial expression to the hope that Zanesville's chances for water connection with Lake Erie might be realized without the intervention of long-drawn-out delay. This probably voiced the general local hope of the day. Doubtless all of Zanesville's forward-looking men were watching the progress of canal sentiment and calculating the chances the town would have to profit by an Ohio canal. The canal question had been submitted to the Legislature in December, 1816, by Governor Worthington. His special message was accompanied by a statement in behalf of interior water lines written by Gov. De Witt Clinton of New York. PROPOSE CANAL 339 MILES LONG Agitation bore fruit in 1820 when three commissioners were directed to locate a route for a canal to connect Lake Erie with the Ohio River. The commissioners' report was received in December, 1822, and on January 27, 1823, the Legislature authorized the taking of steps to secure grants and donations. Estimates were submitted during the next winter. In these it was shown that the Muskingum-Scioto route, via Killbuck and Black rivers, including Cleveland, Columbus and Raccoon feeders, with an ascending lockage from the mouth of the Scioto to a summit level of 580.36 feet and descending lockage to Lake Erie of 488.97 feet, would cost $3,061,368.47, the total length of the route being 339 miles. The second route on which estimates were submitted was by - 423 - 424 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO way of the Cuyahoga, Chippewa and Killbuck rivers; ascending lockage from the Scioto, 638.42 feet, descending to Lake Erie, 547.03 feet; aggregate length, 338.57 miles; cost $3,131,429.02. The Cuyahoga-Tuscarawas route had a length of 322.13 miles and was estimated to cost $2,801,709.85. The Miami-Maumee route : from Cincinnati to Lorimies, 511.4 feet ascending; then descending to the foot of the Maumee rapids, 373 feet; length 290.62 miles; cost, including feeders, $2,929,957. In February, 1825, the commissioners were authorized to make a navigable canal on the Muskingum-Scioto route, via Licking Summit. OHIO FORGING AHEAD Ground was broken at Licking Summit, very appropriately on the Fourth of July, 1825. It was a memorable event in the history of Ohio. The state's growth had been. extraordinary. This increase was in spite of the most primitive modes of communication. Communities living on the larger water courses were able at favorable seasons of the year to market their products by use of water craft, but there were times when that was impossible. The Muskingum, for instance, was called a navigable river in early days, but during even the spring, summer and fall there were periods each year when the water was too high or too low to make the word "navigable" a true one. We know that salt was shipped on the Muskingum from the Chandlersville wells before the close of the eighteenth century. We have found that John McIntire brought his household goods to Zanesville (1799) in a flatboat and shipped sawed lumber to this point from Beverly and Waterford a little later. Primitive traffic on the Muskingum increased steadily year by year. In an earlier chapter it 'was shown that even Muskingum County coal had begun to move to the markets, a flatboat load having in 1816 been loaded at Duncan Falls and conveyed down the Muskingum and the Ohio to Cincinnati. Great advantage did the settlers, upon and near the Muskingum, have over their fellow Buckeyes whose farms and shops were at inland points, but the recognition of this did not cause. Zanesville to be indifferent toward the movement in favor of the proposed 'Lake Erie-Ohio River canal ; it only keyed up her citizens to desire an extension of the town's shipping advantages. SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 427 VERY BAD ROADS There were especial reasons for wishing such an extension northward, where the mighty expanse of Lake Erie lay and at the eastern end of which was the water connection with New York City via the Erie Canal. We have shown in an earlier chapter what a point was made of this connection by Zanesville forwarders and merchants when it materialized. It was the state of the roads which was holding back Ohio development at the time here under discussion. Books could be written about the difficulties of vehicular transportation in early days and these difficulties did a great deal to create public sentiment in favor of canals. A graphic account of the condition of the roads is here quoted. It was printed in the Zanesville Express of November 30, 1814 : "By the frequency of rain and almost continued passing of wagons, carriages and horses, we often became very miry. Here, a horse, after having plunged from deep to deep, becomes exhausted and expires ; there, snap goes an axle or a wheel ; here, a whole team gets stalled—cut and slash goes the whip, but all in vain, the driver is obliged to unharness from the mud his wagon and load piecemeal; while there, a coach full of Kentucky nabobs —nabobesses--wenches and children and the whole, higgledy piggledy, tumble into the dirt." These conditions continued for years later. One Isaac