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CHAPTER XLIV.
MUSKINGUM TOWNSHIP.
The Township in Embryo-Boundaries Defined in 1861 by Legislative Act-Part of Union Annexed-The Muskingum’s Influence on Physical features-Wolves Troublesome-Piscatorial Amusements-The Last Beaver-Donation Lots Drawn-The River a Refuge-A Blockhouse built-Pioneers of Rainbow-First Settlement in Wiseman's Bottom-The Virginia Squatter-First Orchard Planted Under Difficulties-Growth of the Community-First Schools and Teachers-A Singing School-An Old Subscription Paper-The Only Church-Pioneer Burying-Grounds-The Putnam Monument-Jonathan Devol's Floating Mills-Stationary Mills-Ships on the Muskingum-Children's Home Established-Mrs. Ewing's Home-An Organization of Farmers.
THE territory now comprised in this township was originally a part of Adams township as established by the court of quarter sessions convened at Marietta in March, 1797. From time to time since that early day the several norlhern townships have come into existence by the crumbling away of old Adams, and prior to the year 1861, Muskingum township was in an embryonic state within the confines of Marietta, Fearing and Union townships.
ESTABLISHMENT.
April 18, 1861, the Ohio legislature passed the following bill:
AN ACT
To erect the township of Muskingum in Washington county.
SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, That the territory now constituting parts of the townships of Marietta, Union, and Fearing, in the county of Washington. and bounded as follows, to wit: Beginning at a point on the Muskingum river, where the same is intersected by the west line of a seventy-eight acre lot, numbered sixteen, in Bear Creek allotment of donation lands, running thence south on said line to the southwest corner of said lot numbered sixteen, thence west to the northwest corner of an eighty-five acre lot, numbered twenty-two, in Rainbow Creek allotment of donation lands, thence south on the west line of said lot numbered twenty-two, to the north line of Wiseman's bottom allotment of the donation lands, thence east on said line to the Muskingum river, thence down said river on the west bank thereof the same is intersected by the west line of one hundred and sixty acre lot, numbered four hundred, thence south on said line and its continuation to the south line of township numbered three, in range numbered eight, thence east on said line to the east bank of the Muskingum river, thence down said river to the south line of commons lot numbered twenty-eight, thence northeasterly along the corporation line of the city of Marietta to the southwest corner of commons lot numbered seventeen, thence easterly along the south line of commons lot numbered seventeen, to the southwest corner of commons lot numbered twelve, thence easterly along the south line of commons lot numbered twelve, to the southwest corner of commons lot numbered fourteen, thence north on line of original survey to the south line of Fearing township, thence east on said line to the east line of three acre rot numbered three hundred and two, thence north on the east line of a range of three acre lots numbered three hundred and eighty-nine, thence west to the east line of section numbered twenty-five in township numbered three, of range eight, thence north on the section line to the south line of Salem township, thence west on said township line to Bear creek, thence down said creek to the Muskingum river, thence up said river to a point due north of the place of beginning, thence south across the river to the place of beginning, be and the same is hereby erected and constituted into a new township to be designated as Muskingum township, and that the eastern boundary of Union township, the western boundary of Fearing, and the northern boundary of Marietta township be so changed as to conform to the lines of said Muskingum township.
SECTION II. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after the date of its passage.
Thus, were the boundaries of the new township defined, and then as now Muskingum was bounded on the north by Adams and Salem, on the east by Fearing and Marietta, on the south by Marietta city and township, and Warren, and on the west by Watertown.
ORGANIZATION.
The records show that the first election for officers in the new town of Muskingum was held at the schoolhouse in sub-district number two of said township, December 28, 1861, the judges of the election being Augustine Dyar, William Devol, and C. F. Stacy. After balloting the following named persons were declared elected : Abraham Zellers, Augustine Dyer, and C. F. Stacy, trustees; Wesley Combs, clerk; James Ward, treasurer; A. D. C. Stacy, and John Gerhart, constables; J. P. Devol, . and Smith Bartlett, justices of the peace; A. R. Stacy, R. Fearing, A. Dyar, Daniel Wilking, and Jacob Wagner, board of education.
At succeeding annual elections the following officers were chosen:
TRUSTEES.
1862, A. Zellers, Jacob Schramm, J. Stacy; 1863, A. Zellers, Jacob Schramm, A. Dyar; 1864, Anthony Smilh, A. R. Stacy, George Matthews; 1865, John Gerhart, A. Smith, William Devol; 1866, John Gerhart, A. S. Marshal, W. Devol; 1867, J. B. Dyar, Theodore Devol, Levi Bartlett; 1868, R. . Alden, George Wagner, Levi Bartlett; 1869, R. . Alden, Jacob Oesterle, Levi Bartlett; 1870, 0. J. Wood, Jacob Oesterle, Levi Bartlett; 1871, Joseph Dyar, Jacob Oesterle, L. Bartlett; 1872, A. Dyar, A. R. Stacy, S. S. Olney; 1873, . A. Wood, Jacob Spies, S. S. Clney; 1874, John Gerhart, J. Strecker, S. S. Olney; 1875, George Gesterle, J. Strecker, S. S. Olney; 1876, A. Dyer, A. Smith. Charles Weinheimer; 1877, S. S. Stowe, A. Smith, C. Weinheimer; 1878, M. A. Stacy, A. Smith, C. Weinheimer; 1879, G. P. Smith, A. Smith, C. Weinheimer; 1880, G. P. Smith, Jacob Neu, A. Dyar.
CLERKS.
1862-7, W. D. Devol; 1866-75, James Weeks; 1875-80, James Weeks; 1880-1, James Weeks.
TREASURERS.
1862-7, James Ward; 1867-75, James Ward; 1875-80, W. D. Devol; 1880-1, M. A. Stacy.
* Mr. Ward dying during his term of office. John Strecker was appointed.
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The elections are now held at Grimm's wagon shop at Union landing, on the Muskingum river.
AN ADDITION.
At the June session of the board of county commissioners in 1877, a petition was presented by Matthew Jurden and others, praying for the dissolution of Union Township, and at the regular session of the commissioners in December, 1877, the following was ordered:
The petitioners having made application at the June session of An for the partition of Union township among the townships of Adams, Muskingum, Warren and Watertown, and the board being of opinion that it is necessary and expedient that the prayer of said petitioners be granted, hereby order that said Union township be divided, and annexed to the adjoining townships as follows: . . . . . to Muskingum—the territory beginning at the northeast corner of one hundred and sixty acre rot No. 392, west to the northwest corner of said lot No. ape, thence north to Wisemansis bottom, thence west to the southwest corner of Wiseman's bottom, thence east to the Muskingum river, thence following the course of the Muskingum to the northeast corner of one hundred and sixty acre lot No. 413, thence south to the place of beginning, containing section eight, one hundred and sixty acre lot No. 413, part of Donation line (lot No. 48), and all of Wisemansis bottom allotment that lies in Union township.
It was further ordered that the above go into effect April 1, 1878, and that the boundary of the township of Muskingum be so changed as to conform to that given above.
THE NAME OF THE TOWNSHIP
is very naturally and very appropriately derived from the beautiful Muskingum river, which meanders through its whole longitudinal extent, and keeps ferlile the garden spots along its banks.
PHYSICAL FEATURES.
The surface of the township is greatly diversified. The course of the Muskingum river has greatly influenced the contour of the land on either side. The eastern and western boundaries of the township embrace rugged hills which gradually slope towards their common central valley, which has been marked out in sinuous course among the surrounding uplands and hill country. The ascent from the river to the terminal hills is by four distinct steps, which are generally apparent. Including the river from Marietta on the south to Bear creek on the north, the township contains a large area of the immediate valley of the Muskingum. In places this valley or bottom land is scarcely perceptible. However, there are considerable areas of broad low lands extending first on one side and then on the other. The three abrupt bends in the course of the river indicate the boundaries of as many areas of plain land, and especially is it true of the two northerly intervals, that they are the garden spots of the township and hence the centres of thriving agricultural communities.
The first and most northerly curve of the river bears so strong a resemblance to the bow in the clouds that the included district was early called the Rainbow territory. Immediately south of this land and only separated from it by the waters of the Muskingum, Is a stretch of bottom land which took the name Wiseman's bottom from its first settler. Still further south is a smaller stretch of lowland. The first two areas are from one-half to nearly mile wide. Opposite these respective bottoms the hills approach very nearly to the water's edge as if jealous of their sister lowland. One step back from the first bottoms will be found a slightly more elevated region known as the second bottom, which swells into the higher plain land beyond, which in turn borders the outstretching slopes of the hill land. The hill country is very much broken and consists of alternate swells and falls. The hills vary in height and are separated by deep hollows through which run small streams of water, many of which are fed by springs, especially abundant in the northeastern part of the townAip. Many of these hills are symmetrically moulded by nature's hand, and there are numerous mounds very suggestive of the artificial. Towards the western boundary the hills are not as prominent as on what is known as the ridge, which extends north and south along the western line.
The general tendency of the various branching watercourses is in a southerly direction toward the Muskingum river.
SOIL.
The bottoms consist of rich alluvions deposited by the river. The soil is of the richest quality. Adjacent to these are the second bottoms, of a thinner soil, and of a more loamy or sandy character. The plain land immediately adjacent to the hills has a gravelly soil. It is not expedient to attempt to determine which of the two bottoms, Rainbow or Wiseman's, is the more productive, inasmuch as they vie with each other for the palm. Both are very fertile and are consequently very productive, and are clear of timber. The uplands afford a fertile, clayey soil well adapted to the culture of wheat and all the small grains. The hill-tops which in the early days of settlement were regarded as little more than sterile obstructions have, by reason of the industry of the farmer, been crowned with golden harvests and dotted with grazing cattle. The bottom land averages in value fifty dollars per acre; and the lowest valuation is set on the hill land, which is worth from twenty-five down to ten dollars an acre.
Wheat is the staple production, corn being raised principally for home consumption. In the territory among the hills, and distant from the markets the raising of stock is made a specialty, and especial attention is paid to sheep raising where the soil is adapted to pasturage.
Throughout the whole territory of the township great pains are taken to raise fruit. The stipulation in the early allotment of land that fruit trees be set out has left a lasting impression on the settlers, and consequently fruit is now abundant.
The uplands and hill slopes are covered with a growth of beech and sugar trees, which the higher elevations and tops of the hills are heavily clothed with forests, principally of white oak. At the time of the first settlement when there was such a scarcity of salt for culinary operations, it was thought that there were saline indications near the entrance of March run from the east, into the Muskingum. The deer, by congregating in that vicinity, suggested the presence of a "salt-lick." A man named Miller, from McConnelsville, was employed to bore a well, and for a number of years the remnants of
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the machinery then used might have been seen along the shores of the creek.
Along the eastern ridge of the township there are indications of the presence of coal, although not in quantities sufficient to warrant mining. Coal has been found on the land of John Spies, in the northern extremity of the township; also not far from the residence of B. F. Dyar in section seven. A thin seam of coal has been discovered on the land of Jacob Sutter on Second creek.
