CHAPTER XL PIONEER CONDITIONS AND CUSTOMS SYMMES PURCHASE-OVERLAPPING CLAIMS-WILD ANIMALS-ROADS- RATTLESNAKES-SOCIAL HABITS-EARLY SETTLEMENTS. Following the Symmes Purchase and the long rootlet thrust up the Miami from Cincinnati, another Ohio River town began to influence the future West Central Ohio. Nathaniel Massie, a Virginian, had been appointed deputy surveyor for the Virginia Military Lands, reserved by Virginia to reward her Revolutionary soldiers and which extend up from the Ohio River as far as and in Clark county and ran east and west between the Scioto and the Miamis where they touched the Symmes Purchase. Massie founded his station (Manchester) 1791, and in 1796 founded Chillicothe. From these two bases the Virginia and Maryland element moved into West Central Ohio. Many of the claims were of the tomahawk variety and overlapped, a source of endless lawsuits in the future, the land map of the Virginia Military lands looking like a crazy quilt. The soldiers could pick their land anywhere but it generally cost them half of their claim to get a survey, otherwise the fee was $50 a thousand acres in cash. Duncan McArthur, Nathaniel Massie, Lucas Sullivant and Israel Ludlow did most of the surveying and laid the foundation of fortunes in land acquired in fee. The Indians harassed the work, knowing what it foretold. The surveyors found a land with some unusual characteristics compared with the East. Here and there through the wood - 351 - 352 - HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO ran straight lines of felled timber where the tornado had torn its way, piling in its wake the "Windfall," a tangled interwoven, interlocked wall that only fire could remove. The high lands were beloved of the beech and these in turn were the feeding ground for the myriads of wild pigeons who passed in countless flocks darkening the sun in the fall and spring. These birds preferred small trees for roosts but wanting these clustered in masses that broke the largest limbs from forest trees. Peter Rockel of Clark County told the writer he had gone as a boy to the Pigeon Swamp in Mad River Valley east of Tremont City to knock down pigeons with poles. Unthinkingly he and his brother bore a lantern and the light bewildered the birds so that they came in such masses as to threaten to smother the boys, leaving their lanterns lying, they fled in terror. These pigeons were slaughtered with criminal abandonment, being shipped by the barrel to eastern markets. They began dwindling through the 60s and by 1873 were gone. Their fate is an unsolvable mystery, some theories including an epidemic, others that they encountered on the migration a sleet storm and perished over the ocean. The last wild pigeon died in solitary confinement in a zoo some years ago. Squirrels infested this nutland with its chestnuts, walnuts, butternuts, acorns, and hickory nuts. In the beginnings of agriculture these rodents were so numerous as to be a pest and a menace. They destroyed the corn. They bred in such enormous quantities as to be forced to migrate for food, covering the ground as they came with a furry blanket, swimming rivers. Even as late as 1822 a neighborhood squirrel hunt would yield 19,650 in one day. If the squirrel filled the trees the wild turkey was more partial to the ground and the settler who could manipulate a goose quill between his lips could lure a dinner by the "Turkey Call." The forest was a conclave of monarchs who had defied time, wind and lightning. The tulip poplar lifted its tall form, the HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO - 353 King Saul of the wood. The writer has seen one that had to be quartered to allow a four horse team to haul the quartered logs to market. The black walnut loved the rich black land of the valley. One that grew on Buck Creek in Springfield had to have benches cut by the woodmen so that they could stand in the tree itself and swing toward its heart. Hardin County's great walnut stood 22 miles east of Kenton in the middle of the Marion-Kenton road. It died in 1832 and was felled in 1837. For 72 feet straight up soared the trunk, a veritable column of Karnac, not a branching limb in all that line. Twenty feet above the ground it was necessary to notch the tree deeply to bring it down to the swing of the longest cross cut saw. Up at the top when felled it was so thick the sawyers had to stand on benches to work. It was made into fence rails. Here and there through the wood grew the sugar maple, sometimes in clumps. Here was the sugar barrel of the settler. In long winter evenings while his daughters plied the spinning wheel and his helpmate knitted his socks and mittens, he sat by the fireplace cutting the paw-paw into 18-inch lengths, whittling down one end to fit an augur hole and starting 11/2 inches from that end he split it down in half and hollowed it into a trough. Driven into the tree when sap was running in February, the sweet aromatic and slightly sickening sap dripped into hollowed tree chunks, thence being borne to iron kettles and "biled down." Hogs ranged the wood far and wide feeding on mast. As late as 1845 the oaks east of Mad River fattened droves on their mast. Mrs. Sarah Rockell, born 1837, told the writer her family lost a sow in early spring and late the next fall when the snow flew, a drove of fine porkers came grunting to the barnyard gate. The old sow had littered, reared her brood on mast and with the coming of ice and cold remembered her slops and straw. Roads were late in coming and few in number. Beside the bridle path swung oft in swaying, pendulous rhythm, the 12 foot bull snake eyeing the rider with its cold, malevolent stare. This 354 - HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO same woman has told us of passing them many a time and laughed our suggestion of fear to scorn. The writer knows her calm acceptance of snakes was not feigned for he has seen her in her old age, take a weed and gently thresh snakes away when she encountered them in weeding, nor would she allow them to be killed, saying they were good mousers. In her case the pioneer conditions had held to her day and the writer got them first hand, for her father had been a ferocious worker who literally attacked work fanatically. He wrested 300 acres from swamp, hill and wood, clearing, grubbing, tiling, fencing, building two great houses and two big barns, outbuildings, losing a wife, and children, but wrenching his acres out of the wilderness into fine farms. He blacksmithed and coopered in winter; his daughter dragging hoop poles through snow hip deep ; his son reaching up to the plow handles in summer when so young his sister had to lead the horse, and both were sent miles away from home to labor all day. Jacob Young, a Pennsylvania Dutchman, industrious, strong, thrifty, founder of a solid family in Clark County, told the writer he had worked for this Martin Ilges as a farm hand. Ilges he said could do more work than any two men he ever saw. Ilges, while laying fences "sized" the next rail, picked it up in such a way as never to have to turn it end for end in fitting. He understood the modern science of the elimination of superfluous movement. Young gave us a word picture of the pioneer cabin of the Virginian such stock as had settled the Virginia Military Lands. Young had driven Ilge's household goods up to the Virginian's farm (lost by the latter by easy going ways). It started to rain and the dispossessed Virginian stock came out and invited the Dutch boy to come from under his wagon into the house. He entered a cabin divided into halves by fence rail partition, the space between stuffed with straw. The Virginian patriarch sat smoking his pipe, "the air so thick with tobacco smoke you could cut it with your hand," as Young told the writer. This was in HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO - 355 1841. So far and only so far had the Virginian stock moved in fifty years. The Virginians and Kentuckians cleared the land of Indians and wild beasts and the Pennsylvania Dutch came in and made a farm or a garden where the Virginian nearly starved. The writer also knew this particular Virginian's descendants. No more humorous, lovable, friendly, sociable, companionable old fellow ever lived than the son of the dispossessed Virginian. He had "bumped his head against the college door," was well read, followed politics and events with keen interest, but groaned over labor in the fields. He loved to put a dash on vinegar in the farm jug and after imbibing lustily would vow he was full "of vim and vinegar" and attack the corn cutting for a few moments, but it soon wore off. He was "work brittle"—he broke easily. His was the kind that never broke one early law. That required every male of 18 and over to bring 100 squirrel scalps to the township clerk each year or suffer a penalty. This law passed in 1807-8 was by a legislature of Virginian stock. You could raise corn by killing squirrels rather than by hoeing! It was the squirrels which prevented corn from coming to maturity unassisted by man, according to Virginian logic. Early settlers judged lands according to the timber. The thrifty Pennsylvania Dutch looked for wooded land thinking it was more fertile. Generally they were right and the degree of fertility could be often told by the timber that grew upon it. One spot in West Central Ohio fooled them. The Barrens of Madison and Fayette counties today are among the best lands in the state or the world. These lands grew rank grass. From far and near the drovers brought their cattle to pasture the Barrens, even coming from Kentucky, some driving in their herds just before tax listing time to escape tabulation. A state law of 1814 compelled the drovers to report their grazing cattle to the county commissioners of the county where they grazed or be fined four times the toll. 356 - HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO Wild beasts of prey that plagued and endangered the early settlers fell back before the imigration much as did the Indian. The southern and middle counties of West Central Ohio were cleared of such beasts at a time when these yet prowled the Black Swamp and the northern counties. Wolves ran in packs that often treed the early travellers (see Rev. Gavitt) and wolf bounties were paid as late as 1858 when about 80 wolf scalps were brought in. Deer were still shot around Delaware in the 50s and even long settled Clark County had its big beast of prey as late as 1878. The writer's sister aged about eight that year had taken a brother to a spot on the Balentine Pike, three-fourths of a mile west of Dialton, to watch charcoal burners over the line in Champaign County. Some wild beast had been terrorizing the horses during "Big Meetin' " at Newson Chapel. Stock had been killed. She lay the baby brother down and ran up and down a fallen tree trunk. As she did so, there leaped up a great beast who dashed by a charcoal burner. He hurled his ax and knocked it off its feet, before it could bound away a hunter shot it dead. The writer's father skinned it and told him it measured better than five feet. It was said to have been a Canadian lynx. In marshy ground the rattlesnake was a horror and a menace. Seeking warmth it crept into the cabins through holes in the chinks. It even crept into beds. Antrim's history of Logan County is full of accounts of rattlesnake horrors. When the Demints cleared the ground where the Northern school stands in Springfield they piled