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COSHOCTON COUNTY.

 

Page 466

COSHOCTON COUNTY was organized April 1, 1811. The name is a Delaware word, and is derived from that of the Indian village Goschachgunk, which is represented on a map in Loskiel as having stood north of the mouth of the Tuscarawas river, in the fork formed by its Junction with the Walhonding. The surface is mostly rolling; in some parts hilly, with fine broad valleys along the Muskingum and its tributaries. The soil is varied, and abruptly so; valleys here we see the rich alluvion almost overhung by a red-bush hill, while perhaps on the very next acclivity is seen the poplar and sugar tree, indicative of a fertile soil. With regard to sand and clay the changes are equally sudden. The hills abound in coal and iron ore, and salt wells have been stunk and salt manufactured. It was first settled by Virginians and Pennsylvanians. Area, 540 square wiles. In 1885 acres cultivated were 90,218; in pasture, 150,500: woodland, 60,619; lying waste, 2,150; produced in wheat, 72,992 bushels; corn, 892,890; wool, 788,979 pounds; coal, 52,934 tons. School census 1886, 8,770; teachers, 192. It has 42 miles of railroad.

 

 

Population in 1820 was 7,086; 1840, 21,590; 1860, 25,032; 1880, 26,642, of whom 22,909 were Ohio-born.

 

 

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of the Muskingum;” it is 115 miles from its mouth at Marietta. At the Forks was the principal village of the Turtle tribe of the Delawares, called Goschachgunk, the name now modernized into Coshocton. It occupied the site of the lower streets of Coshocton, stretching along the river bank below the junction. As described by explorers at that day it was a very noticeable place. From two to fourscore of houses, built of logs and limbs and bark, were arranged in two parallel rows, making a regular street between. Prominent among these was the council-house, in which the braves of the different tribes assembled, smoked their pipes, and conducted their councils in dignity and with decorum. At one time, in 1778, it is said that 700 warriors assembled in the place. In 1781 Brodhead destroyed the Village.

 

In 1776 the Moravian missionaries, Rev. David ZEISBERGER and John HICKSWELDER, with eight families, numbering thirty-five persons, started a mission village two and a half miles below the Forks. They called it Lichtenau, that is, a “Pasture of Light “—a green pasture illuminated by the light of the Gospel. They selected this site in deference to the wishes of NETAWATWEES, a friendly Delaware chief, who with his family had become Christianized, and dwelt in Goschachgunk. On the first Sunday after the spot had been prepared by felling trees, writes one, “The chief and his villagers came to Lichtenau in full force to attend religious services. On the river’s bank, beneath the gemmed trees ready to burst into verdure, gathered the congregation of Christian and pagan worshippers. ZEIZBERGER preached on the words, ‘Thus is it written and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.’ Afterwards fires were lighted, around which the converts continued to instruct their brother Indians until the shades of evening fell.” And this was doubtless the first sermon, either Protestant or Catholic, preached within the present limits of Coshocton county.

 

Great hopes were cherished of Lichtenau until 1779, when some hostile Wyandots and Mingo warriors having made it a rendezvous and starting-point for a new war-path to the white settlements it was abandoned, and thus was terminated the only Moravian mission ever established within the present limits of the County.

 

The large number of Indian towns along the Muskingum river and its branches made this region of great historic interest long before it was settled by the whites. In peace these towns were frequented by white hunters and traders; in war large numbers of white captives were brought here from Virginia and Pennsylvania, some to remain and others en route to the Wyandot and Shawnee towns on the Sandusky, and when the Moravians came here the history of their operations in its results added a chapter of unique and tragic interest. The first white occupant known to the history of this territory was a woman—Mary HARRIS—the heroine of the “Legend of the Walhonding,” in 1740. She had been captured when verging into womanhood, somewhere between 1730 and 1740, and adopted as a wife by an Indian chief; EAGLE FEATHER. As early as 1750 she was living in a village near the junction of the Killbuck with the Walhonding, about seven miles northwest of “The Forks of the Muskingum.” So prominent had she become, that the place was named “The White Woman’s Town,” and the Walhonding branch of the river thence to the Forks was called in honor of her “The White Woman’s River.”

 

In 1750 Capt. Christopher GIST, in the interest of the Ohio Land Company, of Virginia, established in 1748, was sent out to explore the country northwest of the Ohio. The object of this company was to secure permanent possession for the English of the interior of the continent. To accomplish this—” to secure Ohio for the English world “—Lawrence WASHINGTON, Augustus WASHINGTON, of Virginia, and their associates, proposed a colony beyond the Alleghenies.

 

 

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the Tuscarawas and the White Woman which contained about 100 families, a portion in the French and a portion in the English interest.” Here Gist met George CROGHAN, an English trader, who had his headquarters at this town, also Andrew MONTOUR, a half-breed of the Seneca nation. He remained at this village from December 14, 1750, until January 15, 1751, one month and a day. Some white men lived here; two of whose names he gives, namely, Thomas BURNEY, a blacksmith,

 

Originally engraved for the Magazine of Western History.

THE FORKS OF THE MUSINGUM.

[The view is up the valley, with its flowing waters and gracefully curving hills.  On the right appears

the village of Coshocton and the Tuscarawas, or Little Muskingum; in front, its junction with the

 Walhanding, or White Woman, and the delta between; on the left the canal and bridge over the

Walhonding leading into Roscoe.  For soft, expansive beauty of scenery, united to memories of the

Touching important events that here occurred when Ohio was all a wilderness, few spots are so

Interesting on the American continent.]

 

 and Barney CURRAN. On Christmas day, by request, Gist conducted religious services, according to the Protestant Episcopal prayer-book, in the presence of some white men and a few Indians, who attended at the earnest solicitation of BURNEY and CURRAN. When Capt. Gist left he was accompanied by CROGHAN and MONTOUR, and “went west,” he says, to the White Woman Creek, on which is a small town, “where they found Mary HARRIS, and he gives briefly a few facts in her history; they remained at her town one night only.

 Again he notes in his journal:” Tuesday, January 15—We left Muskingum and went west five miles to the White Woman creek. This white woman was taken away from New England when she was not above ten years old by the French Indians. She is now upwards of fifty; has an Indian husband and several children. Her name is Mary HARRIS. She still remembers that they used to be very religious in New England, and wonders how the white men can be so wicked as she has seen them in these woods.”

 

 

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Man to press the soil of Coshocton county probably was James Smith.  He was a lad of eighteen years of age when, at the period of Braddock’s defeat, he was taken prisoner near Bedford, Pa., brought to the village of the Tullihas, on the Walhonding, and adopted into one of their tribes.  His narrative is given elsewhere in this work.

