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178 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. CHAPTER XI. EARLY SETTLERS. Broad-shouldered, strong and lithe of limb ; Keen-eyed and swift of heart and hand, Full-bearded, tawny-faced and grim With watch and toil in hostile land. But light of heart and quick to fling The thoughts of hardship to the breeze ; Whose hopes, like eagles on the wing, Dipped never lower than the trees. —Kate M. Sherwood. Where late the savage, hid in ambush, lay, Or roamed the uncultured valleys for his prey, Her hardy gifts rough industry extends, The groves bow down, the lofty forest bends; And see the spires of towns and cities rise, And domes and cities swell unto the skies. —Meigs. THE earliest inhabitants of the county were from Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, and a light component from the New England States. The predominant element was composed of emigrants from Pennsylvania in the first occupancy of the territory embraced within the present limits of the county, which element, combined with the foreign Dutch, constitutes three-fourths of its population to-day. The first settlers were men of intelligence, enlightened judgments, iron nerve and indomitable perseverance. They had severed themselves from the attachments of home, kindred and friends, and dared to invade the wilderness, with its perils of storm, EARLY SETTLERS - 179 of flood, of savage Indian and ambuscade, of possible starvation, sickness and death. Undaunted and unyielding before these obstacles, the hardy, stalwart pioneer, buoyant with expectation and exalted hopes of the future, stripped for the stupendous conflict between the powers of the will and arm and the Titan children of the woods. With the benediction of God upon him, and a complete consecration to his self-imposed adventure, he stood, with ax in hand, in the midst of his wilderness home, prepared to level to the earth the stout monarchs of the forests, and open up an abode for his future comfort and happiness, and thereby establish upon a new and virgin soil the securities and blessings of a civilization from which he had been voluntarily divorced. With him the enterprise had not been without its anxieties and fears. He estimated the hardships of the adventure, and the many perils that awaited him in the great " arsenal of chance." But when the web of his experience was unraveling, he discovered how inadequate had been his conceptions of the hazards of his adventure. Turn whither he would, privation and suffering attended him. On this, it was Scylla, on the other side, it was Charybdis. There was no escape from either. But the pioneer of that day was not of that pliant plastic composition that surrendered to disaster, or trembled before uncalculated misfortune. His manhood was brought to the test, but it withstood it. His adversities but made him strong, as the tree that wrestles with the gale is the stronger for it. "Who hath not known ill-fortune, never knew Himself or his own virtue." When memory caused the eye to weep, when almost driven "to censure Fate and pious Hope forego "—when the flood interposed—when the ravine stayed his progress-when the bluff and mountain overshadowed him—then it was that the pioneer forgot father, mother, home, childhood and all that is vivid and loved in retrospection ; then it was that his moral stature developed into 190 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. giant outline, and his soul swelled into an ecstacy of delight with the sublime prospect of what he had resolved to attain. His ax was his trusty claymore ; his devoted wife his assurance of triumph and well-poised personal confidence—these constituted his oriflamme to encourage him in the heat of battle ; and his cause was the cause of religion, civilization and man. Intent on such a purpose, invested with such an armor, with a belief in himself, and a sound faith in the God whose "unambiguous footsteps" he traced in the silent galleries of the woods, he had to but endure and wait, and press forward to the sure reward. With such equipments of warfare and panoplied in such a manner, did the brave frontiersman grapple with the stubborn oak and towering beech till they were overcome, and waving fields of yellow grain, like rills of cooling water in the desert's waste, repaid his toil and cheered his heart with the smiles of a plentiful prosperity. How persistently he struggled, how heroically he suffered, how faithfully he toiled, we who succeed him and who have " lived to see what he foresaw," and whose privilege it is to honor and venerate him, most tenderly remember and sensitively know. We advance no precarious proposition when we assert that the pioneers and first settlers, not simply of this county, but of all eastern and south-eastern Ohio, were as noble, chivalrous, patriotic, intelligent and Christian a body of men and women as ever reflected lustre upon civilization, or under its standard threaded the confines of an unknown wilderness. They had unshaken religious faith in their mission and the benign and comprehensive results that were to flow from it. Washington might well say of the colony that was settled