Ohio Counties
Adams
Historical Collections of Ohio
By Henry Howe
Vol. I
©1888
FAYETTE COUNTY
Page 602
FAYETTE COUNTY
was formed in March, 1810, from Ross and Highland. The surface is flat; about
half the soil is a dark vegetable loam on a clayey subsoil, mixed with
limestone gravel, the rest is a yellow, clayey loam. The growth of the county
when first settled was retarded by much of the land being owned by
non-residents, and also from the wet lands, which, when drained, proved highly
productive. The county is noted for stock-raising, its fine horses and cattle.
Its area is 420 square miles. In 1885 the acres cultivated were 95,549; in
pasture, 78,938; woodland, 26,167; lying waste, 1,841; produced in wheat,
111,318 bushels; corn, 2,594,944; wool, 142,852 pounds; hogs, 33,958. School
census 1886, 6,733; teachers, 136. It has 97 miles of railroad.
|
Townships And Census |
1840 |
1880 |
|
Townships And Census |
1840 |
1880 |
|
Concord, |
1,074 |
908 |
|
Marion, |
879 |
971 |
|
Greene, |
1,616 |
916 |
|
Paint, |
1,212 |
2,045 |
|
Jasper, |
|
2,072 |
|
Perry, |
|
1,320 |
|
Jefferson, |
1,948 |
2,925 |
|
Union, |
1,945 |
6,175 |
|
Madison |
765 |
1,405 |
|
Wayne, |
1,540 |
1,627 |
Population in
1820 was 6,336; 1840, 10,979; 1860, 15,935; 1880, 20,364, of whom 17,363 were
Ohio-born; Virginia, 1,052; Kentucky, 298; Pennsylvania, 291; Ireland, 256;
Germany, 136.
A gentleman of
the county at the time of the issue of the first edition gave the annexed list
of some of the more prominent characters in the early history of Fayette. This
gentleman was the late Hon. Alfred S. DICKEY, whom Justice CHASE described as “an
eminent judge in Ohio, and worthy of the great esteem in which he is
held.” He died in 1873, aged sixty-two years. He was the father of Hon.
H. L. DICKEY, of the Forty-fifth and Forty-sixth Congress:
The following
are the names of some of the first settlers of this county, viz.: Col. James
STEWART, Jesse MILLIKEN, Wade LOOFBOROUGH, Thomas M’DONALD, Dr. Thomas
M’GARA, John POPEJOY, Gen. B. HARRISON, Jesse ROWE, John DEWITT, Hamilton
and Benjamin ROGERS, William HARPER, James HAYS, Michael CARR, Peter EYEMAN, William
SNIDER, Judge Jacob JAMISON, Samuel WADDLE James SANDERSON, and Smith and
William RANKIN.
Col. STEWART, at
an early date, settled near the site of Bloomingburg, about five miles
northerly from Washington. His untiring industry in improving the country in
his vicinity and the moral influence which he had in the community will be long
remembered. Jesse MILLIKEN was one of the first settlers of Washington, was the
first postmaster, and the first clerk of both the supreme and common pleas
courts of the county, in all of which offices he continued until his death in
August, 1835. He was also an excellent surveyor, performed much of the first
surveying done in the county, and erected some of the first houses built in the
town. Wade LOOFBOROUGH, Esq., was one of the first citizens and lawyers in the
county. Thomas M’DONALD was one of the first settlers in this part of
Ohio, built the first cabin in Scioto county, was engaged with Gen. MASSIE and
others in laying off the county into surveys. He rendered valuable services in
Wayne’s campaign, in which he acted as a spy, and was also in the war of
1812.
Dr. Thomas
M’GARA was one of the first settlers and first physician of the town of
Washington, where he practised his profession for a number of years. He represented
the county in the Legislature, and was associate judge. John POPEJOY, Esq., was
one of the first justices in the county; he built the one-story house on Court
street, on the lot No. 5. It is said that he kept his docket on detached scraps
of paper in the most convenient cracks of his cabin, and that his ink was made
of
Page 603
walnut bark.
Although many amusing anecdotes are related of him yet he was a good man,
sincerely desirous of promoting peace and good-will in the community. When a lawsuit
was brought before him his universal practice was, if possible, to prevail upon
the parties to settle the dispute amicably. He always either charged no costs,
or took it in beer, cider, or sonic other innocent beverage, of which the
witnesses, parties, and spectators partook at his request, and the parties
generally left the court in better humor and better satisfied than when they
entered.
