PIKE
COUNTY
Pike
419
PIKE COUNTY was formed in 1815 from Ross,
Highland, Adams, Scioto and Jackson counties.
Excepting the rich bottom lands of the Scioto and its
tributaries, its surface
is generally hilly. The
hills abound
with the noted Waverly sandstone.
Area,
about 470 square miles. In
1887 the
acres cultivated were 59,554; in pasture, 50,068; woodland, 61,078;
lying
waste, 6,492; produced in wheat, 135,490 bushels; rye, 324; buckwheat,
30;
oats, 84,125; barley, 490; corn, 500,281; meadow hay, 6,608 tons;
clover hay,
1,063; potatoes, 21, 327 bushels; tobacco, 1,345 lbs.; butter, 168,541;
sorghum, 4,808 gallons; maple syrup, 1,719; eggs, 201,612 dozen;
grapes, 11,400
lbs.; wine, 15 gallons; sweet potatoes, 550 bushels; apples, 14,685;
peaches,
4,545; pears, 271; wool, 21,314 lbs.; milch cows owned, 2,621. School census, 1888,
6,191; teachers,
149. Miles of
railroad track, 44.
Township And
Census |
1840 |
1880 |
|
Township And
Census |
1840 |
1880 |
Beaver, |
1,075 |
750 |
|
Pebble, |
504 |
1,594 |
Benton, |
|
1,474 |
|
Pee
Pee, |
813 |
2,725 |
Camp
Creek, |
299 |
947 |
|
Perry, |
565 |
879 |
Jackson, |
1,096 |
2,067 |
|
Scioto, |
|
921 |
Marion, |
|
908 |
|
Seal, |
1,875 |
1,411 |
Mifflin, |
645 |
1,230 |
|
Sunfish, |
325 |
976 |
Newton, |
337 |
1,369 |
|
Union, |
|
676 |
Population of Pike county in 1820 was 4,253; 1830,
6,024; 1840, 7,536; 1860, 13,643; 1880, 17,937; of whom 15,620 were
born in
Ohio; 661, Virginia; 359, Pennsylvania; 144, Kentucky; 67 New York, 58,
Indiana; 606, German Empire; 44, Ireland; 24, England and Wales; 5,
Scotland;
4, France, and 3, British America.
Census, 1890, 17,482.
The Origin of Names is always a matter of interest.
It is a tradition that an Irishman whose
initials were P. P., cut them in the bark of a beech, on the banks of a
creek. This gave
its name to the
creek—Pee Pee, and later to a township.
Waverly is in Pee Pee, and James EMMITT, the founder, had
called the
place Uniontown until 1830, when the Ohio canal was in progress at that
point. An attempt
was then made to
establish a post-office, when it was discovered there was already an
Uniontown
in Northern Ohio. In
this quandary Capt.
Francis CLEVELAND, later an uncle of Grover CLEVELAND (for Grover was
then
unborn), an engineer on the canal who had been deeply engrossed in
reading Scott’s
novels, suggested the name Waverly, and it was adopted.
The uncle died in Portsmouth in 1882.
Page 420
BIOGRAPHY.
ZEBULON MONTGOMERY PIKE, from whom
Pike county was
named, was born in Lamberton, N. J., January 5, 1779, and died in York
(now
Toronto), Canada, April 27, 1813.
His father
was a captain in the Revolutionary army; was in ST. CLAIR’s
defeat in 1791, and
was brevetted a lieutenant-colonel in the regular army.
His son was an ensign in his regiment, and
while serving as such was an earnest student of Latin, French and
mathematics. After
the Louisiana purchase had been made
from the French, Pike, who had been promoted to the grade of
lieutenant, was
given command of an expedition to trace the Mississippi to its source. Leaving St. Louis in
August, 1805, he
returned after nine months of hardship and exposure, having
satisfactorily
accomplished the service.
In 1806-7, while engaged in
geographical explorations,
he discovered Pike’s Peak in the Rocky mountains, and reached
the Rio Grande
river. He and his
party were arrested on
Spanish territory and taken to Santa Fé, but were
subsequently released. He
arrived at Natchitoches in July, 1807,
received the thanks of the government, and three years later published
an
account of his explorations. In
1813 he
was placed in command of an expedition against York (now Toronto),
Canada. His troops
had taken one of the redoubts,
which had been constructed by the enemy for defence, and arrangements
were
being carried forward for an attack upon another redoubt, when the
magazine of
the fort exploded, and Gen. PIKE was fatally wounded, surviving but a
few
hours.
ROBERT LUCAS was born in
Shepherdstown, Va., April 1,
1781. His father
was a captain in the
Revolutionary army and a descendant of William PENN.
The son removed to Ohio in 1802 and settled
near the mouth of the Scioto, where Portsmouth now stands. He raised a battalion of
volunteers for the
war of 1812; served as a brigadier-general, and saw considerable
service at
Fort Meigs and Lower Sandusky. He
removed to Piketon, and there, in connection with his brother,
conducted a
general store. He
was several times
elected to the Ohio Senate and House, serving as Speaker of the latter. In 1832 he presided over
the Democratic
National Convention that nominated Andrew Jackson for a second term. The same year he was
elected Governor of
Ohio, defeating his opponent, Gen. Duncan McARTHUR, by one vote. In 1834 he was re-elected
Governor. While
Governor the “Toledo war” occurred, and
he successfully maintained the Ohio side of the controversy. In 1848 he was appointed
by President VAN
BUREN the first Territorial Governor of Iowa.
He died in Iowa City, Iowa, February 7, 1853.
JAMES EMMITT was born in Armstrong
county, Pa.,
November 6, 1806. His
career is a
striking example of what may be accomplished by persistent energy,
industry and
frugality. He
removed to Ohio when a
boy, and before he was 13 years of age was hired out to a farmer for
the sum of
$6 per month and board. He
had the
board, but the $6 were turned over to his father to aid him in his
struggle to
earn a home. Later
he worked at
blacksmithing at a country tavern; again at farm labor, and then as
wood-chopper at $4 per month. From
1825
to 1828 he was a teamster between Portsmouth and Chillicothe. At 22 he engaged in a
partnership with Mr.
Henry JEFFERDS in a small grocery business in Waverly.
In 1831 he was appointed postmaster.