Appleton, a traveler from New England, made a trip from Zanesville to Columbus before the National road had been completed to the capital. His description of the trip proves that bad roads were not the only evils in the stage journeys of the time : "From Zanesville to Columbus-58 miles," he says, "we saw the wilderness in all its gloominess and experienced self-constructed roads in all their terror. We felt as if carried back to the times of the first settlers. Our vehicle, which in the dialect of the country was called a 'Spanker,' was intended to carry four passengers and on this occasion was drawn by four strong horses at the rate of two miles an hour.. TOLD OF "HOWLING WOLVES" "What with the recollections of the preceding day, the fearful anticipations of the future ; the wintry winds driving through 428 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO the stage; the warnings of the driver to be prepared for any and every hazard; the confessions of a timid traveler, of horses frightened by the howling of wolves, of, stages overturned, of bones dislocated, and lives in jeopardy—all of which he had heard of, and some of which he had seen; what with traveling the livelong night and arriving in Columbus just before break of day and there finding four of the hotels at which we applied not only full but crowded, so that admittance for repose was out of the question." It is to be remembered that Ohio agriculture had made great progress. Fertile Buckeye soil was producing bounteous crops. Farmers needed transportation which would carry their surplus to the centers of population and to less productive sections. Isaac Zane, who has been referred to as builder of the mouth-of-the Licking dam in 1810, owned a farm which in a decade or less had been energetically developed. Note what he said about it in the Express of August 11, 1813 : "For Sale—The farm whereon the subscriber lives, adjoining the towns of Zanesville and Springfield (Putnam), containing 300 acres of land, 100 of which is cleared and under fence. There is on the premises a good dwelling house, barn and other convenient out-houses. There are 250 bearing apple trees; 25 acres of good timothy meadow and the whole is in complete tenement repair.— ISAAC ZANE." BREAKING GROUND The celebration held at Licking Summit on July 4, 1825, was a memorable and prophetic event in Zanesville eyes. The breaking of ground for the new canal on that day was the final step of preliminaries which had indicated choice of the Muskingum route. That Zanesville soon was to be on a water course connecting Lake Erie with the Ohio no longer could be doubted. In addition to the many Zanesville individuals in attendance that day at the Summit there was at least one organization—The Zanesville Artillery, a company which had been organized here during the War of 1812. This organization was given the honor of leading the procession which escorted Governors De Witt Clinton and Jeremiah Morrow, of New York and Ohio, respectively, from Newark to the Summit. On arrival at the latter point, there were suitable ceremonies, including the breaking of the ground. SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 429 Governors Clinton and Morrow and our own Ebenezer Buckingham, one of the canal commissioners and who had been a powerful friend of the movement in the Legislature and out of it, each placed a shovelful of earth in a wheelbarrow and thus the canal was begun. A competitive military drill was on the program and the Zanesville company won the honors. The reader who is interested in the story of Muskingum River improvement, which was carried on by the state in the late '30s and early '40s, and of the general government's part in continuing the same forty years or so later, will find the subject fully treated in the chapters on "The Muskingum River" which are a feature of the general history by which this work is introduced. CHAPTER LI CITY'S FIRST FREE SCHOOL IN 1836 McINTIRE ACADEMY GREAT BOON IN A PERIOD OF HARD TIMES—PAY SCHOOL ON MARKET STREET, FOURTEEN YEARS EARLIER—STOOD ON McINTIRE LAND AND MASONS HELPED TO BUILD IT. An important event in the history of Zanesville occurred in April, 1836, when the school building which had been erected with funds from the John McIntire estate (called the McIntire Academy and located at the northeast corner of North and Fifth streets) was opened for the instruction of eligible children. Tradition indicates that his lack of schooling was the abiding regret of John McIntire's life, and one of the provisions of his will appears to support the tradition. This instrument provided suitably for his widow and left the remainder of his estate to his daughter, Amelia. In case of Amelia's death without an heir "all the profits, rents and issues" of his estate were annually to be appropriated forever thereafter "for the use and support of a poor school" in the town of Zanesville. Fate decreed that Amelia should die at an early age. She passed away in 1820 ; and after a long while the "rents, issues and profits" of the estate began to function. PRIMITIVE, BUT PRICELESS At this distance it