brush and fired it to drive the rattlers out by the hundreds. Mad River Valley swarmed with them as late as the 1913 flood and they are still fairly plentiful. The writer has as a boy loaded hay in Mad River bottoms where the kill of rattlers ran an average of one to the acre year in and out, has found them coiled in hills of corn and put hands on them, sluggish in the depths of corn shocks, when only reflex action saved him. HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO - 357 To find yourself soaring through the air tense with some unknown horror, your body galvanized into a lightning activity while the mind groped for the cause and only realized what was the matter when the wrist thick rattler writhed its laggard length out from under the last wide opened corn husk, is an unforgettable experience which teaches as nothing else could the horror of the Indian and the settler for the creeping terror; the slime of the swamp become a crawl. Social habits of the people of West Central Ohio necessarily graduated in any early period according to the latitude, the farther north the more primitive were the living conditions. West Liberty, Logan County, is about central in location to the rest of West Central Ohio. Dr. Thomas Cowgill in Antrim's History related his impressions of that neighborhood in 1821. "At that time it was customary for many persons to drink whiskey every day; frequently at a neighbor's house we were invited and pressed to drink and at all public gatherings, sales, house-raisings, log rollings, corn huskings, and harvest, it was customary to have plenty of whiskey on the grounds, and to drink it as often as water, so that in the best of neighborhoods where ten or a dozen persons were together it was nothing strange for some of them to get very 'tight.' It was then much more common for men in ordinary conversation to use profane and impure language than at present." "Visiting manners" were still influenced by the old Virginian customs; these were to shake hands all round, inquire after the health of all, sit down and converse for an hour before stating the reason of your errand. People were mostly called by proper names, there was less deception and flattery, always the departing guest shook hands all round and invited the hosts "to come and see us." Following the War of 1812 the history of West Central Ohio logically branched as does the limbs of a tree, again taking up the 358 - HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO threads followed after Greenville; in religion, education, settlement, medicine, art, agriculture, banking, internal development, etc. During the War of 1812 it is not likely that a single white family resided in Hardin, Allen or Van Wert counties. Due to the glacial age and its creation of a lake bed north of the Height of Land when the edge of the glacier retired past that elevation and the melted ice water lay impounded along the face of the glacier, this whole area of the north west of Ohio long lay unsettled and the southern and middle portion of the state was well advanced before settlement penetrated this section. In fact this year, 1933, is about the centennial of settlement in many portions of northwestern Ohio. So that simultaneously with a comparatively high degree of education and advancement around Lebanon and Dayton there existed the almost entirely primitive north of the Height of Land. While society might disport at Yellow Springs, the watering place of the West where Martin Baum had taken grants as early as 1816, the wolf howled and the bear denned in the Black Swamp up until almost Civil War times. Baum had founded the Miami Export Company in Cincinnati, the banking house of the time, and Cincinnati gentry flocked to his watering place at Yellow Springs. Corwin could hobnob with Clay at Lebanon ; Daniel Webster and Henry Clay could thunder from the same rostrum on the same day in 1840 at Antioch Glen, and the Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too, campaign could ring through the land and die away in the deep gloom and untouched fastnesses of the Black Swamp. In 1823 Yellow Springs could command almost a column of reader advertisement in the Columbus Gazette as "The most celebrated watering place in the Western Country," while not for eight years yet would John W. Riley lay out the site of Lima which Patrick G. Goode was to name for the sole reason that he liked the name. Yellow Springs was thus a haunt of the fashionable HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO - 359 ten years before the wretched remnant of the Shawnees were to abandon West Central Ohio forever in 1830 and wend their way into exile from their last council house in Allen County. Delaware County was settled by Nathan Powers and Avery Powers, New Yorkers, as early as May 1, 1801, some five miles below Delaware of Pluggy's Town. By 1804 Carpenter had up the first mill in those parts. The first attempts to start banks and newspapers in Delaware were unsuccessful, the county being in an exposed position on the frontier. The county was nearly depopulated during the War of 1812 due to the prank of Captain Drake in testing his company while enroute to Lower Sandusky. He wished to know if they were panic proof and when the camp had settled in sleep simulated an Indian attack. The first lieutenant fled so far and fast, alarming settlers that most of them fled to Franklinton and even on to Chillicothe. It had been along the line of the Scioto that most of the immigration had come, basing itself on Chillicothe and Franklinton. As distance grew from the natural river base of the Scioto and its flat boat outlet for produce, it provided a barrier to penetration so that the counties of Morrow, Marion and Hardin were slow to be settled. These sections are not penetrated by navigable rivers and were exposed to the Indians until the death of Tecumseh in 1813 removed that menace. What is now Morrow County was not settled until the War of 1812 was over, so far as frontier fighting was concerned. The uncertain flow of the Whetstone was not sufficient to provide the settlers with regular supplies of ground foods and they were dependent upon the pack horse connections with Delaware County. Due to this late settlement the history of that section is largely a repetition of the incidents narrated along the lines of march northward. Morrow, Marion and to a lesser degree, Hardin came into being by a gradual process of seepage of population unattended by the more dramatic and unusual incidents of the southern half of Ohio and the western tier of counties. It remained 360 - HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO for this comparatively small fraction of Ohio to produce the two United States presidents born in West Central Ohio while the one vice president was also born on the Scioto waters. The production of Rutherford B. Hayes, Warren G. Harding, Gen. William Rosecrans, and Charles Fairbanks among other noted men has given the headwaters of the Scioto an indirect influence upon national history hard to estimate and difficult to relate since the life work of these men fell outside their place of origin. Just as the history of West Central Ohio is sought in its origins, so the history of portions of the Civil War, the Reconstruction and the aftermath of the World War must be sought in Morrow, Marion and Delaware Counties. These are points of originating influences rather than places where dramatic and special events occurred. The influence of the inventors and manufacturers of West Central Ohio is imponderable. It cannot be calculated until the industrial history of the world is written. Out of the nebulous backgrounds of Delaware, Morrow and Marion Counties came those national figures which achieved on the distant battlefields of the Civil War and in Washington results which are from but not in these counties. Hayes, Harding, Rosecrans, Gen. John Anthony Quitman, the Mexican War general, Thomas Carney, governor of Kansas, Preston B. Plumb, senator from Kansas. Gov. A. P. Morehouse of Missouri are to distant parts of the earth influences potent and determinative. They bear the same relation to the Scioto headwaters that Clark, Kenton, Logan, Boone and others who molded West Central Ohio bear to Virginia and Pennsylvania, sons who carried their heritage afar and shed an indirect glory upon their place of origin. The Upper Scioto Country can say justly "These are my jewels," but they adorn the breasts of others. Marion County being mostly Indian territory prior to the War of 1812 was practically opened by the military movements of that time and the armies which passed through it enroute to the seat of war. Settlers had moved into the lower townships of HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO - 361 Waldo and Prospect between 1805-14. These included the Evans, Markleys, Drakes, Brudiges and Wyatts. Due to the late formation of Morrow, Marion and Hardin counties, much of their early history is tangled into the counties which at one time embraced their territory. These counties are the top of the stalk as it were, or when we consider the number of prominent men produced, it might more properly be said they are the ear of grain which the tall stalk rooted on the Ohio produced. So slowly did population well into Marion County that it was 1821 before Eber Baker settled there, and 1822 when he prevailed to have Marion made the county seat. In 1825 it had but 17 families. At this time Dayton was becoming quite a town, Springfield had a couple thousand people, but Lima was not yet settled. Rev. Read and later Charles Dickens have left records of this section in the 30s and 40s. Morrow, Marion and Hardin lie on the watershed of the state and history like the waters seem to have run out of rather than into these lands. Hardin County was still more remote than Marion and by 1830 had 230 persons. The distance and the dense forests hampered settlement. Hull, Tupper, Brush, McArthur and Shelby had led armies through it in 1812-13; Dr. Knight had crossed it in 1782 but for a long period the only white inhabitants were the sleeping soldiers of Hull's army buried at Fort McArthur. The Alfred Hale family is thought to have been the first white family in Hardin County in 1817. Peter McArthur and Daniel Campbell built cabins and planted corn in 1818 but from fear of Indians did not come back with their families until 1822. It should be remembered that Indian reservations dotted the northwestern part of the state at that time. Kenton stands so squarely on the divide that it has a house where rain on one side flows into the lakes and from the other into the Gulf of Mexico. The many large marshes long retarded settlement and bred malaria. With no navigable waters it really remained for the railroads which 362 - HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO came to Kenton July 4, 1846, to actually open the country to full intercourse with the world. Allen, Auglaize, Shelby, Mercer and Van Wert counties were the last extension of the Miami thrust of immigration. This largely had to await the construction of the Miami canal which in reality opened the counties named above. Modern man cannot increase and prosper far from a market connection. These counties have been treated in the military movements. Shelby County is the focal point of West Central Ohio history, the place where it begins definitely to emerge at Pickawillany. The German element and influence is more strongly marked in