Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/128

 116

��HISTORY OF OHIO.

��Ill the fall of the next year, Ebenezer Zane laid out Lancaster, which, until 1805, was known as Ntiw Lancaster. The lots sold very rapidly, at $*9 tiiich, and, in less than one year, quite a vil- lage apj)eared. December 9, the Governor and Jud<>;(\s of the Northwest Territory organized Fairfield County, and made Lancaster the county seat. The next year. Rev. John Wright, of the Presbyterian Church, and Revs. Asa Shinn and James Quiiin, of the Methodist Church, came, and from that time on schools and churches were main- tained.

Not far from Lancaster are immense mural es- carpments of sandstone formation. They were noted among the aborigines, and were, probably, used by them as places of outlook and defense.

The same summer Fairfield County was settled, the towns of Bethel and Williamsburg, in Cler- mont County, were .settled and laid out, and in 1800, the county was erected.

A settlement was also made immediately south of Fairfield County, in Hocking County, by Chris- tian Westenhaver, a German, from near Hagers- town, Md. He came in the spring of 1798, and was soon joined by several families, who formed quite a settlement. The territory included in the county remained a part of Ross, Holmes, Athens and Fairfield, until 1818, when Hocking County was erected, and Logan, which had been laid out in 1816, was made the county seat.

The country comprised in the county is rather broken, especially along the Hockhocking River. This brokcm country was a favorite resort of the Wyandot Indians, who could easily hide in the numerous grottoes and ravines made by the river and its uIHuents as the water cut its way through the sandstone rocks.

In 1798, soon after Zane's trace was cut through the country, a Mr. Graham located on the site of Cambridge, in Guernsey County. His was then the only dwelling between Wheeling and Zanes- ville, on the trace. He remained here alone about two years, when he was succeeded by George Bey- mer, fi-om Somerset, Penn. Both these persons kept a tavern and ferry over Will's Creek. In April, 1803, Mr. Beymer was succeeded by John Beatty, who came from Loudon, Va. His fiimily consisted of eleven persons. The Indians hunted in this vicinity, and were frequent visitors at the tavern. In June, 1806, Cambridge was laid out, and on the day the lots were offered for sale, sev- eral families from the British Isle of Guernsey, near the coast of France, stopped here on their

��way to the West. They wfe. ■ n ^ ^^. \. location and purchased many oitf^f^^ ^^^^ ^^^ land in the vicinity. They werSf" '^^^sf"^ fT other flimilies from the same pla^"" ;*"7^^^ ^'y settling in this locality gave the nam\ ^' V ^ '"^ when it was erected in 1810. V ^^^ ^^unty

A settlement was made in the centil State, on Darby Creek, in Union Co\P^^^"* '^f^ summer of 1798, by James and JosF^' J,° ."'^^ The next year, they were joined by S^^ i^^*^^' David Mitchell, Samuel Mitchell, Jr:"'Jf' ^^'^ Kirkpatrick and Samuel McCullough,and, ^^'^^ by George and Samuel Reed, Robert S"^, ' and Pau! Hodgson. ' Vdgrass

"James Ewing's farm was the site oi cient and noted Mingo, town, which was _. "

at the time the Mingo towns, in what is novy Xo^ County, were destroyed by Gen. Logan, of K^'^] tucky, in 1786. When Mr. Ewing took pc-^ss sion of his farm, the cabins were still stf'^^dii, and, among others, the remains of a blaclp™Jtl,\ shop, with coal, cinders, iron-dross, etc. JfJnathax Alden, formerly a prisoner among the indians,V says the shop was carried on by a renegadt'* white man, named Butler, who lived among the Mingoes. Extensive fields had formerly been cil^^^'^^^^d in the vicinity of the town."*

Soon after the settlement was establi?'^^"' Col. James Curry located here. He was quite ^i' influ- ential man, and, in 1820, succeeded in get*;^'J.y' the county formed from portions of Delaware, ^I'^nk- lin, Madison and Logan, and a part of the oU In- dian Territory. Marysville was made the cjunty seat.

During the year 1789, a fort, called For/ Steu- ben, was built on the site of Steuben ville, but w/ dismantled at the conclusion of hostilities in I'i^j- Three years after. Bezaleel Williams and ^ James Ross, for whom Ross County w;""' ■,' located the town of Steubenville alu'-'T'^, i , ,'

fort, and, by liberal oflFers of lots, - ,,, ,

. ' ' -^, f. ...1 T '^oon attracted

quite a number oi settlers. Ln^, qak xi j. 1. ^ J ] ,, 1 /■ IbOo, the town

was incorporated, and then h:^^ „,. . „

,, ^ , J ' Ti-'~: a population of

several hundred persons. iJeflf^u.,,,^ (5^^^^ ^^^

created by Gov. St. CI^at, July 29^797 thevear

before Steubenville was laid out. Ii hen' included

the large scope of country west of I nnsylvania •

east and north of a line from the mv,ith of the

Cuyahoga; southwardly to the Muskii..um and

east to the (/Jo ; including, in its territu-ies' the

cities of g^VeJand, Canton, Steubenville ai.1 War

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