|
280 - HISTORY OF ROSS AND HIGHLAND COUNTIES, OHIO JEFFERSON. This township lies on the east bank of the Scioto river, opposite the township of Franklin, and in the southeastern corner of the county. From it was created Liberty, now the township next north of it, in the winter of the years 1832 and 1833. On three sides it is bounded by straight lines, intersecting each other at right angles. The northern boundary is about seven and a half miles in length, the eastern five and one-third, the southern four and two-thirds. The western boundary being formed by the Scioto river, shares the irregularity noted of the eastern limit of Franklin township, and is not far from six and a half miles, in its devious windings. The interior is not unlike that of other tracts bordering upon the Scioto, whose character has already been sufficiently defined. Pilot knob, an eminence of some elevation, is near the Jackson county line. Salt creek, which divides the township nearly in halves, with a general east and west course, is a considerable stream, affording abundant water-power at Richmond, to which place it was formerly navigated by flat-boats from the Scioto, into which it flows. It derives its name from the characteristic of its water, from which, near the sources of the stream, in Jackson county, much salt was taken in earlier days, and along which were numerous "deer-licks." Two branches, the Pigeon Roost and another, enter it from the south, within the bounds of this township. Another, but quite insignificant stream, the Walnut creek, intersects the northwest part. Across the northeastern part, for about two and one-fourth miles, stretch the tracks of the Cincinnati & Marietta railroad, intersected when nearly across by the line of a new narrow-gauge road, the extension of the Dayton & Southeastern railway, following the river more closely until near Richmond, when it makes off rapidly into the interior. The Chillicothe and Richmond turnpike, lying wholly upon the lowlands of the valley, has four and one-third miles of its length within this township. The town is not rich in ancient works, though mounds frequently occur. Near the county bridge, however, upon the extensive farm of Mr. Smiley Caldwell, is a remarkable, and if a genuine substructure, a unique remain, which must probably be referred to the period of the Mound Builders, since the first pioneer who struck his plow through it, Mr. Jacob Rittenour, found a large beech tree growing upon its site. It is apparently a foundation of dressed stone, about four rods square, and containing such amount of material that, although a great deal has been taken away to enter into the construction of neighboring buildings, so much is left, that the space it encloses has to be neglected by the plowman, and has grown up to a thick clump of weeds and brush. Near Richmond, leaden balls, of later, but still somewhat ancient make, and doubtless marking the spot of a fierce and unrecorded conflict, are found in considerable quantity. The northern half of the township is mostly occupied in large landholdings ; the south is held in smaller tracts, and is rather more numerously populated. By the census of x879, the township contained one thousand and thirteen inhabitants; the village of Richmond, two hundred and twenty seven. This region was originally settled along the margins of Salt creek, mainly in the vicinity of Richmond, in or about the year 1798, by colonists from North Carolina, among whom the Coxes, Hinsons, and Moffits were conspicuous. By members of the family last named, a large grist-mill was built on the west side of Salt creek, in the first decade of this century, which still stands in full use upon the original site. This led, in 1811, to the laying off of a village plat including it, by John and Joshua Moffitt (to whom Jeremiah Moffitt seems afterwards to have been joined in proprietorship). The first deeds conveying property in it name the place as " New Richmond ;" the record of the town plat, October 31, 1812, has "Moffitt's Town" upon the margin; subsequent instruments, late maps, and other documents, carry the name as "Richmond;" and when a post-office was established there in 1816, it was obliged, by the existence of another Richmond in the State, to take the title "Richmond Dale," which it bears to this day. Long ere the latter year, the valleys of the Salt creek and the Scioto were filling with pioneers. The Meekers, Minears, Strattons, and others, had come in from Connecticut ; and, on the fertile tracts north of the present Richmond, were Anthony Rittenour, who came with a numerous family from Frederick county, Virginia, and settled in 1803 ; Dexter Higby, who dates in this region from 1812; Captain James Hampsen, who kept the first tavern on the Chillicothe and Richmond turnpike, and whose stone dwelling, built in 1807, fell in ruin but a year or two ago; Ned Dawson, and Leonard his son, who settled at the present county bridge, and whose old house still stands, the