this section than any spot west of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, save some sections of the Missouri Valley. Pierre Loramie was the first white man to settle Shelby County. The Quakers established a mission at Wapakoneta shortly after the birth of the 19th Century. The Indian agency under Col. John Johnston continued at Wapakoneta until 1829 and in 1832 the Indians were removed west by treaty, leaving the whites the right to plat Wapakoneta in 1833. Saint Marys was early a point of white settlement by the Tory and renegade traders and Indian agents of the British Crown. New Bremen and Minster are in the heart of the German settlement area which was settled in 1832 from Cincinnati. Capt. James Riley, one of the romantic figures of Northwestern Ohio settled Van Wert Company in 1821 and later platted Lima. So slow was the infiltration of population that by 1830 the county had but 39 inhabitants. Riley had once been a white slave in Africa. The Rileys were also founders of Van Wert and Wiltshire. Allen County, Van Wert and Hardin counties were the last to be settled in West Central Ohio. Francis Deuchoquette, a French trader, had lived at Fort Amanda and it is of course likely that soldiers stationed there had after a fashion lived a family life. It is not customary to count such as permanent enough to be HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO - 363 designated as settlers. Peter Diltz, William Van Ausdall and Andrew Russell, who came in 1817, are generally awarded that distinction. Russell's daughter, the first white American child born in Allen County, was known as the daughter of Allen County. Early settlers lived in ignorance of the presence of other families. Nothing else could illustrate the social poverty and barrenness of pioneer life than to read of hunters blundering on neighbors some miles away, all ignorant of each other's existence. Lima laid out by Riley in 1831, Van Wert by the Rileys in 1837, and Kenton in 1833 completed the march of the American spirit of empire into West Central Ohio. From Pickawillany to Van Wert was 88 years. These two names are the Alpha and Omega of West Central Ohio. CHAPTER XLI BIOGRAPHY Charles Farrar Browne (Artemus Ward), American humorist, worked on South Charleston, Clark County newspaper, born April 26, 1834; died March 6, 1867. Browne was born near Waterford, Maine, became a printer at thirteen on death of father; wandered westward as itinerant printer. Was a lanky, sandy haired specimen with queer, melancholy face. Sometime during his wanderings Browne came to South Charleston where he was employed until one day the editor went on a drunk. Browne set the news up and rushed out an extra "Editor—on a bust." When the editor sobered up, Browne left town one jump ahead of his maddened employer. Not having time to pay his landlady, he forwarded his board money later. He drifted to Cleveland and there appeared in the Plain Dealer February 3, 1858 the first article signed "Artemus Ward." In 1859 he went to work on Vanity Fair, New York publication. "Artemus Ward, His Book," appeared in 1862; His lecture "Babes in the Wood" was first presented at New London, Connecticut, November 26, 1861. Prior to reading the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet, Lincoln read Ward's "High Handed Outrage at Utica," laughed amid the painful silence, then with a sigh unrolled his fateful document. Browne went to California on a lecture tour in 1863, met Mark Twain in Virginia City, Nevada, during the course of a "large - 365 - 366 - HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO night" from which the twain went home over the roof tops at dawn. Later, 1865, Ward went to London, was lionized and died of consumption at Southampton. For details see D. C. Seitz's "Artemus Ward." Whitelaw Reid, publicist, statesman, historian; born near Xenia, October 27, 1837; died, London, England, December 12, 1912; graduated Miami University, 1856; taught school at South Charleston, Clark County; correspondent for newspapers in Collumbus, 1860; served in Civil War as aide de camp to Rosecrans and others; editorial writer, New York Tribune, 1868; managing editor, 1869; editor-in-chief and proprietor, 1872; ambassador, France, 1889-1892; defeated for vice presidency on Republican ticket, 1892; special ambassador to England, Victoria's jubilee, 1897; to Edward's coronation, 1902; ambassador to England, 1905; married to daughter of Ogden Mills, 1881. Horace Mann, American educator; in Hall of Fame; first president of Antioch College, Green County; elected to presidency of Antioch at Enon, Clark County, probably in Knob Prairie Church, the Christian denominational edifice. The effort was temporarily unsuccessful and the college was sold April 20, 1859. Horace Mann died August 2, 1859, and was buried in Yellow Springs but his remains were removed in 1860 to the Old North Burial Ground, Providence, Rhode Island. His work was in founding non-sectarian, co-educational education. Born, Franklin, Massachusetts, May 4, 1790; graduated at Brown University and Litchfield Law School; admitted to bar, 1823; practiced law at Dedham, Massachusetts, 1827-33; elected to state legislature, 1833; president of senate, 1836-7; appointed secretary to a state board of education, 1837; editor and founder of "Common School Journal; succeeded John Quincy Adams in Congress, 1848; accepted presidency of Antioch College and declined nomination HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO - 367 for governorship of Massachusetts the same day. His work as secretary of the Massachusetts board and at Antioch ranks Mann as one of the greatest educators of America. John Filson.—Born near Brandywine River, 1747. Came to Kentucky about 1783. Associate of Daniel Boone and early settlers. Boone related his adventures to Filson, the schoolmaster, verse maker and speculator who embalmed them in biography •which had wide circulation and caught the fancy of the time and fixed Boone's reputation by priority of publicity. Filson did valuable historical work in making maps of Kentucky which fix routes of early military movements among other things. With Mathias Denman, and Robert Patterson, he founded and named Losantville, 1788. Killed by Indians while wandering near settlement according to supposition. Mysteriously disappeared. Filson's chief bid for fame, his biography of Boone was published at Wilmington, Delaware, 1784. William Davis Gallagher, poet and journalist, Whig partisan, publisher of "Backwoodsman," a Henry Clay Whig sheet at Xenia, 1830. Born, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, August 21, 1808, father, Irish; mother, Welsh. Educated near Mount Pleasant, Hamilton County, and at Lancastrian Seminary. Worked at various times on "Western Tiller," "Cincinnati Emporium," "Commercial Register," "Cincinnati Mirror," "Ohio State Journal," Associate of Otway Curry. Married, Xenia, to Miss Emma Adamson, of New England family. William Wells, son-in-law of Little Turtle (See Little Turtle). Fought against whites at St. Clair's Defeat. Returned to Americans and became scout under Wayne. Resided near Fort Wayne, 1795 to 1812. Given title of colonel, removed in 1812 to Fort Dearborn (Chicago). Killed in Fort Dearborn massacre. Saw that Indians would torture him for desertion of their tribe, blackened 368 - HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO face, taunted them until one of them shot him from his horse, cut out his heart and ate it. Gen. John Adair, 1757-1840, governor of Kentucky, 1820; speaker of Kentucky House, United States senator, 1825; congressman, 1831-33; aide to Governor Shelby in War of 1812, part of army that Shelby led through West Central Ohio. Brigadier general under Andrew Jackson at Battle of New Orleans. Adair was Revolutionary soldier and prisoner of war, settled in Mercer County, Kentucky, 1786, commanded mounted Kentucky volunteers in battle near Eaton, Preble County, November 6, 1792. Surprised and attacked by Little Turtle, and two battles fought. American loss, six killed, five wounded and four missing. Among the wounded were the later Governor George Madison of Kentucky and Col. Richard Taylor, father of Zackary Taylor, president of the United States and grandfather of Dick Taylor, Confederate general. In 1807 Adair was accused of complicity in the Aaron Burr conspiracy. Johnny Appleseed.—(Johnny Chapman) born Springfield, Massachusetts, 1775. Came down the Ohio in 1806 with two canoe loads of apple seeds and announced he was going to plant nurseries. In 1810 located in Richland County and worked westward until his death in Indiana in 1847. He was five feet, nine; rather spare, large boned and sinewy, had blue eyes, wore old clothes, sometimes a coffee sack with holes cut for head and arms sufficed for a coat. Went bare footed most of the year. He was well read, polite, clean spoken, and religious. He planted seeds by streams and by the time settlers arrived had young trees to sell either for cash or credit. Johnny would not kill anything for food, cooked mush in a pan which he often wore as a hat. Indians regarded him as a Great Medicine man and never harmed him. He often warned settlers of approaching danger. Chapman would put out a fire HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO - 369 if he saw the mosquitoes were perishing by it. Once he started a fire near a hollow log in the dead of winter. It disturbed a bear and her cubs. Johnny put out the fire and slept in the snow. He long mourned that he had killed a rattlesnake which had bitten him. He was buried at Fort Wayne, Indiana. His main range was east of West Central Ohio but he worked through it westward. One of the minor plagues of Ohio, the wayside dog fennel, was introduced by Johnny as he thought it had medicinal properties. Henry Howe, historian, born New Haven, Connecticut, October 11, 1816, of Puritan ancestry. Son of Gen. Hezekiah Howe; mother, daughter of Ebenezer Townsend of New Haven, "Merchant Prince" Henry Howe was youngest of seven children; educated in New Haven; clerk in father's bookstore; typesetter in father's print shop, helped print Webster's Dictionary; surveyor in New York at eighteen; started work on History of New York, 1840; New Jersey Collections, 1842; Virginia, 1845; 1846, started work on Ohio. Began at Marietta, on foot; bought a horse at Delaware; published work in 1847; married Miss Frances A. Tuttle of New Haven, 1848; joined Squirrel Hunters to defend Cincinnati in Civil War; 1885 started to bring History of Ohio down to date. The Ohio legislature bought 1,200 copies which enabled him to finish it. It was completed in 1891; he had mortgaged his work and his wife added her fortune. He petitioned the legislature to buy the plates. He died October, 1893. The Ohio legislalature paid his widow $20,000 for the plates. Henry Howe did an incalcuable service to every county in Ohio and no history of any section would be complete without mention of him and the acknowledgment of the debt for materials. He covered every county in West Central Ohio gathering material from its original sources. 