The next year he bought a mill, and for the
next forty years he gradually accumulated property interests, until the
taxes
he paid were one-tenth of the total tax receipts of Pike county, and
one-half
the population of Waverly was employed in his various establishments,
such as a
bank, a store, a huge distillery, a furniture factory, a lumber yard
and saw
and grist-mills.
He was the principal factor in the
removal of the
county-seat from Piketon to Waverly in 1861, and when this was
accomplished he
presented a fine court-house to the people.
He served two years in the State Senate.
His opportunities for an education
were meagre, but
his force of character, strong common sense and great energy made his
success
in life something almost phenomenal for a small place like Waverly.
Mr. EMMITT is over six feet in
height and almost
gigantic in his proportions. For
his
recollections, he may be considered a walking history of Pike county,
and from
this source much herein is derived.
The first permanent settlers in the county
were Pennsylvanians and Virginians.
From
about 1825 and later many Germans settled in the eastern part. The first settlement in
the vicinity of
Piketon was made on the Pee Pee prairie, by John NOLAND, from
Pennsylvania;
Abraham, Arthur and John CHENOWETH, three brothers from Virginia, who
settled
there about the same time Chillicothe was laid out, in 1796.
Piketon in 1846.—Piketon, the county-seat, was laid out
about the year 1814. It
is on the
Scioto, on the Columbus and Portsmouth turnpike, sixty-four miles from
the
first, twenty-six from the last, and two east of the Ohio canal. Piketon contains 1
Presbyterian, 1 Methodist,
and 1 German Lutheran church, an academy, a newspaper printing-office,
4
mercantile stores, and had, in 1840, 507 inhabitants.—Old Edition.
Page 421
In 1861 the county-seat was removed to
Waverly.
In our old edition were given these
historical items: Piketon was originally called Jefferson, and was laid
off on
what was called “Miller’s Bank.” The
origin of this last name is thus given in the American
Pioneer: “About the year 1795 two parties set off
from
Mason county, Ky., to locate land by making improvements, as it was
believed
the tract ceded to the United States, east of the Scioto, would be held
by
pre-emption. One of
these parties was
conducted by a Mr. MILLER, and the other by a Mr. KENTON. In KENTON’S
company was a man by the name of
OWENS, between whom and MILLER there arose a quarrel about the right of
settling this beautiful spot. In
the
fray OWENS shot MILLER, whose bones may be found interred near the
lower end of
the high bank. His
death and burial
there gave name to the high bank, which was then in Washington county,
the
Scioto being then the line between Washington and Adams counties. OWENS was taken to
Marietta, where he was
tried and acquitted."
On Lewis EVANS’ map of the middle British
Colonies, published in 1755, is laid down, on the right bank of the
river, a
short distance below the site of Piketon, a place called
“Hurricane Tom’s;” it
might have been the abode of an Indian chief or a French
trader’s station.—Old
Edition.
A late writer states: Piketon was surveyed
and platted by Peter DUNNON, a Virginian and a good
surveyor—as surveyors went
in those days. The
court-house was not
built at Piketon until about 1817, and prior to its completion court
was held
in a stone building near Piketon, owned by John CHENOWETH. The court-house built at
Piketon, which is
still standing, was of brick. Among
the
earliest settlers in and about Piketon, were Jonathan CLARK, Charley
CISSNA,
Major DANIELS, Joseph J. MARTIN—who was for years Lord High
Everything of Pike
county—the BRAMBLES, MOORES, BROWNS, SARGENTS, PRATERS,
NOLANS, GUTHRIES and
the LUCASES. Most
of these families
first came into “the prairie” about 1797, but the
LUCAS brothers came
later. Robert
LUCAS, one of these
pioneers, afterward became Governor of Ohio.
His brother founded the town of Lucasville. About 1820 Robert LUCAS
was conducting a
general store at Piketon, which he afterward sold to Duke SWEARINGEN. In 1829 LUCAS was elected
to the Legislature
from Pike county, and thus began his political career.
THE
GRADED WAY AT PIKETON.
Among the many examples of ancient
earthworks in Ohio
occurs a most remarkable one about one mile below Piketon, described as
follows
in SQUIER & DAVIS’S “Ancient Monuments of
the Mississippi Valley:” It
consists of a graded ascent from the second to the third terrace, the
level of
which is here seventeen feet above that of the former.
The way is 1,080 feet long, by 215 feet wide
at one extremity, and 203 feet wide at the other, measured between the
bases of
the banks. The
earth is thrown outward
on either hand, forming embankments varying upon the outer sides from
five to
eleven feet in height; yet it appears that much more earth has been
excavated
than enters into these walls. At
the
lower extremity of the grade the walls upon the interior sides measure
no less
than twenty-two feet in perpendicular height.
The east ascent here afforded has been rendered available
in the
construction of the Chillicothe and Portsmouth turnpike, which passes
through it. The
walls are covered with trees and bushes,
and resemble parallel natural hills, and probably would be regarded as
such by
the superficial observer. Indeed,
hundreds pass along without suspecting that they are in the midst of
one of the
most interesting monuments which the country affords, and one which
bears a
marked resemblance to some of those works which are described to us in
connection with the causeways and aqueducts of Mexico.
A singular work of art occurs on
the top of a high hill,
standing in the rear of the town of Piketon, and overlooking it, which
it may
not be out of place to mention here.
It
consists of a perfectly circular excavation, thirty feet in diameter,
and
twelve feet deep, terminating in a point at the bottom.
It contains water for the greater part of the
year. A slight and
regular wall is
thrown up around its edge. A
full and
very distinct view of the graded way just described is commanded from
this
point.
To the foregoing
account of the “Graded Way” we append the
conclusions of Mr. Gerard FOWKE on
this work. Mr.
FOWKE was for years
connected with the
Page 422
Top
Picture
THE
GRADED WAY, PIKETON.
Bottom
Picture
E. P. Miller, Photo, Waverly, 1886.
WAVERLY.
The
view is from the west on
the road to the Quarry; the hills are those bounding the Scioto
Valley
on the east.
Pike 423
Smithsonian Institution, and has done much to
explode many absurd theories and notions on archæology
promulgated by authors ignorant
of their subject and writing only to strike the popular mind and pocket.
It may be well to state that the
celebrated “Graded
Way” near Piketon, whose use has caused much speculation, is
not a graded way
at all in the sense usually employed.