upon the Muskingum : "None in America were occupied under such favorable auspices. Information, property and strength will be its characteristics. I know many of the settlers personally, and there never were better men calculated to promote the welfare of such a community." It was not their sole motive to establish government, but to make it the protector and hand-maid of religion ; for, said they : EARLY SETTLERS - 181 " Religion and government commenced in those parts of the globe where the sun first rose in his effulgent majesty. They have followed after him in his brilliant course; nor will they cease till they shall have accomplished in this Western World the consummation of all things." So may it be recorded of our pioneers. While it may be partly true that many of them were actuated by a desire to improve their situation, to augment their riches and possess innumerable acres, they were inhabited by a nobler ambition, and had loftier incitements than "The dread Omnipotence of Gold." In their pursuit of lands and wealth and happiness, they sought protection in the establishment of good government-government which should guarantee liberty to all alike in civic affairs, and uniformity of rights in matters of religion, upon the logical premise that the general equality of sects is found to abate religious animosity without relaxing zeal. While they were seeking to promote their own welfare and discharge their duties to themselves and their government, they were not forgetful of their higher Christian duties. In many instances, with the smoke that curled in currents from the chimneys of their cabins ascended the incense of prayer. The rude, primeval hut, instead of being the abode of the little family cluster alone, became a temple of worship, and the gray old woods resounded with the simple but pathetic and eloquent expostulations of pious men. Manfully they faced " the sombre necessity of living ; " valorously they held the field, and came off more than conquerors. Their dazzling visions have been realized, their bright dreams have been fulfilled, and their fields and fruited trees have become our golden prophecies. Their parts were performed well, and nature, who has transmitted the promise to us, was kind and gracious to them. Many, indeed, never realized their hopes ; others of them lived to witness the consummation of their hopes, and testify their gratitude ; to see cities and villages rise upon the ashes of their battlegrounds, and observe a Mighty billow of intellectual and 182 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. physical activity roll over the scene of their first exploits to enrich, ornament and populate the almost limitless domain of their triumphs. Verily unto them has the old Greek fable of Pallas Ethena been verified in these latter days, by the sudden rise of a county from the empire of silence and chaos to a population of 40,000. What a contrast is presented, what a picture is that of seventy years ago, and what a picture is this of 1878 ! We pause to contemplate the ruin Time hath wrought ! But then, " It will leave no more Of the things to come than the things before." Seventy years! The three score and ten allotted by the Psalmist as the life of man ! But what more of the pioneers of all these years ago ? They were emphatically the lone dwellers of the forest. Their daily and ever-recurring necessities and wants were as numerous and multiplied as the inhabitants of older communities. Necessarily they were so situated as to make it impossible for all of them to be gratified. Schools, or school edifices, or churches there were none. The intellectual as well as the moral training of their children devolved upon themselves to a great extent. The child was the pupil, while the parents were the educators. If they were fortunate enough to have a minister among their number, all the better ; if not, their spiritual recreations consisted in the prayer meeting and the private, but equally orthodox method of interchange of Christian views and religious experiences. Streams were unbridged, roads were uncut, cabins were to be built, but the saw mill lived only in imagination, and the professional tradesman was missing, unless, peradventure, he was an integral of the company. A market would have been superfluous, as there was little either for sale or exchange. With the exception of mere patches by the larger streams, or on the lowlands, the surface was overgrown, or tree-covered. The bear, wolf, catamount and deer held sway, with no one heretofore to contest their rule. Even that vile product of blithe and innocent Eden-the first tempter—the successful and slimy strategist, in whose firm coils was woven the historic Eve—the inevi- EARLY SETTLERS - 183 table and fatal serpent, shared arrogantly in the dominion of the soil. There was labor sufficient for all to do, but the avenues were yet unopened through which were to flow the conveniences of life and the assurance of their enjoyment. They could consume what other soils had produced, but could not, for the time, produce what they consumed. And the hardships they endured upon their arrival were not the total of their sufferings. The passage