In the bed of this last named stream abundant modules of rich iron ore are found, which have been used in the puddling furnaces in the Marietta rolling mill.
NATIVE ANIMALS.
Originally, the forests bordering the Muskingum teemed with almost every variety of wild animals which are native of this western country. Before the advent of the white man, the Indians, in passing up and down the river, would turn aside to indulge in their favorite sport. These native nimrods rapidly scaring the abundant game from their native haunts, when the settlers arrived the buffalo had disappeared, and bears and panthers were scarce; but wolves, deer, and wild turkey, besides smaller game, were yet plenty.
The early settlers of Muskingum were frequently disturbed by the inroads of wolves among their cattle, but seldom had cause to fear for their personal safety, although at times lonely travellers had to run for their lives. It is related, that at one time a fiddler was en route down the Muskingum for Marietta, where he was to preside at some jollification, and when several miles above town, was attacked by a pack of wolves and forced to take to a tree and there fiddle for his life until the first gray streaks of early dawn.
Deer and wild turkeys kept the larder well supplied with fresh meat, while the waters of the Muskingum were overstocked with hundreds of the finny tribe, which furnished no small part of the animal food of the early settlers. The black cat and pike were the largest of these natives of the water. Fishing at the time of the settlements at Rainbow and Wiseman's bottoms was a comparatively easy task, as there were generally about two bites for every hook.
The last beaver were seen at the time of the settlement of Judge Joseph Barker in iViseman's bottom in the winter of 1795. These sagacious animals had a lodge behind an island about a mile below the Barker place, and another a short distance above, at the mouth of Rainbow creek. They were the last of the race seen in this country, and were ere long caught by the old trapper, Isaac Williams.
SETTLEMENT.
Prior to the Indian war there had been no permanent settlement made in that part of the Muskingum valley within the limits of this township. While Virginia claimed the right to the Northwest Territory, a backwoodsman named Wiseman entered about four hundred acres of the bottom land lying east of the Muskingum. He strove to hold his land by asserting what was known as the claim right, and forthwith made a clearing near river. He remained only long enough to give his name to the territory he occupied, and soon afterwards disappeared from this part of the country.
During the Indian war many families were compelled to dwell within the refuge afforded them at Marietta, where they remained until after the peace of Greenville. By virtue of an act of congress, April 21, 1792, donating to the agents of the Ohio company a tract of a hundred thousand acres of land lying north of Marietta, they were enabled to offer settlers tracts of land which were to be conveyed in fee simple upon the fulfillment of certain stipulated conditions. Naturally, the first settlements were made on the donation land, whose southern boundary line passes through Muskingum township about four miles above Marietta.
At the close of the war the brave men who had been for so long a time harassed by the bloodthirsty savages were eager to settle on their land, and at the first opportunity made preparations for emigration from their prison houses. Accordingly, in the spring of 1795, those who drew land located on the Muskingum river, made preparations for an early migration, so that they could get a good start with their spring work. In those days the winding river was the only avenue of ingress and egress and along the shores of the Muskingum there was no road on which to journey; then, too, the settlers, for fear of the Indians, kept no horses; so it became a necessity that the company journey by boat up the river, which they accordingly did.
Few of these pioneers of Muskingum township had much more property than their household goods, but they all possessed determined spirits and unusual intelligence. Compelled to undergo every hardship incident to pioneer life, these hardy settlers went energetically into the laborious task of subduing the forest and preparing the virgin soil for the first crop. Their success has been attested by their subsequent history. Naturally the areas of such bottom land were chosen as centres of settlement, and hence it is that we find that the earliest settlements in the township were made in Rainbow and Wiseman's bottoms.
THE RAINBOW SETTLEMENT.
The Rainbow settlement was commenced April 29, 1795, when a company of several families arrived from Marietta and landed on the western shore of the Muskingum river, and then and there proceeded to make for themselves homes. At that time the whole surrounding country was a labyrinth of forest, and a mile was an almost interminable distance, when its course lay through dangers innumerable. On this account and for purposes of mutual protection and comfort, it was thought best to establish a community along the river bank. Hence they desired and received a portion of their allotted land adjoining the river, and built their cabins close to the stream, which was their only effective means of egress and ingress. In the midst of the settlement, on the land now owned by Aurelius Stacy, was erected a blockhouse which served as a shelter and protection until the neighboring cabins could be built.
In the first company of settlers in the Rainbow district
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was Israel Stone and family. He setlled on the farm now occupied by Sardine S. Stowe. Mr. Stone was of Welsh ancestry, and the ninth child of the fifth generation in America. He was born at Rutland, Massachusetts, in 1749, and in 1768 was married to Lydia Barrett, by whom he had twelve children, His first wife died in 1792, at Belpre, and he married Mary Broadhurst Garner, by whom he had one child. He settled first at Belpre prior to 1790, and in 1795 removed to this township, in which he finally settled. His children were: Elizabeth, wife of Truman Guthrie; Matilda, wife of Stephen Smilh, whose setllement in this township is noted; Jasper, married Mary L. Converse; Lydia, married Ezra Hoyt; Mary, married John Dodge, of Beverly; Augustus, married Miss Rebecca Dodge; Benjamin F., married Miss Rosanna Devol, sister of Slephen Devol; Christopher Columbus, married Cyrinthia Graham; Harriet, married James Knowles; and John B. married for his fist wife Celina Bosworth, and for his second, Sarah Taylor. Israel Stone, jr., was drowned at Belpre in 1791, when but thirteen years of age. Israel Stone, sr., died in 1808, at his home. Mrs. Harriet Knosiles is the sole survivor of the family, being eighty-eight years old.
Stephen Smith came from Massachusetts among the earliest western emigrants. He married Matilda, daughter of Israel Stone, in Farmer's castle, at the time of the siege in the block-house. At the declaration of the peace he, with his family, started up the Muskingum for the Rainbow district, and settled on the farm now owned by his son, Columbus C. Smith. Mr. and Mrs, Smith had a family of eleven children: Percival, Harriet, Matilda, Lydia, Augustus and Franklin are dead; Dudley settled and now lives in West Virginia; Melissa married Jonathan Sprague, and lives in Adams township, this county; Columbus married Orrilla Davis; Mary married a Mr. Davis, of West Virginia; and Cyrinthia was married to a Mr. Morris, whose first wife died when they were coming to this country from England. Mrs. Morris is now a widow, living in Salem. The family of Columbus C. Smith, who resides on the home place, consisted of seven children, who became men and women. George P. married Adaline Wolcott; Cyrinthia married S. S. Stowe, of this township; Caroline is the wife of F. W. Rayley; C. C. Smith, jr., married Jane Moore; Sarah E. married A. McNeal; and Eva became the wife of Sardine S. Stowe. George and C. C. Smith, jr., were both in the late war, the former remaining in the army until mustered out in 1865, and the latter being discharged on account of physical disability, in 1864.
After the treaty with the Indians, Ebenezer Nye and his two elder sons went to Rainbow and made ready a home for the family. He had, in the spring of 1790, at the suggestion of his brother in Ohio, exchanged his farm in Connecticut for a share in the Ohio company's purchase. He started for his western home, crossing the Hudson at Newburgh, reaching Robstown, on the Youghiogeny, about harvest time in 1790. Here he bought, in connection with Joshua Shipman, a flat-boat, in which the two families came to Marietta. Mr. Nye and family at first lived in a house in which it was almost impossible to stand erect. During the Indian war they lived in the northeast block-house of the garrison. The farm in Rainbow is opposite the mouth of March run, and is now occupied by Thomas Ridgway. Reviewing Mr. Nye's family history, it is found that he was born in Tolland, Connecticut, in 1750, and that he removed when twenty- three or twenty-four years of age to Litchfield county, where he married Desire Sawyer, who died in 1800, aged forty-two years. He afterwards married the widow Gardiner, and continued in Rainbow until his death in 1823. He had six sons and one daughter. Lewis died near Zanesville; Neal lived and died at Kerr's run, above Pomeroy; Melzer died in Meigs county and George in Athens; Nathan moved west, and Sarah, wife of Azariah Pratt, after living for many years in Marietta, removed to Sunday Creek, in Athens county.
Simon Wright was also one of the original settlers of Rainbow. He was a native of Massachusetts. He married Mrs. Maria Witham. About the time of the first emigration to Ohio, he with others, came to the Marietta settlement, and remained at the garrison until after the cessation of Indian hostilities. Then he took charge of his portion of land on the Muskingum, settling with his family on the farm, upon which the Wood family now reside. Mr. Wright was a soldier in the War of 1812. His family consisted of four children—three sons and one daughter. Henry, Simeon and Horace have since died. The only daughter, Lorana, married and removed to Wolf creek. After remaining a few years on his farm in Rainbow, Mr. Wright sold his place to Joseph Wood, who emigrated from the State of New Jersey prior to the Indian war. His wife was a Miss Pewther. He was the father of the following named children: Emelius married Adaline Fuller, the daughter of the man, who at one time owned the land, on which the city of New York now stands. Caius Martius, the second son, married Sophia Hall, who is still living with her son and daughter, Gustavus and Cornelia, both of whom are unmarrred. Joseph lives in the neighborhood, having married first Anna Wilber, and after her death, Susan Wood. His children are Imogene J. and John A. He owns ninety acres of land, and is a small fruit grower. The other children of Joseph Wood, sr., are James and Nancy, the latter being a resident of Marietta. Some years after Mr. Wood's settlement, he was called to Marietta to take charge of the land office. He died about thirty years ago, being universally respected.
Among the first settlers of Rainbow were Archibald and Mary Lake, who located on the place now owned by Israel Devol. Archibald Lake married Mary Bird, of London, and being a seafaring man, removed to New Foundland, where he was employed in the fisheries, which at that time were very profitable, as the strict observance of Lent in Catholic Europe caused a great demand for fish. When that place came into the possession of the French he moved his family to New York and worked in the ship-yards. During the Revolution, when General Washington evacuated the city of New York, the Lake family followed the army up North river, where Mrs. Lake served as matron, first at Fishkill, and
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then at New Windsor hospital. Mr. Lake was appointed a deputy commissary to the hospital, and ranged the adjacent country in search of provisions for the sick. More than once did Mrs. Lake receive the personal thanks of General Washington in recognition of her valuable services. After the army was disbanded Mr. and Mrs. Lake returned to New York. After the war, shipbuilding being a poor business, and Mr. Lake accidentally hearing of the Marietta colony, decided to emigrate to the west. Accordingly, in 1789, he removed to Marietta. His family consisted of eight children, of whom three sons, James, Thomas and Andrew, were young men. The spring after their arrival the small-pox broke out, and during the terrible pestilence Mrs. Lake heroically served as nurse, and her superior knowledge of the art of nursing, in all probability, saved many a valuable life. Probably one of the first Sunday-schools in America was taught by her, in 1791, at the Campus Martius. Being early converted she felt it to be her duty to care for the souls, as well as the bodies, of those with whom she was wont to be associated. She collected in her little room on Sabbath afternoons the children who were wont to indulge in all sorts of amusements upon the holy day. After the conclusion of the service by Rev. Mr. Story she held Sunday-school, giving the youth instruction from the Bible and the Westminster catechism. She was peculiarly adapted to impart religious instruction to the children, and hence her work was crowned with merited success. April 27, 1795, the Lake family became residents of Rainbow. Mrs. Lake died the next year after her settlement, and her husband did not long survive. Their son Andrew was a carpenter by trade, at which business he worked whenever an opportunity was afforded, and during the remainder of the time he was an honest tiller of the soil. In 1797 he married Miss Elizabeth Goss, whose parents resided on Duck creek. The marriage ceremony was performed at the bride's house by 'Squire Monroe, and the young couple at once came to Rainbow, where the young people treated them to a genuine, old-fashioned house warming. They had nine children, of whom William, Tirzah, Jane, Mary and Dauphin are dead; Hannah is the wife of Courtland Sheppard, of Harmar; Sarah is the widow of Isaac Monett, and resides with her son in Marietta; Preston and Daniel are in Iowa, and Solomon is living in Kansas.