The point cannot be made clear without a diagram, but the
depression is
simply an old waterway or thoroughfare of Beaver creek, through which,
in
former ages, a portion of its waters were discharged, probably in times
of
flood. It is not just “1,080 feet in
length,” but reaches to the creek, nearly
half a mile away. The
artificial walls
on either side are not “composed of earth excavated in
forming the ascent,” for
the earth from the ravine or cut-off went down the Scioto before the
lower
terraces were formed, but are made of earth scraped up near by and
piled along
the edge of the ravine, just as any other earth walls are made. The walls are of different
lengths, both less
than 800 feet in length along the top; neither do they taper off to a
point,
the west wall in particular being considerably higher and wider at the
southern
extremity, looking, when viewed from the end, like an ordinary conical
mound. The earth in
the walls thus built
up, if spread evenly over the hollow between them, would not fill it up
more
than two feet, and that for less than a third of its length.
CONFLICT
FOR THE COUNTY-SEAT.
The history of every new State is
replete with the
conflicts between towns for county-seats.
That between Waverly and Piketon is thus told in the
Chillicothe Leader:
A
Strange
Fatality
has overhung Piketon from
its earliest day. A
town of fair
promise, it has “just missed” everything good but
the county-seat, and that was
taken from her. When
the course of the
great Ohio & Erie canal was first laid out, it passed through
Piketon. When the
survey was completed, the people of
that town were jubilant; they believed the future success of their town
was
assured, and that the death-warrant of Waverly—its
rival—was written and
sealed. It so
chanced that Hon. Robert
LUCAS was in the Legislature at this time—Speaker of the
House. Mr. LUCAS
owned large tracts of land about
the present town of Jasper, and so it happened that after a while the
people of
Piketon were startled by the information that another survey was being
made,
with the view of running the canal down on the Waverly and Jasper side
of the
river, completely cutting them off.
The
hand of Robert LUCAS was plainly discernible in this new deal, and his
influence was great enough to secure the location of the canal through
his
Jasper lands. This
was a blow between
the eyes for Piketon—a most fortunate circumstance for
Waverly.
The canal gave Waverly water-power
for her mills, an
advantage that was of great importance to any town in the days before
steam-power
was introduced. Waverly
very promptly
felt the impetus that this advantage gave her, and began to exhibit a
vigorous
growth.
About 1850 a project was gotten up
to build a railroad
from Columbus to Portsmouth, down the valley, which was to pass through
Piketon. Every
county along the line
voted $100,000 or more to this railroad, but Pike, and there the road
was
refused an appropriation by the people at the polls.
Pike’s refusal to do anything was the result
of the work of the Waverly people, who did not want Piketon to get a
road, to
carry away the trade they were building up.
The project was thus defeated, although a part of the
road, from
Portsmouth to Jackson, was built.
This
piece of road is now the C., W. & B.’s
“Portsmouth Branch.”
This was another blow at Piketon’s
prosperity—one more link in her chain of calamity.
When the Marietta &
Cincinnati Railroad was projected, it was to run from Cincinnati to
Hillsboro,
thence on down to Chillicothe and on to Marietta.
The road was built to Hillsboro, but for some
reason, best known to the managers of the road and the schemers who
were
hand-in-glove with them, the line stopped right there, and the road
shot off at
a tangent and struck out for Chillicothe from Blanchester. This left Hillsboro stuck
out at one end of a
railroad’s arm, without direct connection with anybody or
anything. Mr. Mat.
TRIMBLE, the brother of Dr. Carey A.
TRIMBLE, was the soul of the scheme for getting Hillsboro into
connection with
the world, and he was enraged at this treachery of the M. & C.
people
toward that city. So,
to get even with
Hillsboro’s enemies, he set to work to organize a company to
build a road—an
air-line—from Hillsboro to a point on the river near
Gallipolis. This
company was organized, the line surveyed
and work commenced at both ends of the road.
The roadway was built, culverts and abutments for bridges
put in,
immense levees built, a great tunnel through the hills near Jasper
started, the
heaviest kind of stone-work was done wherever required, ties were
bought and
laid along the road, iron was imported from England, and everything was
getting
into nice shape, when the company bursted, after
Pike 424
sinking two million dollars. The road was a very
expensive one, as the
engineers wouldn’t get out of the way for anything. If a house was in the way,
they bought
it. “Brown’s
Mill,” Pike county, was
purchased and razed to the ground.
If a
hill was encountered, they cut right through it, rather than go around
it. This sort of
“air-line” work ate up capital
rapidly and ruined the company—and Piketon’s chance
for a railroad.
If Piketon had gotten this
railroad, the fate of
Waverly would have been sealed. But
she
didn’t get it.
Waverly had always boasted that she
would capture the county-seat,
and “down” Piketon.
The towns were
always jealous of each other, and as early as 1836 the county-seat
question
became a political issue. In
1836 the
Democrats nominated James McLEISH, of Waverly, for the Legislature. The people of Piketon took
alarm at this, and
set to work vigorously to beat him.
Some
of the leading Whigs—Dr. BLACKSTONE, James ROW and
others—came up to
Chillicothe and had a lot of circulars printed with a cut thereon,
showing a
man with a house on a wheelbarrow, and labelled, “Jimmy
McLEISH moving the
Court-house from Piketon to Waverly.”
That circular settled the political aspirations of Jimmy
McLEISH. His defeat
so enraged him that he left Waverly
and removed to Sharonville.
From that time on the
“county-seat question” grew in
prominence. But it
was not until 1859
that Mr. EMMITT inaugurated the great “war” that
resulted in Waverly capturing
the desired plum.
Waverly
in 1846.—Waverly,
four miles
above Piketon, on the Scioto river and Ohio canal, was laid out about
the year
1829 by M. DOWNING. It
contains one
Presbyterian and one Methodist church, four stores, and had, in 1840,
306
inhabitants.—Old Edition.
WAVERLY, county-seat, about eighty-five miles
east of Cincinnati, sixty miles south of Columbus, is on the west bank
of the
Scioto river, on the Ohio canal, and the S. V. & O. S.
Railroads.
County Officers, 1888: Auditor, Snowden C.