seems a very long while. In the meantime schools were started in Zanesville (the first one in 1800) but no free ones. The children of the poor remained untaught. The state itself took no effective step toward free schools until 1839. Ohio schoolhouses of McIntire's day were of logs; often without windows, but receiving light through oiled paper placed over the spaces between the logs; provided with rude benches made of slabs and supported by legs sunk into the ground, the ground forming the floor. Strikingly primitive though these surroundings were in every way, they made it possible in part to satisfy - 431 - 28—Vol. 1 432 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO "The wish to know—that endless thirst Which even by quenching is awaked." and John McIntire may have looked upon the privileges they offered as priceless. The first practical educational application of the "issue" of his estate was not taken until the McIntire building was erected. Here the children of Zanesville's poor were taught, by a principal and two assistants,\ in all the branches from Latin and Greek to the three R's. In 1842, to anticipate, a year of hard poverty, the city Board of Education was forced to charge $1.25 to $1.50 a quarter for the tuition of each pupil not entitled to enter the McIntire School. ESTATE WORTH $200,000 In 1846, to indicate again the conditions of the times, Uriah Parke, editor of The Courier, threw a searchlight on the value of that "poor" school fund when he wrote that the "immense McIntire estate, worth $200,000," was securing the treasures of education "without money and without price" to those who could not pay for them while the children of "wealthy" parents were paying 50 cents and 75 cents a quarter for an education. John M. Howe, who had previously been at the head of a private school at North and Seventh streets, became the first principal of the McIntire Academy. A. E. Howe, George Miller and at a later date, Thomas H. Patrick, were his assistants. Before McIntire money had provided free schools for the "poor children" of Zanesville, Zane-trace land had become the site of a school building in which pupils were children of the rich and well-to-do. Instruction therein given enlarged Zanesville's educational opportunities but this was not free. Reference is made to the Zanesville Academy. When the town was platted McIntire and Zane set aside for educational purposes the west half of two lots at the northeast corner of Market Street and Potter Alley and three years after McIntire's death, in 1818, Zane deeded these lots to Daniel Convers and others, for school purposes. Convers and thirty others formed an organization whose shares, limited to fifty-three, were $25 each. All were taken and the fund went into what was long familiar as the Market Street SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 433 Academy, which was located on Market Street, immediately west of the old Masonic hall, which was at the corner of Market and Fourth streets. THE MASONS HELPED The association and Amity Lodge of Freemasons entered into an arrangement whereby the latter obtained use of the third story of the academy for lodge purposes, in consideration of the payment by the lodge of one-third of the cost of the structure. Each stockholder was entitled to secure schooling for one pupil for each share of stock. Instruction began in February, 1822. The building became city property in 1858 and was a school building until about 1885. The story of the usefulness of the McIntire Academy; of the aid given to the common schools in later years by McIntire funds and of the subsequent erection of the McIntire Children's Home, is one of rich interest. But as the first effective steps in the direction of local public schools were taken soon after the beginning of the McIntire free school, it is well to describe them briefly in this present connection. On February 13, 1839, a law went into effect for the "Support and Better Regulation of the Schools of Zanesville," which provided for the election of school directors. The election was held on April 1, 1839. The members chosen organized and opened schools at Market and Fifth streets; on Fifth, between Main and South streets; on Sixth, near Marietta Street; in the old Second Street Methodist Church; on the first and second floors of the Market Street Academy; in the basement of the Market Street Baptist Church; in the Harris School room, Third Street. Several of these rented quarters were vacated when the town's first schoolhouse was erected on the hill at the head of Main Street. It was long known as the old Hill High School. Its cost was $3,750. The opening occurred November 6, 1840. In September of the following year the Howe "Seminary" building at North and Seventh streets was purchased and on April 1, 1842, it was occupied. From that event Zanesville's graded schools date. CHAPTER LII ZANESVILLE AND CAMBRIDGE HAD A BIG CELEBRATION GUERNSEY TOWN THE HOST WHEN C. & O.'S FIRST TRAIN ROLLED IN- LOCOMOTIVE PATASKALA BROUGHT FROM CLEVELAND TO ZANESVILLE BY WATER. The Central Ohio Railroad was incorporated by