370 - HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO George Clinton, after whom Clinton County was named, was of Irish descent, born in Ulster County, New York, 1739, lawyer, delegate to New York legislature, also to Second Continental Congress. Summoned to military duty and prevented from being signer of Declaration of Independence. Brigadier general of militia. First governor of New York; served eighteen years. Opposed Constitution on ground of grant of power to central government. Instrumental in putting down Shay's Rebellion; elected vice president of the United States 1804; died in office, 1812. Major General Richard Butler, after whom Butler County was named, was of Irish birth, graduate of Edinburgh University; emigrated to America 1760. Trader at Fort Pitt; second in command to St. Clair. Killed in Mercer County at Fort Recovery. Butler was first person to exercise Federal authority in Ohio. Commissioner at Fort Finney treaty, 1785. Butler had a daughter by an Indian woman. The child was afterwards accused of witchcraft and saved with the greatest difficulty by missionaries. Prior to April 10, 1776, was Indian agent for the colonies at Fort Pitt. Superintendent of Indian affairs in Ohio, 1785. James Whittaker, white captive and later trader who is said to have been first white settler in Ohio, captured in Western Pennsylvania in 1780; married Elizabeth Fulks, also a captive. The Wyandottes gave them 1,200 acres and they had three trading posts (see Johnston, Flinn and Skyles). Traded through West Central Ohio to a degree. Pierre Loramie, settled about 1769, seventeen miles from the mouth of Loramie Creek. French trader, deemed by some a Jesuit missionary; exercised great influence over the Indians. HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO - 371 Speaking of Loramie Col. John Johnston, Indian agent said: `I have seen the Indians burst into tears when speaking of the time when their French father had dominion over them . . . . reason why he possessed control . . . . because he possessed a higher character and not because he was a priest and a Jesuit. Loramie is supposed to have been sent by the Vicar General Vibault of Vincennes. His store supplied the Indian raiders on the Kentucky settlements and Clark had it burned in 1782. Lo-ramie fled to Wapakonneta with the Shawnees. A silver cross nine by six inches was found in 1873 on the site of Loramie's store. Loramie Creek, Loramie Reservoir, and the town of Loramie are named from Pierre Loramie. Captain William Trent, Indian trader, brother-in-law of George Croghan, companion of Gist and Croghan to Pickawillany in 1751. Commissioner to Logstown treaty, 1752. Sent as emissary after treaty to Miamis. Kept journal and the records that he met Thomas Burney and Andrew McBryer at Lower Shawneetown, who told him Pickawillany was destroyed by French. Proceeded to Pickawillany, succored survivors. He later shared in Croghan's reverses caused by the French and Indian war. For further particulars see scattered references in Volwiler's George Croghan and Sargent's Braddock Campaign. Samuel Shellabarger, congressman from Clark County. Born in Clark County, December 10, 1817. Degree Miami University, 1841; admitted to bar, 1846; practiced law in Springfield; legislature, 1851; congress, '37-'39-'40-'42 congresses. Minister to Portugal, 1869. United States Civil Service Commissioner. Esteemed one of outstanding congressmen of his time. Died, Au-. gust 6, 1896, at Washington, D. C. 372 - HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO Thomas Corwin, leading Whig opponent of Mexican War. Friend of Henry Clay, famed as orator; born, Bourbon County, Kentucky, July 29, 1794. Wagon boy in War of 1812. Resident of Lebanon, Warren County, Ohio. Ohio legislature, 1822 and in 1829; Congress, 1831 to 1841; governor of Ohio, 1841-43; United States senator, 1845; secretary of treasury, 1851-52; Congress, 1859-61; minister to Mexico, 1861-1864; Corwin's Mexican War policy injured his political prospects for a number of years. He favored withholding supplies on the ground it was a president's and not a people's war. He died in Washington, December 18, 1865. John Johnston.—One of the most dependable authorities on Ohio Indians by reason of his long association with the Ohio Indians while having them in charge as Indian agent for the United States Government. Born, March 25, 1775, Ballyshannon, County, Donegal, Ireland; 1786 emigrated with parents to Cumberland County, Pennsylvania; 1792-3, served with Wayne in his Ohio campaigns; Indian agent and clerk in War Department thirty-one years; located much of the time at Piqua, Ohio; author of "Account of the Indian Tribes of Ohio"; paymaster and quartermaster, War of 1812; canal commissioner of Ohio eleven years; 1841-42, commissioner to treat with Indians for their removal; president of the historical and philosophical Society of Ohio; compiler and interpreter of many Indian words and phrases; February 18, 1861, died at Washington, District of Columbia. Buried with military and civil honors at Piqua. Miss Fleming—White woman, daughter of Pittsburgh trader, captured and sister slain in flat boat attack, 1790; carried through West Central Ohio, rescued from Cherokees by Tarhe, the Crane, in a night surprise of the Cherokee camp. Tarhe deceived by Whittaker, a trader and adopted Indian, into believing HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO - 373 the Fleming woman was his sister. The Fleming woman was returned by Tarhe to Pittsburgh. Charles Johnston, captured by Messhawa along with Flinn, a borderman ; Flinn burned in the Miami towns on the Maumee, Johnston purchased by a Frenchman, Duchouquet ; later Johnston was interviewed by Washington concerning the Ohio tribes. Jacob Skyles, a trader, companion to Johnston, escaped to Detroit. Johnston, Skyles and Flinn probably passed through Delaware, Marion counties in their captivity as did also Miss Fleming, their companion. Josiah Harman Born Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1753; died in Philadelphia, 1813. Officer in Revolution. Appointed lieutenant colonel United States Infantry, 1784. Commander-in-chief of United States Army; defeated in campaign of 1790. Superceded by St. Clair in 1791. Tried and exonerated for results of campaign of 1790. Anthony Wayne. Born, Chester County, Pennsylvania, January 1, 1745. Called "Mad Anthony" by soldiers, "Big Blacksnake" by the Indians. Rash, impetuous, but disciplined by disaster in Revolution. Stormed Stony Point. Forces cut up at Paoli, Pennsylvania, due to lack of caution. Appointed to succeed St. Clair; won victory over Little Turtle and Blue Jacket at Fallen Timbers, August 20, 1794; signed Greenville Treaty ending Indian war, August 3, 1795. Died Erie, Pennsylvania, December 15, 1796. Remains now buried at Radnor Churchyard, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. His last campaign was brilliantly conducted. One of the most effective generals ever to operate against the Indians. Daniel Boone was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, February 11, 1731. Family emigrated to head waters of Schuykill, 374 - HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO near Reading, later to valley of South Yadkin, North Carolina. Said to have been wagoner in Braddock's expedition. Boone in 1769 entered Kentucky with John Findlay and party. Boone had been preceded by at least five parties of Virginians and Carolinians and by Croghan's fur traders. Boone was absent from family nearly three years, never in this time tasting bread or salt. Started west with family from the Yadkin, September 25, 1773. Lost eldest son in Indian attack near Cumberland Gap ; retreated to Clinch River settlements in Tennessee. Employed by Lord Dunmore in 1774 to bring in James Harrod and party from Kentucky at time of Logan's War. Commanded three frontier stations in Dunmore's War. Employed by Col. Richard Henderson to open Wilderness Road; started March 10, 1775. April 1, 1775, founded Boonesborough. Daughter, Jemima, stolen by Indians, July, 1776. Defended Boonesborough, two sieges, April 15, 1777, and July 4, 1777. On February 7, 1778, captured with saltmakers at Lower Blue Licks. Carried to Chillicothe, Greene County, later to Detroit. Adopted by Blackfish, chief of Shawnees, escaped when near Washington, Fayette County; made run to Boonesborough in four days. About August 1, 1778, led expedition to Paint Creek, in Ohio; there fought skirmish with Indians. Retreated to Boonesborough to defend place from siege which started August 8, 1778. Tried for treason in connection with capture of salt-makers; acquitted ; went east after family in fall of 1778. Returned to Kentucky, summer of 1780. Chosen member of jury to escheat Doctor Connolly and Alexander McKee of their Kentucky lands. Served with Clark in first and second Piqua expeditions, commanded advance in Logan's expedition, 1786. Had son, Israel, killed at Blue Licks massacre, August 17, 1782. Robbed of $20,000 en route to Richmond to purchase land warrants; emigrated to Missouri by 1797. Hunted and ranged far into west. Died at son-in-law's, Flanders Callaway, at Chareete, on Missouri River, September 26, 1820, aged 89 years. 1844-45, Kentucky Legislature voted to bring Boone's remains from Mis- HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO - 375 souri, September 13, 1845; re-interred at Frankfort, Kentucky. Boone at various times traversed or hunted through Warren, Clinton, Fayette, Greene, Clark, Champaign, Logan, Hardin, Montgomery, Miami, possibly Shelby and Madison counties in West Central Ohio. Boone was by adoption a resident of Ohio through the ceremony among the Shawnees, lived in West Central Ohio a full season, participated in three battles in West Central Ohio at Piqua, 1780, at the new Piqua, 1782, at Mac-a-chack, 1786. He entered Western Ohio on at least five separate occasions. His captivity and some of his most interesting experiences are a part of West Central Ohio history. John Slover, captive, guide, frontiersman, born about 1753; family settled on New River, Virginia; captured about 1761 by Miamis; John and his brother Abraham were playing with their two sisters when attack came ; Abraham escaped, John and the sisters ran to the house; his father returned and found burning home, called the family names, was heard by the Indians, who returned and killed him; the two sisters died from fatigue and starvation; Slover's mother was exchanged and died soon after returning home; Slover lived six years with the Miamis, probably on Big Miami at Pickawillany and later on Maumee; traded by Miamis to a Delaware and hired to a trader; taken to Shawnee towns on Scioto ; lived there six years; exchanged in 1773; served fifteen months in Continental army; married and settled in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania ; Indian name, Mannucothe; guide for Crawford. After the Indian council at Wapatomica, Slover was the hero of one of the most thrilling adventures in the history of the West. It occurred at Mac-a-chack in Logan county, heart of West Central Ohio; McClung wrote while survivors of the age were still living. He is with Brackenridge, the ghost writer for Slover, the only original source on Slover. McClung said : "(George) Girty 376 - HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO came into the hut, followed by more than forty warriors and seizing Slover, stripped him naked, bound his hands behind him, painted his body black and bore him off with great violence. Girty exulted greatly in the success of his efforts, and loaded him with curses and reproaches, assuring him that he would now get what he deserved." "The prisoner was borne off to a town at the distance of five miles from Waughcotocomo (Wapatomica) where he was met as usual by all the inhabitants and beaten