Captain Abel Matthers was among those who, with his wife and children, resided at the Point prior to the peace with the Indians. He was a native of Hartford, Connecticut, whence he emigrated during the first days of the Ohio colony. His wife was a widow named Elizabeth Woodard. John, the eldest son, served as drummer to the garrison, and eventually married Penelope Morris. Philo married Penelope Woodard. Hannah and Charlotte never married. Captain Matthers became a resident of Rarnbow settlement about three years after the first cabin had been erected. By that time the people had discovered that it was not safe to build so close to the bank of the river, because of occasional overflows which flooded their houses, and hence it was that Captain Matthers erected his cabin a short distance back of the river, making his settlement in the northeastern part of the township.
William Stacy settled on the farm now owned by his grandson, Cyrenius F. Stacy. His father was a native of Massachusetts, and a proprietor in the Ohio company. He came early to the Northwestern Territory. In the early part of his life he engaged in the seafaring business, probably at Salem, and afterwards became a farmer near New Salem. At the outbreak of the Revolution he took the initiatory step in reorganizing his company of home militia, becoming their captain by unanimous choice, he having gallantly torn up his royal commission, saying: "Fellow-soldiers, I don't know exactly how it is with the rest of you, but for one I will not serve a king that murders my own countrymen." In 1778 he had become lieutenant colonel in Colonel Ichabod Allen's regiment of the Massachusetts line. In the summer of 1778 his regiment was ordered up to Cherry valley to protect the inhabitants from the threatened attack of the Torries and Indians. The commander of the soldiers at the fort being unacquainted with Indian warfare, was surprised and defeated by a combined force of Indians and Tories, and among the rest Colonel Stacy was taken prisoner by the Indians, and was only released from the stake by giving to an Indian the sign of Free Masonry, which act saved his life. After four years captivity he was released and returned to his family at New Salem, whence, in 1789, he emigrated to Marietta, remaining there until his death, which occurred in 1804. His sons, John and Philemon, were massacred at the Big Bottom settlement. William and Joseph became the pioneers of Muskingum township. To William and Mehitabel Stacy were born five children, who grew to maturity. Sophia married Moses Varnum, of West Virginia. The oldest daughter became the wife of James McClure, of the Rainbow settlement, who finally settled in Millersport, Ohio. William married Vilata Howe, and is deceased ; Joel was the husband of Lorilla Howe, and Samuet married Elizabeth Price, and is also deceased. A. R. and C. F. Stacy are the sons of Joel Stacy, and reside in this township. C. F. Stacy was born in 1817, and married Lucy Withom, by whom he has had eight children. He was township clerk for fifteen years, and has held other offices. A. R. Stacy, his brother, is also a native of Washington county. His first wife was Sarah Ross, and his second Diana Malster. He is the father of four children. He is a general farmer and stock-raiser.
Joseph Stacy, also a son of Colonel William Stacy, settled on a farm now occupied by Aurelius Stacy. He married a Miss Perry, by whom he had several children. Joseph married Fanny Williams, whose ancestors came from England. Their children are in Iowa, and the parents are both dead. John, the second son, was married three times and raised quite a family of children. His first wife, Lucebe Rice, had one child that died in infancy. By his second wife, Lousiana Frost, he had four children, two sons and two daughters. Miles A., living in Wiseman's bottom, married Harriet Dyar, by whom he has had five children—Adalaide, Amelia, Ella,
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Grace, and Joseph. In 1861, at the call of his country, he enlisted in the Thirty-sixth Ohio volunteer infantry, company A, and soon rose to the position of captain. He was discharged after three years and a half of service on account of physical disability. The third wife of John Stacy was Claryna Frost, by whom he had five children. The two little girls when about nine or ten years of age were attacked by a severe bleeding at the nose which caused their death. James, a son by the last marriage, married a Miss Ann Von, and John married Miss McNeal, and resides near Lowell. Joseph Stacy, sr., had a daughter, Mary, who married, first, Elijah Boyce, and after his death, Luke Emerson.
Preserved Seamon, with his family, emigrated very soon after the arrival of the first company at Marietta. They came from Nova Scotia. The family of children consisted of four sons—Samuel, Gilbert, Preserved, and Benajah. Samuel had a wife and two or three children and occupied the guard-house of Fort Harmar, where the whole family remained during the Indian war. At the Peace they drew donation lots and settled on the Muskingum.
Cogswell Olney was born in Nova Scotia September 28, 1791, and was brought to Ohio by his parents when only six weeks old. His father, Elaezer Olney, was one of the twenty-seven proprietors who settled the most of the donation lands in the tract known as "Rainbow Creek allotment of donation lands." He lived on his farm there until his death. Cogswell Olney married, November 3, 1816, Matilda P. Smith, who was born in Farmer's castle, Belpre,. December 12, 1794. She lived until eighty-four years of age, dying at Harmar, December 18, 1878. Their daughter, Celina, is the wife of Charles M. Devol, of Muskingum township.
John Dyar, sr., was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Thence he removed to Nova Scotia, where he lived for a number of years and was married. Here he engaged in navigation. He emigrated thence to Ohio in 1816 and settled in what is now Muskingum township, in Rainbow settlement. He was an eye-witness of the battle of Bunker Hill. After an eventful life in Muskingum he died in 1832. His wife, Sarah Potter, born in 1778, survived him forty-two years. They had ten children, only two of whom survive: J. B. and B. F. Dyar, of Muskingum.
J. B. Dyar has been a resident of his present neighborhood since he was sixteen years old. He has been twice married, first to Amanda Hall, by whom he had seven children, viz: Augustine, who married Elizabeth Pollard; James (deceased), Joseph, who married Fanny Kendrick; Alary, Adelaide (deceased), Edwin, and Charles. By his second wife, Abigail Proctor, Mr. Dyar has had two daughters, viz: Harriet, wife of M. A. Stacy, and Amelia, wife of Reece Cole. Joseph, who was in the Thirty- sixth Ohio volunteer infantry, was wounded at the battle of Lewisburgh, and on that account discharged in 1863.
B. F. Dyar was born in 1817 in Washington county, the year after his father arrived in the county. When he was about a year old his parents removed to the farm where he still resides, Mr. Dyar was married in 1843 to
Miss Polly P. Hensy, who still lives. Mr. and Mrs. Dyar have had eight children, four sons and four daughters, all of whom are living. Camillus is married and engaged in the mercantile business in western Iowa. His brother, Frank B., is in business with him. Louisa married Mr. Chapman and resides in Fearing township, of this county. The remaining children reside at home. Mr. Dyar has a farm of one hundred acres in Muskingum township.
SETTLEMENT IN WISEMAN'S BOTTOM.
As has already been mentioned, the first who made a clearing in the above named territory was the man whose memory is perpetuated in the name of the locality in which for a time he dwelt. It is probable that not holding a clear title to his land, he was forced to yield to the claims of the rightful owners in the Ohio company. Geographically considered, Wiseman's bottom is but the southern extension of Rainbow, and hence the two settlements being contiguous, and having a community of interests, were almost blended into one.
The pioneers of Wiseman's bottom were well satisfied that their lot had fallen in such a pleasant place, and joyfully did they make ready to establish their right to their allotted land.
Colonel Joseph Barker was the advance guard of the little colony. In April, 1795, having drawn his donation lot of one hundred acres, he left the garrison in a canoe, with two of his wife's brothers, William and Edmond Bancroft Dana, together with his faithful dog Pedro, and ere long reached his destination—the land now owned by James S. Stowe. Colonel Barker brought with him— in addition to his cooking utensils, farming tools and provisions—fifty young apple, and a dozen cherry trees; it being a condition of a clear title to their land that the recipients of donation land set out fruit trees immediately upon settlement.
At the time of Colonel Barker's settlement the Indians had not been wholly pacified, and soon after his arrival he heard of the death of a man on Wolf creek at the hands of the treacherous savages. Each night the little party was wont to seek shelter in the block-house, which had been erected on the opposite side of the river by General Putnam. Each morning they returned to their work, and although harassed and embarrassed by dangers and difficulties, they never faltered in their arduous undertaking. While at work felling the trees, one of the party was constantly on the watch, for it was a pioneer's first principle to ever be on the alert and ready for any emergency. The faithful dog Pedro, who had been the family guard ever since leaving New Hampshire, was quick to scent danger from afar.
They were thus occupied for about three weeks, and made the first permanent improvement•in Wiseman's bottom. During this time they cleared about two acres of the thick forest near the river, and with infinite labor succeeded in getting the ground ready for cultivation. Their first work was to set out the orchard. While they were setting out the apple trees the dog showed signs of alarm, and they therefore remained only long enough to finish the planting of the apple trees, and thinking that
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they had almost transgressed the limit of safety, hurriedly got ready and were soon rapidly paddling down the Muskingum. In May Colonel Barker returned to his farm and cleared an additional acre of wood-land, making in all about two acres of cleared land, which he planted in corn. This new land, rich with vegetable mold, needed no plowing, but became productive by having the soil stirred up just deep enough to shelter the grain. Colonel Barker's corn-field was carefully watched from the ravages of the squirrels and other animals destructive to the growing corn, and at the harvest the field yielded one hundred and twenty-five bushels. He succeeded in erecting a log cabin sixteen feet square, to one side of which he attached a corn crib four or five feet in width, made of poles, and in this crib he stored his first crop.