 

COSHOCTON in 1846.—Coshocton, the county-seat, is finely situated on the Muskingum, at the junction of the Tucarawas with the Walhonding river, eighty-

 

 

Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.

PUBLIC SQUARE, COSHOCTON

 

three miles northeast form Columbus and thirty form Zanesville,  In times of high water steamboats occasionally run up to Coshocton. The ground on which it is built, for situation, could scarcely be improved, as it lies in four broad natural

 

 

Skepler & Sons, Photo., Coshocton, 1887

PUBLIC SQUARE, COSHOCTON.

 

 

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young trees and covered with a green sward; on it stand the county buildings represented in the engraving. Coshocton was laid out in April, 1802, by Ebenezer BUCKINGHAM and John MATTHEWS, under the name of Tuscarawa, and changed to its present appellation in 1811. The county was first settled only a few years prior to the formation of the town; among the early settlers were Col. Charles WILLIAMS, William MORRISON, Isaac HOGLIN, George M’CULLOCH, Andrew CRAIG, and William WHITTEN. Coshocton contains 2 Presbyterian, 1 Methodist Episcopal, and 1 Protestant Methodist church, 6 mercantile stores, 2 newspaper printing-offices, 1 woollen factory, 1 flouring mill, and had, in 1840, 625 inhabitants.-Old Edition.

 

Coshocton is 68 miles east of Columbus and 115 miles from Cleveland, on the P. C. & St. L: and at the junction of Cleveland and Canton R. R., and ,junction of Tuscarawas and Walhonding rivers.

 

County officers in 1888: Auditor, Joseph BURRELL; Clerks, Samuel GAMBLE, Andrew J. HILL; Commissioners, Vincent FERGUSON, Samuel NELDON, Abner McCOY; Prosecuting Attorney, Samuel H. NICHOLS; Probate Judges, Holder BLACKMAN, Wm. R. GAULT; Recorder, Wm. H. COE; Sheriff, James R. MANNER; Surveyor, Samuel M. MOORE; Treasurers, William Walker, Geo. C. RINNER. Newspapers: Coshocton Democrat, Democrat, J. C. FISHER, editor; Age, Republican, J. F. MEEK, editor; Standard, Democrat, BEACH & McCABE, publishers; Wochenblatt, German, Otto CUMMEROW, publisher. Churches: Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Episcopal, and Catholic. Banks: Commercial, Jackson HAY, president, Henry C. HERBIG, cashier; Farmers’, J. P. PECK, president, Samuel IRVINE, cashier.

 

Manufactures and Employees—Buckeye Planing Mill, 5 hands; Houston A Hay & Sons, axles, springs, etc., 65; Wm. Ferrell, iron castings, 3; Tuscarawas Advertising Co., advertising novelties, 12; Coshocton City Mills, flour, etc., 6; J. F. Williams & Co., flour, etc., 11.—State  Report 1887.

 

Population in 1880, 3,044. School census in 1886, 1,053; J. M. YARNALL, superintendent. .

 

“A short distance below Coshocton,” says Dr. Hildreth, in Silliman’s Journal,” on one of those elevated gravelly alluvions, so common on the rivers of the West, has been recently discovered a very singular ancient burying-ground. From some remains of wood still (1835) apparent in the earth around the bones, the bodies seem all to have been deposited in coffins; and what is still more curious is the fact that the bodies buried here were generelly not more than from three to four and a half feet in length. They are very numerous, and must have been tenants of a considerable city, or their numbers could not have been so great. A large number of graves have been opened, the inmates of which are all of this pigmy race. No metallic articles or utensils have yet been found to throw any light on the period or nation to which they belonged. Similar burying-grounds have been found in Tennessee, and near St. Louis, in Missouri.”

 

We learned orally from another source that this burying-ground covered, in 1830, about ten acres. The graves were arranged in regular rows with avenues between, and the heads of all were placed to the west and the feet to the east.

 

In one of them was a skeleton with pieces of oak boards and iron wrought nails. The corpse had evidently been dismembered before burial, as the skull was found among the bones of the pelvis, and other bones were displaced. The skull itself was triangular in shape, much flattened at the sides and back, and in the posterior part having an orifice, evidently made by some weapon of war or bullet. In 1830 dwarf oaks of many years’ growth were over several of the graves. The graveyard has since been plowed over. Nothing was known of its origin by the early settlers. Below the graveyard is a beautiful mound.

 

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laid off by Ransom & Swane, which being united with it the place was called Roscoe, from Wm. ROSCOE, the English author. The Walhonding canal, which extends to the village of Rochester, a distance of twenty-five miles, unites with the Ohio canal at Roscoe. This town is at present a great wheat depot on the canal, and an important place of shipment and transshipment. Its capacities for a 1arge manufacturing town are ample. “The canals bring together the whole water power of the Tuscarawas and Walhonding, the latter standing in the canal at this place, forty feet above the level of the Muskingum, and the canal being comparatively little used, the whole power of the stream, capable of performing almost anything desired, could be used for manufacturing purposes; and sites for a whole manufacturing village could be purchased comparatively for a trifle.” Roscoe contains 1 Methodist Episcopal church, 5 dry goods and 2 grocery stores, 2 forwarding houses, 1 fulling, 2 saw and 2 flouring mills, and had, in 1840, 468 inhabitants.—Old Edition.

 

Roscoe is on the Walhonding branch of the Tuscarawas about a furlong above the junction of the two streams. From the hills back of the town a fine, prospect is presented up the valleys of the Tuscarawas and Walhonding, and down that of the Muskingum. The place in the decay of the canal business has not its old time relative importance. It has 1 Presbyterian and 1 Episcopal church, and the State report for 1887 gives the following industries and employees: Adams & Gleason, doors, sash, etc., 6 bands; D. Rose & Co., furniture, 23; Empire Mills, flour, etc., 13; W. H. Wilson, blankets, flannels, etc., 5; J. F. Williams, flour, etc., 8.

 

Previous to the settlement of the country in the last half of the last century there were several military expeditions into this region. The first in importance and in order of time was that made by Col. Bouquet in October, 1764.

 

The following is extracted from a lecture delivered by Charles Whittlesey at Cleveland, December 17, 1846, and is especially valuable as a clear statement of the condition of affairs between the whites and the Indians at the period when the expedition was undertaken.

 

The Indians were very much displeased, when they saw the English taking possession of their country, for they preferred the Frenchmen, who had been their friends and traders more than one hundred years, and had married Indian women. A noted chief of the Ottawa tribe, known by the name of Pontiac, formed the resolution to destroy all the English frontier posts at one assault, in which he was encouraged by the French traders.