in the ordinary manner for an hour. They then carried him to another little village about two miles distant (Maca-chack) , where a stake and hickory poles had been prepared, in order to burn him that evening. The scene of his intended execution was the council-house, part of which was covered with shingles, and part of which was entirely open at the top and very slightly boarded at the sides. In the open space a pole had been sunk in the ground, and the faggots collected, Slover was dragged to the stake, his hands bound behind him, and then fastened to the pole as in Crawford's case. "Fire was quickly applied to the faggots, which began to blaze briskly. An orator then, as usual, addressed the assembly, in order to inflame their passions to the proper height. Slover, seeing his fate inevitable, rallied his courage, and prepared to endure it with firmness. For the last half hour the wind had been high, but the clouds were light, and appeared drifting rapidly away. While the orator was speaking, however, the wind suddenly lulled, and a heavy shower of rain fell which instantly extinguished the fire, and drenched the prisoner and his enemies to the skin. Slover who had been making preparations to battle with fire, was astonished at finding himself deluged all at once with so different an element, and the enemy seemed no less so. They instantly ran under the covered part of the house, and left the prisoner to take the rain freely, assuring him from time to time that he should be burned the following morning." "As soon as the rain ceased, they surrounded him again, dancing around the stake, kicking HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO - 377 him severely, and striking him with sticks, until eleven o'clock at night. A tall young chief named 'Half Moon' then stooped down and asked the prisoner if 'He was not sleepy.' Slover, somewhat astonished at such a question, and at such a time, replied in the affirmative. Half Moon then untied him, conducted him to a strong block house, pinioned his arms until the buffalo tig was buried in the flesh, and tying the other end to one of the beams of the house, left him under a strong guard, exhorting him to sleep soundly for that he must 'Eat fire in the morning. . . . . Slover escaped during the night and two days later reached the Ohio opposite Wheeling. McClung's account ends here. Butterfield stopped his at Mac-a-chack. Randall and Ryan stop at Wheeling. But Judge Rothert a recent writer in "Outlaws of Cave-inRock, page 108-9 relates that John Slover in 1799 was living on Canoe Creek south of Red Bank, Kentucky, (Henderson) about a mile from cabin occupied by Wiley and Macajah Harpe, fiendish murderers of probably forty or more persons of both sexes and every age including their own children. Rothert quotes the Draper mms. as to the Harpes trying to kill Slover while the latter was riding in from a bear hunt. Harpe's gun missed fire; Slover heard the snap and put spurs to his horse. The matter was reported to General Hopkins, Slover feeling the men were the notorious Harpes. Men were sent to watch the Harpe cabin but the Harpes changed clothes and masqueraded as Methodist ministers. They escaped temporarily. Slover was then about forty-six; his future problematical. John Bowman, brother of Joseph Bowman, the latter, second in command to George Rogers Clark in the Illinois campaign. John was lieutenant governor of Kentucky County while the latter was a portion of Virginia. He was a scion of the Shenandoah Valley Bowman (originally spelled Bauman according to A. B. Faust in "The German Element in the U. S." page 191) , John 378 - HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO Bowman commanded the expedition against Chillicothe (Old-town) Greene county, May, 1779. He outranked Boone in Kentucky and held the Civil authority as contrasted with the military position exercised by Clark. For ancestry see English's Conquest of the Northwest and Life of Clark." Arthur St. Clair. Born at Thurso, Scotland, 1734. Settled in Pennsylvania in 1764 following career as British army officer in French and Indian War. Officer in Continental Army, Revolutionary War. Unfortunate record at Ticonderoga. In Continental Congress, 1785-87. President of Congress, 1787. Governor of Northwest Territory, 1789, commander-in-chief of American Army, 1791. Defeated by Little Turtle at Fort Recovery, November 4, 1791. Removed by Jefferson from governorship, November 22, 1802. Had been charged by Tiffin, Worthington and Massie with being arbitrary, obstructive, practicing nepotism, contempt of Republican forms of government etc. Was removed on grounds of "intemperance and indecorum of language toward the Legislature of the U. S., and a disorganizing spirit." Federalist in politics. Opposed creation of Ohio state. Died in obscurity and poverty in 1818. Conceded to have been brave, honest and patriotic but tactless and unlucky. Governor Charles Anderson, of Dayton, born, Louisville, Kentucky, brother of Major General Robert Anderson of Fort Sumter fame, relative of John Marshall, chief justice; educated at Miami university; lawyer; elected state senator from Dayton, unpopular for fight to repeal "Black Laws." Removed to Cincinnati and later to San Antonio, 1859 ; arrested as supporter of Union, 1861; escaped to Mexico; became colonel Ninety-third 0. V. I. ; wounded at Murfeesborough (Stone River) elected lieutenant governor with John Brough; served a few months as governor after Brough died in office. Anderson HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO - 379 at one time during the war went to England to enlist public support for the Union. Justice John McLean, one time resident of Warren county. Born in Morris county, New Jersey. Educated in Cincinnati. Admitted to bar, 1807; Congressman, Ohio Supreme Court; commissioner of General Land Office; postmaster general; named by Jackson as associate justice of United States Supreme Court; held offices in all for fifty-one years; died 1861. Jedidiah Tingle, great grandfather of William E. Harmon of New York who made many benefactions in the name of his great grandfather. Tingle had a section of land one and one-half miles east of Lebanon. His house built in 1817, still stands. Died April 2, 1827. Thomas Hinkson, settler in Clinton County about 1807; came from Kentucky, originally from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Indian fighter; captain of company of rangers in War of 1812; did valuable work as scout and spy. Governor Joseph Vance of Champaign County; born, Washington County, Pennsylvania, March 21, 1786; died August 24, 1852 near Urbana. Emigrated to Ohio, 1801; settled in Champaign County, further building first log cabin in Urbana; militia officer at twenty-one ; officer in War of 1812 at twenty-six; resigned from Legislature to enlist; Legislature 1812-13-15; Congress, 1821-36; resigned to run for governor; defeated for second term as governor by Wilson Shannon; Congress, 1843-45; constitutional delegate, 1850. Bluff, direct personality; Scotch-Irish descent; favorite saying: "No beating about the bush ;" war service included guiding Hull's army; Whig in politics. 380 - HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO Governor Jeremiah Morrow, born October 6, 1771, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; settled at mouth of Little Miami, 1795; later moved to Warren County; territorial legislature, 1801; delegate to constitutional convention, 1802 ; Ohio senate, 1803 ; Congress, 1803 to 1813 ; United States senator, 1813-19; elected governor, 1822; re-elected; Congress, 1840; died March 22, 1853; Democrat in politics. How an Ohio statesman of that era lived is depicted by Bernard, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, who was guest of Governor Morrow in 1822: "The dwelling consists of a plain frame house situated on a little elevation not far from the Little Miami and is surrounded by fields. The business of the state calls him once a month to Columbus and the remainder of the time he passes at his country seat, occupied with farming; faithful copy of the ancient Cincinnatus. When seated around the chimney fire in the evening, he related to us many of the dangers and difficulties the first settlers had to contend with . . . . when we took our seats at the table, the governor made a prayer. There was a bible and several religious books lying upon the table." General Frederick Funston, born November 9, 1865, New Carlisle, Clark County, in the old Inn on the northeast corner of the Main Street and Jefferson Street. His father was an officer in the Civil war; educated in Kansas; reporter, Kansas City; assistant botanist on government expeditions; experience in Death Valley and Alaska; lecturer; coffee planter in Mexico; deputy railroad comptroller in New York City; entered employ of Cuban junta, 1896; drilled company which he took to Cuba, served under Gomez; wounded; captured; sentenced to death by Spanish; released and returned to United States. Had served in twenty-two engagements; colonel of Twentieth Kansas in Spanish-American war; served under Merritt at Manila; captured Aguinaldo, insurrectionist chief ; congressional medal of honor and brigadier- HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO - 381 generalship as reward; in command at San Francisco at time of earthquake; April, 1914, commanded American expedition against Vera Cruz; major general November 17, 1914; commander of Southern Department, 1915; March, 1916, in general command of the American border forces in pursuit of Villa. General Funston was married October 25, 1898 to Ida Blank-art. But for his sudden death, 1917, on the eve of the World War, Funston would have commanded the A. E. F. instead of Pershing.   The Wrights.—Wilbur, born in Indiana, April 16, 1867; died May 15, 1912; Orville, born August 19, 1871 at Dayton; sons of Bishop Milton Wright of the United Brethren Church; educated in Dayton schools; interest in aviation kindled by helicoptere toy which flew when propelled by the tension of a rubber band. Toy was presented by father and led to experiments with larger models, thence to kites. The brothers operated a printing press and later a bicycle shop in Dayton and were led to experiment with gliding by reading of the death of Lilienthal, the German who had attempted gliding with artificial wings. The Wrights sought a natural field for their experiments and went to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1900; by the second summer they could glide 300 to 400 feet. Their first flight with a power machine was made on December 17, 1903 and it lasted twelve seconds. Experiments were resumed in 1904 on a prairie east of Dayton ; September 28, 1905, the machine stayed up eighteen minutes and covered eleven miles. In 1908 the Wrights went abroad and on October 3, 1908 Wilbur made his first flight in Europe, Orville making a flight of over an hour's duration at Fort Myer the same month. The main contribution of the Wrights to aviation was in developing control of the wings and thereby attaining balance and direction of flight, also in the building of a light engine for their experiments. 