special act of the General Assembly on February 8, 1847, to which amendments were made on March 8, 1849, and March 20, 1851. Of the twenty-five incorporators the following were residents of Muskingum County: James Raguet, Robert Mitchell, Daniel Brush, John Hamm, Solomon Sturges, Richard Stillwell, Daniel Conyers, Levi Claypool and Solomon Woods. The act authorized the building of a single- or double-track road from the Ohio River to Columbus through Zanesville and Newark and its extension to the Indiana line. Work began at Newark and the line was opened to Zanesville January 26, 1852 ; to Columbus, January 8, 1853 ; to Cambridge, April 27, 1854. The last event was a climax of good fortune so signal that Zanesville celebrated it with vigorous enthusiasm. Early in the morning of that promising day Zanesville throngs gathered at the C. & 0. Station, where the Zanesville Guards and the Warren Greens were centers of attraction and where strains from a band of music added to the pleasure of the occasion. CAMBRIDGE WELCOMED ZANESVILLE At 8:30 A. M. these and a crowd of citizens boarded a train and proceeded to Cambridge, the train being in charge of Conductor Frank J. Terry. So many Guernseyites were on hand when Cambridge was reached that the military found scant room in which to form for the march to the Court House. At the latter place optimistic and congratulatory addresses were delivered, whereupon came ministration to the inner man in - 435 - 436 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO the form of "an old-time public dinner" at which the visitors from Muskingum were the guests of honor. The road to Cambridge was not formally opened for business until June 7, 1854, and it was November 1 of that year when the company operated its first train between Columbus and Bellaire. The enthusiasm aroused in Zanesville when Central Ohio rails connected the town with Cambridge was supplementary to that which had been evoked two years before, on the day the Pataskala engine arrived by water from Cleveland and was placed on the tracks at Zanesville. An account of the trip follows. It was given by Captain L. F. Quigley in 1893 during which year the Pataskala was on exhibition at the World's Fair in Chicago. Quigley was one of the crew which brought the locomotive to Zanesville The engine's first appearance in Ohio was at Cleveland. Authorities differ as to its origin, some claiming that it was made in England and shipped to Cleveland. CAPTAIN HENRY HARRIER The engine was loaded at Cleveland on a flat boat commanded by Henry Harrier, a citizen of Muskingum County at the time, but who later removed to Nebraska. Captain Quigley, a man named Sullivan and another, Wilkins, assisted Harrier to escort the mechanism to Zanesville. The Pataskala had been left on a bank several feet higher than the flat-boat floor it was to rest upon. It weighed 3,500 pounds and no little difficulty was found in lowering it to the chosen spot. The trip southward was made at the rate of 18 miles a day. The creeping progress offered little in way of thrills, but the natives along the route took great interest. From all the towns they rushed to the banks of the canal to see what kind of an iron horse the flesh and blood mules were pulling in. At some points the crowds became embarrassing, even dangerous, for they would overload the boat and threaten to sink it, in their desire to see the engine, whereupon it became necessary to bring about disembarkation by force. The engine excited the greatest wonderment among the people, who had never seen the like and to whom the machine was awe-inspiring. Among the towns halted at were Akron, Canal Dover, New SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 437 Philadelphia, Zoar, New Comerstown, Tuscarawas and Coshocton. At the end of three weeks or a little more Captain Harrier tied up at Dresden, where he was met by the mayor of Zanesville, some councilmen and other "distinguished citizens." ON THE HOME STRETCH Saying good-by to the canal, the good ship was run out into the Blue Muskingum (it probably was blue in those days) and the journey to Zanesville began. The town knew what was coming, for members of the reception committee, leaving the main party at Dresden, traveling at greater speed and bearing parts of the Pataskala to prove that their tale was truthful, had reached Zanesville and passed the news around. The historian of the occasion declared that when Commodore Harrier's freighter pulled in "the banks of the river were literally black with a, surging mass of people." Little time was lost. Nine yoke of oxen were used to move the Pataskala to the railroad tracks. "It would be difficult to describe the scene along the route," said Captain Quigley. "The people seemed to go wild. Banners, hats and handkerchiefs were thrown to the breeze and people yelled themselves hoarse. After the engine had been safely placed on the rails speeches were made by some of the distinguished citizens and a royal time was had generally." The engine was started up and it hauled the construction train to Black Hand. Afterwards it was a motive power