from their homes to the wilderness was attended with discomfort, privation, sacrifice and peril. Their journeyings and pilgrimages were sorrowful and painfully tedious. They were not made then in the Pullman palace car. A footman was no prodigy of the road in those plain, tough days. To bestride the horse, mount the wagon, or help draw the cart, was no disgrace then to male or female, as it would be considered by the polished parlor inanities of to-day. They were true men and women, who had made covenant in a common cause. Weeks and months were occupied in their journeyings westward, which were completed without the luxuries of the modern hotel, their lowly bed being laid in the wagon or spread beneath a tent. Here husband, wife and babe sank to rest, serenaded by the wild winds, watched by the moon, and under the approval of the liberal stars. Here the unfailing flint-lock and the faithful dog were in readiness to repel invasion—the chief resources of safety and protection to the gallant pioneer. The scarcity of money and the absence of all bases of supply compelled every exercise of genius and device of economy. They were not an association of coach trimmers, gilders, carvers, peruke makers and friseurs, but a thrifty, iron-armed, metal-fisted legion of laborers ; a brain-born, irresistible army of thinkers and workers ; a sweeping, slashing myriad of forest-breakers and cord-wood artisans, modeling out of the rude elements the thousand-aisled temple of civilization, consecrating its pillars to industry and beautifying its domes and spires with the best creations of the inventive and ingenious mind. By sheer compulsion they 184 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. became a community of manufacturers and creators. They made their own farm utensils, and the apparel they wore. Wild turkeys and deer were in abundance, so that they were supplied with meats ; and, in the absence of oolong and hyson, they imbibed the sassafras and spice-wood. And we doubt not that in those rough, unpretending cabins there was to be found " the moral harmony of life ; " that domestic joy was enthroned and happiness was a constant guest. Contentment was there, and if not accompanied with riches, was not cursed with a desire of them. We can fancy the little family grouped about the cheerfully blazing fire, the father spinning tales for the little ones, and the merry mother plying the reel and singing, " 0, leeze me on my spinning wheel, 0, leeze me on the rock and reel; Frae tap to tae that deeds me bien, And haps me fiel and warm at e'en ! I'll set me down and sing and spin, While laigh descends the simmer sun, Blest wi' content, and milk and meal-- O, leeze me on my spinning wheel." And what shall be said of the Pioneer Mothers? Heaven's blessing be upon them ! How comforting to believe that in that procession of beatified and redeemed souls which forever circle around and are closest to the Throne, the Mothers are there ! If it be so endearing in Heaven as it is on earth, angels will whisper it, and the name of Mother will be next in sweetness to " Our Father, which art in Heaven." The grandeur of their heroism, the simplicity and the sublimity of their lives scarcely finds its parallel in what the Fathers endured. " ' For better or for worse,' said they, Low bending at the altar, then Arose and calmly rode away The earnest wives of earnest men." There was no hardship they were not willing to endure, no EARLY SETTLERS - 185 sacrifice they were not ready to incur. They met the snows of winter in their cabins, endured hardship, toil and peril. Oftentimes they were exposed to the savage Indian who prowled about their doors ; to the bear and wolf that encroached their domain, and spent the long and cheerless nights in their rude dwellings as watch, guardian and protector of their little families alone. Their faith and courage seemed almost divine, but like true women, " They held it good to follow where Their love and faith went on before, Who held it were a shame to spare Themselves the toil their husbands bore." An expansive benevolence of feeling and an unaffected hospitality were distinctive traits of the pioneers. The sojourner and stranger never failed to receive a cordial and hearty welcome at their hands. Did he ask for bread, it was given ; for lodging, it was not refused. If the fare was homely, it was ungrudgingly bestowed. And in their social relations and intercourse we find much, indeed, to admire. It was the sincere fellowship of ardent and mutual friends, and not the odious caricatures and specious sentimentalism of the later day. There was a warmth and meaning in the common shake of the hand, unaccompanied with the sinister leer and fraud-crusted smile of modern salutation. Women were not painted puppets, varnished inanities, enameled statuary, stuffed skeletons, dainty toys and sickly butterflies ; they were, simply, women. Men were not artificial figures, brainless swells, votaries of every gewgaw and bauble of fashion, or folly ; but were, simply, men, The home-life was a lyric of sweetness and simplicity. " In days of yore friends and neighbors could meet together to enjoy themselves, and with hearty