382 - HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO By their making aviation a practical method of travel, the Wrights profoundly effected the history of the world both by the consequences in war and by their shortening of distance between countries. They made all the world neighbors and practically shrank the world to a tenth of its former size so far as war and travel were concerned. The conquest of the air is as profound a change as the discovery of America. It added a third dimension to man's world. Warren Gamaliel Harding, twenty-ninth president of United States, born, Blooming Grove, Morrow County, November 11, 1865; died August 2, 1923; first of eight children, son of George and Phoebe Dickerson Harding; educated at Ohio Central College, Iberia, 1879-82; farm, sawmill and railroad laborer; moved, 1882 to Marion; worked on Democratic Mirror, 1884; with Jack Warrick bought Marion Star. Harding was his own reporter, printer, advertising solicitor, and staff. For amusement, among other things, he played in the Marion cornet band; married Florence Kling, daughter of Marion banker, July 8, 1891; elected state senator, 1898; floor leader of the Foraker men; met Harry Daugherty in Columbus; elected lieutenant governor, 1902; nominated for governor 1910; defeated by Judson Harmon; made nominating speech for Taft at Chicago, 1912; elected United States senator, 1914; Harding was Keynoter at Republican convention, 1916; as senator opposed Wilson's Mexican policy; was for ship subsidy and protection; he signed the Lodge-Brandegee round robin for the separation of the war treaty and World Covenant; opposed the League of Nations; advocated separate peace with Germany. On the initial ballot at Chicago in 1920, Harding received sixty-five and a fraction votes then lost ground. Was decided upon for president at a conference in George Harvey's room in Hotel Blackstone; nominated over Leonard Wood, June 12, 1920; advocated high tariff; ship subsidy; restriction of immigration; HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO - 383 general deflation; association of nations; was elected president by 404 electoral votes to 127; popular vote, 16,152,000 to 9,147,000. Harding's grave at Marion is marked by a stately monument dedicated by President Herbert Hoover. Paul Laurence Dunbar, born Dayton, June 27, 1872; died February 9, 1906. Negro poet; educated public schools of Dayton and Steel High School; president of high school literary society and class poet. Went to work as elevator boy at $4 per week. Published "Oak and Ivy" 1893; "Majors and Minors," 1895; "Lyrics of Lowly Life," 1896; also four novels. For a short time was assistant librarian, Congressional Library. Married Alice Ruth Moore of New Orleans, March 6, 1898. Died of tuberculosis. Charles Warren Fairbanks, of Puritan and Abolition parentage, born 1852, Union Center, Union County; graduated Ohio Wesleyan, 1874 ; admitted to Ohio bar, 1874 ; married Cornelia Cole of Marysville, 1874 ; removed to Indiana and became interested in railroads and manufacturing; chairman of Republican state convention, 1892-1898; elected United States Senator from Indiana, 1897; member of the British-American Joint High Commission on Canadian boundary; re-elected to senate, 1903; elected vice president of the United States 1904; nominated for vice president in 1916 with Hughes. Fairbanks was the favorite son of Indiana in the Republican National Conventions of 1908 and 1916. During his life he was long a trustee of Ohio Wesleyan and held extensive manufacturing and financial interests in Springfield, Ohio, where many of his relation reside. John Hardin, born October 1, 1753, massacred May, 1792. Of Hueguenot stock, born, Farquier County, Virginia ; parents moved to Goose Creek, Pennsylvania, 1765 ; Ensign with Dunmore, 1774; wounded in McDonald's expedition; second lieuten- 384 - HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO ant, Continental army, later under Dan Morgan. Emigrated to Nelson County, Kentucky, 1786, quartermaster under Clark on Wabash expedition ; served in all Indian campaigns save St. Clair's. Commanded advance under Harmar and fought battle, court-martialed but exonerated ; later made brigadier-general; sent with flag of truce to Indians, murdered at Hardin, 0., while on mission. Hardin County named after him. James Middleton Cox, born March 31, 1870, Jacksonburg, Ohio; first work, newspaper and school teaching; reporter Cincinnati Enquirer; secretary to Congressman Paul Sorg; purchased Dayton News, 1898; Springfield Press Republic, 1903; Canton News, 1923; Miami Metropolis, 1923; converted to Miami News; Congressman from Dayton district, 1909-13; governor, 1913-15, and 1917-1921. His administration was signalized by provisions for the workingmen's compensation, state industrial commission, minimum wage and nine-hour law for women, mothers' pensions, blue sky law, initiative and referendum and state tubercular hospital. He was nominated for the presidency by the Democratic party at San Francisco, 1920, and espoused the cause of the League of Nations as a campaign issue. Defeated by Warren G. Harding. Named by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 to London monetary conference—named chairman of finance committee. Has left his stamp on Ohio in progressive legislation, conservation, flood control, was war governor, World War. He resides at Trail's End, Dayton. James Wilkinson, America's deepest dyed and perhaps most reprehensible traitor, was born in 1757 in Benedict, Maryland, and died an expatriate in Mexico, December 28, 1825. He was a medical student when the Revolution broke out. He served as captain under Benedict Arnold in the ill-fated Quebec campaign and was there associated with Aaron Burr. There is HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO - 385 something singular and sinister in the juxta-position of these three young men so early in their careers, their comradeship is suggestive that their common fate was written in a common character. Wilkinson was assigned to Gate's staff, June, 1776. Here Wilkinson perpetrated one of the most dastardly tricks in American history. John Hardin, after whom Hardin county was later named, penetrated the British lines at Bemis Heights and ascertained their weakness. On his return from his heroic and hazardous and self-appointed mission, he met Wilkinson making his rounds in the darkness of the night. Hardin confided his knowledge to Wilkinson who hurried to Gates and pretended he had made the night scout in person. Gates considered Wilkinson a hero since the information was invaluable. He sent the latter to Congress as bearer of tidings of the resulting victory and recommended him for a brigadier generalship. Later Wilkinson was deep in the Conway Cabal to supplant Washington by Gates. Some forty-nine brigadiers petitioned that Wilkinson's promotion be rescinded. Later he was clothier-general. After the Revolution he went to Lexington, Kentucky, and started trading. He contacted the Spanish and received a trading permission and a pension of $2,000 annually which he drew while commander-in-chief of the American Army. He attempted to lead Kentucky into secession to Spain but was thwarted by the Spanish contacting John Sevier who hurried the news to Isaac Shelby, the latter with Marshall blocked Wilkinson in the Kentucky constitutional convention of 1788. Wilkinson was made lieutenant-colonel to keep him out of mischief. He was a brigadier general in 1792 and rose to supreme command in 1796 when Wayne died. As governor of Louisiana in 1805 he plotted with Burr and then betrayed him, at least Burr branded Wilkinson as a partner. 386 - HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO Wilkinson was court-martialed in 1811. In 1813 he removed to Mexico. In West Central Ohio, he commanded the party that buried St. Clair's men, was second under Wayne and campaigned in Preble, Darke, Mercer, Van Wert, Auglaize counties among others. Calvin S. Brice, born September 17, 1845; died December 15, 1898; birthplace, Denmark, Morrow County, Ohio; father a minister, came from Maryland to Ohio, 1840; married Elizabeth Stewart of Carroll County. Calvin S. Brice was educated at Miami University; enlisted April 1, 1861; rejected April 15; served three months with colors, 1862; graduated June, 1863; taught school three months; then captain of Company E, One Hundred and Eightieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry; served until July, 1865; promoted to lieutenant colonel; admitted to bar at Cincinnati, 1866; corporation lawyer; railroad builder, 1870, Toledo to coal fields; president of Lake Erie and Western, 1870; brought L. E & W. R. R. and Dayton and Michigan R. R. shops to Lima; later organized Nickel Plate and built Chinese railroads. Brice was appointed chairman of the Democratic National Committee, 1889; elected United States Senator, 1890; married Catherine Olivia Meily of Lima, 1870. Rutherford Birchard Hayes, nineteenth president of the United States; born Delaware, October 4, 1822; died in Fremont, January 13, 1893. Father died prior to his son's birth; educated, at academy in Norwalk, Webb's preparatory school, Middletown, Connecticut, Kenyon College, Harvard Law School; admitted to bar, 1845; practiced law in Lower Sandusky until 1849; removed to Cincinnati; city solicitor, 1858-61. Commissioned major of Twenty-third O. V. I. on June 7, 1861; wounded at South Mountain, September 14, 1862; commanded two regiments in Morgan's Raid; fought at Cloyd Mt., HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO - 387 Berryville and Winchester; commanded Second Division, at Fisher's Hill; made brigadier-general for services at Cedar Creek; brevetted major general, March 13, 1865. Hayes was wounded six times in battle and had four horses killed under him. Elected to Congress, 1864; supported the impeachment of President Johnson; elected governor, 1867—re-elected, 1869; located at Fremont, 1873, intending to retire from public life; elected governor again in 1875; Republican candidate for presidency in 1876; dispute over election brought country to verge of civil war. Tilden, his opponent refused to bring the issue to the touch. Hayes was named by the electoral commission; he withdrew the troops from the South which was charged as part of the bargain. This restored to the South local government. Hayes was a sound money man and vetoed silver bill on the ground that the commercial value of silver in a silver dollar was less than the nominal value of the same; specie payment was restored during his administration. In private life Hayes ranks as one of the most straight laced of all the presidents. William Clark, born August 1, 1770; died September 1, 1838; younger brother of George Rogers Clark; served with Meriwether Lewis under Wayne to Fallen Timbers; started Lewis and Clark expedition, May 14, 1804 ; completed it, at St. Louis, September 23, 1806; Governor of Missouri, 1813; founder of Paducah, Kentucky, 1828. Campaigned in Preble, Darke, Mercer, Van Wert, Auglaize and other counties in 1793-94. Frank B. Willis, forty-fifth governor of Ohio; born, Delaware County, 1871, died at Delaware, in midst of campaign for presidential nomination, 1928. He was educated at Ohio Northern University; was member of seventy-fourth and seventy-fifth general assemblies; elected to Congress from tenth district, 1910 388 - HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO re-elected, 1912 ; elected governor, 1914 ; defeated by James M. Cox, 1916; Willis was again defeated for governor by Cox in 1918 but was nominated for senator and elected in 1920, and was re-elected in 1926. The tragedy of Willis's life came in 1928 when he attempted to stem the nomination of Herbert Hoover by holding Ohio to a favorite son. He