SARGENT; Clerk, George W. EAGER; Commissioners: George W. BRODBEEK,
John MOTZ,
Jacob GEHRES; Coroner, John R. HEATH; Infirmary Directors, Henry SHY,
Thomas
MARKHAM, Jacob BUTLER; Probate Judge, Branson HOLTON; Prosecuting
Attorney,
Stephen D. McLAUGHLIN; Recorder, Newton E. GIVENS; Sheriff, James H.
WATKINS;
Surveyor, Henry W. OVERMAN; Treasurer, Frank EHRMAN, City officers,
1888: Mayor,
Philip GABELMAN; Clerk, George BARINGER; Treasurer, George HOEFLINGER;
Marshal,
Jas. R. BATEMAN. Newspapers:
Pike County Republican, Republican,
H.
R. SNYDER, editor and publisher; Watchman,
Democratic, John H. Jones, editor and publisher.
Churches: 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 German
Methodist Episcopal, 1 Presbyterian, 1 German Lutheran, 1 German United
Brethren, and 1 Catholic. Bank:
EMMITT
& Co., James EMMITT, president, John F. MASTERS, cashier.
Manufactures
and Employees.—James
EMMITT,
doors, sash, etc., 6 hands; GEHRES Brothers, doors, sash, etc., 5;
James
EMMITT, flour and high wines, 15; James EMMITT, lumber, 4; Pee Pee
Milling Co.,
flour and feed, 8; M. D. SCHOLLER & Co., oak harness leather,
3; Waverly
Spoke Works, wagon spokes, 12.—State
Report, 1888.
Population, 1880, 1,539.
School census, 1888, 522; James A. DOUGLASS,
school superintendent. Capital
invested
in industrial establishments, $120,200.
Value of annual product, $145,500.
In addition to the handling of grain and stock, ties, bark
and
hoop-poles are largely shipped, and, although the place is largely
known as a
whiskey town, local option is in force.
Census, 1890, 1,514.
RECOLLECTIONS
OF HON. JAMES EMMITT.
In 1886 the Chillicothe
Leader published a series of
valuable and interesting articles on the pioneer history of Pike county
and the
surrounding region. These
articles were
largely the recollections of the Hon. James EMMITT, whose father
settled in
Pike county when all about was a wilderness.
James EMMITT, then a small boy, developed with the
country, and his
career is largely identified with the history of the Scioto Valley. We quote the following
from this series of
articles.
Pike 425
Why
Pioneers
Settled in the Hills.—It is often cause
for wonderment to people now-a-days why the pioneers of the Scioto
Valley, as a
rule, settled in the hills, some distances away from the river, instead
of in
the rich bottoms, which are now our most prized lands, said Mr. EMMITT. But if they had seen this
country about here
as it was when I first saw it, they would understand why the first
settlers
took to the high ground. Vegetation
in
the bottoms, in those days, was absolutely rank.
Sycamore, black walnut and hackberry trees
grew abundantly and to splendid proportions, and the vines of the wild
grape
clambered up in a dense and tangled mass to their very tops,
interlacing their
branches, and often uniting many trees in a common bond of clinging
vines. The growth
of weeds and underbrush was wonderfully
dense, and when the floods would come and cover the bottoms, several
inches of
water would remain in those brakes of weeds for months after it had
receded
from less densely overgrown ground.
As a
matter of fact, the water would stand almost the year around, in
lagoons, over
a large portion of the bottoms, converting them into huge marshes, and
causing
them to closely resemble much of the swamp land now so abundant in the
South.
Poison
Breeding Land.—The
bottoms, under the
conditions that then existed, were nothing more than immense tracts of
poison-breeding land, marshy in nature, and wholly unfit for the
agreeable
habitation of man. The
atmosphere of the
bottoms was fairly reeking with malaria, and it was simply impossible
to live
in the low lands without suffering constantly with fever and ague. And the ague of those
far-off days was of an
entirely different type from that with which we now have acquaintance. It took on a form, at
times, almost a
malignant as yellow fever. When
a man
was seized with the “shaking ague,” as it
manifested itself in 1818-20, he
imagined that a score of fiends were indulging in a fierce warfare over
the
dismemberment of his poor person.
Physical
Suffering.—Every
member, every nerve,
every fibre of his wretched body was on the rack, and the sufferer
thought that
surely something must give way and permit his being shaken into bits. Oh, what torture it was! After the terrible quaking
ceased then came
the racking, burning fever, that scorched the blood, parched the flesh,
and
made one pray for death. Torture
more
absolute and prostrating could not well be conceived of. And when it is remembered
that no one who
dared brave the dangers of the bottoms was exempt from ague, in some
one of its
many distressing forms, during the entire spring and summer seasons,
and often
year in and out, it is not surprising that the early settlers shunned
what was
to them a plague-stricken district.
The
consequence was, that the hill country bordering the bottoms was first
settled
up, and the bottom lands were gradually conquered by working into them
from
their outer boundaries and clearing away timber, vines, underbrush,
debris and
weeds. When land
was cleared of timber,
the sun speedily converted it into workable condition.
Fever and ague grew less prevalent as the
land was cleared up.
Floods
Enrich
the Land.—Nothing
could be richer
than these bottom lands when first turned up by the pioneer’s
plow. Before the
timber was cleared away, as has
been said, there was so much underbrush and debris—logs and
limbs and all forms
of flotsam and jetsam—covering the lands adjacent to the
river, that a flood
could not quickly recede, having so many impediments.
As a consequence, at every rise in the river,
the water was held on the bottoms until they had become enriched by a
heavy
deposit of the soil carried down from the hill-tops.
There is a point here worthy of
consideration. Our
bottoms are now
almost entirely cleared of timber, and, as a result, they yearly
receive less
benefit from the floods that sweep over them.
They are, in many instances, impoverished, instead of
being enriched by
the high water, which now flows over them with a strong current, and
carries
away tons of the finest soil.
Blacksmith
Shop in a Tree.—Some
idea of the size
of the sycamores that were then so abundant in the bottoms may be had
when I
tell you that the trunk of one of these trees, not far from Waverly,
was used
as a blacksmith shop. The
hollow of the
tree was so large that a man could stand in the middle of it, with a
ten-foot
rail balanced in his hand, and turn completely around without either
end of the
rail striking the sides of the trunk.
Both the hackberry and walnut trees made splendid rails. They were favorite woods
for this purpose, as
they split so nice and straight.
