Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/119

 HISTOKY OF OHIO.

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��their dusky neighbors. They were both inveterate Indian haters, and never allowed an opportunity to pass without carrying out their hatred. For this, they were apprehended after the treaty; but, though it was clearly proven they had murdered some inoffensive Indians, the state of feeling was such that they were allowed to go unpunished.

A short time after their settlement, others joined them, and, in a few years, quite a colony had gathered on the banks of the Licking. In 1802, Newark was laid out, and, in three or four years, there were twenty or thirty families, several stores and one or two hotels.

The settlement of Granville Township, in this county, is rather an important epoch in the history of this part of the State. From a sketch pub- lished by Rev. Jacob Little in 1848, in Howe's Collections, the subjoined statements are taken:

"In 1804, a company was formed at Granville, Mass., with the intention of making a settlement in Ohio. This, called the Scioto Company, was the third of that name which effected settlements in Ohio. The project met with great favor, and much enthusiasm was elicited, in illustration of which a song was composed and sung to the tune of ' Pleasant Ohio ' by the young people in the house and at labor in the field. We annex two stanzas, which are more curious than poetical:

"'When rambling o'er these mountains

And rocks where ivies grow Thick as the hairs upon your head,

"Mongst which you cannot go — Great storms of snow, cold winds that blow,

We scarce can undergo — Says I, my boys, we'll leave this place

For the pleasant Ohio.

" 'Our precious friends that stay behind.

We're sorry now to leave; But if they'll stay and break their shins,

For them we'll never grieve Adieu, my friends! — Come on, my dears,

This journey we'll forego, And settle Licking Creek,

In yonder Ohio.' "

" The Scioto Company consisted of one hundred and fourteen proprietors, who made a purchase of twenty-eight thousand acres. In the autumn of 1805, two hundred and thirty-four persons, mostly from East Granville, Mass., came on to the pur- chase. Although they had been forty-two days on the road, their first business, on their arrival, hav- ing organized a church before they left the East, was to hear a sermon. The first tree cut was that

��by which public worship was held, which stood just in front of the Presbyterian church.

On the first Sabbath, November 16, although only about a dozen trees had been felled, they held divine service, both forenoon and afternoon, on that spot. The novelty of worshiping in the woods, the forest extending hundreds of miles each way ; the hardships of the journey, the winter set- ting in, the thoughts of home, with all the friends and privileges left behind, and the impression that such must be the accommodations of anew country, all rushed on their minds, and made this a day of varied interest. When they began to sing, the echo of their voices among the trees was so differ- ent from what it was in the beautiful meeting- house they had left, that they could no longer restrain their tears. They icept when they remem- bered Zion. The voices of part of the choir were, for a season, suppressed with emotion.

"An incident occurred, which many said Mrs. Sigourney should have put into verse. Deacon Theophilus Reese, a Welsh Baptist, had, two or three years befoi'e, built a cabin, a mile and a half north, and lived all this time without public wor- ship. He had lost his cattle, and, hearing a low- ing of the oxen belonging to the Company, set out toward them. As he ascended the hills overlook- ing the town plot, . he heard the singing of the choir. The reverberation of the sound from hill- tops and trees, threw the good man into a serious dilemma. The music at first seemed to be behind, then in the tree-tops, or in the clouds. He stopped, till, by accurate listening, he caught the direction of the sound ; went on and passing the brow of the hill, he saw the audience sitting on the level below. He went home and told his wife that ' the promise of God is a bond ' ; a Welsh proverb, signifying that we have security, equal to a bond, that religion will prevail everywhere. He said : ' These must be good people. I am not afraid to go among them.' Though he could not under- stand English, he constantly attended the reading meeting. Hearing the music on that occasion made such an impression on his mind that, when he became old and met the first settlers, he would always tell over this story. The first cabin built was that in which they worshiped succeeding Sabbaths, and, before the close of the winter, they had a schoolhouse and a school. That church, in forty years, received more than one thousand per- sons into its membership.

"Elder Jones, in 1806, preached the first ser- mon in the log church. The Welsh Baptist

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