In the following December Colonel Barker, with his wife and three children, left the garrison, and on the eighteenth of that month arrived at their new and rather dreary home. The nearest neighbors were distant. During the winter the clearing was considerably enlarged and two hundred peach trees were set out in the orchard in the spring. The hand-mill across the river, at the blockhouse, was their only dependence for meal, but with a good crib of corn and this resource they thought themselves fortunate. During the year he erected a hewed log house, which was distinguished by the unwonted luxury of a brick chimney, something that humbler houses could not boast of for several years. He had erected his new house just in time, for soon after leaving his first cabin it was destroyed by fire. This was a very heavy loss to Colonel Barker, inasmuch as in this cabin, which was used as a general storehouse, was kept his stock of carpenter tools, and in the loft was stored away the well rotted crop of flax, ready for dressing, and on which depended the family's supply of material for making cloth. His provisions, as well as his fine stock of tools, were lost. But in no wise disconcerted by this misfortune, he sought employment at his old trade of carpentering, In Marietta he erected the Muskingum academy, and the dwellings of Hon. Paul Fearing, William Skinner, Rev. Daniel Story, and others. In 1799 and 1800 he built the mansion of Herman Blennerhassett, on the island called by his name. He was one of the first justices of the peace in Washington county. In 1818 he was elected representative for Washington county in the Ohio legislature. He served for a number of years as county commissioner, and in 1822 drew the plan for the new court house, which was built in that year. During the years 1830-42 he was an associate judge of the common pleas court. He died in 1843, aged seventy-eight years, he having been born at New Market, New Hampshire, in 1765. While working at the carpenter trade in New Boston he became acquainted with Elizabeth, the daughter of Captain William Dana, and in 1789 he was married. In September of the same year the young couple emigrated in an ox wagon to Ohio, suffering every hardship on the way, stopping at Belpre and Marietta, before making a final settlement in Wiseman's bottom. Mrs. Barker died in 1835. They had ten children, four sons and six daughters: Joseph; Elizabeth, wife of Rufus
Stone, of Belpre; Luther married Maria Devol; Sophia married Rufus Browning; George; Mary, still living; Catharine resides in Tennessee; Fanny lives in New Jersey; and Charlotte is also a survivor. Most of the children married and moved away. Joseph and Luther settled in Newport township. George W., better known as Major Barker, was the only member of the family who remained many years on the old homestead farm. He was born in 1801 in Wiseman's bottom. He married Erneline, daughter of Captain Wing Devol. He became the owner of the old homestead. He was twice elected sheriff of Washington county, and filled the office from 1842 to 1846. In the latter year he was elected representative to the legislature, and in 1847 was elected senator, and served two years, he being the last State senator under the old constitution of Ohio. In 1873 he sold his farm, and with four of his sons removed to Missouri, where he died in 1875, aged seventy-four years. His widow, now seventy-one years old, is living in Muskingum township with her son, J. G. Barker.
Israel Putnam settled on the Muskingum on the farm now occupied by S. S. Stowe, and he soon became one of the leading men of his enterprising neighborhood. He was a grandson of General Putnam and a son of Colonel Israel Putnam, of Revolutionary fame. He was born in Pomfret, Connecticut, in 1776. He had four brothers and three sisters. Of this family none survive. In 5789, his father settled at Belpre where, in May, 1794, he arrived, and stopped for a time with his brother Aaron Waldo Putnam. He was a young man of rare powers of observation and had, while travelling from place to place, become imbued with that spirit of enterprise which marks the practical and successful man. He had learned in the east to engraft fruit trees, and almost his first act after landing in Ohio was to graft some fruit trees for his brother with scions which he had brought with him. This is thought to have been the first grafting this side of the Alleghanies. In 1796, he, with his family, settled in Wiseman's bottom, locating on the farm now owned by S. S. Stowe. The first wife of Mr. Putnam was Clarina Chandler, by whom he had two daughters, Fanny and Clarina, both of whom are deceased. His second wife, Elizabeth Wiser, was born in 1769, and died in 1842. Seven children were born by this marriage. Pascal is dead; Helen P. (Mrs. Devol); Lewis J. is living in Marietta; Laura is dead; Fanny, deceased; Catharine, wife of John Newton, is deceased; and the youngest, Elizabeth, is also dead. Mr. Putnam, being a man of great intelligence, encouraged education in the new settlement and did all that he could to assist in the establishment of the first school-house. In the early days of the settlement he erected a substantial brick house, a thing that was rarely done in those days. In 1818, he was the first to undertake the rather difficult task of raising merino sheep. He purchased at Steubenville a flock of over one hundred of these sheep, and succeeded very well in the business of sheep raising. Mr. Putnam died in 1824, aged fifty-nine years.
In 1796, the families of Captain J. Devol and John Russel moved into Wiseman's bottom and soon there
612 - HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO.
was a decreased sense of loneliness in the surrounding forest which rang at the stroke of the woodman's ax.
Captain Jonathan Devol built his house upon the land now owned by Robert Ward, at the place on the Muskingum where he afterwards built a mill. Rapidly reviewing his history, it is found that Jonathan Devol was born at Tiverton, Rhode Island, in 1756,and there in 1776 he married Miss Nancy Barker, daughter of Captain Isaac Barker, a noted ship master, who was lost at sea several years before his daughter's marriage. At the time of the formation of the Ohio company, Captain Devol, who was an ingenious mechanic, built the "May Flower," in which the first company came down the Ohio. The further exploits of this remarkable man will be particularly noticed elsewhere in this. work. He settled first at Belpre, where he became famous by reason of his construction of the first floating-milL After the peace, which ended the Indian war, he removed to Marietta, and cultivated the land of Paul Fearing, and in 1797, made a settlement on The Muskingum, as above narrated. His family consisted of six children, most of whom are deceased. Sarah married James McFarland; Charles, Barker, Tillinghast, and Frank were the sons; Mariah married Luther Barker who removed to McConnelsville.
Wing Devol was among the first settlers in Wiseman's bottom, coming from Marietta soon after the Indian war. He married Clarissa Hart, by whom he had eight children. William, B. F., James, Harris, Josiah, Cynthia, and Emeline (Barker). William Devol, whose family still live in Muskrngum, was born in 1803. He married Helen P. daughter of Israel Putnam, and died in August, 1873. Mrs. Devol is still living. She is the mother of three children, John P., William Dudley and Israel P. (Dudley Devol married Bitha Marshall, and has had three children, two living. He resides on what is known as the Walnut Hill Farm)) Israel P. married Diantha Stowe and has six children. He owns the old farm purchased by his father in 1829.
Benjamin Franklin Devol, a son of Wing Devol, married Ruth B. Cross, by whom he had fourteen children, twelve of whom are living. He died in 1876 and his widow is still living in this township. Her sons, Charles William, and Benjamin were soldiers in the late war.
Joseph, a brother of Wing Devol, at the time of the first settlement, entered land in Wiseman's bottom. Joseph Devol and family lived but a comparatively short time in this township, and then moved to Morgan county, Ohio, where they both died. The family has been scattered, and is not now directly represented in Washington county. The land upon which Joseph Devol settled is now owned by W. D. Devol.
John Russell and family were among the earliest settlers in Wiseman's bottom. They located on the farm which is at present in the possession of Allen Marshall. Mr. Russell was born in Connecticut, in 1764. He married Elizabeth Smith, a native of Massachusetts. To them were born nine children, of whom three are living. Jonathan, Elizabeth, Lucy, Charles, Jane and Caroline are dead. Mary, the widow of Pardon Cook, lives in Marietta; Hiram resides at Centre Point, Iowa, and
William resides beyond Williamstown, West Virginia. Mr. Russell emigrated to the Northwestern Territory about the time that the Ohio company's first colony arrived. During the Indian troubles, he remained at Marietta, and soon after the cessation of hostilities drew his land, and proceeded up the Muskingum to make a settlement. He died in 1829, and his family is not now represented in this township.
Squier Prouty and his wife, Diantha Howe, emigrated to Ohio shortly after the first settlement was made at Marietta. They were natives of Vermont. Mr. Prouty being a blacksmith, located about a quarter of a mile south of Devol's dam, and after building a shop, worked at his trade whenever there was opportunity. Mr. and Mrs. Prouty had two daughters—Rachel and Louisa, both of whom are deceased. Squier Prouty moved away years ago, and the name is without a representative in the township.
Peter Howe and his wife, Orinda Fuller, were from Vermont, and were among the first settlers on the Muskingum. They reared a large family, the only representative of which is Orinda, the wife of Rice Loring, of Belpre. There were fourteen children in all. The Howes lived about a mile south of John Russell's place. Mr. Howe afterwards removed to the vicinity of New England, this State.
John Dyar, a son of John Dyar, sr., and brother of J. B. Dyar, elsewhere mentioned, was born in 1804, in Nova Scotia, and in 1816, emigrated to Ohio from Massachusetts. He settled in section nine of Union township, in that part now embraced in Muskingum. Here he remained until his death in 1835. His wife was Rosanna Stone. His son, John W. Dyar, married Charlotte Beebe, by whom he has had two children—Helen and Harry.
Levi Bartlett was born in 1805, in Rhode Island, from which State he emigrated to Ohio. He settled in Warren, since called Muskingum township, and remained there until his death which occurred in 1879. He married first, Maria Dickey in 1837, by whom he had five children, four of whom are living; she died in 1846. For his second wife he married Mrs. Phoebe Green in 1851, by whom he had nine children, all living. The farm consists of two hundred acres. Mr. Bartlett was justice of the peace and county surveyor, and in 1852-4 represented Washington county in the State legislature. His widow still resides on the farm.
Thomas Ridgway was born in Nova Scotia in 1796, and afterwards removed to Louisiana. In 1822 he came to Ohio, and settled on the west bank of the Muskingum, where Ridgway ferry is located. By his first wife, Esther Ann Dyar, he had four children: James, John, George, William, and Francis. By his second wife, Sarah Abagail Doane, five children were born: Caroline, Thomas, Mary, Isaac, and Sidney. The farm consists of thirty acres of bottom land, and eighty acres of hill land. Stock and fruit are raised to a considerable extent.
James S. Stowe, sr., was born in Meigs county in 1806, and when nineteen years old came to Washington county and became a resident of the Muskingum valley. In
THOMAS RIDGWAY.
Thomas Ridgway was born January, 22, 1796, of English ancestors. At the time of his birth, Thomas' parents were living at Shelbourne, Nova Scotia, at which place they continued to reside until he was thirteen years of age, when they removed to Halifax, at which place Thomas obtained the rudiments of an education by perseveringly applying himself at night school, kept for those whose daily task forbade their attendance in daylight.
Trained to the trade of a cooper from boyhood, Thomas was called (in that fishing town) to the fisheries, and at an early age was engaged in superintending the cooperage department of one of the great mackerel fisheries on Cape Breton island.
At other times during the fishing seasons he was employed in the cod fisheries of the coast of Newfoundland. During the War of 1812-15 he was, as a British subject, aboard many of the American prizes, among which was the ill-fated Chesepeake, and at an advanced age of eighty-five years his recollecuon of that terrible wreck is clear and vivid. In 1821 Thomas Ridgway started to seek his fortunes in the southwestern States, and early in that year landed at New Orleans. There he worked at his trade in the great sugar establishments until, losing his health, he returned to Halifax late in the same year. In the spring of 1822 he returned to New Orleans and pursued his trade until autumn, when he came north to see the country and visit the Dyar family, living then on the old homestead, on the Muskingum river, in this county, to whom he was distantly related. In the following spring of 1823, in company with Joseph B. Dyar, he loaded a boat with produce of various kinds and floated it up the great Kanawha to the salt wells, near the site of the present town of Malden, West Virginia. There they disposed of the cargo to advantage, and entered into a contract with one of the salt firms to furnish salt barrels in exchange for salt, at the rate of one bushel and a peck of salt for a barrel. In the succeeding fall they brought a cargo of salt up the Ohio river, and sold it at various points from Marietta up as far as Wheeling.