for Central Ohio passenger trains. THE C. W. & Z. RAILWAY J. Hope Sutor, who was an authority on local railroads, is on record as stating that the Cincinnati, Wilmington & Zanesville Railroad Company was chartered February 4, 1851, and built between Morrow and Zanesville ; the stock subscriptions and proceeds of the sale of first, second and third mortgage bonds were expended in construction;' a receiver was appointed March 3, 1857, a plan of reorganization worked out and a sale made August 27, 1863, to Charles Moran, as trustee; Moran transferred the property to the Zanesville Railroad Company in 1864 ; Thomas L. Jewett bought the road in 1869 for $1,400,000, and operated it until 1870, when the Cincinnati & Muskingum Valley Railway 438 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO Company took possession; it was leased to the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railroad Company for ninety-nine years and sold to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and reorganized by the purchasers in 1898 as the Cincinnati & Muskingum Valley Railroad Company. The Trinway extension was completed in 1870. CHAPTER LIII QUICK RESPONSE TO PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S CALL FOR TROOPS JOHN C. HAZLETT RECRUITED ONE OF OHIO'S FIRST CIVIL WAR COMPANIES- THREE OF ITS MEN FELL IN THE BATTLE OF VIENNA-GALLANT DAVID MERCER SANG "THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER" WITH HIS LAST BREATH-SAD NEWS EARLY FROM THE FRONT. The mighty mother turns in tears The pages of her battle years, Lamenting all her fallen sons. The call for 75,000 volunteer soldiers issued by President Lincoln aroused immediate and adequate response in Ohio. The State was ready to disregard mere party considerations and throw its forces into the scale for the preservation of the Union. The President's call flashed over the wires on the night of Sunday, April 14, 1861. Very promptly the State Senate appropriated a million dollars to back up the general Government's determination to resist secession. Other war measures followed in both Senate and House. Then, when it was plain that far more patriots would volunteer than the State's quota called for, the Legislature provided that the surplus should be retained for state purposes. Party lines disappeared. Columbus went wild over the call for troops and Ohio's answer. OHIO ABLAZE Meanwhile, the answer was in evidence. Out in the state men were enlisting, companies were forming and the trains were carrying to the Capital quotas of eager young men. Soon enough companies for two regiments had arrived. The authorities did not hold them for arms and equipment. Responding to Washing- - 439 - 440 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO ton's call for haste they put the First and Second Ohio regiments aboard trains headed Eastward. At Zanesville, by Monday night, John C. Hazlett, County Prosecutor, had answered Mr. Lincoln's message with the utmost energy and speed. The call had scarcely left the wires before that brilliant young lawyer took up the work of raising a company of volunteers and by Monday night almost enough men of like fervor were on the roll to fill the quota. He reported with it at Columbus where his volunteers became Company H in Colonel Alex M. McCook's First Ohio Infantry. On Thursday this regiment was on its way to Washington. Company H took part in General Schenk's reconnaissance by rail at Vienna and later was in the first battle of Bull Run. Captain Hazlett returned to Zanesville in August, was mustered out with other three-months men and quickly took up the work of recruiting a company for "three years or the war." This became a part of the Second Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The regiment saw severe service, in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama, fighting in the battles of Perrysville and Stone River. A wound was received by Captain Hazlett on the latter field which resulted in his death, June 7, 1863. Public recognition of young Hazlett's standing as a man and lawyer had come three times in five years. In 1855, 1857, and 1859 he was elected prosecuting attorney of the county. SAD NEWS FROM THE FRONT In less than a month after Hazlett and his men left for the front the tragedy of war was brought home to our people, preparing them to believe that it was the terror which General Sherman later officially announced it to be. The preparation was given when the following story of the engagement fought at Vienna, Va., appeared in a Zanesville newspaper of June 21: "The excitement in our city last evening was pretty high, owing to the melancholy news of the engagement of the First Ohio Regiment at Vienna, Fairfax County, Va., probably about twelve miles from Washington. The following are the dead of our Zanesville boys as we learned from a special dispatch from Washington, late last night: William David Mercer, George Morrison, and Henry Pigmen." Dr. John G. F. Holston ("J. G. F. No. 1"), who was then in SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 441 the government service and stationed at Washington, wired