The first court
of common pleas in the county was held by Judge Thompson, at the cabin of John
DEVAULT, a little north of where Bloomingburg now stands. The judge received a
severe lecture from old Mrs. DEVAULT for sitting upon and rumpling her bed. The
grand jury held their deliberations in the stable and in the hazel-brush. Judge
Thompson was a man of strict and Puritan-like morality, and distinguished for
the long (and in some instances tedious) moral lectures given in open court to
the culprits brought before him.
The Fighting
Funks. —The pioneers of Fayette
county were principally from Virginia and Kentucky, and were generally hale and
robust, brave and generous. Among the Kentuckians was a family of great
notoriety, by the name of FUNK. The men, from old Adam down to Absalom, were of
uncommonly large size, and distinguished for their boldness, activity, and fighting
propensities. Jake FUNK, the most notorious, having been arrested in Kentucky
for passing counterfeit money, or some other crime, was bailed by a friend, a
Kentuckian by the name of TRUMBO. Having failed to appear at court, TRUMBO,
with about a dozen of his friends, well armed, proceeded to the house of the
FUNKS for the purpose of taking Jake, running him off to Kentucky and
delivering him up to the proper authorities, to free himself from paying bail.
The FUNKS, having notice of the contemplated attack,
prepared themselves for the conflict. Old Adam, the father, took his seat in
the middle of the floor to give command to his sons, who were armed with
pistols, knives, etc. When TRUMBO and his party appeared, they were warned to
desist; instead of which, they made a rush at Jake, who was on the porch. A Mr.
Wilson, of the attacking party, grappled with Jake, at which the firing
commenced on both sides. Wilson was shot dead. Ab. FUNK was also shot down.
TRUMBO having clinched Jake, the latter drew him to the door, and was about to
cut his throat with a large knife, when old Adam cried out, “Spare
him!—don’t kill him —his father once saved me from being
murdered by the Indians “—at which he was let off, after being severely
wounded, and his companions were glad to escape with their lives. The old house
at which this fight occurred is still standing (1846), on the east fork, about
eight miles north of Washington, with the bullet-holes in the logs as a memento
of the conflict.
The FUNK family were no enemies to whiskey. Old Adam,
with some of his comrades, being one day at ROEBUCK’S grocery—the
first opened in the county, about a mile below FUNK’S house—became
merry by drinking. Old Adam, wishing to carry a gallon of whiskey home, in vain
endeavored even to procure a wash-tub for the purpose. Observing one of
ROEBUCK’S pigs running about the yard, he purchased it for a dollar and
skinned it whole, taking out the bone about two inches from the root of the
tail, which served as a neck for the bottle. Tying up the other holes that
would, of necessity, be in the skin, he poured in the liquor and started for
home with his companions, where they all got drunk from the contents of the
hog-skin.
CAPTAIN JOHN was
a Shawanee chief well known to the early settlers of the Scioto valley. He was
over six feet in height, strong and active, full of spirit and fond of frolic.
In the late war he joined the American army, and was with Logan at the time the
latter received his death-wound. We extract two anecdotes respecting him from
the notice by Col. John M’DONALD. The scene of the first was in Pickaway,
and the last in this county.
When Chillicothe was first settled by the whites, an
Indian named John CUSHEN, a half- blood, made his principal home with the McCOY
family, and said it was his intention to live with the white people. He would
sometimes engage in chopping wood, and making rails and working in the
corn-fields. He was a large, muscular man, good humored and pleasant in his
interviews with the whites. In the fall season, he would leave the white
settlement to take a hunt in the lonely forest. In the autumn of 1779, he went
up Darby creek to make his annual hunt. There was an Indian trader by the name
of FALLENASH, who traversed the country from one Indian camp to another with
pack-horses, laden with whiskey and other articles. CAPTAIN JOHN’S
hunting camp was near Darby creek, and John CUSHEN arrived at his camp while
FALLENASH, the Indian trader, was there with his
Page 604
goods and whiskey. The Indians set to for a real
drunken frolic. During the night, CAPTAIN JOHN and John CUSHEN had a quarrel,
which ended in a fight: they were separated by FALLENASH and the other Indians,
but both were enraged to the highest pitch of fury. They made an arrangement to
fight the next morning, with tomahawks and knives. They stuck a post on the
south side of a log, made a notch in the log, and agreed that when the shadow
of the post came into the notch the fight should commence. When the shadow of
the post drew near the spot, they deliberately, and in gloomy silence, took
their stations on the log. At length the shadow of the post came into the
notch, and these two desperadoes, thirsting for each other’s blood,
simultaneously sprang to their feet, with each a tomahawk in his right hand and
a scalping- knife in the left, and flew at each other with the fury of tigers,
swinging their tomahawks around their heads and yelling in the most terrific
manner. Language fails to describe the horrible scene. After several passes and
some wounds, CAPTAIN JOHN’S tomahawk fell on CUSHEN’S head and left
him lifeless on the ground. Thus ended this affair of honor, and the guilty one escaped.
