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Historical Collections of Ohio

By Henry Howe

Vol. 1

©1888

 

JACKSON COUNTY

 

 

Jackson County was organized in March, 1816.  Area about 410 square miles.  In 1887 the acres cultivated were 43,961; in pasture, 101,544; woodland, 42,499; lying waste, 5,226; produced in wheat, 96,726 bushels; rye, 2,890; buckwheat, 137; oats, 66,488; corn, 214,006; meadow hay, 12,918 tons; potato, 15,759 bushels; butter, 262,410 lbs.; cheese, 100; sorghum, 4,197 gallons; maple syrup, 194; honey, 2,833 lbs.; eggs, 307,191 dozen; grapes, 1,400 lbs., sweet potatoes, 293 bushels; apples, 13,571; peaches, 9,094; pears, 76; wool, 47,491 lbs.; milch cows owned, 4,125.  School census, 1888, 10,201; teachers, 167.  Miles of railroad track, 125.

 

 

 

Also Coal township, formed in 1881.  Population of Jackson in 1820 was 3,842; 1830, 5,941; 1840, 9,744; 1860, 17,941; 1880, 23,686, of whom 19,598 were born in Ohio; 1,003 Virginia, 814 Pennsylvania, 277 Kentucky, Indiana, 55 New York, 770 England and Wales, 319 German Empire, 245 Ireland, 14 British America, 9 Scotland, and 7 France.  U. S. Census 1890, 28,408.

 

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Well, that prediction is now fact.  Jackson is one of the great mining counties of Ohio; in coal it stands second only to Perry.  The “Ohio Mining Statistics for 1888” gave these items; “Coal,  1,088,761 tons mined, employing 2,228 miners, and 332 outside employees; iron ore, 42,206 tons, fire clay, 9,720 tons; limestone, 21,125 tons burned for fluxing; 1,036 cubic feet of dimension stone.”

 

Prof. Orton, in his “Geological Report for 1884,” states: “Four seams of coal are mined in shipping banks in Jackson county. They are as follows: the shaft seam, the Wellston coal, the Cannel coal, the Limestone coal.

 

“The Shaft seam supports two shipping banks at Jackson, in addition to the several furnace  mines.  There are also several small shipping mines along the railroad, west of Jackson.

 

“The Wellston coal is the mainspring of the coal-mining industry of the country.  The development of this field has advanced with great rapidity.  In 1878 not more than 10,000 tons of coal were shipped from Jackson county.  During that year two new lines of railroad, built with the special object of reaching this coal, entered the field.  The roads are the Ohio Southern (I. B. & W.) and the Toledo, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railway (narrow gauge). In 1880 the shipments reached nearly 300,000 tons, and in 1883 nearly 400,000 tons.”  Now, as above stated, it exceeds a million of tons.

 

The Old Scioto Salt-works.

 

  The old history of Jackson county is very interesting.  The famous “old Scioto Salt-works” are in this region, on the banks of Salt creek, a tributary of the Scioto.  The wells were sunk to the depth of about thirty feet, but the water was very weak, requiring ten or fifteen gallons to make a pound of salt.  It was first made by the whites about the year 1798, and transferred from the kettles to pack-horses of the salt purchasers, who carried it to the various settlements, and sold it to the inhabitants for three or four dollars per bushel, as late as 1808.  This saline was thought to be so important to the country that, when Ohio was formed into a State, a tract of six miles square was set apart by Congress, for the use of the State, embracing this saline.  In 1804 an act was passed by the legislature regulating its management, and appointing an agent to rent out small lots on the borders of the creek, where the salt water was most abundant to the manufactures.  As better and more accessible saline springs have been discovered, these were now abandoned.

 

The expression, very common I this region “shooting one with a pack-saddle,” is said to have or originated, in early days, in this way.  A person, who had come on horseback, from some distance away from the salt-works to purchase salt, had his pack-saddle stolen by the boilers, who were a rough, coarse set, thrown into the salt furnace, and destroyed.  He made little or no complaint, but determined to have revenge for the trick, played upon him.  On the next errand of this nature, he partly filled his pack-saddle with gunpowder, and gave the boilers another opportunity to steal and burn it, which they embraced—when lo! much to their consternation, a terrific explosion ensured, and they narrowly escaped serious injury.

 

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Page 953

 

a prisoner.  The meeting between them was affecting.  We give the particulars in his own simple and artless language:

 

Mrs. Martin’s Story—It was now better than a year after I was taken prisoner, when the Indians started off to the Scioto, salt-springs, near Chillicothe, to make salt, and took me along with them.  Here I got to see Mrs. Martin, that was taken prisoner at the same time as I was, and this was the first time that I had seen her since we were separated at the council-house.  When she saw me, and asked me, if it was me.  I told her it was.  She asked me how I bead been.  I told her I have been very unwell, for I had had the fever and ague for a long time.  So she took me off to a log, and there we sat down; and she combed my head, and asked  me a great many question about how I lived,  and I if I didn’t want to my mother and little brothers.  I told her that I should be glad to see them, but never expected to again.  She then pulled out some pieces of her daughter’s scalp that she said were some trimmings they had trimmed off the night after she was killed, and that she meant to keep them as long as she lived.  She them talked and cried about her family, that was all destroyed and gone, except the remaining bits of her daughter’s scalp.  We stayed here a considerable time, and meanwhile, took many a cry together; and when we parted again, took our last and final farewell, for I never saw her again.

 

 

Captivity and Escape of Samuel Davis

 

Mr. Samuel DAVIS, who is now (1846) residing in Franklin county, near Columbus, was taken prisoner by the Indians, and made his escape while within the present limits of this county.  He was born in New England, moved to the West, and was employed by the governor of Kentucky as a spy against the Indians on the Ohio.  The circumstances of his captivity and escape are from his biography, by Col. John McDonald:

 

In the fail of 1792, when the spies were discharged, DAVIS concluded he would make a winter’s hunt up the Big Sandy river.  He and a Mr. William Campbell prepared themselves with a light canoe, with traps and ammunition, for a failed hunt.  They set off from Massie’s station (Manchester), up the Ohio thence up Big Sandy some distance, limiting and trapping as they went along.  Their success in hunting and trapping was equal to their expectation.  Beaver and otter were plenty.  Although they saw no Indian sign, they were very circumspect in concealing their canoe, either by sinking it in deep water, or concealing it in thick willow brush.  They generally slept out in the hills, without fire.  This constant vigilance and care was habitual to the frontier tactic of that day.  They hunted and trapped till the winter began to set in.  They now began to think of returning, before the rivers would freeze up.  They accordingly commenced a retrograde move down the river, trapping as they leisurely went down.  They had been several days going down the river; they landed on a small island covered with willows.  Here they observed signs of beaver.  They set their traps, dragged their canoe among the willows, and remained quiet till late in the night.  They now concluded that any persons, white, red, or black, that aught happen to be in the neighborhood, would be in their camp.  They then made a small fire among the willows, cooked and eat their supper, and lay down to sleep without putting out their fire.  They concluded that the light of their small fire could not penetrate through the thick willows.

 

They therefore lay down in perfect self-security.  Some time before day, as they lay fast asleep, they were awakened by some fellows calling in broken English: “Come on get; get up, get up.”  DAVIS awoke from sleep, looked up, and to his astonishment found himself and companion surrounded by a number of Indians, and two standing over him with uplifted tomahawks.  To resist in such a case would be to throw away their lives in hopeless struggle.  They surrendered themselves prisoners.