Dangerous
Plowing.—A
man took his life in his
hands when he went out into the newly cleared field to plow, in those
days. Stumps and
roots and rocks were
but trifles compared with what they had to contend with. Mr. EMMITT says that he
has followed the
plow, when, at an average of twenty feet, a nest of
bees—yellow-jackets, with a
most terrible sting—would be turned up.
Enraged at the destruction of their homes, these
bees—and the air was
full of them from morning until night—would keep up an
incessant warfare on the
plowmen and attack them at every exposed point.
Their sufferings from the stinging of bees was really
frightful.
Their danger was even increased
when harvest time
came. When the
reapers, wielding
sickles, would enter a wheat field, they would find the ground fairly
full of
snakes—vipers and copperheads and black
snakes—which not only threatened human
life, but dealt great destruction among the cattle.
“Squirrel
Plague.”—The invasion of
squirrels was one of the most remarkable events of
that period, and spread the widest devastation over the land. There had not been an
unusual number of
squirrels in the woods the year before, and only an average number were
observable the year following.
Page 426
But the year of the
“squirrel plague,” the
bushy-tailed pests came like an irresistible army of invasion, laying
waste
every foot of territory they invested.
They spared nothing.
They utterly
annihilated the crops of every kind.
Nothing comparable to this invasion can be pointed to in
our later
history, save the grasshopper plague, that a few years ago almost
impoverished
Kansas and Missouri.
Squirrels
Set
the Fashions.—The
squirrel invasion
had an important effect upon the “fashions” of the
day. Fur became so
plentiful that everybody
decorated their clothing with it, and every man in this section of
country wore
a Davy CROCKETT outfit. A
jaunty
coon-skin cap, with squirrel-fur trimming was just the thing at that
time; and
if a young man was particularly anxious to do the swell act, he would
decorate
his fur-trimmed buckskin shirt with brightly polished pewter buttons,
made by
melting down a piece of pewter plate, or the handle of a water pitcher
or
tea-pot, and moulding it into the desired form.
Locusts
and
Crows.—Then
later came the dreaded
locusts to eat up the crops and blight the trees and make life
unbearable with
their hideous and never-ceasing singing; and with all the other
afflictions,
the pioneer had to constantly battle with his smaller
foes—the birds, crows,
rabbits and squirrels.
Mr. EMMITT says that the crows
would follow the plow
in such numbers, to gather the worms turned up to the surface, that the
furrows
would be absolutely black with them.
After the corn was planted, two or more of the older
children, and often
men, would be compelled to watch the fields from morning until dark, to
keep
the cawing, black thieves from scratching up and eating the grain, and
destroying the sprouting corn.
Phenomenal
Fog.—About
1820 the pioneers were
overawed by one of the strangest phenomenons of their experience. A great fog or smoke came
up, about
midsummer, so dense that one could not see a light ten feet away, or a
man or a
tree even a few feet distant. The
sun
appeared as a great fiery ball in the heavens, and had a rather fearful
aspect. All-enveloping
and dense as was
this fog, it did not in anyway interfere with one’s breathing.
In the days of flat-boating on the Ohio and
Mississippi rivers, the mysterious disappearance of men who had started
for New
Orleans with cargoes of produce, was no uncommon occurrence. It was the custom to take
a cargo down the
rivers, and if the pioneer merchant had escaped the perils of the river
and
successfully disposed of his cargo, he had a still greater peril to
face when,
with his gold on his person, he journeyed on horseback toward home. The Mississippi country
was infested with
robbers and murderers, ever on the lookout for unwary victims.
The
SWEARINGEN Mystery.—A black mystery
to this day enshrouds the fate of Duke SWEARINGEN, who succeded Gov.
LUCAS in
his mercantile business at Piketon.
About 1823 SWEARINGEN started for New Orleans with a
flat-boat load of
flour and meat. After
he passed out of
the Ohio into the Mississippi he was never again heard of. When the time had passed
when he was due at
home, his friends at Piketon became uneasy about him.
Weeks and months passed, and no word was
received from him. A
search was made for
him up and down the river, and at New Orleans, and he was advertised
for, but
Duke SWEARINGEN was never again heard from.
Shortly after Mr. SWEARINGEN’S disappearance
another merchant of
Piketon, Mr. WILLARD, forever disappeared after a manner identical with
the
circumstances surrounding SWEARINGEN, becoming lost to the knowledge of
his
friends.
Opening
of
the Canal.—The
canal was opened in
1832. It was
announced that the water
would reach Waverly on the morning of September 6th,
of that year,
and preparations had been made to welcome its advent.
Almost the entire population of the
surrounding country had flocked into Waverly “to see the
water come down the
big ditch.” The
citizens had arranged to
give a grand public dinner in the open air, and Governor LUCAS and
Governor
McARTHUR—who were opposing each other in the race for the
governorship—were
present.
The
Water
does not Come.—The
canal banks were
packed for a long distance on either side with people eagerly awaiting
the
advent of the water. But
it didn’t
come—although it was struggling bravely to reach the point
where hundreds of
people were waiting to greet, with ringing cheers and noisy salutes,
its
advancing, incurving amber wave.
The trouble was, the canal was for
long distances cut
through gravelly land, and as a matter of course, when the water
reached these
gravel-bottomed channels, it was absorbed, as though by a huge sponge. It was not until such
places had become well
water-logged that the south-bound tide made much progress toward
Waverly, but
at noon a mighty shout announced its arrival at that point.
The
First Canal Boat.—Following close in the
wake of the advancing tide was
a boat bearing a party of jolly Chillicotheans—among them
Gen. James ROWE, Dr.
COATES, James CAMPBELL and Edward EDWARDS—to whom the odd
little craft
belonged. They were
the first navigators
of the waters of the canal south from Chillicothe to Waverly. Their badly-built and
leaky boat had an ec-
Page 427
centric fashion of sinking every
night, while they were
afloat, and they were forced to amuse themselves every morning by
“raising the
craft” and pumping her out.
The first
regular passenger and freight-boat that reached Waverly, and it came
down with
the water too, was the “Governor Worthington,”
owned by Michael MILLER and
Martin BOWMAN, of Chillicothe. It
brought down quite a number of passengers from Chillicothe, and was a
great
curiosity. The
owners had mounted a
little brass cannon on the “Gov.
Worthington’s” deck, and fired it off at brief
intervals on the way down, attracting the widest attention.