 

He succeeded in forming an alliance with the Ottawas, having 900 warriors; the Potowotomies, with 356; Miamies of the lake, 350; Chippewas, 5,000; Wyandots, 300; Delawares, 600; Shawnees, 500; Kickapoos, 300; Ouatanons of the Wabash, 400, and the Pinankeshaws, 250; in all, able to muster 8,950 warriors. This may be called the “First Great Northwestern Confederacy” against the whites. The second took place under BRANDT, or TAYANDANEGEA, during the revolution, and was continued by LITTLE TURTLE; the third, under Tecumseh, in the last war. Pontiac’s projects were brought to a focus in the fall of 1763, and the result was nearly equal to the design. The Indians collected at all the northwestern forts, under the pretence of trade and friendly intercourse; and having killed all the English traders who were scattered through their villages, they made a simultaneous attack upon the forts, and were in a great measure successful.

 

The inhabitants of Pennsylvania and Virginia were now subject to great alarm, and frequently robberies and murders were committed upon them by the Indians, and prisoners were captured. Gen. Gage was at this time the commander-in-chief of the British forces in America, and his headquarters were at Boston. He ordered an expedition of 3,000 men for the relief of Detroit, to move early in the year 1764. It was directed to assemble at Fort Niagara, and proceeded up Lake Erie in boats, commanded by Gen. Bradstreet. The other was the. expedition I design principally to notice at this time. It was at first composed of the Forty-second and Seventy-seventh regiments, who had been at the siege of Havana, in Cuba, under the command of Col. Henry Bouquet. This force left Philadelphia, for the relief of Fort Pitt, in July, 1763, and after defeating the Indians at Bushy Run, in August, drove them across the Ohio. It wintered at Fort Pitt, where some of the houses, built by Col. Bouquet, may still be seen, his name cut in stone upon the wall.

 

 

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and Virginia, it was slow to assemble. On the 5th of August, the Pennsylvania quota rendezvoused at Carlisle, where 300 of them deserted. The Virginia quota arrived at Fort Pitt on the 17th of September, and uniting with the provincial militia, a part of the Forty-second and Sixtieth regiments, the army moved from Fort Pitt on the 3d of October. Gen. Bradstreet, having dispersed the Indian forces besieging Detroit, passed into the Wyandot country, by way of Sandusky bay. He ascended the bay and river, as far as it was navigable for boats, and there made a camp. A treaty of peace and friendship was signed by the chiefs and head men, who delivered but very few of their prisoners.

 

When Col. Bouquet was at Fort Loudon, in Pennsylvania, between Carlisle and Fort Pitt, urging forward the militia levies, he received a despatch from Gen. Bradstreet, notifying him of the peace effected at Sandusky. But the Ohio Indians, particularly the Shawnees of the Scioto river, and the Delawares of the Muskingum, still continued their robberies and murders along the frontier of Pennsylvania; and so Col. Bouquet determined to proceed with his division, notwithstanding the peace of Gen. Bradstreet, which did not include the Shawnees and Delawares. In the march from Philadelphia to Fort Pitt, Col. Bouquet had shown himself to be a man of decision, courage and military genius.

 

In the engagement at Bushy_. Run, he displayed that caution in preparing for emergencies, that high personal influence over his troops, and a facility in changing his plans as circumstances changed during the battle, which mark the good commander and the cool-headed officer. He had been with Forbes and Washington, when Fort Pitt was taken from the French. The Indians who were assembled at Fort Pitt left the siege of that place and advanced to meet the force of Bouquet, intending to execute a surprise and destroy the whole command. These savages remembered how easily they had entrapped Gen. Braddock, a few years before, by the same movement, and had no doubt of success against Bouquet, but he moved always in a hollow square, with his provision train and his cattle in the centre, impressing his men with the idea that a fire might open upon them at any moment. When the important hour arrived, and they were saluted with the discharge of a thousand rifles, accompanied by the terrific yells of so many savage warriors, arrayed the livery of demons, the English and provincial troops behaved like veterans, whom nothing could shake. They achieved a complete victory, and drove the allied Indian force beyond the Ohio.

 

NARRATIVE OF BOUQUET’S EXPEDITON.

The original source of information concerning this expedition is the work of Dr. Wm. Smith, Provost of the College of Philadelphia, entitled “An Historical Account of the Expedition Against the Ohio Indians in the year 1764.” W. K Poole, LL. D., Librarian of the Newberry, Chicago, and a high authority on American history and its bibliography, writes us: The original edition was “printed at Philadelphia in 1765; reprinted at London in 1766; at Dublin, 1769; at Cincinnati, 1868; and at Amsterdam (in French) with biographical account of Col. Bouquet, in 1769.”

 

The following narrative is from Graham’s “History of Coshocton County,” which is there rewritten from Smith in the light of modern geography which clearly indicates localities to the present time reader.  The two engravings are copies of those designed by the celebrated painter, Benjamin West, for the London edition. The originals were engraved on copper, a better material than steel for artistic engraving.  It is now out of use from its want of durability.

 

“The Indians; disheartened by their overwhelming defeat at Bushy Run, and despairing of success against Fort Pitt, now it was so heavily reinforced, retired sullenly to their homes beyond the Ohio, leaving the country between it and their settlements free from their .ravages. Communication now being rendered safe, the fugitive settlers were able to return to their friends, or take possession again of their abandoned cabins. By comparing notes they were soon able to make out an accurate list of those who were missing—either killed, or prisoners among the various tribes—when it was found to contain the names of more than 200 men, women, and children. Fathers mourned their daughters slain, or subject to a captivity worse than death; husbands their wives left mangled in the forest, or forced into the embraces of their savage captors-some with babes at their breast, and some whose offspring would first see the light in the red man’s wigwam—and loud were the cries that went up on every side for vengeance.

 

 

Page 473

organize another expedition before winter. He therefore determined to remain at the fort till spring, and then assemble an army sufficiently large to crush all opposition, and finish what he had so successfully begun.

 

Acting under instructions, he matured during the winter all his plans, and soon as spring opened set on foot measures by which an army strong enough to render resistance hopeless should be placed under his command.

 

In the meantime the Indians had obtained powder from the French, and as soon as the snow melted recommenced their ravages along the frontier, killing, scaling, and taking prisoners men, women, and children.