succumbed at a homecoming at Delaware in the heat of the pre-primary campaign. When Willis fell, there fell with him all hope of the Dawes-Lowden coalition to hold Hoover's strength east of the Pennsylvania line. The industrial East swept over the agrarian West and the victory of Hoover in 1928 led to the falling away of the Western Republicans in 1932. History will yet place its finger on this preprimary fight as marking the beginning of the end of a political era in American history. O. M. Spencer, author of "Indian Captivity," was captured while a child, near Cincinnati. He wrote an account of Simon Girty's fight with Brant, also burning of Abner Hunt by Girty's Indians at Dunlop's Station in 1791. Spencer, aged eleven, captured July 3, 1792, taken north up through Clark County, fording Buck Creek and then Mad River in that county, going toward the Big Miami, must have passed through Moorefield, German and Pike townships, crossing the Miami near Sidney, over to the Auglaize, down that river, reaching the "Glaize" or mouth, July 13. He was left with an Indian squaw, and her two grandchildren, one a boy of ten, reputed to be son of Simon Girty by the then wife of George Ironside, the trader. Girty's son was called Simone by the grandmother, Ked-zaw-saw. Spencer was taken to see Blue Jacket and left description of chief as well as Simon Girty, who was present as was also Captain Snake. Spencer was taken to Detroit, February, 1793, by Captain Matthew Elliott. Spencer ate his last breakfast at James Girty's on the Glaize. Spencer afterwards became a minister. His "Indian Captivity" HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO - 389 is chiefly valuable for information about the appearance of Simon Girty, Blue Jacket and their whereabouts in 1792-3. William Cooper Howells and his son, W. D. Howells, the novelist, were one time residents of West Central Ohio. In the fall of 1839, the father came by way of Zanesville, Lancaster, Washington C. H. and Xenia to Dayton and thence to Hamilton by canal boat. Started paper. Recorded that slavery issue was beginning to arise as issue in West Central Ohio in 1840. Later the elder Howells moved to Dayton and bought an interest in the Dayton Transcript. Later the family managed some milling interests in the rural section around Dayton and moved to Jefferson, Ashtabula County, in 1852. The elder Howells left a biography which throws interesting light on the Ohio of 1820-40. Pioneers, he said, removed the plague of rattlesnakes by turning in hogs which were immune to the poison and placed a forefoot on the snake and proceeded to eat. Such hogs were more like wild beasts from ranging the wood. Andrew L. Harris, born November 17, 1835; died September 13, 1915; governor of Ohio from June 18, 1906, to January 11, 1909; elected lieutenant governor in 1905 and succeeded to governorship on death of John M. Pattison, the Democratic incumbent. Harris was a Republican. He enlisted in Civil War as private, rose to rank of colonel, commanded a brigade at Gettysburg, was wounded twice, brevetted brigadier general; state senator, 1865; representative, probate judge, 1885-1887; elected lieutenant governor with William McKinley, 1891; re-elected 1893; National Industrial Commission, appointee, 1898. Was dry and the fact favored his election while his running mate in 1905, Herrick, was defeated. He was defeated for governor in 1907 by Judson Harmon and retired to his home in Preble County. Due to the amendment of the state constitution in 1905, Pattison and Harris's term ran three years, 390 - HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO the change putting the elections in the future in the even numbered years. Harris's activities in behalf of county option in liquor matters helped to defeat him for governor in 1908. He was the last of the Civil War veterans to be governor. The McGuffey's—West Central Ohio youth were trained for three generations on McGuffey's Readers and competent teachers consider these old readers with their revisions the best ever used. They still linger in some communities. The McGuffey's touched West Central Ohio historically when Alexander McGuffey, father of William Holmes McGuffey, the creator of the readers, served St. Clair and Wayne as scouts. Hugh Fullerton in a magazine article claimed McGuffey and Duncan McArthur the future governor scouted the advance of St. Clair and ran thirty miles to warn him only to be disregarded. This McGuffey must have scouted through Preble, Darke, Mercer, Montgomery, Miami, Shelby, Auglaize and Van Wert counties. The first McGuffey in America was William, father of Alexander, a Scot who came to York, Pennsylvania, in 1772. Dr. John Knight, surgeon in Crawford's expedition, resident of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, surgeon's mate in Ninth Virginian, later known as Seventh Virginian, captured with Crawford; witnessed his death; escaped in Hardin County, at place near the Scioto, a short distance down the river from Kenton. Fled to Fort Pitt. Married October 14, 1784, to Polly Stephenson, daughter of Col. Richard Stephenson, step brother of William Crawford. Doctor Knight located in Shelbyville, Kentucky, was father of ten children ; died March 12, 1838. Knight was rewarded by a Federal pension. Gen. William Darke, after whom Darke County was named, was born, 1736, in Pennsylvania, and died November 20, 1801. He was a Revolutionary soldier, of tall, striking figure, rough HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO - 391 manners, frank, fearless, untutored; soldier in Braddock's expedition; taken prisoner at Germantown in Revolution; commanded two Virginian regiments at Yorktown; member of Virginia convention of 1788 and member of Virginian Legislature; leader of charge which broke Indian line at St. Clair's Defeat and opened way to escape, cleaving one Indian's skull with his sword in attempting to rescue Ensign Wilson. Captain Kirkwood, of Delaware, Revolutionary officer, killed at St. Clair's defeat; veteran of Camden, Guilford, C. H. Hobkirk's Hill, Ninety-Six and Eutaw Springs; killed in a bayonet charge. Favorite officer of Light Horse Harry Lee. Col. Robert Patterson, born 1754, was one of the founders of three cities, Lexington, Cincinnati and Dayton; soldier or officer in Dunmore's War; Clark's two Piqua expeditions, 1780 and 1782; in Bowman's expedition to Chillicothe, 1779, at Blue Licks Crossing massacre; one of the promoters of Transylvania University, 1785; member of Kentucky Legislature, 1792-98. Patterson helped drive the first horses and cattle into northern Kentucky in 1775, coming from Pittsburgh. The party encountered Simon Kenton who knew of no other white persons in the country. Patterson and his party built a cabin two miles from the future Lexington, Kentucky; helped build Fort McClellan at Georgetown, Kentucky; moved to Harrodsburg, January 30, 1777, from Georgetown, Kentucky; settled Lexington April, 1779; served in mounted volunteers against Wiaw Indians, June, 1791; September 6, 1788, advertised Cincinnati lots for sale. Patterson was to obtain the settlers, while Filson was to be publicity agent. He removed from Lexington to Dayton, 1804, and died August, 1827. Major George M. Bedinger, adjutant to Col. John Bowman, in Bowman's Expedition, 1779, against Chillicothe, Greene County. 392 - HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO Born, Shepherdstown, Virginia, 1755. Emigrated to Kentucky, 1779. Major at Battle of Blue Licks Crossing, 1782. Member of Kentucky Legislature, 1792. Congressman, 1803-07. Died December 7, 1843. Bedinger served in Revolution under Washington where he acquired military training. The Girtys—Thomas, Simon, James, and George, brothers, sons of Simon Girty, Irishman, and Mary Newton, English woman. Their home was at Chamber's Mills, on the east side of the Susquehanna River, in Pennsylvania. They were captured by Indians at Fort Granville, Pennsylvania, August 1, 1756. Thomas was a captive only forty days. Simon was taken to the Senecas, James to the Shawnees, and George to the Delawares. Thomas was born in 1739; Simon, 1741; James, 1743 ; George, 1745. The three younger boys were exchanged by Indians in 1759. Simon became an interpreter at Fort Pitt, James a laborer and interpreter, George an Indian trader. Simon, scout for Dunmore, in 1774, took Logan's speech to Gibson and Dunmore, and was made second lieutenant in the Virginia Militia. Simon was sent, in 1775, with James Wood as emissary by Virginia to Ohio Indians, and hired as American interpreter at Fort Pitt in 1776. February 6, 1778, George Girty was made second lieutenant in the Willing expedition down the Mississippi. In February, 1778, Simon took part in the Hand expedition against Ohio Indians. March 28, 1778, Simon Girty deserted, in company with McKee and Elliott, to the British, leaving Fort Pitt for Detroit. James Girty, meeting Simon at the Scioto towns, confiscated American goods entrusted to him for Indians and joined the British. Simon became interpreter for the British at two dollars per day. Sent to the Mingoes, later to Wyandottes. Simon and James go on first war path into Kentucky in the fall of 1778. Simon, returning, rescues Simon Kenton at Wapatomica in the fall of 1778. Simon was active around Fort Laurens in 1779. HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO - 393 May 4, 1779, George deserted and arrived at Detroit August 8, 1779. October 4, 1779, Simon and George were in an attack on the David Rogers party. All three brothers were in the Bird expedition to Kentucky, in June, 1780. James and George were at the Battle of Piqua, August 8, 1780. Simon goes to the Wyandottes, 1781. Saves Henry Baker, a boy captive. George Girty and Joseph Brant led Indians at massacre of Lochry's men, at mouth of the Big Miami, in 1781. Simon and George were at Crawford's defeat, June 4-5, 1782. Simon was at Crawford's burning. James, George and Simon were at Wapatomica council, in June, 1782. Simon and George go with Caldwell to siege of Bryan's Station and Blue Licks battle, August 17, 1782. James Girty with Bradt to siege of Wheeling, September, 1782. Simon married Catharine Malott, 1784, settled in Canada below Amherstburg. Simon active under McKee in stirring up Indians, 1784 to 1790. Simon aided the cause of Mary Moore, captive girl, 1786-7. Simon ransomed Mrs. Thomas Cunningham, a captive woman, 1785. On January 9, 1791, Simon leader at siege of Dunlap's Station, Hamilton County, Ohio. George probably was present at siege. Simon at St. Clair's defeat, November, 1791. June 25, 1792, Simon captured and killed party of soldiers at Fort Jefferson, Darke County. 