All those who came, either by land
or water, were
feasted at the great public dinner, bountifully served by a rejoicing
people. Both
Governor LUCAS and Governor
McARTHUR made after-dinner speeches—McARTHUR addressing
himself directly to the
Whig element present, and LUCAS to the Democrats; but both joined in
prophesying the incalculable blessings and wonderfully increased
prosperity
that would follow close upon the opening of travel and traffic on the
then
great waterway.
The greatest developments of the past few
years in the direction of combination and consolidation of financial
enterprises, give historic interest to this combination of an early day.
Must
Have
Hogs.—In
1850 a very strong syndicate
was formed by men of abundant capital with the view of getting up a
corner on
stock hogs. Their
organization extended
all over the country, their headquarters for Ohio being at Columbus. The syndicate sent out its
agents everywhere,
and was rapidly getting the control of all the young hogs in the market.
They seemed to make a particularly
clean sweep of
southern Ohio, and before the magnitude of their operations was
discovered they
had secured about every stock hog in sight.
This was a move that EMMITT & DAVIS could not
stand, as they were
always in need of stock hogs to which to feed their distillery slops. Mr. EMMITT got track of a
nice bunch of young
hogs that could be secured in Franklin county.
The hogs were held at a stiff price, and before deciding
to buy them,
Mr. EMMITT sent for Mr. DAVIS.
“We need the hogs,
don’t we, DAVIS?” he asked.
“Yes, sir,” was
the answer.
“I think you had better
go up and buy them.”
A Tough
Experience.—Mr.
DAVIS mounted his
little gray mare the next morning and rode up into Franklin county to
buy the
stock hogs and drive them home. It
was a
miserable journey of sixty miles, over rough roads and in very
distressing
weather. He reached
his destination,
bought and paid for the hogs, and made all arrangements for starting
them on
the homeward road the morning after the deal was completed. The hogs were quartered
that night in an
exposed field near the road. A
heavy
rain had fallen, and later on a terrible sleet veneered all creation
outdoors
with a thick encasement of ice. The
poor
hogs caught the full fury of the storm, and when Mr. DAVIS went into
the field
at daylight the next morning, he kicked hog after hog in the endeavor
to get
them to their feet, but many of them were stark dead.
With the animals that were in a condition to
be driven, he started for Waverly.
It
was a terrible trip, but DAVIS, although an old man, never complained
of the
hardships of it.
RACE
HATRED.
An unusual history of race hatred within the
limits of Ohio is that related by a correspondent of the Chillicothe Leader, as existing in Waverly, and
which we give herewith:
A Town
Without a Negro Citizen.—The one
thing that distinguishes Waverly over every other city or town in Ohio
having a
population of 2,000 is the fact that she does not harbor a single negro
within
her borders. This
antipathy to the negro
at Waverly dates back to the earliest settlement of the town. When Waverly was still in
its
swaddling-clothes there was a “yellow nigger” named
LOVE living on the
outskirts of the town. He
was a
low-minded, impudent, vicious fellow, very insulting, and made enemies
on every
hand. His conduct
finally became so
objectionable that a lot of the better class of citizens got together
one night,
made a descent upon his cabin, drove him out and stoned him a long way
in his
flight toward Sharonville. He
never
dared to come back. Our
first
acquaintance with negroes about Waverly was with rather rough,
objectionable
members of that race, and many things occurred to intensify the
prejudice which
many of our people always held against the negroes.
A
Friend of the Negro.—Dr. William BLACKSTONE
was a strong exception to the
general rule. He
was a friend of the
negro, their champion, and the prejudiced whites accused the doctor of
“encouraging the d---d niggers to be impudent and sassy to
us.” Opposed
to BLACKSTONE was a strong family of
BURKES, and a number of DOWNINGS,
Pike428
who thought that the only correct
way to treat a negro
was to kill him. This
was their
doctrine, and they proclaimed it, with much bravado, on all occasions.
Outrages
on
Negroes.—There
was a splendid fellow,
a darkey named Dennis HILL, who settled at Piketon and established a
tanning
business, who was almost harassed to death by the negro-haters. He finally left this
section and went to
Michigan, where he grew rich.
A lot of Virginia negroes settled
up on Pee Pee creek,
in the neighborhood of the BURKES and the DOWNINGS.
Some of them prospered nicely, and this
enraged their white neighbors. Tim
DOWNING was the leader of the gang that made almost constant war on
these
negroes. DOWNING’S
crowd got to burning
the hay and wheat of the colored farmers, harassing their stock,
interfering in
their private business, and doing everything in their power to make
life
absolutely miserable to the colored people.
They concentrated the brunt of their hatred against the
most prosperous
of these colored farmers, whose names I can’t recall.
Raiding
the
Wrong Man.—One
night they organized a
big raid into the colored settlement, with the avowed purpose of
“clearing out
the whole nest of d----d niggers.”
They
went fully armed, and didn’t propose to stop short of doing a
little killing
and burning. One of
the first cabins
they surrounded was that of the especially hated colored man spoken of. They opened fire upon it,
hoping to drive the
negro out. But the
darkey—an honest,
peaceable fellow—wasn’t to be easily frightened. He, too, had a gun, and
taking a safe
position near one of the windows of his cabin, he blazed away into the
darkness
in the direction from which the shots had come.
A wild cry of pain followed his shot.
The buckshot from his gun plunged into the right leg of
Tim DOWNING’S
brother, cutting an artery. DOWNING
fell
but he was picked up and carried to the home of Bill BURKE.
Downing’s
Death.—The
crowd abandoned the attack
after DOWNING’S fall, and followed him to BURKE’S
house. There
DOWNING bled to death. A
coroner’s jury, of which I was a member,
was empanelled and returned a verdict to the effect that DOWNING had
come to
his death from the effects of a gunshot wound—but the jury
refrained from
saying who had discharged the gun.
The
gang of whites to which DOWNING belonged surrounded the house in which
the jury
was in session, and threatened it with all sorts of vengeance if it did
not
return a verdict expressing the belief that DOWNING had been murdered
by the
negro. But their
threats didn’t procure
the desired verdict. They
afterwards had
the negro arrested and tried for murder, but he was acquitted.