 

Bouquet could muster scarcely 500 men of the regular army-most of them Highlanders of the Forty-second and Sixtieth regiments—but Pennsylvania, at her own expense, furnished 1,000 militia, and Virginia a corps of volunteers. With this imposing force he was directed to march against the Delawares, Mohicans, and Mingoes; while Col. Bradstreet, from Detroit, should advance into the territory of the Wyandots, Ottawas, and Chippewas; and thus, by one great simultaneous movement, crush those warlike tribes. Bouquet’s route, however, was without any water communication whatever, but lay directly through the heart of an unbroken wilderness. The expedition, from beginning to end, was to be carried on without boats, wagons, or artillery, and without a post to fall back upon in case of disaster. The army was to be an isolated thing, a self-supporting machine.

 

Although the preparations, commenced early in the spring difficulties and delays occurred in carrying them forward, so that the troops that were ordered to assemble at Carlisle did not get ready to march till the 5th of August. Four days after they were drawn up on parade, and addressed in a patriotic speech by the governor of the State. This ceremony being finished, they turned their steps toward the wilderness, followed by the cheers of the people. Passing over the blood field of Bushy Run, which still bore the marks of the sharp conflict that took place there the year before, they pushed on, unmolested by the Indians, and entered Fort Pitt on the 13th of September.

 

In the meantime a company of Delawares visited the fort, and informed Bouquet that Col. Bradstreet had formed a treaty of peace with them and the Shawnees.

 

Bouquet gave no credit to the story, and went on with his preparations. To set the matter at rest, however, he offered to send an express to Detroit if they would furnish guides and safe conduct, saying he would give it ten days to go and ten to return.

 

This they agreed to; but, unwilling to trust their word alone, he retained ten of their number as hostages, whom he declared he would shoot if the express came to any harm. Soon after other Indians arrived, and endeavored to persuade him not to advance till the express should return. Suspecting that their motive was to delay him till the season was too far advanced to move at all, he turned a deaf ear to their solicitations, saying that the express could meet him on his march; and, if it was true, as they said, that peace was concluded, they would receive no harm from him. So, on the 3d of October, under a bright autumnal sky, the imposing little army of 1,500 men defiled out of the fort, and taking the great Indian trail westward boldly entered the wilderness. The long train of pack-horses and immense droves of sheep and cattle that accompanied it gave to it the appearance of a huge caravan, slowly threading its way amidst the endless colonnades of the forest. Only one woman was allowed to each corps, and two for general hospital.

 

This expedition, even in early history, was a novel one; for, following no water-course, it struck directly into the trackless forest with no definite point in view and no fixed limit to its advance. It was intended to over-awe by its magnitude; to move as an exhibition of awful power into the very heart of the red man’s dominions. Expecting to be shut up in the forest at least a month, and receive in that time no supplies from without, it had to carry along an immense quantity of provisions. Meat, of course, could not be preserved, and so the frontier settlements were exhausted of sheep and oxen to move on with it for its support. These necessarily caused its march to be slow and methodical. A corps of Virginia volunteers went in advance preceded by three scouting parties, one of which kept the path, while the other two moved in a line abreast on either side to explore the woods. Under .cover of these the axe companies, guarded by two companies of light infantry, cut two parallel paths, one each side of-the main path, for the troops, pack-horses, and cattle that were to follow. First marched the Highlanders, in column two deep in the centre path, and in the side paths in single file abreast, the men six feet apart; and behind them the corps of reserve and the second battalion of Pennsylvania militia. Then came the officers and pack-horses, followed by the vast droves of cattle, filling the forest with their loud complainings. A company of light horse walked slowly after these, and the rear guard closed the long array. No talking was allowed, and no music cheered the way. When the order to halt passed along the line the whole were to face outward, and the moment the signal of attack sounded to form a hollow square, into the centre of which pack-horses, ammunition, and cattle were to be hurried, followed by the light horse.

 

In this order the unwieldy caravan struggled on through the forest, neither extremity of which could be seen from the centre, it being lost amidst the thickly clustering trunks and foliage in the distance.

 

 

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seven miles, encamped. The sheep and cattle, which kept up an incessant bleating and lowing that could be heard more than a mile, were placed far in the rear at night and strongly guarded.

 

Tuesday, October 5, the march led across a level country, covered with stately timber and with but little underbrush, so that paths were easily cut, and the army made ten mile before camping. The next day it again struck the Ohio, but followed it only half mile when it turned abruptly off, and crossing a high ridge over which the cattle were urged with great difficulty found itself on the banks of Big Beaver creek. The stream was deep for fording, with a rough, rocky bottom, and high, steep banks.  The current was, moreover, strong and rapid; so that, although the soldiers waded across without material difficulty, they had great trouble in getting the cattle safely over. The sheep were compelled to swim, and being borne down by the rapid current landed, bleating, in scattered squads along the steep banks and were collected together again only after a long effort. Keeping down the stream they at length reached its mouth, where they found some deserted Indian huts, which the Indians with them said had been abandoned the year before, after the battle of Bushy Run. Two miles further on they came upon the skull of a child stuck upon a pole.

 

There was a large number of men in the army who had wives, children, and friends prisoners among the Indians, and who had accompanied the expedition for the purpose of recovering them. To these the skull of this little child brought sad reflections. Some one among them was perhaps its father, while the thought that it might stand as an index to tell the fate of all that had been captured made each one shudder. As they looked on it, bleached by the winds and rain, the anxious heart asked questions it dared not answer.

 

The next, day was Sunday, but the camp broke up at the usual hour, and the army resumed its slow march. During the day it crossed a high ridge front the top of which one of those wondrous scenes found nowhere but in the American wilderness burst on their view. A limitless expanse of forest stretched away till it met the western heavens, broken only here or there by a dark gash or seam, showing where, deep down amidst the trees, a river was pursuing its solitary way to the Ohio, or an occasional glimpse of the Ohio itself; as in its winding course it came in line of vision. In one direction the tree-tops would extend, miles upon miles, a vast flooring of foliage, level as the bosom of a lake, and then break into green billows, that went rolling gently against the cloudless horizon. In another lofty ridges rose, crowned with ma majestic trees, at the base of which swamps of dark fir trees, refusing the bright beams of the October sun, that flooded the rest of the wilderness, made a pleasing contrast of light and shade. The magnificent scene was new to officers and men, and they gazed on it in rapture and wonder.

 

Keeping on their course they came, two days after, to a point where the Indian path they had been following so long divided—the two branches leading off at a wide angle. The trees at the forks were covered with hieroglyphics, describing the various battles the Indians had fought, and telling the number of scalps they had taken, etc.