0. M. Spencer, July, 1792, finds half-breed son of Simon among Indians in Maumee Valley, a stepson of George Ironsides, a trader, mother a Mohawk. October, 1792, Simon, only white man admitted to grand council of the Glaize. June 30, 1794, Simon at attack on Fort Recovery, last battle against Americans in which Simon participated. James located as trader at Loramie's ; moved in 1783 to St. Mary's, Auglaize County. Married Betsey, a Shawnee woman. Moved in 1790 on approach of Harmar to Fort Wayne, later to Defiance. On the approach of Wayne, in 1794, James fled to Detroit and then to Essex County, Canada. George after Battle of Blue Licks resided at Buckongahelas town on Mad 394 - HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO River in Logan County. In 1796 Simon boasted he would stay in Detroit until the American soldiers came in sight. He did and swam his horse across the Detroit River and escaped. He located in Malden Township, Essex County. His last child was born in October, 1797, and Simon and his wife soon after separated. He broke an ankle in 1800 while displaying his activity in jumping a fence. In 1811 Simon's eyes failed. After Harrison's victory at the Thames, Simon fled to the Mohawks on Grand River, Canada. George died of a drunken debauch, two miles below Fort Wayne, about 1811. He married a Delaware squaw and had several children. He was the bravest of the Girtys. James traded with Indians on the Maumee until the War of 1812. His last post was Girty's Point, five miles below Defiance. James died April 15, 1817, in good circumstances. He was tall, lithe but of saturnine countenance. Simon died February 18, 1818, yielding to his wife's prayers that he beg pardon for his sins. He was buried with military honors from the British at Malden. Simon was about five feet nine, black haired, eyes black and piercing, round full face, short neck, heavy build, very agile. Thomas died November 3, 1820, in Pennsylvania. His wife, a loyal American, raised a respectable family. John Turner, the half-brother, died May 20, 1840, well to do and upright. Simon's children lived respectable lives. Mrs. Simon Girty died in 1852. Every one of the twenty-two counties of West Central Ohio must have been traversed numerous times by each of the three Girtys. The period when they acquired their infamous reputation was between 1778 and 1795. During this time, in the main, James and George resided in this section, while Simon was at one time resident at Solomontown, Logan County. In short, the Girtys in West Central Ohio were the counterbalance and foil to such men as Boone, Kenton, and Logan in Central Kentucky. HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO - 395 George possessed the most military ability, James was the -best business man, and Simon the most active emissary of the trio. George is to be rated the bravest, James the cruelest, and Simon the most merciful. Simon was no more cruel or ruthless than the Wetzels or such men as Hugh McGary on the American side. Simon was with war parties where white women and children were killed. There is no indisputable record that Simon in person ever killed either women or children. His prominence made him the scapegoat of the frontier imagination. He was not a white savage, a merciless fiend ; he changed sides under the influence of friends at a time when loyalty was a mooted question. He had sworn loyalty to the King as an officer, and many men were vacillating in their allegiance, even men whose reputation as patriots has been since loudly proclaimed. Simon Girty was cruel, brutal, at times drunken, illiterate, but capable of friendship, loyal to friends, possessed of a degree of bravery, was not unprepossessing in appearance, but rather the contrary, and it should be remembered he had been subjected to savage influences at his formative period, lived in a crude, rough, wartime period. In his black career there were streaks of mercy. He was not the fiend incarnate that American tradition has pictured. The Girtys are historically to be allocated to West Central Ohio as their residence and center of activities in their prime. Alexander McKee, tory, deputy agent of Indian affairs under Sir William Johnson; man of property near Fort Pitt; born in Pennsylvania, east of mountains; Indian trader with Alexander Ross, 1768-1772 ; justice of the peace, 1771; appointed deputy agent, 1772; put under parole by Virginians, April 9, 1776; confined, 1777; rumor that Americans were to be murdered in West caused his confinement; broke parole in March, 1778; fled to Detroit; made captain and Indian agent; lived at McKee's Town, Logan County; instigator of Indian outrages; escheated of prop- 396 - HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO erty in Kentucky as traitor, 1780; located in Canada after close of Indian wars. Matthew Elliott, Irishman, Indian trader from Fort Pitt; messenger sent by Shawnees to Dunmore asking for peace; Indians seized goods in Muskingum County, in October, 1776; fled to Detroit in March, 1777; arrested by Governor Hamilton in Detroit as spy (probably a concerted blind) ; sent to Quebec as prisoner; paroled in 1778; returned to Fort Pitt (probably as secret British agent to contact Alexander McKee) ; companion of McKee in Indian supervision, rank of captain; active at Crawford's defeat; at Wapatomica council and Bird's expedition; organized Indians for St. Clair's defeat and Fallen Timbers; located near Malden, Canada ; had property destroyed by Kentuckians; in War of 1812 in Thames campaign; superior to Girtys in rank, education, means, and possibly in character. Ben Logan, father Irish, married Irish girl in Pennsylvania; moved to Augusta County, Virginia; Ben Logan born there about 1742; father died when Logan was fourteen; refused family estate under primogeniture; at twenty-one moved to banks of Holston, where he was married; in Dunmore War, 1774; sergeant under Henry Boquet, 1763, aged twenty-one. In 1775 he took slaves to Powell's Valley, Tennessee, met Boone; separated from Boone on Wilderness Road ; erected his fort in Lincoln County, Kentucky; moved family to Kentucky in 1776; placed family at Harrodsburg; moved family to Logan's Station, spring of 1777. Siege of station, May 20, 1777 (see Collins, Vol. 2, p. 483). Second in command under Bowman in Chillicothe expedition to Green County, Ohio, in June, 1779; second in command under Clark in 1780 Piqua campaign; destroyed Loramie's Post in Shelby County, Ohio, in November, 1782; second Clark campaign; commanded expedition to Mac-a-chack towns, Logan County, Ohio, in October, 1786; raised rescue party to bury dead at Blue HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO - 397 Licks, in August, 1782; delegate to first Kentucky constitutional convention, and again to same in 1799; Logan County, Ohio, named in his honor; saw military service in Hamilton, Warren, Greene, Clark, Champaign, Logan, Shelby, Montgomery, Preble, Clinton, Brown and Highland counties in Ohio. (See McClung's Western Adventures and Collins, Vol. 2, p. 482.) Washington in 1790 appointed Logan a member of the board of war in the West; later he was appointed brigadier-general of state militia. In 1795 he was defeated for governor by James Garrard. He died in 1802, having acquired wealth. He was buried at Shelbyville, Kentucky. His son, William, became United States senator from Kentucky. J. Morton Howell, minister to Egypt; born in Uniopolis, Auglaize County, March 17, 1863, son of Joseph and Jane (Miller) Howell; graduated from Starling Medical College; practiced medicine in Washington Court House and Dayton; present at the opening of the tomb of Tut-Ankh-Amen ; appointed to Egyptian post by President Harding, October 7, 1921; returned and finally located at Bellefontaine. Jonathan Alder, born in New Jersey, September 17, 1773 ; emigrated to Virginia when seven years old; captured at eight while hunting horses in woods; taken to Mad River, probably Logan County, by Mingoes; ran the gauntlet of children armed with switches; adopted by Succohanos, Mingo chief; Indian mother, Whinechech; suffered from Indian diet chiefly meat and hominy, salt scarce; remained with Indians until Greenville treaty; nearly forgot English ; had married squaw; returned to Greenbrier, Virginia, and found mother and family; his mother's first words were "How you have grown." Alder fought with the Indians at Fort Recovery and was at Mac-a-chack when it was destroyed. He left an account of Indian customs. 398 - HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO Alder settled in Madison County and later in Union County, at Plain City. He was captain of militia in the War of 1812 and built a blockhouse, the only fort ever in Union County. This was on Mill Creek, three miles north of Marysville, and thirty-two miles northwest of Columbus. He died in 1849 in Madison County and was buried in Foster Chapel Cemetery. Abel Janney; author of diary giving account of Wapatomica in Crawford's time; captured March 12, 1782, at mouth of Kanawha, on Ohio side; arrived at Wapatomica March 20; witnessed torture of James Whart; conversed with Crawford's son-in-law, William Harrison; escaped August 2; recaptured August 8; lived four days on blackberries; killed wolf, stripped entrails and roasted them on fire, last food for one and one-half days; carried through Sandusky towns to Detroit; handed over to British; prisoner of war near Montreal; released in July, 1783, and returned to Virginia. His diary is valuable as supplying information on Crawford's men not otherwise known. Asa S. Bushnell, born at Rome, New York, September 16, 1834; died at Columbus, January 15, 1904; buried in Ferncliff Cemetery, Springfield, Ohio. The family first lived in Connecticut; later in Rome, New York, Cincinnati, and Oberlin. Asa S. Bushnell came to Springfield at sixteen years of age and became a clerk and bookkeeper; entered employ of Wrader, Brokaw & Child in 1857; married Ellen Ludlow, 1857; druggist from 1857 to 1867; returned to Wrader, Brokaw & Child, 1867; president of company, 1886, then called Warder, Bushnell & Glessner. Bushnell was captain in the 100-day men in 1864; chairman of the state Republican convention, 1885; refused lieutenant-governor nomination in 1887; quartermaster general on Governor HISTORY OF WEST CENTRAL OHIO - 399 Foraker's staff for four years; elected governor, 1896-1898; reelected, 1898-1900. Bushnell was a man of amiable, genial appearance, handsome and affable. His business career was so successful that at his death his fortune was estimated at $8,000,000. His political career, however, was signalized by two excessively bitter feuds, first with General J. Warren Keifer, ex-speaker of the House of Representatives. Bushnell's wealth in a day when wealth was wholly predominate made him the dictator of his district. Between Keifer and him it was a question of military prestige versus wealth, and wealth won; Keifer had been speaker in a House which contained Reed, Cannon, Garfield and McKinley. Due to the political feud with Bushnell, Keifer was kept at home while his lieutenants went on to national dominance. The second feud was Bushnell's Waterloo. Bushnell had always been a Foraker lieutenant. When Marcus Hanna steered McKinley to the presidency in 1896 he achieved a political power no man had ever held in America before or since. Hanna wanted the United States senatorship held by John Sherman, who resigned to become secretary of state. Bushnell held the appointive power and his friends wanted him to resign and let the lieutenant-governor name Bushnell as senator. Terrific pressure was brought upon Bushnell from both the Foraker and the Hanna factions. Delegations from Springfield were brought in by Hanna to intimidate Bushnell. Dr. Diamond, Bushnell's son-in-law, related that Hanna went so far as to tell Bushnell personally, "You . . . you will take what we give you." Bushnell never recovered from the humilition. He kept quiet in the terrific Hanna-McKisson fight over the senatorship in 1898, which was the most bitter, vindictive, fierce, relentless, vitriolic one in the history of the state. Charges of corruption, coercion, fraud, bribery, intimidation filled the press of the state. It was one of those unsavory contests which about that time disgusted the public