Cowardly
Revenge.—The
morning after the fatal
raid the DOWNINGS, BURKES and their friends, armed themselves and
marched to
the negro’s cabin. They
lay in wait
there until the darkey’s son, a nice, young fellow, came out
of the cabin. They
opened fire on him, and one of the
bullets struck him in the head, fracturing his skull and allowing a
portion of
his brains to escape. When
the young man
fell the crowd broke and ran. The
wounded negro lingered quite a long while, suffering most frightfully,
and
finally died. No
one was ever punished
for this crime. After
these two
tragedies the negro moved away.
He Met
his
Match.—Tim
DOWNING had a brother,
Taylor, living up near Sharonville, and this man concluded that he had
to have
“an eye for an eye,” to avenge his
brother’s death. One
morning, just after DOWNING’s death, he
was going through the woods with his gun on his shoulder, and came upon
a negro
chopping rails. He
told the darkey to
make his peace with God, as he was going to kill him right there.
The darkey knew that DOWNING meant
what he said, and
quick as a squirrel’s jump he made a dash at DOWNING with his
ax, striking him
full on the side of the face, and shattering his jaw in the most
frightful
fashion. DOWNING
lived, but he was
horribly marked for life. The
negro was
arrested and tried, but was acquitted.
This only enraged the white gang more, and they made life
in this
neighborhood entirely too hot for the negro.
It was under such circumstances as these that the bitter
anti-negro
feeling at Waverly had its origin.
This
race hatred was fostered and extended until even moderate-thinking
people, on
any other subject, came to believe that they couldn’t stand
the presence of a
negro in Waverly.
WILLIAM
HEWITT, THE HERMIT.
On an adjoining page
is given a view of the Cave of the Scioto Hermit, which we visited to
make the
drawing for our first edition, and therein gave the following account:
About
eleven miles south of Chillicothe, on the turnpike road to Portsmouth,
is the
cave of the hermit of the Scioto.
When
built, many years ago, it was in the wilderness, the road having since
been
laid out by it. It
is a rude structure,
formed by successive layers of stone, under a shelving rock, which
serves as a back
and roof.
Page 429
Top
Picture
Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846
CENTRAL
VIEW IN PIKETON.
Bottom
Picture
Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.
CAVE
OF WILLIAM HEWIT,
The
Hermit of the Scioto.
Page 430
Over it is a monument, bearing the
following
inscription:
WILLIAM HEWIT, THE HERMIT, Occupied this cave fourteen years, While all was a wilder- Ness around him. He died in 1834, aged 70 years. |
But little is known of the history
of the hermit. He
was, it is said, a Virginian, and married early
in life into a family of respectability.
Returning one night from a journey, he had ocular proof of
the
infidelity of his wife, killed her paramour, and instantly fled to the
woods,
never to return or associate with mankind.
He eventually settled in the Scioto valley and built this
cave, where he
passed a solitary life, his rifle furnishing him with provisions and
clothing,
which consisted of skins of animals.
As
the country gradually filled up he became an object of curiosity to the
settlers. He was
mild and inoffensive in
his address, avoided companionship with those around, and if any
allusion was
made to his history, evaded the subject.
Occasionally he visited Chillicothe, to exchange the skins
of his game
for ammunition, when his singular appearance attracted observation. In person, he was large
and muscular; the
whole of his dress, from his cap to his moccasins, was of deerskin; his
beard
was long and unshaven, and his eye wild and piercing.
In passing from place to place he walked in
the street to prevent encountering his fellow-men.
Many anecdotes are related of him.
He planted an orchard on government
land, which
afterwards became the property of a settler; but so sensitive was he in
regard to
the rights of others, that he would not pluck any of the fruit without
first
asking liberty of the legal owner.
While
sitting concealed in the recesses of the forest, he once observed a
teamster
deliberately cut down and carry of some fine venison he had placed to
dry on a
limb of a tree before his cave. HEWITT
followed, got before him, and as he came up, suddenly sprang from
behind some
bushes beside the road, and presenting his rifle to his bosom, with
fierce and
determined manner bade him instantly return and replace the venison. The man tremblingly
obeyed, receiving the
admonition, “never again to rob the hermit.”
A physician riding by, stopped to gratify the curiosity of
his
companions. He
found the hermit ill,
administered medicine, visited him often gratuitously during his
illness, and
effected a cure. The
hermit ever after
evinced the warmest gratitude.
In the above account, William HEWITT is
stated to have refused to associate with mankind, a result of the
infidelity of
his wife and the killing of her paramour.
This fact was related by the hermit to the father of Col.
John
McDONALD. Hon.
James EMMITT, who knew
HEWITT intimately, states that the cause of his solitary life was a
quarrel
with other members of his family over the disposition of his
father’s
estate. Disgusted
with the
avariciousness of his relatives he sought the solitude of the Western
wilderness. This
occurred about 1790,
when HEWITT was twenty-six years old.
He
first located in a cave in what is now Jackson county, Ohio, but as the
game
upon which he subsisted began to grow scarce with the advent of the
settler and
trader, he removed into what is now Pike county.
Mr. EMMITT gives many interesting
reminiscences of HEWITT, from which we extract the following:
The
Hermit’s
Cave.—Almost
at the base of the
Dividing Ridge’s gentle slope to the southward, he found a
cave in a lowly
hillside. This cave
was nothing more
than a great ledge of rock, projecting out eight or ten feet over a
shelving
bank, and forming a one-sided room of fair dimensions.
The rock-ceiling was so low, however, that at
no point could a man of ordinary stature stand erect.
He enclosed the cave’s open front with a
loosely laid up wall of rock. At
one end
of the cave he erected a heavy oaken door, which he had hewn out with
his
little tomahawk. This
door was swung on
very clumsy wooden hinges, and was fastened by driving a peg through
its outer
board and into a crevice in the rocky wall.
A
Magnificent
Physique.—When
HEWITT first came into
this section, and took possession of his cave, he was a splendid
specimen of a
man. He was six
feet two inches in
height, broad and deep-chested, and as straight as a nickel-tipped
lightning
rod. He weighed
something over 200
pounds, and was as strong and active as a gladiator.
Clad from head to foot in
buckskin—moccasins, leggins,
hunting shirt, belt and hat—and always armed with gun,
tomahawk and knife. HEWITT,
the hermit, was a very picturesque
citizen to suddenly meet in the woods.
An Ohio
Robinson Crusoe.—When
he took possession of his cave, be it
remembered, there were very few people in this section, and the only
road
traversing this county from north to south, was known as
Yoakum’s
Page
431
Trace.