In February of 1824 they returned to the salt wells, and recommenced the making of barrels and shipping of salt with renewed vigor, Joseph Dyar doing the shipping. During that season Mr. Ridgway, with his own hands, unaided, made three thousand barrels in nine months, about twelve and a half per day. They lived in true bachelor style, and did a thriving business, selling their salt down the Ohio at thirty-five cents per bushel. In the autumn of 1825, after they had closed their contract at the wells, they were wind-bound with their last load of salt, at a point near Ironton, and were offered a piece of land, at three dollars per acre, upon which the city now I stands.
After they had disposed of the cargo, Mr. Ridgway returned to Washington county and with Mr. Dyar purchased the property in Muskingum township upon which he now lives, They also purchased what is known as the Davis farm one mile further up river. At the termination of their partnership Mr. Ridgway took the farm upon which he now lives at a valuation of nine hundred dollars. February 16, 1826 he was married to Esther Ann Dyar, the sisler of his late partner, by whom he had five children: James, John, George, William, and Francis. His wife dying in 1836, he was married to Mrs. Sarah A. Doane December 6, 1838, by whom he had five children: Caroline, Thomas, Mary, Isaac, and Sidney. Mrs. .Sarah A. Ridgway dying May, 1862, he married Mrs. Caroline Johnson on the fourteenth Of November, 1866. Mrs. Caroline Ridgway lived but five years. and Mr. Ridgway was again left a widower on the thirtieth of November, 1871. Shorlly after his first marriage Mr. Ridgway entered the Methodist church, and has since continued to live the life of a consistent Christian.
The church of his first adoption becoming enfeebled by removals, he entered the Congregational church of Lowell, that he might do more effectual work, and the frequent donation made to that society after he had secured a home for his family testifies his devotion to the cause.
In politics, as in religion, nothing was done by halves. With his earnest acquaintance wilh our form and principles of government he espoused the cause of the Whig party, and from his sense of justice and humanity became an avowed enemy to slavery. He continued with the Whig party until its faltering, wavering course upon the question of slavery gave rise to the Free Soil party, where he found a better expression of his sentiments. Mr. Ridgway voted the anti-slavery ticket almost alone in his precinct. No taunts or opposition could cause him to hesitate or waver in the support he gave the choice of his conscience. Before and during the fugitive law Mr. Ridgway's house was ever the asylum for the pursued; and from first to last of those bitter slavery days over fifty fugitives have found food and shelter at his hand from their pursuers, From the rise of the Republican party Mr. Ridgway has been found in its ranks. During the war he was a firm Unionist, losing two sons in the support of the cause he upheld, and in his old age has the sweet pleasure of seeing the fulfillment of the most sanguine expectations of his younger days.
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1831 he commenced boating, which he followed until prevented by the outbreak of the late war. About 1830 he married Anna Merriam, by whom he had four children. She died in 1842. About 1844 he married Eliza Davis, by whom he had six children, all of whom survive. His eldest son, Sardine S., married for his third wife, Eva Smith, and has seven children: Nancy, married to A. S. Marshal; Diantha, married to Israel Devol; Seldon S., married to Ellen Smith, and has had three children, two of whom survive. He served during the Rebellion in the Thirty-sixth Ohio volunteer infantry. Lucy Stowe married J. C. Drake; Dudley D. became a resident of the township in 1850, married Sybil Wood, and has one son, David H. Stowe. He lives on the homestead farm, where he owns three hundred and twenty-nine acres. James Smith Stowe, jr., born in 1856, married in 1880 Lucy W. Franks, whose parents were early settlers in Marietta. In the summer of 1880 he commenced the grocery business at Marietta. Pittman L Stowe resides at home.
Randolph Fearing was born in 1825, and died in 1873. His wife, Julia Hill, born in 1830, is the daughter of William Hill, an old settler. Mr. and Mrs. Fearing became the parents of ten children, of whom three are deceased. The farm in Muskingum township consists of twenty-four acres.
Charles Weinheimer came from Prussia in 1853, and settled in this township. He was born in 1831, and married Elizabeth Shoemaker, born in 1829. They have five children. Mr, Weinheimer farms one hundred acres of land. He has been a member of the board of education and trustee of the township.
A. S. Marshall owns one hundred acres of land in Wiseman's bottom. His father, John Marshall, emigrated from West Virginia in 1832, and became a resident of Marietta township, dying in 1874. A. S. Marshall married Nancy Stowe, by whom he had five children, four of whom survive.
Thomas Drake bought land in Wiseman's bottom in 1866, coming from Chester, Pennsylvania, where he was born in 1825. His wife, Sarah J. Oliver, born in 1830, is still living. They have had four children—John, Margaret, James and Mary. John, who was born in 1848, married Lucy J. Stowe, who was born in 1847. They have two sons. Mr. Drake has two hundred and sixty acres of land, is a general farmer and a cattle and sheep raiser, making a specialty of Jersey cattle and fine Merino sheep.
Dr. Simeon D. Hart became a resident of Muskingum township in 1869, when he became the superintendent of the Children's Home. He is one of the seven children of Benjamin and Honor (Deming) Hart. His father was born in Connecticut in 1781 and died in Newport township in 1867. His mother, born in 1789, died in 1825. Dr. Hart married Lydia M. Lawrence, who was born in 2822. He has been superintendent of the Home during the past eleven years. During the years 1864-66 he was county coroner.
Peter Armstrong settled on the Muskingum in Wiseman's bottom allotment in 1870. He was born at Harrisonburgh, Virginia, in 1839. He married Catharine Burke, by whom he has had seven children, six of whom survive. He has a farm of thirty-seven acres of land.
THE SETTLEMENT OF THE RIDGE
The territory forming the eastern boundary of the township, and known as the ridge because it divides the waters of Duck creek from the Muskingum, was not generally settled until a comparatively recent date. This is on account of the hilly, and consequently somewhat sterile nature of the soil whose unproductiveness was early a proverb among the more fortunate settlers of the lower and richer valley lands. But it has been demonstrated that a living can be obtained on these high places by honest and persevering toil, combined with practical intelligence.
Although the neighborhood is now almost entirely peopled with Germans, who in fact made the first permanent settlements, yet is it discovered that settlers of American birth first had little farms among the hills. The representatives of these first settlers of that part of the ridge lying in the present township of Muskingum are scattered, and it is impossible to give them more than a passing mention.
In all probability a number of these settlers were in this section prior to 1825. A Mr. Page resided for a short time on the present Garver place.
A settler named Steit, residing just north of where the Wagners settled, removed to the west about the year 1840, declaring his inability to make a livelihood by tilling his farm.
Mr. Johnson, with his wife and children, resided on the place upon which Ulrich Ulmer now lives. He also moved to the west.
Stephen Otis and wife, with five or six children, lived first on the Decker place, on the river, and afterwards moved on the hill, upon what is now known as the Frank Rayley place. Mr. Otis was one of the prominent men in his community forty years ago, and it was he who presented the ground upon which the German church was erected.
There were settlers on the Wilking and Gerhart places prior to the German settlement.
In 1833 quite a company of Bavarians left their native Germany and, after the long and tedious voyage necessary to travel in a slow sailing vessel, they arrived in New York, and most of them came immediately to Ohio and secured land on the ridge. In this company were the families of Abraham Arend, Daniel Cemmer, and Jacob Peters. They were also accompanied by Theodore Schreiner, who afterwards became the pastor of their church.
Daniel Cemmer, born in 1781, was one of the first German settlers on the ridge. In 1833 he, with his wife, Barbara, and nine or ten children, settled on what was originally the Steit place. Both of the old folks are dead, and the children are scattered through the county.
Jacob and Catharine Peters settled in 1833 on the Page farm. They had two sons and one daughter— Charles, Philip, and Margaret. In 1836 they removed to Watertown. Both parents are now deceased.
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In 1834, in the forepart of the year, Abraham Arend and his wife, M. Sarah Arend, settled in the neighborhood. They left their native land in August, 1833, and stopped for a while after landing at Wheeling, West Virginia. After remaining there for seven months they got a farm in Washington county, and settled on the farm upon which Mrs. Arend still resides with her daughter, Mrs. Jacob Wagner. Seven of their eight children are living, two of them residing on the home-place. The eldest daughter, Mary Elizabeth, became the wife of Jacob Wagner.
In 1834 Jacob and Mary Gerhart came to the vicinity, being emigrants from Germany, and settled on the farm now occupied by their son, John Gerhart, with whom the mother still resides. John Gerhart is quite prominent as a township officer.
John and Elizabeth Wagner emigrated also from Germany and settled on the farm near the church on the place now occupied by John Wagner. There had been a clearing made in the forest which surrounded them by B. Briggs, who was a hunter in that region some time before the advent of the Wagners. Mr. and Mrs. Wagner had ten children in all, three of whom were born in this county. Six of the children are living, and five are in this township.
In 1836 Adam and Margaret Seiler settled on the farm which had been previously owned by Jacob Peters. Mrs. Seiler had five daughters, of whom three are living.
In 1836 Theobald, a brother of Jacob Gerhart, settled on Second creek, on the place now owned by Jacob Milibach. His wife died soon afterwards, and his children are scattered. He moved to Marietta and there died some years ago.
In 1839, or thereabouts, Jacob Grimm and his wife Catharine, settled on the ridge between Second creek and the Muskingum, on the place now occupied by their daughters, Elizabeth and Catharine.
In 1837 Daniel and Catharine Long, with their three children, settled on what is now known as the Young Food-farm. Mr. and Mrs. Long had three children born to them in America.
Theobald Wagner settled about the same time on the same place with the Longs. He married Margaret Cemmer, by whom he had eight children. Jacob Wagner is still living on the place.
F. W. Rayley was born in Aurelius township in 1839, and afterwards became a resident of Muskingum. He married Caroline Smith, who was born in 1840. They have three children—Raymond W., Maynard, and an infant. Mr. Rayley farms eighty acres of land.
John Phillips emigrated to this county from Massachusetts in 1815, and settled in Muskingum township. He married Mary Dean, who was born in Massachusetts in 1795. He died in 1840, aged sixty-six years. Two of their seven children are living: Mary, the widow of Captain Hathaway, living in Massachusetts; and Joseph, residing east of Marietta. The latter was born in 1805. He married Anna Terny, by whom he had seven children, six of whom survive. For thirty years Mr. Phillips was in the employ of Dr. Moore, and then purchased his present farm, where he has a nice, comfortable home.