About the year 1800, CAPTAIN JOHN, with a party of
Indians, went to hunt on the waters of what is called the Rattlesnake fork of
Paint creek, a branch of the Scioto river. After they had been some time at
camp, CAPTAIN JOHN and his wife had a quarrel and mutually agreed to separate;
which of them was to leave the camp is not now recollected. After they had
divided their property, the wife insisted upon keeping the child; they had but
one, a little boy of two or three years of age, The wife laid hold of the
child, and John attempted to wrest it from her; at length John’s passion
was roused to a fury, he drew his fist, knocked down his wife, seized the child
and carrying it to a log cut it into two parts, and then, throwing one-half to
his wife, bade her take it, but never again show her face, or he would treat
her in the came manner. Thus ended this cruel and brutal scene of savage
tragedy.
WASHINGTON
COURT-HOUSE IN 1846.—Washington Court-House, the county- seat, is on a
fork of Paint creek, 43 miles south-southwest of Columbus. It contains 1
Presbyterian, 1 Methodist church, 1 academy, 8 mercantile stores, 2 newspaper
printing offices, 2 woollen factories, 1 saw and 2 grist mills, and 97
dwellings. It was laid out in 1810 as the county-seat, on land given for that
purpose by Benjamin Temple, of Kentucky, out of his survey.- Old Edition.
Washington
Court-House, county-seat, is on the C. & C. M., D. Ft. W. &.C., P. C.
& St. L., and I. B. & W. railroads, thirty-eight miles from Columbus
and seventy-seven miles from Cincinnati. County officers in 1888: Probate
Judge, Thomas N. CRAIN; Clerk of Court, E. W. WEISHEIMER; Sheriff, A. B.
RANKIN; Prosecuting Attorney, Robert C. MILLER; Auditor, T. J. LINDSEY;
Treasurer, James F. COOK; Recorder, John R. SUTHERLAND; Surveyor, Frank M.
KENNEDY; Coroner, L. F. HOUSE; Commissioners, Lewis C. MALLOW, Henry Mark,
THOMAS F. PARRETT. Newspapers: Herald,
Republican, William MILLIKAN & Son, editors; Fayette Republican, Republican, Thomas F. GARDNER and Will R.
DALBEY, editors; Ohio State Register,
Democratic, William CAMPBELL, editor. Banks: Commercial, Morris SHARP, manager;
Merchants’ and Farmers’, M. PAVEY, president, J. W. FARINGER,
cashier; People’s and Drovers’, Daniel McLEAN, president, Robert A.
ROBINSON, cashier. Churches: 1 Presbyterian, 1 Catholic, 1 Christian, 1
Methodist, 1 Colored Methodist, I Baptist, and I Colored Baptist. Principal industries: Jauney &
Manning’s machine shop; Fayette Creamery Company; White &
Ballard’s shoe factory; A. Coffman & Co., doors, sash, and blinds;
the Ludlow Soap Factory; J. D. Stucky and Parks Bros., milling. Population in
1880, 3,798. School census 1886, 1,398; Charles F. Dean, superintendent.
Washington is a
leading stock centre. The last Tuesday of every month is stock-sales day, when
the streets are often filled with cattle. As many as 6,400 head of cattle have
been sold in a single day.
There is yet a
pensioner of the American Revolution alive and residing in Washington
Court-House—Mrs. Mary CASEY, “a war widow,” who when young
married an old soldier of the “times that tried men’s souls.”
On the 8th
of September, 1885, Washington Court-House was partially destroyed by one of
the most disastrous of cyclones. The loss of life was surprisingly small
considering the fearful disturbance of the elements, there being but six
persons killed and a comparatively small number injured. The loss of property
was estimated to be nearly $500,000.
Page 605
The cyclone had
its origin in Greene county, and moving southeasterly struck Fayette county in
Jasper township, increasing in power and destructiveness until it reached
Washington Court-House, about eight o’clock ill the evening, leaving
almost total devastation along its course of twelve miles. An hour before the
cyclone struck Washington a huge black cloud slowly crept up the western
horizon,
Drawn by Henry
Howe in 1846.
VIEW IN WASHINGTON C. H.
which was
followed by a strange phosphorescent cloud filled with lightning shooting from
heaven to earth in a constant chain. Some described the cloud as resembling a
huge elephant’s trunk, the lower end of which dipped down first on the
right hand and then on the left. Others say it resembled a great and luminous
hornet’s-nest, whirling in the heavens in frantic fury. As the clouds
approached