nearest building to that structure at the east end ; two young men, Adam Sell and Jacob Aid, who came with Rittenour and became permanent settlers; and many others, among whom, here, or south and east of Salt creek, may be named Jacob Sigler and his son George, from Frederick county, Virginia; Daniel Boyer, first settler of the Dawson place; Elisha Carpenter; John HISTORY OF ROSS AND HIGHLAND COUNTIES, OHIO - 281 Boots, one of the first blacksmiths, if not the first, in the township; Joshua, John, and Richard O'Dell; the Rays, Graveses, Wards, Pepperses, and other families. John Griffith, builder and proprietor, in 1825, of the tannery which he managed until a very recent period near Richmond, became a settler in 1815. One exceedingly interesting relic of the pioneers still survives, in the person of Mr. Jacob Rittenour, the last remaining of the children (Henry, George, Jacob, Eva, Frederick, William, and Margaret in order of age) of Anthony Rittenour before mentioned. He is now (Christmas, 1879) almost ninety-three years of age, having been brought to the township when a boy of seventeen is still in quite vigorous health, has good hearing, and converses upon topics concerning the early day with a great deal of clearness and readiness of memory. He is the only survivor of his generation of the honored pioneers of Jefferson township. John Ratcliff qualified to the office of justice of the peace for Jefferson township, April 1, 1811, to serve three years. John Graves also qualified to the same office, April 6, 1812, to serve three years. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH, CAPTAIN JACOB CALDWELL. Jacob, oldest child and son of Smiley and Eva (Rittenour) Caldwell, was horn on his father's farm in Jefferson township, October 16, 1829. His father and mother were both descended from pioneer families of that region, numerous representatives of whom yet remain upon or near the old homes. He received his primary education in the schools of the neighborhood, and spent three terms at the Ohio Weslyan university, Delaware. Apart from this absence, he remained upon his father's farm, assisting in its labors, until October 28, 1850, when he was married to Miss Huldah Hurd, of Portage county, who had been engaged in teaching in that part of Ross county. After marriage he assumed personal charge of a fine tract of five hundred acres, presented to him by his father, in the north part of Scioto county, near the present Wetmore station, on the Scioto Valley railroad, where his family still reside. He proved a good farmer, and conducted his operations successfully until the outbreak of the war, when he heard the call of his country to the field, and obeyed. He joined at first a company of independent cavalry, designed mainly for practice and such home service as might be necessary in the progress of events, and was made its commanding officer. Not content, however, with this limited field of action, he raised, in the summer of 1862, and in a single fortnight, under the large calls of the president for that year, a company of infantry, and tendered its services to Governor Brough, by whom he was commissioned captain. It became Company C, the color company of the Ninety-first regiment of Ohio volunteers. It went into camp on the tenth of August, and shortly after, moved with its regiment to the field. With it he served gallantly and efficiently in the campaigns in West Virginia and Maryland, receiving a slight wound in the battle of Winchester, until the summer of 1864, when he was taken seriously ill with flux and general debility, in consequence of the hardships of the campaign of that year in the valley of the Shenandoah. He refused to return home on account of the possible moral effect upon his men of his abandonment of the field, but had soon to be taken to the sanitary hospital at Frederick city, Maryland, where he died August 9, 1864. His body was embalmed, and brought home for burial in the cemetery near his early home in Jefferson. The officers of his regiment passed a resolution testifying their "sincere regret at the loss of one whom we all so highly esteemed for his patriotism, valor, gentlemanly bearing, and high, social and liberal deportment among us," and to their "heartfelt sympathy for the irreparable loss of so kind, so noble, and so generous a son, husband and father." The Portsmouth (Ohio) Tribune, published at the county-seat of Scioto county, in a notice of his death, said : " His motives in entering the army were purely patriotic, and in doing so, he left one of the best farms and most comfortable homes in the county. He was just in the prime of life, and possessed of all its comforts." He was, we may add, extremely popular with his men, as with his fellow-citizens generally, and in all respects in good reputation. His widow still survives, and occupies the farm with her children : Smiley Anson, now a man grown and married; Jennie H., and Robert Brooks. Another son, Edwin Hurd, died in infancy. |