good will enter into the spirit of social amusements. The old and young could then spend evening after evening around the fireside, with pleasure and profit. There was a geniality of manners then, and corresponding depth 'of soul, to which modern society is unaccustomed. Parties were 186 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. not so fashionable then as now, but the old-fashioned social reunions were vastly better than the more gaudy and soulless assemblies of the present day. Our ancestors did not make a special invitation the only pass to their dwellings, and they entertained those who called upon them with a hospitality which has nearly become obsolete. "They did not feel inclined to spend a thousand dollars for an evening's entertainment, for fear they might be outdone by their neighbors. Guests did not assemble then to criticise the decorations, furniture, manner and table of those who invited them. They were sensible people, and visited each other to enjoy themselves and promote the enjoyment of those around them. Perhaps it may be said that our ancestors were not refined, like their descendants of the present day. If they had been, in the sense in which the word is now understood, this generation would have been more hollow and heartless than it now is. They had clear heads and warm hearts ; they believed in the earnestness of life, and in the power of human sympathies. They would have tolerated in their descendants, with an ill-grace, the utter disregard of the duties of life which now prevails, and the so-called accomplishments which are designed to cover up the faults and follies of modern society would have received no favor at their hands. They taught their children to be useful, and always insisted that the useful should be a foundation for the ornamental." But we leap the chasm of seventy years—span the distance between the historic Then and the eventful Now. The old cabins and huts in which they lived have sunk to decay, and their occupants, with remarkable exceptions, have been dismissed from toil, and entered upon the repose of the grave. But has their influence not been felt in our midst, have they not engraven themselves upon our characters, and are not many of our lives but reproductions of theirs ? Were they not strong in their power of intellect, and are not their descendants so? In the vigor, robustness and massiveness of physical development were they not more than our peers? Were they not cour- EARLY SETTLERS - 187 ageous and patriotic ? Inspect the annals of border warfare, and the conflicts of the country with foreign powers, and you are stunned with the thundering reply. Have these virtues not been decisively and emphatically illustrated by their descendants ? The fiery cross, borne by the swift-footed Walise as the signal for the marshalling of the Scottish clans, did not arouse a deeper or more intense anxiety and devotion to their country than when its sacred banner was assailed. How different the picture of 1878 ! The very " type and shadows " of the pioneers have been obliterated. Since their advance into the wilderness customs have changed, nations have been convulsed, constitutions have been formed, empires wrecked and societies revolutionized. In this period two generations have been swept from the face of the earth, and three wars have devastated the country. During this time steamship navigati0n has been perfected, the sewing machine invented, and the electromagnetic telegraph, " the greatest wonder and the greatest benefit of the age," been advanced to the acme of scientific perfection. Energetic toil and audacious enterprises characterize their descendants ; productive fields, responsive to the touch of industry, yield their opulence of grain ; broad orchards and bright gardens are beautiful surroundings of nearly every farm house ; princely mansions supplant the primeval dwellings ; the mill and forge are at our very doors ; costly and capacious school houses are at hand churches are in abundance, whose tall domes and spires catch the last kisses of the dying daylight ; cities and villages rise like the hosts of Cadmus, as from the very earth ; the old stage and post coach are too slow for this palpitating, dashing, utilitarian age ; the canal has become a drowsy Python, on whose lazy breast is laid but little merchandise ; the bark canoe has succumbed to the raft, the raft to the schooner, the schooner to the sailship, and this to the ocean steamer ; and the rivers swagger under their weight of sea-bound argosies. The energies of steam have been utilized, and the unwearying fire-steed plunges across the continent like a demon of flame. 