Mr. J. N. Bishop was born in 1800, in Hoosac Falls, New York. When he was a small boy, his parents removed to the vicinity of Parkersburgh, West Virginia. Thence after several years, they removed to Morgan county, Ohio, where they died. Before the death of his parents, Mr. Bishop had settled in Marietta. In 183o he married Miss Lucetta A. M. Seely, of Washington county. Miss Seely's parents were among the oldest settlers in Marietta. Mr. and Mrs. Bishop had four children. Their three daughters are still living. Their only son died in 1863, in Virginia, from wounds received in battle. His father died a few weeks after from a disease contracted while nursing his son in the camp. Mrs. Bishop still lives in the old place in Muskingum township.
Mr. W. W. Rathbone was born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1829. He removed with his parents to Louisville, Kentucky, when he was about six years old. Here the family lived five or six years. Thence they removed to Belpre village, Washington county, Ohio, which was the old home of Mr. Rathbone's mother, she being a member of the Putnam family. Here Mr. Rathbone lived until his twenty-second year, when he removed to his present residence, about a mile north of Marietta, in Muskingum township. He was married in 1852 to Miss Julia Furguson. Mr. and Mrs. Rathbone have three daughters. Mr. Rathbone makes a specialty of raising sweet potatoes, and probably does the largest business in that line in the west.
EARLY SCHOOLS.
It is not strange that in such highly intellectual communities as are found in this township that the first school-house was built about the time the first cabin was erected in the several settlements. The earlier settlements in Wiseman's bottom and Rainbow were made by people who had enjoyed the privileges of a New England education, and were unwilling with the loss of numerous comforts and privileges to give up the school-house. They very sensibly foresaw that their children needed intelligence to assist them in the arduous task of overcoming the numerous obstacles which blocked up the road to success in the west. Hence it is that from the earliest beginnings the foundations of present prosperity were laid in the ground of a broad intelligence. The first schools were of course subscription schools, and coutinued as such until the formation of our present excellent system of free schools.
The first school in Wiseman's bottom was located on the Muskingum river, on the land then owned by Israel Putnam. It was a round log structure of the true pioneer type, with puncheon floor and seats, windows covered with greased paper, and huge fireplace across one end of the room. The logs of which the house was constructed were of beech and sugar principally, and ere very long they became rotten and hollow in places, which were frequently occupied by snakes, chipmunks, etc. On one occasion an unusually large black-snake was discovered in the recess of the fireplace trying to get at a nest of swallows in the chimney above. It was recess in that school until the big boys and teacher killed the snake.
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The earliest teacher whose name can be ascertained was Miss Esther Levings. Abigail Poole was in all probability the next. She was followed by Theophilus Cotton. Not long after the erection of the school-house on the river it was found that the building was too near the water and was liable to be surrounded during a heavy rise in the river. On this account it was deemed advisable to remove the school-house farther back on higher ground. Accordingly this was done, the building being located on Israel Putnam's farm, where, in 1816, through Mr. Putnam's instrumentality, a commodious brick school-house was erected, which served the double purpose of school-house and church. In this building the people of the neighborhood continued to worship for a number of years. The people were of various denominations, but in those early days they worshipped in common. Rev. Joseph Willard, an Episcopal clergyman of talent, is remembered to have been the first minister who preached in the school-church. When the school-house was first moved back from the river, the teachers were Colonel Stone, Mr. Brown, of New England, a Mr. Allen, and perhaps others. Whipple Spooner was the first teacher in the brick house.
In early times Rainbow had two neighborhood schoolhouses, which, in this modern day have been consolidated into one. There was what was known as the upper and lower school-house, the former being located on the Muskingum, not far from Stephen Smith's place, and the latter being on the site of the present school-house of the neighborhood, immediately in the bow of the river. Both structures were built of logs and were primitive in the style of their architecture. In these two buildings did the children of the first settlers of Rainbow receive the rudiments of education. School was kept three months in each year, and the children were allowed and encouraged to attend whenever the work at home permitted. Nathaniel Dodge is believed to have been the first leacher in what was known as the lower school. Benjamin F. Stone soon succeeded him, and he in turn was succeeded by Sidney McClung. A. Pixley was the next teacher. To his pedagogical duties he added those of the singing master, and was accustomed to teach the young folks how to sing, and there were consequently many good singers in the neighborhood. They did not learn the common tra la la of modern days, but were trained in such music as Judgment and Easter anthems. Among succeeding teachers are found the names of Elijah Boyce, Nancy Plummer, Harriet Williams, Orinda Howe, Amanda Hall, Melissa Smith, and Sarah Thornily, and later came Mordecai Sanders, William Otis, Jonathan Gibbs, Dudley Smith, Whiting Hollaster, and others. The log school-house gave place to a frame and then the present brick structure. From the earliest date in the settlement of Rainbow the people in addition to their love for education, were firm in maintaining religious principles, and the school-houses and neighboring private houses were used as places of worship.
The first teacher at the upper Rainbow school was a Mr. Walbridge. B. F. Stone and Lydia Smith were among the succeeding early instructors. The original log building was the first and last school-house on this site, and years ago the two schools were consolidated, and the children of the upper school became attendants of the one farther down the river.
It was customary for the two schools to hold joint spelling matches, which drew to the front all the orthographical talent of which the settlement could boast, and many a night's sport did the fun-loving young folks of that day have in these contests.
The first school-house in the settlement of Germans on the ridge was located on the land which was then owned by Adam Seiler, and is now on the Arend place. It was a hewed log building, and during the first years of its history was a German school, in which no English was taught. The first German teacher was Carl Young. He was followed by John Paff, Adam Wilking, Jacob Morningstar and Jacob Miegle. Gradually the children of the neighborhood learned the English language, and there was consequently a demand for English teaching. The first one who taught an English school was Mrs. Mary A. Grant. This was in the year of 1843, and since then English has become predominant, alternating at first with the German, and gradually taking precedence. The log school-house has given place to a comfortable frame.
At the passage of the law establishing schools throughout the county which were to be supported by taxation, the pay schools were discontinued and the district schools took their places. There are at present nine school districts in the township. The first township board of education consisted of the following named gentlemen: A. R. Stacy, R. Fearing, Augustine Dyar, Daniel Wilking, and Jacob Wagner. The present board consists of the following persons, one for each district, viz: Anthony Smith, M. A. Stacy, John Wellspring, Joseph Dyar, J. G. Barker, Jacob H. Wagner, Joseph Jurden, Henry Cline, and J. W. Dyar. The schools are under good management and the high standing of education which has ever been maintained, has made this township a most intellectual community.
About thirty years ago Samuel Maxwell, a retired professor of Marietta college, erected a large brick residence which is now used as a part of the Children's Home. In an upper room in the rear part of the house, over what is now the kitchen of the Home, Professor Maxwell established an academy for boys, and there instructed them, At times he had as high as twenty scholars, and for a while the school was successful, but it eventually failed.
AN OLD SUBSCRIPTION PAPER.
Although because of the proximity of neighboring churches a house of worship was not erected in the territory now comprised in this township, the people have always been enthusiastic in religious work, and from the earliest time strove to care for their souls as well as for their intellects. An interesting bit of paper remains to testify to their Christian fidelity. This witness is an old subscription paper drawn up in 1810, which appears to be in the handwriting of Colonel Joseph Barker. The object of the subscription was to establish divine worship
616 - HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO.
in Rainbow and Wiseman's bottom. None of those whose names appear below are now living. It reads thus:
Please pay in money or produce to Mr. Thomas Lake, on or before the fifteenth day of December next, for the purpose of introducing the regular preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and for inculcating and introducing habits of good order, morality, and piety, by holding up to public view examples worthy the imitation and practice of the rising generation.
The subscription paper provided for a cash subscription, but there was none made of that kind.
Then comes a list of the subscribers:
ADAMS, April 2, 1810.
Subscriberssi names. - Produce.
Joseph Barker - $5 00
Jasper Stone - 3 00
Joseph Stacy - 4 00
Svivanus Newton - 6 00
Sardine Stone - 2 00
Joseph Stacy, jr - 1 00
Stephen Smith - 1 00
Thomas Lake - 6 00
John Russell - 3 00
Simeon Wright - 2 00
Isaac Walbridge - 1 00
Benjamin F. Stone - 3 00
William Stacy, jr - 1 00
John Deem - 1 00
William Stacy - 3 00
Ephraim Matthews, thirty cents for each day's preaching.
Squier Prouty - 2 00
Joseph Wood - 4 00
Resolved Fuller - 1 00
Preaching services were regularly held in the several school-houses from time to time when a minister could be found.
THE EVANGELICAL PROTESTANT CHURCH.
This, the only church within the confines of Muskingum township, is formed exclusively of the German settlers on the ridge and vicinity. The first company of emigrants had with them him who was to establish in their midst a church, in which, as was their wont in the Fatherland, they could worship the God of their fathers. Sometimes they would attend English preaching services at the Cedar Narrows, on Duck creek, in Fearing township. But this was, of course, unsatisfactory to people who could not as yet speak the English language, and they were all very anxious to establish a church of their own, where they might hear the gospel in their native tongue. The material for the organization was at hand, and the people had a mind to work, but as yet they knew of no one who would serve them as pastor. But Providence had been kind to them, and they soon discovered that they had the right man in thir midst. Theodore Schreiner, who emigrated from Germany in 1833, was the son of a clergyman, and had been carefully reared and educated. While in the midst of his studies, his father died, and he was consequently deprived of further educational advantages. Feeling that his future success depended entirely upon his own efforts, he decided to come to the new world. At the time of the organization of the church he was living in Fearing township, near by. Being a man of education, a minister's son, and withal a godly man, what more proper than that he be called to become the shepherd of this little flock among the hills. . Having decided to pick up the ministerial duties which his father had been compelled to lay down at his death, he went heartily into the work, and soon effected the organization of a society of not less than twenty members.
The first building was a hewed log structure, erected upon the site of the present building. The lot for the building and adjoining burying-ground was donated by Stephen Otis. In this house the congregation continued to worship for a number of years, and in 1849 the hewed log gave place to the present frame church, which was built by Theobald Baker.
Rev. Theodore Schreiner continued in the pastorate for nineteen years, and was followed by Rev. F. Ciolina. He, in turn, was followed by Rev. Ferdinand Jurgens, who remained eight years. Revs. F. Wald and August Walther stayed about one year each. The next pastor, Rev. G. F. Englehardt, remained seven or eight years, being followed by Rev. Trapp, who remained about one year. Then the people called the present pastor, Rev. S. Beach, who has faithfully ministered unto them for seven years.
The church at present is in a prosperous condition, and is well sustained. There are ninety-seven members on the church roll. The trustees are: Anthony Smith, John Wilking and Wallace Smith. John Gerhart is the clerk. About twelve years ago another acre of ground was added to the church lot.
GRAVEYARDS.
Each neighborhood had its pioneer burying-ground, for death was common to them all. There are now three such enclosures in Muskingum township, which are sacred to the memory of the past and the resting place of hopes to be realized only in that future day that is yet to come. In each one of these God's acres sleep the forefathers of the township's early settlers.