 

This point was in the southern part of the present county of Columbiana. The trails were both plainly marked and much travelled. The right-hand trail took a general course northwest toward Sandusky, and led to that place and on to Detroit; the course of the left-hand trail was generally southwest, and passed through the counties of Carroll and Tuscarawas, striking the Tuscarawas river in the latter county, down which it followed, on the south side, to Coshocton, and crossing the Muskingum a few miles below the site of Coshocton continued down the west side of the Muskingum at Dresden, where it crossed the Wakatomika and entered Licking county; passing across that county to the present reservoir continued on southwest to the Indian towns on the Scioto.

 

Col. Bouquet took the right-hand trail, which he followed until lie reached the Tuscarawas river, when he left it and turned southward along that stream.

 

The path selected by the army was so over-grown with bushes that every foot of the way had to be cleared with the axe. It led through low, soft ground, and was frequently crossed by narrow, sluggish rivulets, so deep and miry that the pack-horses could not be forced across them. After several attempts to, do so. in which the animals became so thoroughly imbedded in the mud that they had to be lifted out with main force, they halted while the artificers cut down trees and poles and made bridges. This was the hardest day’s toil to which they had been subjected, and with their utmost efforts they were able to accomplish but five miles.

 

On Thursday, the 11th, the forest was open, and so clear of undergrowth that they made seventeen miles. Friday, the 13th, the path led along the banks of Yellow Creek, through a beautiful country of rich bottom land on which the Pennsylvanians and Virginians looked with covetous eyes, and made a note for future reference. The next day they crossed it, and ascending a swell of land marched two miles in view of one of the loveliest prospects the sun ever shone upon. There had been two or three frosty nights which had changed the whole aspect of which forest. Where, a few days before, an ocean of green had rolled away, there now was spread a boundless carpet, decorated with an a endless variety of the gayest colors, and lighted up by the mellow rays of an October sun.

 

 

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as if by a painter’s brush, and now shading gradually into each other, or mingling in inextricable beautiful confusion, combined to form a scene that, appeared more like a wondrous vision suddenly unrolled before them than this dull earth. A cloudless sky and the dreamy haze of Indian summer, overarching and enrobing all this beauty and splendor, completed the picture and left nothing for the imagination to suggest.

 

At length they descended to a small river, which they followed till it joined the main branch of the Muskingum (Tuscarawas), where a scene of a very different character greeted them. A little below and above the forks the shores had been cultivated and lined with Indian houses. The place was called “Tuscaroras,” and for beauty of situation could not well be surpassed. The high, luxuriant banks, the placid rivers meeting and flowing on together, the green fields springled with huts and bordered with the rich autumnal foliage, all basking in the mellow October light, and so out of the way there in the wilderness, combined to form a sweet picture, and was doubly lovely to them after having been so long shut up in the forest.

 

They reached this beautiful spot Saturday afternoon, October 13, and the next day being Sunday they remained in camp, and men and cattle were allowed a day of rest. The latter revived under the smell of green grass once more, and roaming over the fields gave a still more civilized aspect to the quiet scene.

 

During the day the two messengers that had been sent to Detroit came into camp, accompanied by their Indian guides. The report they brought showed the wisdom of Bouquet in refusing to delay his march until their return. They had not been allowed to pursue their journey, but were held close prisoners by the Delawares until the arrival of the army, when, alarmed for their own safety, they released them and made them bearers of a petition for peace.

 

The next day, Monday, the army moved two miles farther down the Tuscarawas, and encamped on a high bank, where the stream was 300 feet wide, within the present limits of Puscarawas county, where it remained in camp about a week. On Tuesday six chiefs came into camp, saying that all the rest were eight miles off waiting to make peace. Bouquet told them he would be ready to receive them the next day. In the meantime he ordered a large bower to be built a short distance from the camp, while sentinels were posted in every direction to prevent surprise, m case treachery was meditated.

 

The next day, the 17th, he paraded the Highlanders and Virginian volunteers, and, escorted by the light horse, led them to the bower, where he disposed them in the most imposing manner, so as to impress the chiefs in the approaching interview. The latter, as they emerged from the forest, were conducted with great ceremony to the bower, which they entered with their accustomed gravity; and without saying a word quietly seated themselves and commenced smoking. When they had finished they laid aside their pipes, and drew from their pouches strings of wampum. The council being thus opened they made a long address, laying the whole blame of the war on the young men, whom they said they could not control.. Bouquet, not wishing to appear eager to come to a settlement, replied that he would give his answer the next day; and the council broke up. The next day, however, a pouring storm prevented the meeting of council until the day following. Bouquet’s answer was long and conciliatory, but the gist of it was he would make peace on one condition and no other that the Indians should give up all the prisoners in their possession within ten days.

 

The Indians present at this council were Ki-yash-uta, chief of the Senecas, with fifteen warriors; Custaloga, chief of the Wolf tribe of Delawares, and Beaver, chief of the Turkey tribe of the Delawares, with twenty warriors; and Keissinautchtha, as chief of the Shawnees, with six warriors.

 

Monday, October 22, the army, accompanied by the Indian deputies, recommenced its march, as Bouquet wished to show that he was determined to enforce his demands. They marched nine miles down the Tuscarawas and went into camp. This was their fourteenth camp since leaving Fort Pitt, and was within a few miles of the east line of Coshocton county. The next day (October 23) the army crossed the present boundaries of this county, marching sixteen miles and camping seven miles east of the present site of the town. This camp must have been in Lafayette township very near the line between it and Oxford. Here Bouquet remained until the 35th, when he continued his march a little more than six miles, camping within a mile of the forks of the Muskingum.

 

Judging this to be as central a position as he could find, he resolved to fix himself here until the object of his mission could be accomplished. He ordered four redoubts to be built, erected several storehouses, a mess house, a large number of ovens and various other buildings for the reception of the captives, which, with the white tents scattered up and down the banks of the river, made a large settlement in the wilderness and filled the Indians with alarm. A town with nearly two thousand inhabitants, well supplied with horses, cattle and sheep, and ample means of defence, was well calculated to awaken the gloomiest anticipations.

 

The steady sound of the axe day after day, the lowing of the cattle, and all the sounds of civilization echoing along the banks of the Tuscarawas within the very heart of their territory, was more alarming than the resist­less march of a victorious army, and anxious to get rid of such unwelcome companions, they made every effort to collect the prisoners scattered among the various tribes.

 

 

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a hostile camp, but a stage on which human nature was displaying its most attractive and noble traits; or rather a sublime poem, enacted there in the bosom of the wilderness, whose burden was human affection and whose great argument the common brotherhood of mankind.