188 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. The changed and changing conditions of the times demanded and projected these improvements. Man, in his own domain of intellectual development, must of necessity follow the same course of evolution which Nature herself has followed in the production of the, at present, diversified variety of her organized beings. The departure has been great, indeed, from the ways and doings of the fathers, and the aspect of things has been amazingly transformed. New systems of tillage and new devisements of agriculture have been introduced, a thorough metamorphosis having overtaken the farmer and the utensils of the farm. Inventive mechanical genius has inundated the country with valuable and practical machinery so that one man performs the labor of three, and elevating the boy in the scale of possible labor to the proportion of a man. The human savage and the savage beast have alike disappeared, their places being occupied by the more docile, tractable and useful tenantry of the cultivated farm. The linsey and other home-made garments are contemplated as remnants and raimerits of a faded people, and the matron of today rustles in silks, ambles in satin and struts in jewels. Society and the social routine have likewise suffered change. Caste has insinuated itself into the social fabric, and gold is the medallion on which respectability is embossed. The dogmatist and the iamist are quite as common as they are contemptible. Moral values are subject to alarming interpretations. The hospitality of the pioneer is alien to the prevailing modern idea. Dash, glitter, show, sham, brass, pretense, speciousness and canting hypocrisy are too distinguishing characteristics of the new-fangled man. Friendships are wanting in genuineness, and mercenary motives too thickly underlie the transactions of common life. The false head sits on the pedestal, Man, and the masqueraders whirl down the lines, until we weary of the scene, " Where strangers walk as friends, and friends as strangers ; Where whispers overheard betray false hearts ; And through the mazes of the crowd we chase Some form of loveliness, that smiles, and beckons, EARLY SETTLERS - 189 And cheats us with fair words, only to leave us A mockery and a jest—maddened, confused, Not knowing friend from foe." The chatting, mirth-making sewing party is superseded by the sewing machine. Instead of tbe reel we have the easy-chair ; in the place of the distaff and wheel we have the ever melodious piano and the sweet guitar ; instead of the cheery blaze of the glowing pine we have the dazzling chandelier ; in place of the puncheon floor, the gorgeous textures of Antwerp and Brussels. The fashionable modern party, unlike the primitive reunions, may have an ancestry or pedigree, but it bears no patent from the fathers. It has become a studied, abnormal demonstration of pride, conceit, and other vicious family taints. Weeks are spent in its projection, in arranging its detail, and in disciplinary preparations for its execution. The Russians would capture the Dannewerk, or whip the Mussulman again while the plans were being unfolded. After all it is but a display of vanity, a heartless and hollow exhibition, which, it is true, after considerable expense, may serve as an introduction to some new and coveted circle, and place somebody else under an obligation to return a similar compliment,. which may be done in the same selfish and calculating manner. In our honor's name, however, let it be recorded that we are not an ungrateful posterity. If our churches are larger, more numerous and more beautiful, we assume not that our religion is more inspiring, or our Christian lives any purer than was the fathers. In the midst of a powerful devotion to wealth, it is gratifying to note that the attention to loftier aims and higher objects has not been overlooked by the people of this generation. While the central and pivotal idea is wealth, they have not ignored its cardinal postulate, the general diffusion of education. For it vast expenditures are incurred. Without it the physical power of a community is like the strength of the sightless Cyclop struggling in the dark. Their labors of charity and works of benevolence are worthy of any race or age. They have constructed railroads, erected asylums, built infrrmaries, populated cities, established 190 - HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO. manufactories, promoted industries, organized agricultural colleges, erected seminaries, secured salutary laws, determined the question of self government, encouraged science, fostered mechanical and inventive genius, stimulated Bible societies, incorporated and endowed universities, and raised temples for the worship of the living God. From the primal gloom of a wilderness they have made our county a garden of sunshine and delights. " 0, County, rich in sturdy toil, In all that makes a people great, We hail thee, queen of Buckeye soil, And fling our challenge to the State! We hail thee, queen, whose beauty won Our fathers in their golden years! A shout for greater days begun ! A sigh for sleeping pioneers!" May the memories of our ancestors long be cherished, and their names be held in admiring esteem and reverence. Precious and fragrant as the breath of the summer flowers be the names of those who have laid down their burdens by the wayside, and may no ungrateful thought be entertained, or unkind, rude word be spoken to the few who survive and patiently wait for the white wave to lift them free. The shore, the palm, the victory — the rest is but yonder. "Another land more bright than this, To their dim sight appears, And on their way to it they'll soon Again be pioneers ! "