The pioneer graveyard of Wiseman's bottom was located on the farm of Israel Putnam. Here were buried the Putnams, Barkers, Russells, Devols, and in fact nearly all of the earliest settlers. In later years the place was not used, and it became neglected. About the year 1820 a new cemetery was laid out about half a mile northeast of Devol's dam, and in this ground was buried most of those who had lain in the old cemetery. Since 1820 burials have been frequent, and the cemetery is well filled. The grounds are neatly kept, and are adorned with numerous evergreens that form a pleasing background to the many handsome monuments. Conspicuous among these monuments is a Scotch granite which Colonel Putnam erected to the memory of his fathers. The inscription reads:
To the memory of General Israel Putnam, born at Salem. Massachusetts, in 1718, a confidential friend of Washington, died May 9, 1790. Israel Putnam, his grandson, died March 9, 1824, aged fifty-nine. This monument was erected by Major L. J. P. Putnam.
The monument of Colonel Barker is also conspicuous.
There is another pioneer graveyard on the Walnut Hills farm, now owned by Dudley Devol.
Therein were buried a number of the first settlers. It is not now used, and has been sadly neglected.
The pioneer graveyard of the Rainbow settlement is located on the Joseph Wood farm. The first person
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buried in this ground was Mrs. Mary Lake, wife of Archibald Lake, who died the next year after his settlement on the Muskingum. The grounds have from time to time been greatly improved, and at present the cemetery presents a very attractive appearance. Within its boundaries reposes the dust of the early settlers of Rainbow, sleeping in the midst of the land which they redeemed from the wilderness and made prosperous by their early efforts.
There is a cemetery adjoining the Evangelical Protestant church in the northeastern part of the township. It originally consisted of about an acre of ground, but a few years ago received an additional acre. It is under the control of the church. The first person buried in this cemetery was the mother of Henry Spies, and since then most of the original settlers have been buried there.
FLOATING MILL ON THE MUSKINGUM.
In another place there is a history of the floating mill which Captain Jonathan Devol so ingeniously built for the use of the settlers along the Ohio at Belpre. When, in 1796, he moved up the Muskingum and joined the community located in the present township, he found that the settlers were in great need of a mill in which to grind their grain. The clumsy hand mills, then in common use, were inefficient, and it was difficult to keep a sufficient supply of meal Captain Devol with becoming and characteristic enterprise, at once proceeded to alleviate the difficulty by constructing a floating mill similar to the one he had built at Belpre in 1791. It was built on two boats, the one supporting the machinery for grinding, and the other the shaft for the water wheel. The boats were joined at the bow and stern by stout planks, which served the double purpose of floor and girder, binding the boats to a parallel course. The mill machinery was enclosed by a little frame structure which sheltered the miller, and protected the machinery and grain from the wet weather. People came by water from all parts of the country for fifty miles around, and the mill supplied them with plenty. In 1803, he built a larger mill which produced an excellent quality of flour. This floating mill was constructed at the instance of Griffin Green, esq,, after the pattern of similar mills in Holland. During its operation on the Muskingum it was moved at a point in the river where Captain Devol afterwards built the dam for his large stationary mill.
OTHER MILLS
of various kinds have been erected from time to time. In 1807, Captain Devol erected a very large frame flouring mill near where the present mill now stands. Its large under shot wheel is said to have been more than forty feet in diameter, it being the largest mill wheel ever seen in the west. The mill did a fair business, but with the lapse of years was allowed to fall into decay. It stood for a number of years a deserted monument to early enterprise, and full fifty years ago it tottered to its fall, and with a crash was scattered prone upon the earth. Like an aged man, having finished its appointed tasks, it mingled with its original dust, and gave way in later years to a modern structure which is still standing.
Some time after the desertion of the old mill, Captain. Devol's grandson, J. L. Devol, put up a building near by to be used as a saw-mill and chair factory. He also kept, in connection with it a small general store. The buildings, which are now owned by Colonel L. J. P. Putnam, are still standing in a very dilapidated state. There was a corn cracker in connection with the saw-mill that did some grinding for the neighborhood. This saw-mill and chair factory, prior to its purchase by Major Putnam, was owned by Dana & Wendleken. After the close of the late war it was for a time operated by Putnam, Bragg & Straw,
In 1866, Major Putnam erected at Devol's dam, a large mill with three run of buhrs, which was considered to be the best mill on the river. After operating this mill for a year, Major Putnam put it in charge of I. P. and H. C. Putnam, and is now operated by I. P. Putnam, under the name of Union mills.
Sheep raising had become such an important industry among the farmers in the year 1809, that it was highly important that the work of the hand cards be made easier by the use of machinery. Accordingly, with his usual enterprising energy, Captain Devol purchased and put in operation, necessary machinery for wool carding.
During the previous year he erected works for cloth dressing and fulling, both of which operations being carried on by Captain Devol prior to any other operations of like kind west of the mountains. The machinery for cloth dressing could not be found in Ohio, and was purchased at McConnelsville, on the Youghiogeny river.
The saw-mill at Union Landing or "Pinchville," was built at a comparatively early day by George T. Elston.
John Strecker, jr's. glue factory just north of Marietta, began operations in 1863, and now has an invested capital of four or five thousand dollars. Thirty-five thousand pounds of glue, valued at thirty-five thousand dollars, are made annually.
SHIP-BUILDING ON THE MUSKINGUM.
The community in Wiseman's bottom was fortunate in having among its numbers two men of such marked mechanical skill as Colonel Joseph Barker and Captain Jonathan Devol. Both of them were skilled architects, Captain Devol being a shipwright by trade, and Colonel Barker a house-builder. About the year 1800, shipbuilding having become an important industry at Marietta and on the Muskingum, these men readily took part in the work for which they were so well adapted by previous education and natural skill The dense forests on either side of the river furnished excellent material for the work. Giant oaks were felled, and under the skillful hands of these men were joined together and moulded into symmetrical shape. Noting first the work of Colonel Barker, we find that his shipyard was on his farm on the east bank of the Muskingum. In 1802, he constructed two ocean vessels. One was a brig, built for Messrs. Blennerhassett and Woodbridge, and named the Dominic, after the name of Mr. Blennerhassett's oldest son. The other was a schooner, called the Indiana. This last named vessel, together with the Louisa, built
618 - HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO.
in 1803, were for E. W. Tupper, of Marietta. During the fall of 1806 he was employed by Herman Blennerhassett to construct fifteen large bateaux for the use of the expedition of Aaron Burr to Mexico. The fate of these boats and this intended expedition is more fully described elsewhere in this work.
Captain Devol's ship-building was quite extensive. He also worked along the Muskingum upon his farm. In 1801 he built a sloop of four hundred tons for B. J. Gilman, a merchant of Marietta. The vessel was wholly constructed of black walnut, and was named after the river by whose side it was built. In 1802 he built two brigs, of two hundred tons each, the Eliza Green, and the Ohio. In 1804, the schooner Nonpareil was built. The passage of the embargo act, in 1807, suspended all further operations in this line.
THE CHILDREN'S HOME,
This institution is beautifully situated on an eastern bluff of the Muskingum river about one mile from the city of Marietta. The idea of the institution was a gradual growth, founded on the increased necessity for some refuge besides the infirmary for the numerous little ones left without parental care. The act establishing children's homes in the several counties of the State was passed March 20, 1866, and then with the means in their hands the county commissioners proceeded to establish a Home in this county, appointing, in accordance with law, five trustees, to serve one year each. The act of 1867 reduced this number to three, whose term of service extended to three years.
The first board of trustees was composed of the following members, viz: Douglas Putnam, William R. Putnam, Frederick A. Wheeler, William S. Ward, and Augustine Dyar. Of this number, Frederick A. Wheeler is still in office. Colonel W. R. Putnam, the chairman of the board from its commencement, resigned after a faith: ful service of ten years; and William S. Ward died during his term of office. Wylie H. Oldham, who was appointed in 1871, also died while in office. In 1875 W. Dudley Devol was appointed, and in 1877 George Benedict became a member of the board which now consists of Messrs. Wheeler, Devol, and Benedict.
There was no lack of children anxious to enter the Home. As early as 1858 Miss Catharine Fay, now Mrs. Ewing, began caring for the little waifs which were left without parental care. They were provided for at the Home in Lawrence township under an arrangement made with the directors of the county infirmary. At the time of the establishment of the Home on the Muskingum there were thirty children under Miss Fay's charge, who were brought to their new abode April 1, 1867. Mrs. A. G. Brown, who had been appointed matron on the first of March, continued to serve until April 1, 1868, when she was succeeded by Rev. Ira M. Preston and wife as superintendent and matron, who served one year, being succeeded by the present incumbents, Dr. Simeon D. Hart and wife.
Since the advent of Dr. Hart numerous improvements have been made. A frame addition in the shape of an has been put up on the north side of the back part of the original brick building. This part is used principally as a nursery for the younger children.
In 1874 the increased numbers justified the erection of a second brick building just behind the first house. It was occupied January 1, 1875. It is three stories high, seventy-five feet long, and thirty feet wide. As soon as there is need of additional room it is proposed that a similar structure be added to the north side, and that the two wings thus formed be wrought into one building. The first floor of the wing that has been built is occupied by the Home school. The second floor is the boys' dormitory, and the third is for the girls. Everything is kept neat and clean, as perfect order is maintained in every department. The attendance at the school in 188o averaged over sixty pupils, none being exempt from school duty except those very small and those of the larger ones detailed to assist in the work. The school is under the management of Miss Augusta Nixon, who has had charge of it for over ten years. Inasmuch as the scholars are all quite young, only the common branches are taught. Music is taught to such as evince a taste for it. On Sundays, and at other times, religious instruction is given and many of the children have a thorough knowledge of Bible history. The progress of their education is very satisfactory and the results of thorough system in training are seen in the bright eyes and quick looks of intelligence which greet the visitor. That the bodily powers may not flag the children regularly go through exercises in calisthenics. They are well fed, well dressed, and kindly cared for, and are therefore happy.
The farm land is much better adapted to grazing and pasturing than to the raising of grain and other crops. Except the lawn and garden, and about twelve acres of woodland, the farm is in pasture and fruit land. Milk being considered an almost indispensable article of diet, especially for children, a sufficient quantity is provided to give them a generous supply each day. To do this, from ten to twelve cows are required, and barns are taken to secure the best breeds for the purpose. The orchard provides an abundance of healthful fruit.
The object of the Home is not simply to feed and clothe these children, but to nurture them by inculcating those principles which shall enable them to go out into the world and make homes for themselves. They are not allowed by the law to remain at the home after reaching the age of sixteen years. Long before that time most of the children are either restored to their parents or adopted into responsible families. The average number of inmates during the year 188o was about seventy- five, there being twice as many boys as girls. The number of children has been less during the past year than it has been in any of the last ten years previous.
This institution was the first in the State organized under the law authorizing county homes for children. Those charged with its management accepted their positions fully sensible of the difficulties to be encountered, and with the knowledge that they were without the advantages to be derived from the experience of similar
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institutions. Its history shows that the Home has succeeded in fulfilling the full measure of expectation. The general management of its affairs by the superintendent and matron have been eminently satisfactory, and their annual reappointment since 1868 attests the estimation with which their services are regarded by those most familiar with the history, success, and progress of the Home.