news of David Mercer's death to the soldier's father, who resided in Wayne Township. A little later came the publication of a letter from Captain John C. Hazlett, in whose company the three deceased soldiers had been members. Thus the captain wrote : "Poor David Mercer. No man ever lived more brave, more generous, more devoted to his friends and his flag. His right arm was shot off about half way between the elbow and the shoulder. "He came to me in the woods immediately back of the firing and while he held his musket and his right arm in his left hand he begged me to cut it off as it was so heavy he could not carry his musket; and when loss of blood forced him to drop his gun he asked me for a revolver to continue the fight. "Just before his death someone spoke of his dying in defense of the old flag, when he faintly attempted to sing 'The Star Spangled Banner.' One line was almost completed when his brave soul went to its God." David Mercer was but tenty-two years old on that day. He had been a blacksmith, work g before the war at Palmer's Shop at Eighth and South streets. He had a great many friends. CHAPTER LIV SPECTACULAR WORK OF MORGAN RAIDERS AT EAGLEPORT ALMOST BOTTLED UP AFTER CROSSING RIVER BUT THEY WRIGGLED OUT AND RODE AWAY-GALLOPED THROUGH MEIGS TOWNSHIP WITH 300 MEN-"BILLY" DUNLAP SURRENDERED HIS HORSE BUT HELD FAST TO HIS HAT. Some years ago, Judge Louis J. Weber, of Zanesville, wrote an account of the Moran raid which afterwards was printed in the Ohio Archeological and Historical Society's publications. It is of special value becau e of its description of the arrival of the invaders at Eagleport, of their success in crossing the river there and the fight which followed. Judge Weber was a boy of six years at the time and lived at the Weber family home near Eagleport. Judge Weber's story begins with Morgan's departure from the Confederate lines and ends with his death in east Tennessee a year after his escape from prison at Columbus. Morgan came out of his defeat at Buffington Island, on the Ohio River near Pomeroy, with 900 men. Eluding his pursuers he made for McArthur. Thence began his clash for the Muskingum, but with General Runkel's Union forces to block his way it was necessary to gallop eastward toward Blennerhassett Island. When night came he appeared to be totally surrounded by his foes. Once more, however, he escaped through their lines, passing through Athens and Eastern Hocking, and galloping northward. The invaders entered Morgan County at Porterville on the afternoon of July 22. Night found them on the Deacon Wright farm at the headwaters of Island Run. There, but six miles from the river, they camped for the night. Next morning they rode away toward Eagleport. Judge Weber tells the thrilling story: "Although not six years old, the writer well remembers the bright sunny morning of July 23, 1863. I had not been long out - 443 - 444 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO of bed at my home at Rokeby Lock when upon looking across the river just below the dam I beheld a sight never to be forgotten. SAW GLEAMING STEEL "My childish mind was filled with awe, mingled with fear and admiration. Morgan's cavalry was approaching, as it seemed to me, in solid phalanx, while their polished sabers glistened in the morning sun. Thiswas war. Rumors had reached us the day before that Morgan was near and would in all probability cross at this point. * * * "Eight children of whom I was the youngest, and our mother constituted our family at that time, our father having a few days before responded as a militiaman to the call of Governor Tod and was then at Marietta. Nearly all able bodied men were either at the front or in the militia." The Weber homestead was on a high bluff at the east side of the Eagleport Ford and from that coign of vantage young Weber watched Morgan's men. He saw a few of the farmers open fire as the invaders rode into the river and watched those neighbors precipitately seek shelter when the invaders returned the fire. Morgan did not depend solely upon the ford below the dam but sent some of his troopers to the ferry above the dam, near the old Devoll Store. BATTLE ON THE EAST SIDE The ferry, conducted by Hiram Winchel, was worked hard that forenoon, but could not transport the raiders to the eastern shore of the river as fast as they wanted to go, so Dalphin Devoll was pressed into service with his skiff. Robert Silvey, afterwards a resident of Zanesville, conducted the "upper store" at Eagle-port and he likewise was pressed into the service as ferryman and performed arduous labor on the river that morning. Morgan lost an hour and a half or two hours after landing his command on the east bank of the Muskingum. He started up the river toward Gaysport. Seeing the steamer Dime coming down stream from. Zanesville, loaded with soldiers (a portion of the Eighty-sixth Regiment, under the command of R. W. McFarland) Morgan returned to Rokeby and left the river by the road leading eastward. The Union troops were landed about two and SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 445 one-half