 

Bouquet and his officers were deeply impressed and could hardly believe their senses when they saw young warriors, whose deeds of daring and savage ferocity had made their names a terror on the frontier, weeping like children over their bereavement.

 

A treaty of peace having been concluded with the various tribes, Bouquet, taking hostages to secure their good behavior and the return of the remaining prisoners, broke up his camp on the 18th of November and began to retrace his steps toward Fort Pitt. The leafless forest rocked and roared above the little army as it once more entered its gloomy recesses, and that lovely spot on the Tuscarawas, on which such strange scenes had been witnessed, lapsed again into solitude and silence. The Indians gazed with various and conflicting emotions on the lessening files—some with grief and desolation of heart because they bore away the objects of their deep affection, others with savage hate, for they went its conquerors.

 

In ten days the army again drew up in a little clearing in front of Fort Pitt and were welcomed with loud shouts. The war was over, and the troubled frontier rested once more in peace.

 

As a perusal of the details of this interesting expedition may have created a desire to know more of the man who conducted it, it is thought best to add the following personal sketch of COL. HENRY BOUQUET:

 

He was born in Rolle, on the northern border of Lake Geneva, in the canton of Berne, Switzerland, in 1719. At the age of seventeen he was received as a cadet in the regiment of Constant in the service of the States General of Holland, and two years later obtained the commission of ensign in the same regiment. Subsequently he entered the ser­vice of the king of ‘Sardinia, and distinguished himself first as a lieutenant and afterward as adjutant in the campaigns conducted by that prince against the combined forces of France and Spain. He acquitted himself with much credit, and his ability and courage coming to the knowledge of the Prince of Orange, he engaged Bouquet in the service of the Republic. He held rank here as Lieutenant Colonel in the Swiss Guards, formed at The Hague in 1748.

 

At the breaking out of the war between France and England, in 1754, he accepted a commission in the Royal American, or Sixtieth British, Regiment as lieutenant-colonel, and embarked for America.

 

His operations from this time to the date of his expedition against the ^,Indians are involved in obscurity, little or nothing having been preserved, except the fact that he was a subordinate in the Forbes expedition against Fort Du Quesne (Fort Pitt) in 1758.

 

After his successful Indian campaign in 1764 he went to Philadelphia, where he was received with distinguished kindness and warmly welcomed, especially by those whose friends he had rescued from the Indians. The Assembly voted him, a complimentary address, while the home government, as a reward for his services, promoted him to the rank of brigadier-general and placed him in command of the Southern Department of North America. He did not live long, however, to enjoy his honors, for, in the latter part of the year 1765, he died of a fever in Pensacola.

 

Hutchins gives in detail the conference between Col. Bouquet and the chiefs of the different tribes. The quaint simplicity of his narrative is charming. We here quote from him, giving some of the incidents of the conference between Bouquet and the Shawnees:

“The Shawnees still remained to be treated with, and though this nation saw themselves under the necessity of yielding to the same conditions with the other tribes, yet there had appeared a dilatoriness and sullen haughtiness in all their conduct which rendered it very suspicious.

 

The 12th of November was appointed for the conference with them, which was arranged on their part by KISSINAUTCHTHA and NIMWHA, their chiefs, with the RED HAWKE, LAVISSIMO, BENSIVASICA, EWEECUNWE, KEIGLEIGHQUE and forty warriors. The Caughnawaga, Seneca and Delaware chiefs, with about sixty warriors, being also present.

The RED HAWKE was their speaker, and as he delivered himself with a strange mixture, of fierce pride and humble submission, I shall add a passage or two his speech

 

“Brother: You will listen to us your younger brother, and as we discover something in your eyes that looks like dissatisfaction with us, we now wipe away everything bad between us that you may clearly see. You have heard many bad stories of us. We clean your ears that you may hear We remove everything bad from your heart that it may be like the heart of your ancestors when they thought of nothing but good. (Here he gave a string.)

 

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THE INDIANS AND BOUQUET IN COUNCIL.                                 SURRENDER OF THE CAPTIVE.

 

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road you advanced towards us with a tomahawk in your hand; but we, your younger brothers, take it out of your hands and throw it up to God to dispose of as he pleases, by which means we hope never to see it more.” Their usual figure of speech is “burying the hatchet,” but as such hatchets may be dug up again, perhaps he thought this new expression of “sending it up to God,” or the “Great Spirit,” a much stronger emblem of the permanency and steadfastness of the peace now to be made. “And now, brother, we beg leave that you who are a warrior will take hold of this chain (giving a string) of friendship_, and receive it from us, who are also warriors, and let us think no more of war, in pity to our old men, women and children.” Intimating by this last expression that it was mere compassion to them and not inability to tight that made their nation desire peace.

 

He then produced a treaty held with the government of Pennsylvania, 1701, and three messages or letters from that government of different dates; and concluded thus:

 

“Now, brother, I beg we who are warrior may forget our disputes and renew the friendship which appears by these papers to have subsisted between our fathers. “He promised, in behalf of the rest of their nation who had gone to a great distance to hunt an could not have notice to attend the treaty, that they should certainly come to Fort Pitt in the spring and bring the remainder of the prisoners with them.

 

As the season was far advanced, the Colonel could not stay long in these remote parts. He was obliged to rest satisfied with the prisoners the Shawnees had brought, taking hostages and laying them under the strongest obligations for the delivery of the rest, knowing that no other effectual method could be pursued.

 

After a reply from Bouquet and some further talk, the prisoners were delivered up. The circumstances, as thus told by Dr. Smith, were very touching.

 

The Caughnawagas, the Delawares and Senecas severally addressed the Shawanese, as grandchildren and nephews, “to perform their promises, and to be strong in doing good, that this peace might be everlasting.”

 

And I am here to enter on a scene, reserved on purpose for this place that the thread of the foregoing narrative might not be interrupted—a scene which language indeed can but weakly describe; and to which the poet or painter might have repaired to enrich their highest colorings of the variety of human passions; the philosopher to find ample subject for his most serious reflections; and the man to exercise all the tender and sympathetic feelings of the soul.

 

The scene I mean was the arrival of the prisoners in the camp; where were to be seen fathers and mothers recognizing and clasping their once lost babes; husbands hanging around the necks of their newly-recovered wives; sisters and brothers unexpectedly meeting together after long separation, scarce able to speak the same language, or, for some time, to be sure that they were children of the same parents! In all these interviews joy and rapture inexpressible were seen, while feelings of a very different nature were painted in the looks of others—flying from place to place in eager inquiries after relatives not found! trembling to receive an answer to their questions ! distracted with doubts, hopes and fears on obtaining no account of those they fought for ! or stiffened into living monuments of horror and woe on learning their unhappy fate !

