Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/125

 -^

��HISTOKY or OHIO.

��113

��As the peopk became acclimated, this, however, disappeared.

The township of Sharon in this county has a liistory similar to that of Granville Township in Licking' County. It was settled by a " Scioto Company," Ibrmed in Granby, Conn., in the winter of 1801-02, consisting at first of eight associates. They drew up articles of association, among which was one limiting their number to forty, each of whom must be unanimously chosen by ballot, a single negative being sufficient to prevent an election. Col. James Kilbourne was sent out the succeeding spring to explore the country and select and pur- chase a township for settlement. He returned in the fall without making any purchase, through ffear that the State Constitution, then about to be / foymed, would tolerate slavery, in which case the ' prOiject would have been abandoned. While on this 'visit, Col. Kilbourne compiled from a variety of so>urces the first map made of Ohio. Although much of it was conjectured, and hence inaccurate, it was very valuable, being correct as far as the State was then known.

"As soon as information was received that the con.stitutiou of Ohio prohibited slavery, Col. Kil- bourne purchased the township he had previously Selected, within the United States military land district, and, in the spring of 1803, returned to Ohio, and began improvements. By the succeed- ing December, one hundred settlers, mainly from Hartford County, Conn., and Hampshire County, Mass., arrived at their new home. Obeying to the letter the agreement made in the East, the first cabin erected was used for a schoolhouse and a church of the Protestant Episcopal denomination ; the first Sabbath after the arrival of the colony, divine service was held therein, and on the arrival of the eleventh family a school was opened. This early attention to education and religion has left its favorable impress upon the people until this day. The first 4th of July was uniquely and appropri- ately celebrated. Seventeen gigantic trees, em- blematical of the seventeen States forming the Union, were cut, so that a few blows of the ax, at sunrise on the 4th, prostrated each successively with a tremendous crash, forming a national salute novel in the world's history."*

The growth of this part of Ohio continued without interruption until the establishment of the State capital at Columbus, in 1816. The town was laid out in 1812, but, as that date is considered re-

��♦Howe's Collections.

��mote in the early American settlements, its history will be left to succeeding pages, and there traced when the history of the State capital and State government is given.

The site of Zanesville, in Muskingum County, was early looked upon as an excellent place to form a settlement, and, had not hostilities opened in 1791, with the Indians, the place would have been one of the earliest settled in Ohio. ' As it was, the war so disarranged matters, that it was not till 1797 that a permanent settlement was efi'ected.

The Muskingum country was principally occu- pied, in aboriginal times, by the Wyaudots, Dela- wares, and a few Senecas and Shawanees. An In- dian town once stood, years before the settlement of the country, in the vicinity of Duncan's Falls, in Muskingum County, from which circumstance the place is often called "Old Town." Near Dres- den, was a large Shawanee town, called Wakato- maca. The graveyard was quite large, and, when the whites first settled here, remains of the town were abundant. It was in this vicinity that the venerable Maj. Cass, father of Lewis Cass, lived and died. He owned 4,000 acres, given him for his military services.

The first settlers on the site of Zanesville were William McCulloh and Henry Crooks. The lo- cality was given to Ebenezer Zane, who had been allowed three sections of land on the Scioto, Mus- kingum and Hockhocking, wherever the road crossed these rivers, provided other prior claims did not interfere, for opening "Zane's trace." When he located the road across the Muskingum, he selected the place where Zanesville now stands, being attracted there by the excellent water privi- leges. He gave the section of land here to his brother Jonathan Zane, and J. Mclntire, who leased the ferry, established on the road over the Muskingum, to William McCulloh and Henry Crooks, who became thereby the first settlers. The ferry was kept about where the old upper bridge was afterward placed. The ferry-boat was made by fastening two canoes together with a stick. Soon after a flat-boat was used. It was brought from Wheeling, by Mr. Mclntire, in 1779, the year after the ferry was established. The road cut out through Ohio, ran fi-om Wheeling, Ya., to Maysville, Ky. Over this road the mail was car- ried, and, in 1798, the first mail ever carried wholly in Ohio was brought up from Marietta to McCulloh's cabin by Daniel Convers, where, by arrangement of the Postmaster General, it met a mail from Wheeling and one from Maysville.

�� �