miles above Rokeby and sent up a steep hill on the Eli Barr farm. SEEMED TO BE BOTTLED UP "Here," says Judge Weber, "the opposing forces unexpectedly met. Morgan not knowing the enemy's strength, avoided an engagement and wheeled square to the right for the McElhiney hollow. Here was McFarland's opportunity * * * He failed to seize it. Morgan could easily have been captured in that hollow. In fact Mc gan wanted to quit then and there as reported, but declared that he could find no one worthy to accept his sword * * * A company of fifty men, it seems to me, could have shot or captured every man of them (the raiders) as they attempted to emerge from that ravine." Morgan did emerge from that hollow. He marched northeastwardly, leaving Rural Dale on his left, but passing through Museville and High Hill. He sought to reach the Ohio in the Wellsville neighborhood and he came to final grief, near Saline-\Tulle, surrendering to Major Rue of the Ninth Kentucky Cavalry. The movements of Morgan after the Rokeby fight have been well described by William Ewing, a resident of the section into which the raiders dashed. "Thursday morning, July 23, 1863," wrote Mr. Ewing, "the sun rose clear and bright, shedding his beneficent rays on the citizens of Meigs Township, who went as usual to their daily and peaceful occupations. * * * FARMERS HEARD THE GUNS "But ere the sun had reached his meridian height the quiet and peace of the neighborhood were disturbed by the roar of cannon at Eagleport. They (Meigs folk) were not long in suspense. A cloud of dust was seen ascending from the highway and runners announced that Morgan's cavalry was in our midst. "Morgan, with his 300 men (which rumor magnified to 1,000) came from the southwest. They met old 'Billy' Dunlap and demanded his horse, which he quietly gave up, taking off the saddle, when they informed him that he must leave the saddle on the horse. But when one of the bareheaded cavalrymen demanded his hat Dunlap replied, 'I'll be d—d if I give you that,' and he did not. 446 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO "The band reached Zeno at about 2 P. M. They raided .the village for food for themselves and feed for their horses and took all the horses they could get. "Having taken a horse from C. Fuller, they next repaired to the stable of Russell Bethel, then in the Union army, with the intention of capturing a very fine horse belonging to that gentleman. Russell's mother placed herself in the stable door and barred the passage. They could not get the horse without passing over her. So the horse was saved by the intrepid woman. ZANESVILLE MEN CAPTURED "Morgan had taken a number of prisoners on his way west of the river. Among them was Col. Z. M. Chandler, Reverend Maccabee and Judge Ezra Evans, of Zanesville. These gentlemen had gone out into Perry County to look after Morgan, but it seems he looked after them. A mile west of Zeno, they were paroled and permitted to return home." Mr. Ewing names thirteen Meigs Township farmers as having parted with their horses to Morgan and implies the loss of many more. Six of the raiders took so kindly to the company of a Rich Hill farmer and liked his refreshments so well that they let their gallant comrades ride away without them. They even went with their. host to his home and there remained until they had sobered up. Then the Union soldiers took them in hand and before long the captives were guests at Camp Chase. After leaving Zeno, Morgan marched eastward. His pursuers believed the recrossing of the Ohio would be attempted at Wellsville and dispositions were made accordingly. On the 25th there was a battle at Salineville which was very disastrous to the harassed Confederates. The next afternoon northern troops under the command of Major Rue, of the Ninth Kentucky Cavalry finished the job. They captured Morgan and his troops. The latter numbered 336 and there were 400 horses. This event took place seven miles south of New Lisbon, Ohio. CHAPTER LV ZANESVILLE WENT WILD WITH JOY WHEN LEE SURRENDERED BUT BELLS WERE TOLLING FOR LINCOLN NOT LONG AFTER—GREAT THRONG ATTENDED MEMORIAL SERVICE—COUNTY'S PATRIOTISM PROVED—LOST 600 OF HER SONS. Lee surrendered to Grant on April 9, 1865, and Zanesville knew that the war was virtually at an end. "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" was sung with new fervor. Those whose dear ones had survived the perils of Southern battlefields and sick camps, felt that they could scarcely wait for the home-coming and the hearts of those who grieved over the loss of relatives and friends at the seat of war were newly wrung with anticipation of the sorrow that must attend the survivors' return. But the general joy was deep and heartfelt when the news from Appomattox came over the wires and became widely known. The Courier of April 10, described the scene of that day : ZANESVILLE ELECTRIFIED "The news of the surrender of Lee and his entire army to General Grant produced the most intense excitement in this city this morning. The streets were soon alive with people and the delight of all seemed beyond bounds; every building was soon