 

The Indians, too, as if wholly forgetting their usual savageness, bore a capital part in heightening this most affecting scene.

 

They delivered up their beloved captives with the utmost reluctance, shed torrents of tears over them, recommending them to the care and protection of the commanding officer. Their regard to them continued all the time they remained in camp. They visited them from day to day, and brought them what corn, skins, horses and other matters they bad bestowed on them while in their families, accompanied with other presents, and all the marks of the most sincere and tender affection. Nay, they did not stop here; _.but when the army marched, some of the Indians solicited and obtained leave to accompany their former captives all the way to Fort Pitt, and employed themselves in hunting and bringing provisions for them on the road. A young Mingo carried this still further, and gave an instance of love which would make a figure even in romance. A young woman of Virginia was among the captives, to whom he had formed so strong an attachment as to call her his wife. Against all the remonstrances of the imminent danger to which he exposed himself by approaching to the frontiers, he persisted in following her at the risk of being killed by the surviving relations of many unfortunate persons, who had been captivated or scalped by those of his nation.

 

 

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life they give everything with it, which, in their apprehension, belongs to it. From every inquiry that has been made, it appears that no woman thus saved is preserved from base motives, or need fear the violation of her honor. No child is otherwise treated by the persons adopting it than the children of their own body. The perpetual slavery of those captivated in war is a notion which even their barbarity has not yet suggested to them. Every captive whom their affection, their caprice, or whatever else, leads them to save, is soon incorporated with them, and fares alike with themselves.

 

These instances of Indian tenderness and humanity were thought worthy of particular notice. The like instances among our own people will not seem strange, and therefore I shall only mention one out of a multitude that might be given on this occasion.

 

Among the captives a woman was brought into camp at Muskingum with a babe about three months old at her breast. One of the Virginia volunteers soon knew her to be his wife, who had been taken by the Indians about six months before. She was immediately delivered to her overjoyed husband. He flew with her to his tent, and clothed her and his child in proper apparel. But their joy after the first transports was soon damped by the reflection that another dear child of about two years old, captivated with the mother, and separated from her, was still missing, although many children had been brought in.

 

A few days afterwards a number of other prisoners were brought to the camp, among whom were several more children. The woman was sent for, and one supposed to be hers was produced to her. At first she was uncertain; but viewing the child with great earnestness, she soon recollected its features, and was so overcome with joy, that literally forgetting her sucking child she dropped it from her arms, and catching up the new-found child in an ecstasy, pressed it to her breast, and bursting into tears carried it off, unable to speak for joy. The father seizing up the babe she had let fall, followed her in no less transport and affection.

 

Among the children who had been carried off young, and had long lived with the Indians, it is not to be expected that any marks of joy would appear on being restored to their parents or relatives.

 

Having been accustomed to look upon the Indians as the only connections they had having been tenderly treated by them, and speaking their language, it is no wonder they considered their new state in the light of a captivity, and parted from the savages with tears.

 

But it must not be denied that there were even some grown persons who showed an unwillingness to return. The Shawanese were obliged to bind several of their prisoners and force them along to the camp; and some women who had been delivered up, afterwards found means to escape and ran back to the Indian towns. Some who could not make their escape, clung to their savage acquaintance at parting, and continued many days in bitter lamentations, even refusing sustenance.

 

For the honor of humanity we would suppose those persons to have been of the lowest rank, either bred up in ignorance and distressing, penury, or who had lived so long with the Indians as to forget all their former connections. For, easy and unconstrained as the savage life is, certainly it could never be put in competition with the blessings of improved life and the light of religion by any persons who have had the happiness of enjoying, and the capacity of discerning them.”

 

By the 9th of November 206 prisoners had been delivered, including women and children; of whom 32 men and 58 women and children were from Virginia, and 49 males and 67 females from Pennsylvania.

 

Capt. THOMAS HUTCHINS, who prepared the three maps which accompany Dr. Smith’s” Historical Account,” was an extraordinary man. He was born in 1730, in Monmouth, N. J., and died in Pittsburg in 1789. He entered the British army as ensign before he was sixteen, and became captain and paymaster of the Sixtieth Royal-American regiment, and accompanied Bouquet as assistant-engineer. He also took part in a campaign against the Florida Indians.

 

In the year 1779 he was in London, and being in strong sympathy with the cause of American Independence, he was, on the charge of being in communication with Dr. Franklin in Paris, seized and imprisoned for several weeks, and lost thereby, it was said, £12,000. “He soon after went to France, and thence to Charleston, S. C., where he joined Gen. Nathaniel Greene, and received the title of ‘Geographer-General.’ Beside furnishing the maps mentioned above, he is the author of `A Topographical Description of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina’ (London, 1778); ‘History, Narrative, and Description of Louisiana and West Florida’ (Philadelphia, 1784); and papers in the ‘Philadelphia Transactions,’ and one in the `Transactions of the American Society.”‘

 

 

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of the United States, he put in practice the rectangular system of dividing the public lands in squares of one mile with meridian lines, which has been of such vast utility in the settlement of the West. It seems that Hutchins conceived of this simplest of all known modes of survey in 1764 while with Bouquet. It formed a part of his plan of military colonies north of the Ohio, as a protection against Indians. An article upon this subject, “Surveys of the Public Lands of Ohio,” by Col, Charles Whittlesey, is among the introductory articles of this work (See page 133.)

BROADHEAD’S EXPEDITION.

In the war of the Revolution, in the summer of 1780, a second expedition was undertaken against the towns of the Delaware Indians in the forks of the Muskingum. It arose from the deepened feeling of antipathy to the Indians consequent upon some depredations and outrages committed upon settlers in Western Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Eastern Ohio. It had also been reported that Delawares, contrary to pledges, were joining the British. Its commander was Col. Daniel Broadhead, who was at that time in command of the Western military department, with headquarters at Fort Pitt, now Pittsburg, an officer well experienced in Indian warfare. The narrative of this, usually known as the “Coshocton Campaign,” we derive from “Doddridge’s Notes.”

The place of rendezvous was Wheeling; the number of regulars and militia about 800. From Wheeling they made a rapid march, by the nearest route, to the place of their^, destination. When the army reached the river, a little below Salem, the lower Moravian town, Col. Broadhead sent an express to the missionary in that place, the Rev. John HECKEWELDER, informing him of his arrival in the neighborhood, with his army, requesting a small supply of provisions and a visit from him in his camp. When the missionary arrived at the camp, the general informed him of the object of the expedition he was engaged in, and inquired whether any of the Christian Indians were hunting or engaged in business in the direction of his march. On being answered in the negative, he stated that nothing would give him greater pain than to hear that any of the Moravian Indians had been molested by the troops, as these Indians had always, from the commencement of the war, conducted themselves in a manner that did them honor.