It was
merely a wagon trail, and passed HEWITT’S cave at a point
about 100 yards
distant from the present curve-beautified turnpike.
When the travellers up and down Yoakum’s
Trace first became aware of the fact that there was a sort of
buckskin-clad
Robinson Crusoe skulking about the woods, armed to the teeth, they were
much
alarmed, and their alarm was heightened when it became evident that the
Recluse
of Dividing Ridge didn’t seek their company.
But this fear gradually diminished as they became more
familiar with his
appearance and manners, and managed to strike up an acquaintance with
him. There was this
peculiarity about HEWITT,
while he never sought any man’s company, he never acted the
fool about meeting
people, when a meeting was unavoidable.
When brought into contact with his fellow-men, he always
bore himself
with striking native dignity; rather with the air of a man who felt
himself to
be a trifle superior to the ordinary run of citizens.
The
Hermit’s
Antecedents.—One
day, in 1832, Mr.
EMMITT, while at the Madeira Hotel, in Chillicothe, was accosted by a
gentleman, who introduced himself, and said that he was from Virginia.
He came
to Ohio, he said, to look up a man named William HEWITT, who years
before had
disappeared from his Virginia home, and had been lost to the knowledge
of his
friends until a few months ago.
Mr. EMMITT heard the story of
HEWITT’S flight from
home—related above—and then proffered to accompany
the stranger to HEWITT’S
cave. The two men
rode down to the cave,
knocked, and were bidden to enter.
They
found HEWITT comfortably seated on his fur-carpeted floor. He did not get up to
receive his visitors,
but in a friendly way made them welcome.
He did not at first recognize the stranger, but when told
who he was, he
said:
“How are you,
Bill,” as though it had only been yesterday
that they had met.
The stranger sought HEWITT to
acquaint him with the
condition of his property back in Virginia, and how it had been abused
by those
who then had unlawful possession of it.
HEWITT heard him through, with but little show of
interest, and when
urged by the stranger to return and claim his property, he answered,
with some
vehemence: “Never mind; I’m going back some of
these days, and then I’ll
give’em hell.”
He didn’t seem to care
anything about the value of his property, but showed that he was filled
with
bitterness toward those on whose account he had renounced civilization
and
home.
The stranger went back to Virginia,
a dissatisfied and
rather disgusted man.
A
Pitiable
Condition.—HEWITT,
as he grew old,
became very careless in his personal habits, and for two years
preceding his
death never changed his buckskin garments.
He had grown fat and lazy, and made no exertion that was
not a
necessity. And as
he grew old he became
more sociable. One
day, in the winter of
1834, he stopped at the house of a widow woman, named LOCKHARD, with
whom he
ate a hearty dinner.
After dinner he was taken violently
ill with a
chill. Mr. EMMITT,
who was then one of
the Poor Commissioners of Pike county, was notified of
HEWITT’S illness, and he
had the old man removed to a frame building in Waverly.
Dr. BLACKSTONE was summoned and gave the man
needed medical assistance. The
Hermit
was stricken with pneumonia.
His person was in an absolutely
filthy condition. The
dirty buckskin garments were cut from his
person, and he was given a thorough bath—the first he had had
for three years,
or longer. He was
newly and comfortably
clothed by Mr. EMMITT, was provided with a male nurse, and made as
comfortable
as possible. The
ladies of Waverly were
very kind to him, and daily brought him many delicacies. He began to improve, and
one night, about a
week after he was taken ill, his nurse, a man named COLE, left him
alone, and
went up to DOWNING’S Hotel to spend the night.
When he returned in the morning, HEWITT was dead.
The
Hermit’s
Skeleton.—HEWITT
was buried in the
old graveyard at Waverly, about one square southeast of the court-house. But he was not allowed to
remain long in his
grave. He was
resurrected by Dr. Wm.
BLACKSTONE, and carved up in artistic shape.
A portion of HEWITT’S skeleton—the
entire skull, and the bones composing
the chest, ribs and backbone—was mounted by Dr. BLACKSTONE. No one knew what became of
the remainder of
the skeleton until 1883, when they came to light in a most unexpected
way. One day, while
some of Mr. EMMITT’S workmen
were digging a cellarway to a house he owned, adjoining what had been
Dr.
BLACKSTONE’S office, they came upon a pile of bones, buried
four feet below the
surface of the ground, and close to the stone foundation wall. The bones were evidently
those of a victim of
the Doctor’s dissecting-table, and Mr. EMMITT promptly
concluded that they were
a portion of HEWITT’S skeleton.
This
opinion found its way into print, and a few days later he received a
letter
from Dr. BLACKSTONE, of Circleville, making inquiry about the
discovered
bones. He said that
he was in possession
of what he believed to be the other portion of HEWITT’S
frame, bequeathed to
him by his uncle, Dr. Wm. BLACKSTONE.
Mr. EMMITT boxed and sent him the bones, and they fitted,
exactly, the
upper half of the skeleton in Dr. BLACKSTONE’S possession. This was a remarkable
reunion of bones,
surely, after a separation of a half-century.
Hewitt’s
Monument.—The
Columbus &
Portsmouth turnpike was built past the mouth of HEWITT’S cave
in 1840, and in
1842, Mr. Felix RENICK, the first President of the company, had a
respectable
freestone monument erected on the shelving rock forming the roof to the
cave,
to mark the grewsome home that HEWITT occupied from 1820 to 1834.
The erection of this monument
was a wise,
Page 432
money-making scheme, and has paid
for itself an
hundred times over. Thousands
of people
have driven up or down that pike—and paid their toll both
ways—in order to see
the monument, and the cave where the old Hermit lived, slept on a bed
of finest
deerskin, ate his choice venison, and laughed at the cares of a
struggling,
feverish world.
He always ate his pawpaws in peace.
PIKETON is five miles south of Waverly, on the
Scioto river and S. V. R. R. Newspaper:
Sun, Republican, W. E. BATEMAN,
editor
and publisher. Population,
1880,
665. School census,
1888, 217.
JASPER is seven miles southwest of Waverly,
on the Scioto river and Ohio canal.
School census, 1888, 103.
BEAVERTOWN,
P. O. Beaver, is eleven miles southeast of Waverly, on the O. S. R. R. It has three churches. School census, 1888, 66.