THE MUSKINGUM FARMERS' CLUB
was organized January 1, 1874, for the double purpose of promoting the agricultural and social interests of the community. Most trades and professions have their associations for the advancement of their interests, and it is equally fitting that farmers assemble to talk over their business and social affairs, and to make more interesting and profitable the great industry which is the foundation of all prosperity. Moreover society in the country is usually more nominal than real, and it is invigorated by the frequent assembling together of farmers and their families. The Muskingum Farmers' club has succeeded admirably in the accomplishment of these very important ends. During the six years of its existence the meetings have been well attended, the average attendance being about forty. Formerly bi-monthly, the meetings are now held on the first Saturday of every month, at the house of some member or friend of the club. In winter it is customary to assemble at 11 A. M., dine at 12 and transact business from 1 to 4 P. M. During the summer season the meetings are in the afternoon with supper at the close. The ladies of the club share with the hostess the duties of entertainment, and the culinary department is fully equipped in true picnic style, and thus happily is business combined with social enjoyment, and it is no wonder that there are always a number of ever welcome friends who enjoy the club's hospitality.
The usual order of exercises is as follows: Reading of the minutes of the previous meeting; vocal and instrumental music; a recitation by one of the younger members; the reading of a selected article and of an original essay; general remarks; miscellaneous business, and the discussion of a question previously assigned. The subjects for reading, writing and discussion are left entirely to the discretion of the appointees who gratify their own convenience and tastes, though party questions are carefully avoided. The regular question for discussion is generally of practical importance to the farmer, and much practical good is derived.
Premiums have from time to time been offered for the best articles and yields of farm produce. The most noticeable of these premiums is a handsome silver medal presented to the club by M. P. Wells, of Marietta, to be given each year to the member raising the best acre of corn.
It is the intention of the club hereafter to give more attention and encouragement to careful experiment in regard to the comparative values of different farm products and methods of culture.
The present officers of the club are: J. G. Barker, president; W. D. Devol, vice-president; Kate Rathbone, secretary; C. P. Dyar, corresponding secretary, and M. A. Stacy, treasurer.
Taking all things into consideration, the Muskingum club has been a success, and has realized the anticipations of its founders. It has done much to make enjoyable a life usually of much toil and little healthful intellectual and social enjoyment. No means which can improve the welfare and increase the happiness of the great farming class of the country should be neglected, and the Muskingum Farmers' club has, in great measure, met this great want.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
THE DYAR FAMILY.
John Dyar, the first representative of this family in Washington county, was a native of Boston. After the Revolution he removed to Nova Scotia and became engaged in navigation, and accumulated some money, but during the Napoleonic wars his vessel was captured and his fortune ruined. He married, in Nova Scotia, Sally Potter, whose father was also a native of Boston. Mr. Dyar returned to Massachusetts with his family, and in 1816 emigrated to Ohio. The journey from Boston to Marietta was made with teams, and occupied thirty days. At this time his family consisted of eight children; two more were born after coming to this county. Joseph, the oldest, was born October 1, 1800, in Arcadia (Annapolis Royal), Nova Scotia. His facilities for obtaining an education were very limited, owing to his father's occupation and circumstances. He remained at home six years after coming to Ohio, and assisted his father to acquire a small estate in Muskingum township.
Joseph Dyar made his first business venture at the age of twenty-two. He built a flat-boat and loaded it with a cargo of hoop-poles, staves, and produce, for the Kanawha trade. He pushed his boat to the salt regions, and traded and sold his freight for a cargo of salt, which he floated down to Cincinnati and sold with the boat for two hundred dollars. This was the first money of his own which came into his possession. An episode on the way home shows his energy. The steamer Rufus Putnam, on which he took passage, was wrecked near Maysville, Kentucky, and Mr. Dyar set out on foot, reaching home in good spirits. The same year Mr. Dyar and Thomas Ridgway purchased a keel-boat, and engaged in the Kanawha trade. The second year of their partnership they purchased the Nye farm, in the Muskingum valley. This was the first settled farm in the township. They paid for it one thousand dollars in cash. The Kanawha trade was continued for one year longer, and then Mr. Dyar began flat-boating and trading along the river as far south as New Orleans. He was the first trader in this section who paid cash for goods. This gave him great advantage in buying. For ten years he continued buying produce, and flat-boating. The productions of his own farm by this time amounted to considerable, and added materially to his
yearly dividends. One peculiarity of
620 - HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO.
Mr. Dyar's business operations is deserving of special notice. He never insured either his boats or goods. He always kept a personal supervision over all operations, and depended upon no one but himself to guard against loss. Although he experienced many narrow escapes, and sometimes approached the brink of destruction, he never suffered any material loss.
Since he quit flat-boating Mr. Dyar has been engaged in farming, dealing in real estate, and managing his accumulations. Care and industry are his predominant characteristics. He owes much of his success to his ability to read a line ahead in the chapter of current events.
Mr. Dyar married in February, 1827, Amanda Hall, of Muskingum township. She died June 25, 1837, leaving six children. Augustine, the oldest, was born December 10, 1827; he is married and lives in Muskingum township. Edwin was born February 1, 1829; he died in the south January 29, 1852. Charles C. was born October 22, 1830, died January 24, 1857. Mary was born October 2, 1830; she lives on the homestead. James H. died in youth. Joseph was born February 24, 1836; he lives in Muskingum township. Adelaide was married to General H. F. Devol in 1856, and died at Waterford in 1860.
Mr. Dyar married for his second wife Abigail Proctor, daughter of Nathan Proctor, of Muskingum township, January 24, 1839. Her father emigrated to Ohio, from Massachusetts, at an early period of the settlement, and after the Indian war, returned and brought to the county his family. They stopped with his brother, Jacob Proctor, in Watertown township, and then removed to Barlow as soon as a cabin could be erected. Mr. Proctor made the first improvement in the township, and Abigail (Mrs. Dyar) was the second child born in the township. She was one of seven children. By his second wife Mr. Dyar had three children, two of whom are living, viz: Amelia E., wife of E. N. Cole, of Harmar, born December 28, 1841; and Harriet A., wife of Miles A. Stacey, born December 26, 1844.
Mr. Dyar can look over his possessions with the comforting consciousness that they are the product of his own labor, care, and business sagacity. He has made it a rule in life to attend strictly and closely to his own business and operated on a cash basis. He earned his start, and has never since ventured beyond his ready capital.
In politics he acted with the Democrats until 1856, since when he has been a Republican. He has never connected himself with any organized society.
JAMES S. STOWE.
Erastus Stowe, father of the subject of this sketch, was born at Cooverstown, New York. While yet a child, one of the celebrated Indian massacres of the Revolution occurred in that valley, and both his parents were murdered by the savage woodsmen. The child was carried away and left in a corn field and there found by Abijah Hubble who adopted him into his family. About 'Boo, Mr. Stowe, then more than twenty years old, came with the Hubble family to Ohio, and settled in Meigs county. He married in Meigs county, Jane Smith, a daughter of James Smith, who, like many others, sold his property in New England, in the hope of bettering his condition by joining the Ohio emigrants, but also like many others, he received for his property continental money and was in consequence reduced to penury. The family lived at the Marietta garrison during the Indian war and afterwards settled in Meigs county. Mr. Stowe, after he was married, engaged in farming. He died in Meigs county at the age of sixty-five years; his wife died at the age of ninety-three years.
James S. Stowe, whose portrait appears above, was the oldest son of Erastus Stowe, and was born in Meigs county, in 1806. He was a spirited youth and never afraid to undertake anything assigned for him to do. His services were always in demand on the farms in the neighborhood. When a small boy, he made a lonely trip on horseback through the cow-paths in the woods to Athens to mill; at the age of seventeen he was apprenticed to a cabinet-maker, in Gallipolis. He was sadly afflicted with homesickness, which the religious practices of his boss were not calculated to alleviate, and, as he expressed it, "the man fortunately died soon," being stricken with the prevailing epidemic. He returned home and was variously employed in Meigs county until the age of twenty, when he began work for his uncle, Sardine Stone, in Muskingum township. At the end of five years he became impatient and affected an arrangement by which the Stone farm came into his possession.
In 1829, Mr. Stowe began flat-boating—a business which he pursued with great profit for more than thirty years. The first load was fitted out at an expense of five hundred dollars, which was borrowed for the purpose. The load was disposed of at a profit of three hundred dollars. This was the beginning of a long and successful business career. Every planter along the river knew Smith Stowe. He had the reputation of being a sharp but honest dealer. In all his experience he never lost money on a season's trade. But the winter of 1861 was full of danger for flat-boatmen. The opening of rebel lion is characterized by a certain enthusiasm which is worn off by the fatigue of military movements. Mr. Stowe, although well acquainted, did not escape the general threat against Ohio men and abolitionists. At Lake Providence an incident occurred which shows the spirit of the times in the south and also Mr. Stowe's sagacity. The boat was tied up at the shore and he had been doing considerable trading when the news came of the secession of South Carolina. The community was thrown into a whirlwind of excitement, and flat-boatmen notified that it was unsafe for them to remain. Mr. Stowe fastened a line to the bottom of his boat, where it could not be seen. That night the main line was cut, and when he appeared on the roof a shot was fired. The next morning a deputation waited on him and warned him against remaining, declaring that "no Lincoln abolitionists could land at their shores." He was given till four o'clock to leave. This is one of many similar incidents which shows the feeling at the south during the formation of
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, OHIO - 621
the confederacy. One fact is worthy of mention in connection with the subject of this sketch in regard to the use of fire-arms. He has been down the Mississippi and up Red river and in the most dangerous parts of the south at the most dangerous times, and yet has never owned a revolver or carried a firearm. Mr. Stowe, in connection with the produce trade, carried on farming and milling. He always kept things moving, employed hands and paid them and in that way has been a useful man in his community. His first possession was the Stone farm, but since then he has invested as much as ninety thousand dollars in land lying in the fine bottom within the bow of the Muskingum, just above Devol's dam, and forty thousand dollars in farms in the Rainbow bottom. He has made his money by industrious, hard work and sharp dealing. He attributes a large measure of his success to punctuality, whether working by the day in his boyhood, or in business transactions throughout life.
Mr. Stowe was married in 1830, to Anne Meriam of Lowell, by whom he had six children; four of whom are now living: Sardine, Nancy (Marshall), Diantha (Devol), and Seldon. Mrs. Stowe died in 1842. In 1843 he married for his second wife, Mrs. Eliza Ferrin, daughter of Freeman Davis, and widow of Davis Ferrin. She had by her first husband one son, Liman Ferrin, who was killed in the war. By Mr. Stowe she had five children, viz.: Charles, died in 1866; Lucy (Drake), Dudley, J. Smith, and Pitt. All the children live on farms within the sound of the dinner-bell at their parents' house, except J. Smith, who is in business at Marietta.