 

A part of the militia had resolved on going up the river to destroy the Moravian villages, but were prevented from executing their project by Gen. Broadhead, and Col. Shepherd of Wheeling. At White Eyes’ Plain, a few miles from Coshocton, an Indian prisoner was taken. Soon afterwards two more Indians were discovered, one of whom was wounded, but he, as well as the other, made his escape.

 

The commander, knowing that these two Indians would make the utmost despatch in going to the town, to give notice of the approach of the army, ordered a rapid march, in the midst of a heavy fall of rain, to reach the town before them and take it by surprise. The plan succeeded. The army reached the place in three divisions. The right and left wings approached the river a little above and below the town, while the centre marched directly upon it. The whole number of the Indians in the village, on the east side of the river, together with ten or twelve from a little village some distance above, were made prisoners without firing a single shot. The river having risen to a great height, owing to the recent fall of rain, the army could not cross it. Owing to this the villages, with their inhabitants on the west side of the river, escaped destruction.

 

Among the prisoners, sixteen warriors were pointed out by PEKILLON, a friendly Delaware chief, who was with the army of Broadhead. A little after dark a council of war was held to determine on the fate of the warriors in custody. They were doomed to death, and by order of the commander they were bound, taken a little distance below the town and despatched with tomahawks and spears and sealed.

 

 

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about twenty in number. After marching about half a mile, the men commenced killing them. In a short time they were all dispatched, except a few women and children, who were spared and taken to Fort Pitt, and, after some time, exchanged for an equal number of their prisoners.

 

After the Gnadenhutten Massacre, which occurred the next year, in what is now Tuscarawas county, the few remaining Indians gradually left this region. In 1795 this long-favorite home of the Delawares came into the full possession of the United States. A few straggling members of the nation, more particularly the Moravians, until after the war of 1812, moved about the locality, hunting, selling their pelts, and then all turned away forever from its loved haunts and the graves of their fathers. William E. Hunt, in the “Magazine of Western History,” gives us these interesting items of its succeeding history:

 

The Forks of the Muskingum, in subsequent years and in the possession of a new race, was still a marked locality. Its flour and whiskey have given it fame in far-off lands, albeit of the latter none is now made. Forty thousand gallons of it, however, were once sent by one shipment to California. Its sons and daughters are widely scattered and many of them well known. It has been the dwelling-place of such men as the BUCKINGHAMS, Joseph h MEDILL, the famous Chicago editor; of Noah H. SAWYNE, of the United States Supreme Court; Rev. Dr. CONKLING, of New York City; Governor STONE, of Iowa, and of many others of scarcely less distinction. The junction of the Ohio and Walhonding canals, with an unlimited supply of water-power and with thick-set mills and is within gunshot of the Forks. Within sight are numerous collieries. The thriving towns of Coshocton and Roscoe on either and, with really noticeable hotels, business houses, schools and churches, catch the eyes of the myriads of passengers over the Panhandle and other railways passing by them.

 

King Charley.—Probably no man ever had so much notoriety in connection with the Forks, and especially gave so much notoriety to the locality, as “old Charley WILLIAMS,” or “King Charley,” as he was called. He was born in 1764, near Hagerstown, Maryland. In his boyhood the family removed to Western Virginia, near Wheeling. He subsequently struck out for himself, and was engaged for a time at the salt works, ten miles below Coshocton, but in the closing years of the last century he settled at “the Forks.” He is generally regarded as the first permanent white settler in what is now Coshocton county. He died in 1840. Of hardy stock, he grew up in the severest discipline of pioneer life. He was a successful trapper, scout, hunter and trader. Clever, shrewd, indomitable, not. averse to the popular vices of his day, and even making a virtue of profanity, he was for forty years a prominent feature of the locality and for twenty-five years the real ruling power of the region. He held every office possible in that day for a man of his education, from road-supervisor up to tax-collector and member of the legislature. He kept the Forks ferry and tavern near by. He was a good shot, a fine dancer, a colonel in the militia.

 

King Charley and Louis Philleppe –Among the accepted traditions of the locality is one telling how the Colonel once kicked Louis Phillippe, afterwards the famous French king, out of his tavern. G. W. SILLIMAN, a lawyer of Coshocton, was in Paris as bearer of dispatches to the American minister, having been sent by his uncle, General Lewis CASS, Secretary of State, and heard the king speaking of his travels in the western country, when a refugee in America. The king complained that he had been very shabbily treated at the Forks tavern. And this confirmed WILLIAMS’ oft-told tale, which was that Louis complained of the accommodations as utterly unfit for a real king, and WILLIAMS told him that he had entertained hundreds of sovereigns (all the people of his country being such), and if he was not satisfied with what had pleased them he could get out of the house, and as the king withdrew he gave him a little lift with the toe of his boot.

 

The story, at any rate, helped no little to make WILLIAMS, in the eyes of the early settlers, “a bigger man than old Grant.” In the days of the militia musters, and at the time of “the court balls,” held at the close of each term of court, the old tavern shone in its brightest glories. For a year or so after the county-seat was established at Coshocton, the courts were all held in WILLIAMS’ house, and several of the earlier sermons at the Forks were preached in “Old Charley’s” bar-room. What the Forks were to the wide adjacent region, that “Old Charley’s” tavern was to the Forks. Some of its features can still be seen in far-western regions, but some are no longer found even in the pioneer tavern. For many of the old settlers about the Forks, in its day, life would have been hardly worth living without the, old tavern.

 

 

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Sick emigrants, fever-stricken settlers, unlettered children, and all that longed for heavenly light and rest.  For year after year it was the “headquarters” of the godly, the minister’s “hold.” The chief figure in that house was a woman.  She came from the grand old Scotch-Irish stock, which, whatever glory is due unto another race for what yet be attained by possibly still another, it must now be admitted, has furnished so immensely the brain and brawn whereby this great land has become what it is.

 

Although for a number of years prior to coming to the Fords she had lied in Western Pennsylvania, she was herself an emigrant from Ireland, and thus knew the heart of a stranger.  She had been reared in a family connection famed for it earnest piety and the large contribution of its sons to the ministry.  She had experienced the griefs of widowhood, and had learned to care for a family.  She came to the Forks with the children of her first marriage, as the wife of the leading “store-keeper” of the region.