decorated with flags and all the bells in the city, big and little, were ringing at a furious rate, producing such a babel of sounds as has scarcely been heard in a lifetime. "The public schools were promptly dismissed for the day; the foundries and machine shops were closed and many of the stores shut up and so general a rejoicing has never been witnessed here. Men seemed to have gone wild with excitement and delight. Horsemen paraded the principal streets with sleigh bells, cow bells, sheep bells and every other conceivable kind of bells that would ring and make a noise. Processions of all kinds, bands of - 447 - 29—Vol. 1 448 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO music, etc., were moving around; good feeling prevailed everywhere. Never has there been such a gala day in Zanesville." Friday, April 14, was set apart for thanksgiving ceremonies of different types. Putnam had a celebration of its own ; Zanesville did likewise on a larger scale as the result of a meeting held at the law office of A. W. Train to make the necessary arrangements; thanksgiving services were held in the churches. A STRICKEN CITY On the following morning citizens awoke to find that Abraham Lincoln had been fatally wounded by an assassin's bullet at Ford's Theater in Washington the night before. Grief and anger swayed all classes of people when they found that the president had passed away. A mass meeting was held and there preparations were made for memorial services to be held on the day of the funeral. Profoundly true is what James Russell Lowell afterwards wrote about the public feeling toward the dead president on this day : "A civilian during the mast captivating military achievement; awkward, with no skill in the lower technicalities of manners he left behind him a fame beyond that of any conqueror, the memory of a grace higher than that of outward person and of a gentlemanliness deeper than mere breeding. Never before that startled April morning did such multitudes of men shed tears for the death of one they had never seen as if with him a friendly presence had been taken away from their lives, leaving them colder and darker. Never was funeral panegyric so eloquent as the silent look of sympathy which strangers exchanged when they met on that day. Their common manhood had lost a kinsman." STILL REMEMBERED The number of tablets which adorn the walls of Memorial Hall proves at what a heavy cost the boys of Muskingum discharged their duty on southern battlefields and the existence of that hall and of the Memorial Building of which it is a part proves that the people of Muskingum did not forget the soldier after the war was over. Following is a list of Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiments which included companies formed wholly or in part in Musking- SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 449 um County. The companies are named in connection with the regiments to which they belonged : First Regiment, Company H ; Second, Company E ; Third, Company E ; Fifteenth, Company A; Sixteenth, Company A; Nineteenth, Companies E and K ; Twenty-fourth, Company B ; Thirty-second, Company G; Sixty-second, Companies A, C, F, and I; Sixty-seventh, Company F; Seventy-eighth, Companies A, B, C, D, E, F, G, I, K; Ninety-seventh, Companies C, E, F and K; One Hundred and Twenty-second, Companies A, B, F, G, H, I, K; One Hundred and Fifty-ninth, Companies A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, K; One Hundred and Sixtieth, Companies C, D, E, G and I; One Hundred and Seventy-eighth, Companies A and F; One Hundred and Ninety-fifth, Companies E and I ; One Hundred and Ninety-sixth, Company G; One Hundred and Ninety-eighth, Company B. Muskingum County's soldiers served also in the following organizations : Ninth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, Companies A, C and D; Tenth 0. V. C., Companies A, B, C; Thirteenth 0. V. C., Company F; Fifth Independent Battalion of Cavalry; crew of U.- S. Steamer Brilliant, Mississippi Squadron. As the foregoing shows, Muskingum County men served in fifty-four companies of infantry belonging to nineteen different Ohio regiments; in eight companies of cavalry and on a gunboat. OVER 600 SONS OF MUSKINGUM FELL In the state library at Columbus there is a volume of Civil war records which residents of Muskingum County will always want the state to preserve. Its title page bears these words: "The Silent Dead, or Roll of Honor; comprising the names of all soldiers from Muskingum County who lost their lives in battle or by disease during the War of Rebellion. Reported to date, January 1, 1866. By John W. King." "A Note Explanatory" •precedes the roll of the dead and is as much history as the list it introduces. It reads "This pamphlet was promised to the people of Muskingum County at the Soldiers' Barbecue, held September 2, 1865; but its appearance has been delayed in consequence of the retaining by the Government of several of our organizations in the field, whose mortality could not be known until their recent muster out. "In this enterprise," added the compiler, "our county may